Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-02-13
Prehistoric Man.

teresting to the casual observer, have in our
days become strangely eloquent At the
touch Of science they have lent q voice
to the dumb past. Raising the veil of antiq-
uity, they have unrolled page after page of
ancient history, written neither with pen nor
pencil but stamped on the rude implements
of war or the chase, imprinted on the few
threads of decaying tissue that inwrap the
crumbling skeleton, engraved on the brace
let of bronze or silver that encircled the slen-
der wrist of some prehistoric beauty, or chased
on the brooch Of gold that clasped the mantle
of some renowned but forgotten chieftain.
So exact are the deductions to be drawn
from these mute records of the past that they
have been divided by Sir John Lubbock, in
his prehistoric Times" into four well-de-
fined ages-the drift age, the age Of polished
stone, the age of bronze, and the age of iron !;
each of these marking an advance in knowl-
edge aud civilization which amounted to
revolution in the then existing manners and
customs of the world. The drift age or
Paleolithic period is marked by deposits of
rude stone implements; TO it succeeds the
Neolithic, or age Of polished stone, in which
the same stone implements were in use, but
of a superior class, highly polished and well
finished
Tho wandering savage who lived by the
chase and cut up his prey with the rude, uh-
polished flint knives of the Paleolthic age
was coeval with many extinct animals which
then ranged over the wide forests that in
those early times covered our own country in
common with many portions of the Cont
nent. In the caves of Derbyshire and else
where, many of the rudely Clipped knives
and arrow heads of these ancient hunters are
found, the rudest occupying the lowest
strata showing that even in that remote age
1.n1 H. g.
now, and that the practice of even these
rude germs Of art led to a gradual perfecting
of them. Some of the remains of the ancient
Nimrods Of that remote and, but for these
stone records, unwritten age have been found
in caves and sepulchral tumul and of all
the living races of men they resemble the
Esquimaux most closely. With them are
found the remains of such extinct animals as
the cave-bear, the mammoth, and the woolly
rhinoceros; and they appear TO have been
driven along with these animals toward the
north, through the action of some geograph-
ical change whose magnitude we have now
no means of gauging.
The Neolithic era marked the dawn Of a
new and higher civilization. In many parts
Of the country, notably at Hardham in Sus-
sex and in Kent, many collections of polished
stone implements have been found, such as
stone axes and AIDES, chisels, gouges, small
saws, hammers, avis for boring, stone picks,
for turning up the soil, pestles, mortars,
querns, and spindle-whorls Needles have
also been found, which imply a knowledge of
the art of sewing; and cups and various 9th
er vessels of rude earthenware, which show
that these old-world folks could ply the
potter's craft with considerable degree of
deftness. The bones found show also that
they no longer depended for a precarous
- III n. Il.
chase, but that they were herdsnich and fish
ermen as well. They possessed the horse,
small short horned OK, two kinds of swine,
goats. and horned sheep, with dogs of a large
breed In architecture they were unques-
tionably far behind, for their dwellings seem
to have consisted Of pits rooted with waffle.
The remains of these ancient Neolithic build
ers are plentfnlly scattered over the country
They were all built or rather scooped out up
on one plan. There was n circular shaft for
an entrance, going down to depth of from
seven to eight feet, five y seven feet wide at the
bottom. andnanowing to three at the top and
round this was a chamber or cluster of cham
bers. In these huts are found variety of the
polished stone implements mentioned above,
bones Of the domesticated animals and shreds
of pottery. In north Kent there is series
of vertical shafts sunk in the chalk but
these seem to have been rather fint-Quarries
than the homes of our Neolithic forefathers.
In the north of Scotland, modified perhaps
to suit the greater inclemency of the climate
the Neolithic dwellings are somewhat differ
eut, and take the form of massive circular
huts or burghs, as they are called. In these
are found the same stone implements and the
same bones of animals. The flint of which
these stone implements are made was OBJ
tanned by quarrying for the flint nodules in
Ia .loll- &c -, l.
mining tools still remain, with great quanti-
lies of chips and splinters which show that
the flint implements were, partially at least,
manufactured on the spot where the flint was
obtained
In some instances, caves seem to have
been used as dwellings by the Neolithic in
habitants of Europe and where not en-
ployed as shelter for the living, they seem
to have been frequently selected when with
in reach, as resting-place for the dead. In
these caye-mausoleums, numerous skeletons
Of both sexes and all ages are found. Where
no cave was to be had, the dead, as our read
ers are already aware, were buried in bar
rows or cairns numerous broken imple-
ments were laid beside them and, from the
quantities of calcined bones found in some of
these graves, it is believed that, in the case
of a chief, human sacrifices may have been
offered. From the number of these tombs
and the plentiful remains of Neolithic dwell
ings scattered over Britain, we are led to the
conclusion that our country, in common with
Europe, had in those days a somewhat large
and tolerably civilized population, who had
hocks and herds, who practiced agriculture,
and who were hunters and fishermen.
In the pile or lake dwellings of Switzer-
land, which are assigned to this era, many
interesting discoveries have been made.
fDbraa binds Of uha mn EfrxrY,4iap
ety-have been found also two kinds of bar
ley two kinds of millet the remains of fruit
such as apples, pears, peas, fax and weeds.
For their cattle and swine the lake-dwellers
seem to have laid up winter-fodder in the
shape of acorns and beech-nuts. They made
cloth of their flax, and could even weave it
into an ornamental pattern. From an exam
ination Of the human remains found in these
curious lake-dwellings and in the sepulchral
caves, the most eminent geOlogists are of the
opinion that our Neolithic ancestors were of
the same race as the Basque-speaking people
who are still to be found in the north of
Spain and in the south of France.
However acquired, the possession of bronze
marks AN era of Advancement The dwell
ings of the people who used it were better,
and their circumstances more comfortable,
than those of the Neolithic tribes they sue
ceeded. They had axes and sickles of bronze,
gouges, chsels, hammers, and knives and,
as a natural consequence, all the products of
their labor were superior and better finished.
They could weave well tough and Strong
fabric, and their clothes were formed of sew
eral pieces sewed together. Their cloth is
almost invariably of linen-no wooden cloth
belonging to this period having been found
either in France or Switzerland but in a
wooden coffin discovered in 1861 at Ribe, in
Jutland, the remains of body were found
inclosed in a cloak of coarse woolen cloth
woolen cap covered the head, the lower limbs
having been wrapped in wooden leggings.
Under the cloak was a wooden shirt, girt
round the waist by long wooden band. A
bronze dagger in a wooden sheath had been
laid beside the dead hand and in a small
box were q few necessary articles for the long
journey toward the spirit-land, consisting of
another wooden cnn a comb and knifa-tha