New Britain herald., 1927-08-24
world, This was q man.

We can only refer, in passing, to | Chesterton's pregnant observation that the very name Prehistoric
 Man involves a contradiction, be-
 cause history began with man, hence
 cannot antedate man. It cannot
 even mean the man who existed be- 1 fore written history, because. as We
 shall see, man has left authentic
 records. which are not written ones. Nor can we delay upon Chesterton's
 insistence that the name of Cave
 Man is not of absolutely exact pro- priety; for he may have lived in tents, or in the open, and have used caves only as burial places, or as refuges from his enemies, or as
 temples of worship, or for other ceremonial purposes.
 What are the facts regarding the first men who inhabited the earth ? Or, to put it more concretely, what are the records they have left us from which we may judge of their likeness to us? These records fall into four man classes: Implements of stone, iron and bone; sculptures;
 cave drawings: cave paintings.
 Implements were for domestic | use, for hunting and fishing, for purposes of offense and defense. etc | These implements are mostly made
 of stone and the stone is almost en- tirely flint, or quartzite. obviously because flint and quartzite are the only stone material that can be with an edge, and that will keep
 that edge under reasonable use. The periods of prehistoric culture are
 named according to the degree of
 perfection of the chipping of the stone implements. Hence we have
 the Eolithic period, or Down Stone Age;' the Paleoithic, or Ancient Stone Age;' the Neolithic or Recent
 Stone Age There are many subdivi- sions of each of the periods or
 ages, and they must be passed over here.
 ! Many implements made of bone, of the staghorn and of ivory, belong to these ages. All show an improve , ment in design as the ages progress ed. They show. in many cases, ex-
 treme skill in manufacture, in the
 adaptation of the meagre means to
 different ends; in other words, a definite technique was gradually de- veloped. Placed in similar primitive environments we moderns would
 have done no better; perhaps not
 nearly so well. The inference as to
 similarity of mentality between us | and primitive man seems obvious. There were splendid sculptures
 in bone. ivory. clay and other mate
 rials; there were drawings and
 sketches on the walls of caves.
 Striking Is the similarity between
 these drawings and those of primi-
 tive peoples now living, such as some
 of the Esquimaux, the Terra del
 Fuegous, the Veddabs of Ceylon, and the South African bushmen.
 "The most splendid monuments to
 the high degree of mental ability shown by primitive man are the
 numerous cave paintings. as in the
 cave of Altamira in Spain, and in
 the numerous caverns of the Dou-
 gone region in France. These paint ings are sometimes in four colors; | they are admirable in execution. and often of high artistic excellence:
 some of them are in relief; they show keen and accurate observa- ton of nature. They show unques- 1 tlonably that primitive man was an artist, sometimes very skillful ar | tist Hence, to refer again to Ches- | terton. he was a man, for art is the signature of man."
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