A Manual of the Antiquity of ManMacLean, J. P. (John Patterson)
History
A Manual of the Antiquity of Man
MacLean, J. P. (John Patterson)
Human beings -- Origin
Boucher de Perthes having pointed out that flint implements could be
found in the valley of the Seine, in beds similar to those of Abbeville,
the antiquaries were soon rewarded and Boucher de Perthes' prediction
was fulfilled. M. Gosse, of Geneva, found the Abbeville type of
implements in the lowest diluvial deposits associated with the remains
of animals of that period.
The discovery made by Casiano de Prado, near Madrid, is very similar to
those of Abbeville. "First, vegetable soil; then about twenty-five feet
of sand and pebbles, under which was a layer of sandy loam, in which,
during the year 1850, a complete skeleton of the mammoth was discovered.
Underneath this stratum was about ten feet of coarse gravel, in which
some flint axes, very closely resembling those of Amiens, have been
discovered."[15]
The remains of man are also preserved in caverns associated with the
fossil bones of the mammoth, the woolly-haired rhinoceros, cave-bear,
and other extinct quadrupeds. Among these should be noticed Kent's Hole,
which has furnished a mine of wealth. Of his discoveries Godwin-Austen
says: "Human remains and works of art, such as arrow-heads and knives of
flint, occur in all parts of the cave, and throughout the entire
thickness of the clay; and no distinction founded on condition,
distribution, or relative position can be observed, whereby the human
can be separated from the other reliquiæ," which included bones of the
mammoth (_E. primigenius_), rhinoceros (_R. tichorrhinus_), cave-bear
(_Ursus spelæus_), cave-hyena (_H. spelæus_), and other mammalia. These
researches were conducted in parts of the cave which had never been
disturbed, and the works of man, in every instance, were procured from
undisturbed loam or clay, beneath a thick covering of stalagmite; and
all these must have been introduced before the stalagmite flooring had
been formed.[16] These specimens of man's handicraft were found far
below the stalagmite floor.[17] Closely allied to Kent's Hole is Brixham
Cave. The following gives the general succession of deposits forming the
contents of the cavern:
1. A layer of stalagmite varying from one to fifteen inches in
thickness.
2. Next below, ochreous cave-earth, from one foot to fifteen feet in
thickness.
3. Rounded gravel, in some places more than twenty feet in depth.
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