THE works of art produced by the cave-men are, as we have already seen, of five kinds or classes—(1) All-round small statuettes, or "high-relief" carvings, in ivory, bone, or stone (examples of which are shown in Figs. 14, 25, 26, 27, 28 of the present chapter); (2) small engravings on bits of ivory, deer's antler, bone, or stone (examples are shown in Figs. 15, 16, 20, and 24); (3) large statues, hewn in rock, and left in place; (4) drawings of large size—two to five feet in diameter (partly engraved and partly coloured) on the rocky walls and vaults of limestone caverns (shown in Figs. 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 23, as well as in the figures of mammoths in the last chapter); (5) models (high relief) worked in clay. I give reproductions in the present chapter of several samples of this art, showing how skilfully these men of 50,000 years ago could portray a variety of animals.
Who were these men, and why did they make these remarkable carvings and drawings? First, as to their age. We now know of a long succession of human inhabitants of this part of the world, namely, Western Europe. The earliest reach back to an antiquity never dreamed of fifty years ago. We cannot fix with any certainty the number of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of years which is represented by this succession, but we can place the different periods in order, one later than the other, each distinguished chiefly by the character of the workmanship belonging to it, though in a few instances we have also the actual limb-bones, skulls, and jaw-bones of the men themselves, which differ in different periods. It is practically certain that these prehistoric successive periods of humanity do not represent the steps of growth and change of one single race belonging to this part of the world, but that successive races have arrived on the scene of Western Europe from other parts, and it is usually very difficult even to guess where they came from and where they went to!
It is convenient to divide the human epoch, the time which has elapsed since man definitely took shape as man—characterized by his large brain, small teeth, upright carriage, and large opposable thumb and still larger and more peculiar non-opposable great toe—into the historic and the prehistoric sections. In this part of the world (Europe) the first use of metals (first of all copper, then bronze, and then iron), as the material for the fabrication of implements and tools of all kinds, occurs just on the line between the historic and the prehistoric sections; that is to say, between those times of which we know something by tradition and writing, and those earlier times of which we have no record and no tradition, but concerning which we have to make out what we can by searching the refuse heaps and ruins of man's dwelling-places and carefully collecting such of his "works" as have not utterly perished, whilst noting which lie deeper in the ground, which above and which below the others.
Practically the men of the prehistoric ages in Europe had not the use of metals (though our quasi-historical records go back to a less remote time in many parts of Europe than they do in Greece, Assyria, and Egypt). The prehistoric peoples are spoken of as the men of the Stone Age, because they used stone, chiefly flint, as many savage races do to-day, as the material from which they fabricated by means of deftly struck blows all sorts of implements. Undoubtedly they also, by aid of stone knives, saws and planes, made weapons and other implements of wood and of the horns, bones, and teeth of animals. But these latter substances are perishable, and have only been preserved from decay under special circumstances, such as their inclusion in the deposits on the floors of caverns.
The Stone Age is itself readily and obviously divisible into two periods. The latter is a comparatively very short and recent period, when great skill in chipping flints and other stones was attained, and the implements so shaped were often rubbed on large stones of very hard material (siliceous grit), so as to polish their surfaces. This is the "Neolithic," or later Stone, period, and extends back in Europe certainly to 7000 B.C., and probably a few thousand years further. Passing further back than this, we leave what are called "recent" deposits, and come to those associated with great changes of the earth's surface. We enter upon "geological" time, and vastly changed climatic and geographical conditions. We are in the older Stone period, called the "Palæolithic period." It is not really comparable to the "Neolithic," since it comprises many successive ages of man, and, although called the "Palæolithic" or "ancient Stone" period, has no unity, but, whilst readily divisible into several sub-periods or epochs of comparatively late date, stretches back into immense geologic antiquity indicated by flint implements of special and diverse types, which are found in definitely ascertained geologic horizons.
The Pleistocene strata—the latest of the geologists' list—are the river gravels of existing river valleys, the deposits in many caves, and the sands and clays piled up by ice action during the repeated glacial extensions or epochs of glaciation which alternated with milder climate for many thousands of years over north and middle Europe. It is identical with the Palæolithic period, which, however, probably extends beyond it into the Pliocene and even further back. In the later deposits of the Pleistocene, which necessarily have been less frequently disturbed and re-deposited than the older ones, we find more numerous remains of man's handwork, and in less disturbed order of succession, than in the older deposits. Lately we have obtained in East Anglia beautifully-worked flint implements—the rostro-carinate, or eagle's beaks—from below shelly marine deposits—the Red Crag of Suffolk and the Norwich Crag—the oldest beds of the Pleistocene. They were made by men who lived in the Pliocene period, and carry the ancient Stone period of man back to a much earlier period than was admitted nine years ago.
The Pleistocene series or "system " of strata—also called the "Quaternary" to mark its distinction from the underlying long series of "Tertiary" strata—does not comprise the actual surface-deposits in which the remains of Neolithic man are found. It is usual, though perhaps not altogether logical, to separate these as "Recent" and to begin the long enumeration of "geologic" strata after a certain interval when the relative levels of land and sea and the depth of river-valleys were not precisely what they are to-day, and the human inhabitants of Western Europe were hunters using rough unpolished flint implements—in fact, when the "Palæolithic" period of human culture had not given place to the "Neolithic," which was after some ten thousand years itself to be superseded by the age of metals. "Prehistorians," the students of prehistoric man—divide the Pleistocene series of deposits with a view to a systematic conception of the successive changes of man and his surroundings during the period occupied by their deposition, into an upper, a middle and a lower group—and further have distinguished certain successive "horizons" in these groups—characterized by the remains of man and animals which they contain. They are exhibited in the tabular statement here given in the ascertained order of their succession, and are represented in the southern part of Britain as well as in France.
HORIZONS OR EPOCHS OF THE PLEISTOCENE OR QUATERNARY SYSTEM
A. Upper Pleistocene (post-glacial; also called epoch of the Reindeer).
1. The Azilian: (Elapho-Tarandian of Piette) nearest to the Neolithic section of the Recent Period and more or less transitional to that period; named after the cavern of the Mas d'Azil in the department of the Ariège. The Reindeer had largely given place to the great Red Deer (Cervus elephus).