A closer examination of the relics of the Stone Age indicates a division into three epochs. In the Palaeo- lithic, or Rude Stone Epoch, all implements were of stone, and shaped by chipping, without grinding. In the Reindeer Epoch, bone and reindeer's horn displaced flint to a large extent: while in the Neolithic, or Pol- ished Stone Epoch, multitudes of stone implements were ground to an edge (" celts"). Mortillet makes the following classification, based on implements from the cairns of France: A. Flint implements predominant (Palaeolithic), (a.) Epoch of Moustier — the flints chipped only on one side, and having somewhat an almond shape, (b.) Epoch of Solutre — the flints chipped on both sides, and the extremities brought to a good point. The almond shapes wanting. B. Bone implements predominant, (c.) Epoch of Aurignac (Early Rein- deer)— the lance- and arrow-heads slit at the base, so that the tapering shaft enters the bone, (d.) Epoch of the Madeleine (Late Reindeer) — the lower extremity of the lance- or arrow-head enters the shaft. Many im- plements of flint still remain. Some recognise three divisions of Palaeolithic flints : (a) the type of St. Acheul — large, thick, oval, roughly chipped on both sides; (b) the type of Moustier— thinner, and wrought on one side; (c) the type of Solutre — smaller, finely wrought, with thin borders and symmetrical form.
The Paleolithic Epoch is further characterized by a nearly complete absence of pottery and of attempts at ornamentation or artistic delineation, as also by the contemporaneous existence of several quadrupeds now extinct — especially the cave-bear, the cave-hyena, cave-lion, tichorhine rhinoceros, and hairy elephant, or mammoth. The Reindeer Epoch, with a colder cli- mate, witnessed the disappearance of these animals, and the advent of several species now native in the north of Europe or at Alpine elevations — such especially as the reindeer, musk-ox, elk, chamois, ibex, hamster-rat, lemming, grouse, and snowy owl. With them existed the horse, the urns, the deer, and various rodents. The Neolithic Epoch was marked by the presence of many species of domesticated animals — especially the dog, sheep, goat, ox, horse, and hog. The domestic cat and fowl, and the crooked-horned sheep, did not appear till the epoch of the very latest lake-dwellings (Xoville and Chavannes), generally referred to the 6th century.
The Palaeolithic Epoch is illustrated chiefly by the finds of the river-gravels, the caverns of Belgium and England, the volcanic tuff of Denise, and a few of the caverns and rock - shelters of France; the Reindeer Epoch by a majority of the French caverns and rock- shelters; and the Neolithic Epoch by a few caverns in the south of France, the kitchen-middens, crannoges, dolmens, the lowest portion of the Danish bogs, and the lake-dwellings of Eastern Switzerland. The Bronze Age is represented by the finds of the lake-dwellings of Western Switzerland, many of the tumuli and the mid- dle portion of the Danish bogs; and the Iron Age bv
the upper portion of the Danish bogs, and some of the latest Swiss lakes (as Bienne and Neuclnitel).
(2.) Geological Conditions. — The physical conditions of Europe have changed to a remarkable extent since the first advent of man. At the epoch of the oldest finds Europe was just emerging from a secular winter which had buried all the mountains and plains beneath a mantle of glacier material, as far south, probably, as the Pyrenees. England and Scandinavia had been con- nected with the Continent; the English Channel and the German Ocean had been dry land, and the Thames had been a tributary of the Rhine. A subsidence now took place, which made Great Britain an island. An amelioration of the climate caused a rapid melting of the glaciers; the land was extensively flooded, and the drainage of the Continent now began to mark out and excavate the river-valleys of the modern epoch. The cave-bear, mammoth, and other quadrupeds of Pliocene time still survived; and now man appeared in Europe to dispute with them the possession of the forests and the caverns. The swollen rivers flowed at elevations of twenty to fifty feet above their present levels, and the relics of the stone -folk were mingled with the deposits along their borders. The Reindeer Epoch wit- nessed another elevation, and a new invasion of cold. England was again joined to the Continent. The cave- bear and mammoth dwindled away. The reindeer and other northern quadrupeds were driven south over the plains of Languedoc and through the valleys of Peri- gord. The hyena went over to England and took pos- session of the caverns. But the men of Europe had made a slight advance in their industries. Next, an- other subsidence resulted in the isolation of England and the Scandinavian peninsula ; the climate was again ameliorated, and the reindeer and other arctic species retreated to Alpine elevations and northern latitudes. Now the modern aspects of the surface of the land be- gan to appear, and now appeared various species of mammals destined to domestication— or, more probably, already domesticated in their Oriental home. The ages of Bronze, Iron, and authentic history succeeded.*
(3.) Character of Prehistoric Europeans. — Physi- cally, the men of the Palaeolithic Epoch, judging from the few skeletons and skulls discovered in Belgium and England, were of rather short stature, and of a Mongo- loid type, like modern Finns and Lapps. In the Rein- deer Epoch, the remains of Southern Europe indicate men nearly six feet in stature ; but the men of Belgium were still small and round-headed, and such they con- tinued to be to the end of the Stone Age. The Neo- lithic men of the Swiss lakes were much like the modern Swiss. The Palaeolithic men were not decidedly diver- gent from the Caucasian type, but a jaw-bone found at Naulette has several marks of inferiority, being some- what thick and small in height, and having molar teeth increasing in size backwards, the wisdom teeth being largest instead of smallest, and having, moreover, five fangs instead of two, while the chin also is deficient in prominence. The famous Neanderthal skull has a low forehead and prominent brow-ridges; but the cranial capacity was seventy-five cubic inches — about the av- erage of modern races, and "in no sense," as Huxley says, " to be regarded as the remains of a human being intermediate between man and the apes." The Engis skull exhibits no special marks of inferiority. The Cro-Magnon skull of the Reindeer Epoch had a capacity of ninety-seven cubic inches — far above the human av- erage. There was no prominence of the jaws or the cheek-bones, but the tibia was much flattened (platy- cnemic), as in most primitive men. The Neolithic Bor- reby skull belonged to the type of Neanderthal.