Prehistoric man

by Sir Daniel Wilson

Fig. 41.—Skull of Old Man of Cro-Magnon—Profile.

The Cro-Magnon men and women are large of stature. Their skulls, like that of the Mentone Cave, are of a dolichocephalic type, and so far accord with the Esquimaux, rather than with any Turanian head-form. But it is important to note that in no other respect do they yield the slightest countenance to the theory favoured by some, that the cave-men of palæolithic Europe bore an affinity to the Esquimaux, and that in the latter we have the living representatives of post-glacial, if not still older man. If indeed the Cro-Magnon and Mentone skulls are, as they have been assumed to be, those of contemporaries of the mammoth and reindeer of Southern Europe, Dr. Pruner-Bey remarks of the race: “If we consider that its three individuals had a cranial capacity much superior to the average at the present day; that one of them was a female, and that female crania are generally below the average of male crania in size; and that nevertheless the cranial capacity of the Cro-Magnon woman surpasses the average capacity of male skulls of to-day, we are led to regard the great size of the brain as one of the more remarkable characters of the Cro-Magnon race. This cerebral volume seems to me even to exceed that with which at the present day a stature equal to that of our cave-folks would be associated: whether the skulls from the Belgium caves are small, not only absolutely, but even relatively in the rather small stature of the inhabitants of those caves.”[^[50]] Along with this ample cerebral development, the general form of the head is graceful and symmetrical. Alike in the Cro-Magnon and Mentone examples the total absence of prognathism is noted. An expressive, though strongly marked orthognathic profile with ample forehead, prominent nose, moderately developed superciliary ridges and maxillaries, and a well-formed chin, all compare favourably, not only with the foremost savage races, but with many civilised nations of modern times.

Skull of Old Man of Cro-Magnon.
Fig. 42.—Front View. Fig. 43.—Vertical View.

Of the age of those Troglodytes of France, M. Lartet remarks: “The presence of the remains of an enormous bear, of the mammoth, of the great cave-lion, of the reindeer, the spermophile, etc., in the hearth-beds, strengthens in every way the estimation of their antiquity; and this can be rendered still more rigorously, if we base our argument on the predominance of the horse here, in comparison with the reindeer, on the form of the worked flints, and of the bone arrow and dart-heads.”[^[51]] This argument, however, overlooks the possibility of the interments long after the accumulation of the hearth-beds with their included relics. Assuming this cavern period of Central France as the later subdivision of the palæolithic age of Europe, its drawings and carvings represent the arts of a remote era, compared even with the polished stone-hammers and chipped flints contemporary with the oldest implements of bronze. It is obvious, therefore, that a comparison between the rude worked flints of the cave-men of Southern France, and the highly finished stone implements of the Bronze Period of Northern Europe, is no true gauge of any intermediate progress or development. The artist to whose pencil or graving-tool we owe the only authentic portraiture of the mammoth, unquestionably possessed skill and intellectual vigour adequate to the production of any stone implement or personal ornament pertaining to the arts of Western Europe at the commencement of its metallurgic period. In truth it is far easier to produce evidences of deterioration than of progress, in instituting a comparison between the contemporaries of the mammoth, and later prehistoric races of Europe, or savage nations of modern centuries. They had advanced, as M. Paul Broca says, “to the very threshold of civilisation.” They possessed arts, industry, and apparently such a degree of social organisation as their external circumstances admitted of. But then, as at many subsequent periods, the elements of progress were arrested at this stage, and the whole work of civilisation had to be begun anew.

A careful study of the native arts of the American continent, in subsequent chapters, will bring under our notice the intellectual efforts of man in a purely savage state, and so help to a determination of what is implied in certain partial manifestations of mimetic design. This is the true corrective of any tendency to an undue estimate of the general progress implied by such evidence. It will be seen that a rare aptitude is shown among certain tribes for mimetic drawing and carving; yet it is of limited application, and accompanied by little superiority to surrounding tribes in the employment of the arts for the general requirements of savage life. Even in such cases, however, it is an evidence of latent powers, capable of development under favourable circumstances. The Esquimaux have been stimulated by the necessities of Arctic life to great ingenuity in the fashioning of their weapons, and in all other appliances of the chase, on which their very existence depends; but they are skilful, as a savage people, in the ornamental, as well as the useful arts. Their skin and fur dresses are fashioned and decorated with great taste; and many of their ivory and bone implements are beautifully carved. There is in the Museum of the University of Toronto a set of Esquimaux children’s toys, including miniature men, dogs, sledges, and objects of the chase, all carved in ivory with ingenious skill. The Thlinkets of Alaska, lying on the borders of the true Esquimaux region, make ladles and spoons from the horns of the deer, the mountain sheep, and the goat, which are special objects of the chase, and carve them with elaborate ingenuity. Grotesque masks of wood, paddles, knife handles of bone, bodkins, combs, and other personal ornaments, chiefly of walrus ivory, are all carved with great variety of design, though scarcely in a style of high art.

Fig. 44.—Tawatin Ivory Carving of Whale.

Among the tribes lying immediately to the south, the Tawatin Indians of British Columbia specially excel in ivory carving. Their personal ornaments are lavishly decorated; and many of their carvings resemble in so far the mammoth portraiture of the Madelaine artist, that they are simply efforts of skill, having no other end in view than the pleasure derived from their execution. It will be seen, however, in the conventional representation of the whale, as shown in Fig. 44, how far they fall short of the ancient workers in ivory in literal truthfulness of delineation. In one respect indeed this piece of Tawatin carving recalls a characteristic of early Christian art. Trifling as the correspondence is, it is curious thus to find the modern Indian carver of the Pacific coast giving to the monster of the deep the same barbed tongue which forms the conventional attribute of the dragons and leviathans of medieval Europe. But it is greatly more interesting to note, not only the thoroughly native style of art of their more elaborate carvings; but to recognise in many of them certain traits which recall characteristics of the finished sculptures on the ruins of Central America and Yucatan. This is strikingly shown in another of their carvings, Fig. 45, where some of the points of resemblance help to confirm other traces, hereafter indicated on different grounds, of early intercourse, if not of a common relationship, between savage tribes of the North-West, and ancient civilised nations of Central America and the Mexican plateau.