New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-11-28
The Antiquity of Man.

pressed, III company OF his peers, the
opinion that the earth was O million of years
old, he would have been laughed at and if
only twenty years ago geologist had, in a
| similar assembly, asserted the great antiquity
of mankind and the existence of fossil men,
he would have been considered incredulous
in religious matters and over credulous in re-
gard to geological evidences. The general
opinion that the diluvial age and the modern
period were enthusiastically distinguished
by the appearance of the human race could
not, twenty years ago, be shaken; but now
there is scarcely any geologist left among us
who doubts the existence Of man during the
end of the glacial period, or at least imme-
diately after the same.
1t should be kept in view that, for the
geolOgist, when there is question concerning
the nature and habits of the fossil men,
neither traditions, written histories, nor pic
lures of ancient civilized peoples can give any
information. The oldest among the tradi-
tons or writings give us scarcely any informal
ton for period of 5000 years while in re-
gard to pictorial relics, even the highest esti-
mates allow maximum Of only IL 900 years.
But what is 5000 or IL, 900 years for the geol-
ogst, who measures the period of the carbon
ferrous era alone by millions of centuries?
Therefore, in order to obtain information in
regard to the history of primitive man, we are
reduced to the geological records, investi-
gated and explained according to true philo-
sophical methods. Such geological evidence
we find, besides the somewhat rare human
skeletons, especially in the tools, remnants
of food, kitchen utensils, and other irrdestruc-
tible traces of mans presence and activity.
Rude cOntrivances or arms to subjugate the
animals surrounding them, and to procure
food for themselves, were in the possession
of all primitive races, in whatever savage
condition they may have existed; and many
important conclusions may be drawn from
their appearance.
1t is evident that, in all investigations in
which there is question of the primitive his
tory of our own race, we should proceed with
the utmost care, so as to avoid errors be-
cause this question is closely related to those
concerning the highest spiritual interests of
mankind. This praiseworthy prudence is
therefore the cause that, in former years, all
records of diluvial traces of man were treated
with mistrust, and that there existed an in
clination to consider such remains as having
reached the dluvial strata by mere accident.
So the report of Pastor Esper, who, in IVA,
dug human bones (among those of the fossil
cave bear) out of the Gailenreuther cave, was
not noticed and similar fate befell the re-
cords of the English archeologist, John
Frere, who in 1897 found, in the diluvium OF
Suffolk, arms made of flint.
The report of Ami Boue, who in 1928
found, in the bluffs of the Rhine valley in
Baden, human skeleton, was also neglected;
and no notice was given to the communica-
tons Of the French psychologists and geolo.
gists Journal, Christol, Jolly, and Marcel de
Series, concerning several bones of new
fossil animals (found in different caves)
which had been worked and fashioned by
J,,r lint ;,,,N 20
| found among the bones Of these now extinct
animals, in the caves of Southern France.
| 1t must be acknowledged that several of the
above reports could easily be objected to by
reason of uncertainties in the observations
| and the vagueness of the conclusions drawn.
| But it is almost unexplainable that investi.
cations of exemplary accuracy, such as those
Of the Belgian geologist Schmerlng, re-
manned so long in oblivion. This conscien
tious investigator had, in 1888, the caves O
Engis and Engihoul, near Liege, emptied O
their contents, and watched personally, with
several witnesses, the labor, for many weeks
and with the utmost care. He described
afterward, in large atlas, all the objects
| found; among them were two human skulls
and many flint implements, all found mixed
with the cave bear, cave hyena, SC. Al
last all doubts were resolved by the facts
| furnished by Boucher de Perthes, in Able
vile. High above the present valley of the
Somme in Picardy, existed undisturbed lay
ers Of diluvium, with remnants among then
of the mammoth, rhinoceros, cave bear
cave hyena, &C., relics in short, of the whole
fauna, which inhabited Europe during the
glacial period. In the middle of these primtiv,
animal remains. De Perthes, as early as 1888
found near Abbeville the first few specimens
of flint arrowheads, hatchets, knives, &c.
and he afterwards discovered many hundreds
of the same. Moreover, many of the fossil
bones had been evidently cut and scraped b.
means of these flint tools. But, singularly
it was not until 1868, thirty years after thu
first discovery, that Moulin Quignon found
lower jaw and several other human bones al
the Same place.
This last discovery made some commOtiOn
A small congress of English and Frencl
| biologists assembled in order to inspect tn,
locality which had yielded human bones from
the deposits Of tho diluvial period. Afte
Boucher de Perthes and Sir Charles Lyell
in his celebrated work on 1.-THE Antiquity O
Man" had drawn the attention to these pre-
historic human remains, similar discoverie
have succeeded one another continuously
Flint tools, similar to those of Abbeville
were found in caves with the bones of tn,
diluvial mammalia. Near Aurignac, in tn
hole by boys led to the discovery of larg
CRATE, closed with q stone slab inside thi
tomb seventeen human skeletons were found
together with implements of flint and rein
deer horn, and several fossil men. In from
Of the cave was hearth, on which were nu
merOus broken and half burned bones of tn
giant deer, reindeer, cave bear, 1hinocerOs
and other animals; many productions of hu
man art were also found. Unfortunately tn
mayor Of the place had the human bone
buried in a cemetery, where, some year
afterwards, Lartet could not find them. Thi
was much deplored by some investigator
who were very anxious for details concern
ing the skeletons of our most ancient ances
tors.
Two skulls, one from the Neander cave
near Dusseldorf, and the other from a cav
near Liege, appear to show an inferiority i
the development Of the brain and simila
formation is the case with the recently dis
covered five skeletons in a railroad cuttin
: in the department of Dordogne, France
Among these is one of woman and one
a child the male skeletons are, in size an
,, power, far inferior to the French now inhat
iting that locality. The faces are very broa(
and prominences for muscle attachment
very large. In regard to the mental cultur
of our ancestors, these discoveries sugge.
very sad reflections. The male bones sho
traces Of fractures and wounds, while til