The progress of an evolutionary development is accordingly well-illustrated by these specimens. And although Homo heidelbergensis is seen to be separated from his modern successors by great differences in form as well as a vast lapse of time, still the intervening period does provide intermediate forms to bridge the gulf. Not the least interesting of many reflections conjured up by the Mauer jaw, is that this extraordinary form should be met with in a latitude so far north of that corresponding to the Javanese discoveries. This difference, together with that of longitude, suggests an immense range of distribution of these ancestral types. Some of their successors are considered in the next chapter.
[CHAPTER II]
PALAEOLITHIC MAN
The fossil remains described in the preceding chapter possess good claims to that most interesting position, viz. an intermediate one between Mankind and the more highly-developed of the Apes.
From such remarkable claimants we turn to consider fossil bones of undoubted human nature. Of such examples some have been regarded as differing from all other human types to such an extent as to justify their segregation in a distinct species or even genus. Yet even were such separation fully justified, they are still indubitably human.
In the early phases of the study of prehistoric archaeology, the distinction of a ‘stone age’ from those of metals was soon realised. Credit is due to the present Lord Avebury[9] for the subdivision of that period into the earlier and later parts known as the Palaeolithic and Neolithic stages. At first, those subdivisions possessed no connotation of anatomical or ethnical significance. But as research progressed, the existence of a representative human type specially characteristic of the palaeolithic period passed from the stage of surmise to that of certainty. Yet, although characteristic, this type is not the only one recognisable in those early days.
In the following pages, some account is given of the most recent discoveries of human remains to which Palaeolithic antiquity can undoubtedly be assigned. The very numerous works relating to prehistoric man are full of discussions of such specimens as those found in the Neanderthal, at Spy, Engis, Malarnaud, La Naulette or Denise.
That some of these examples are of great antiquity is inferred from the circumstances under which they were discovered. The evidence relates either to their association with extinct animals such as the Mammoth, or again the bones may have been found at great depths from the surface, in strata judged to have been undisturbed since the remains were deposited. One of the earliest discoveries was that of the Engis skull; the differences separating this skull from those of modern Europeans are so extraordinarily slight that doubt has been expressed as to the antiquity assigned to the specimen, and indeed this doubt has not been finally dispelled. The bones from Denise (now rehabilitated in respect of their antiquity by Professor Boule) present similar features. But on the other hand the jaws found at La Naulette and Malarnaud suggest the former existence of a lowlier and more bestial form of humanity. Support is provided by the famous skull of the Neanderthal, but in regard to the latter, conclusive evidence (as distinct from presumption) is unfortunately lacking. Further confirmation is given by the Forbes Quarry skull from Gibraltar, but although its resemblance to that of the Neanderthal was clearly noted by Dr Busk and Sir William Turner[10] as long ago as 1864, the specimen was long neglected. In this case, as in that of the Neanderthal, corroborative evidence as to the geological or archaeological horizon is lamentably defective. After a lapse of some twenty years, the discoveries of human skeletons at Spy in Belgium, undoubtedly associated as they were with remains of Mammoth, threw a flood of light on the subject, and enormously enhanced the significance of the earlier discoveries. The former existence in Europe of a human type, different from all other known inhabitants of that continent, and presenting no small resemblance to the lowliest modern representatives of mankind, may be said to have been finally established by the results of the excavations at Spy. Moreover the differences thus recognised are such as to lend strong support to the evolutionary view as to the origin of the more recent human stocks from an ancestral series including representatives of a simian phase. Yet the co-existence of a higher type represented by the Engis skull must not be overlooked, nor indeed has this been the case. The significance of so remarkable a phenomenon is more fully discussed in the sequel; but no detailed account of the earlier discoveries need be given. A bibliography is appended and here references (Hœrnes[44], 1908; Schwalbe[55]) will be found to the more important sources of information upon those specimens.
| Locality | Date | Literary reference | Synonyms |
| Taubach | 1895 | Nehring[11] | |
| Krapina | 1899 | Kramberger[12] | |
| S. Brélade | 1910-11 | Marett[13] | |
| La Chapelle aux Saints | 1908 | MarettBoule[14] | “Corrèze” |
| Le Moustier | 1908 | Klaatsch[15] | “Homo mousterensis hauseri” |
| La Ferrassie | 1909 | Peyrony[16] | |
| Pech de l'Aze | 1909 | Peyrony[16] | |
| Forbes Quarry | 1848-1909 | Sollas[17] Sera[18] | “Gibraltar” |
| Andalusia | 1910 | Verner[19] | |
| Grotte des Enfants | 1902-06 | Verneau[20] | “Grimaldi” |
| Baradero | 1887 | (S. Roth) Lehmann-Nitsche (1907)[21] | |
| Monte Hermoso | ? | Lehmann-Nitsche (1909)[22] | Homo neogaeus” |
| Combe Capelle | 1909 | Klaatsch[23] | “Homo aurignacensis hauseri” |
| Galley Hill | 1895 | Newton[24] | “Homo fossilis” |
In the present instance, an attempt will be made to provide some account of the most recent advances gained through the results of excavations carried out in late years. And herein, prominence will be given in the first place to such human remains as are assignable to the lowlier human type represented previously by the Spy skeletons. Following upon these, come examples possessing other characters and therefore not referable to the same type.