CHAPTER IV
ASSOCIATED ANIMALS AND IMPLEMENTS
The most important of recent discoveries of the remains of early prehistoric man have now been considered. Not only the evidence of the actual remains, but also that furnished by their surroundings has been called upon. It is evident that the last decade has been remarkably productive of additions to the stock of information on these subjects.
In the next place, enquiry has to be made whether any relation exists between the two methods of grouping, viz. (1) that in which the characters of the skeletons are taken as the test, and (2) that dependent upon the nature of the surroundings. A first attempt to elucidate the matter can be made by means of a tabulated statement, such as that which follows.
In constructing this table, the various finds have been ordinated according to the degree of resemblance to modern Europeans presented by the respective skeletons. Thus Division II with Subdivision B heads the list. Then follows Subdivision A, and finally Division I will be found in the lowest place. This order having been adopted, the remaining data were added in the sequence necessarily imposed upon them thereby.
(a) In an analysis of this table the several columns should be considered in order. Taking that headed ‘Immediate surroundings,’ it is evident that whereas most of the members of Division II were ‘cave-men,’ two exceptions occur. Of these, the Galley Hill skeleton is by far the most remarkable. The Taubach remains represent, it will be remembered, a form almost on the extreme confines of humanity. That it should resemble the members of Division I, themselves in a similar position, is not very remarkable. And indeed it is perhaps in accordance with expectation, that remains of the more remote and primitive examples should be discovered, so to speak, ‘in the open.’ All the more noteworthy therefore is the position of the Galley Hill man, whose place according to his surroundings is at the end of the list opposite to that assigned to him by his physical conformation.
(b) Passing to the ‘Associated animals,’ similar conclusions will be formed again. Thus in the first place, most of the ‘cave-men’ were accompanied by remains of the Reindeer. Le Moustier and Krapina are exceptions but provide Bison or Urus which are elsewhere associated with the Reindeer. Otherwise Galley Hill and Taubach again stand out as exceptions. Moreover they have again some features in common, just as has been noted in respect of their alluvial surroundings. For the Elephant (E. antiquus) is identical in both instances. But the Rhinoceros of the ‘high level’ terrace gravel is not the same as that found at Taubach, and though the succession is discussed later, it may be stated at once that the Rhinoceros megarhinus has been considered to stand in what may be termed a grand-parental relation to that of Taubach (R. merckii), the Rhinoceros etruscus of the Mauer Sands representing the intervening generation (Gaudry[27], 1888). For the various names, reference should be made to the list of synonyms appended to Table A. Should further evidence of the relative isolation of the Galley Hill skeleton be required, the gigantic beaver (Trogontherium) is there to provide it, since nowhere else in this list does this rodent appear. The paradoxical position of the Galley Hill skeleton having been indicated, it is convenient to deal with all the examples of skeletons from alluvial deposits taken as a single group, irrespective of their actual characters.
(i) The study of the animals found in the corresponding or identical alluvial deposits, leads to inferences which may be stated as follows. The Trinil (Java) fauna will not be included, since the Javanese and European animals are not directly comparable. If attention is confined to the remaining instances, viz. Galley Hill, Taubach and Mauer, agreement is shewn in respect of the presence of Elephas antiquus, and this is absent from all the cave-deposits considered here [v. infra (ii) p. 90]. A rhinoceros appears in all three localities, but is different in each. Finally, two (viz. Galley Hill and Mauer) of the three, provide at least one very remarkable mammalian form, viz. Trogontherium (Mimomys cantianus is equally suggestive) of the high-level gravels, and the Ursus arvernensis of the Mauer Sands.
The significance of these animals may be indicated more clearly by the following statement. If the history of Elephas antiquus be critically traced, this animal appears first in a somewhat hazy atmosphere, viz. that of the transition period between Pliocene and Pleistocene times. It is a more primitive form of elephant than the Mammoth. Indeed, Gaudry[27] (1888) placed it in a directly ancestral relation to the last-mentioned elephant. And though the two were contemporary for a space, yet Elephas antiquus was the first to disappear. Moreover this elephant has much more definite associations with the southern group of mammals than has the Mammoth. Its presence is therefore indicative of the considerable antiquity of the surrounding deposits, provided always that the latter be contemporaneous with it. With regard to the Rhinoceros, the species R. megarhinus and R. etruscus have been found in definitely Pliocene strata. The former (R. megarhinus) seems to have appeared earliest (at Montpellier), whereas the Etruscan form owes its name to the late Pliocene formations of the Val d'Arno, in which it was originally discovered. The third species (R. merckii) is somewhat later, but of similar age to Elephas antiquus, with which it constantly appears. It is remarkable that the R. etruscus, though not the earliest to appear, seems yet to have become extinct before the older R. megarhinus. The latter was contemporary with R. merckii, though it did not persist so long as that species. With regard to the three alluvial deposits, the Rhinoceros provides a means of distinction not indicated by the elephantine representative, and the presence of R. etruscus is a test for very ancient deposits. From what has been stated above, it follows that of the three localities the Mauer Sands have the more ancient facies, and it is significant that here also the human form proves to be furthest removed from modern men. But the other localities are not clearly differentiated, save that the Taubach strata are perhaps the more recent of the two.
Coming next to the ‘peculiar’ animals; the Ursus arvernensis of Mauer is almost as distinctively ‘Pliocene’ as its associate, Rhinoceros etruscus. The Taubach strata have yielded nothing comparable to these, nor to the Trogontherium (or Mimomys) of the high-level terrace gravel. These animals are also strongly suggestive of the Pliocene fauna.