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
The caverns of the province of Liége were not the dens of wild beasts,
but their contents had been swept in by the action of water. The bones
of man "were of the same color, and in the same condition as to the
amount of animal matter contained in them, as those of the accompanying
animals, some of which, like the cave-bear, hyena, elephant, and
rhinoceros, were extinct; others, like the wild-cat, beaver, wild boar,
roe-deer, wolf, and hedgehog, still extant. The fossils were lighter
than fresh bones, except such as had their pores filled with carbonate
of lime, in which case they were often much heavier. The human remains
of most frequent occurrence were teeth detached from the jaw, and the
carpal, metacarpal, tarsal, metatarsal, and phalangial bones separated
from the rest of the skeleton. The corresponding bones of the cave-bear,
the most abundant of the accompanying mammalia, were also found in the
Liége caverns more commonly than any others, and in the same scattered
condition."[24] In some of these caves, rude flint implements, of a
triangular form, were found dispersed through the cave mud. Dr.
Schmerling did not pay much attention to these, as he was engrossed in
his osteological inquiries. The human bones were met with at all depths,
in the cave mud and gravel, both above and below those of the extinct
mammalia.
The floors of these caverns were incrusted with stalagmite.[25] In the
cavern at Chokier there occur "three distinct beds of stalagmite, and
between each of them a mass of breccia, and mud mixed with quartz
pebbles, and in the three deposits the bones of extinct quadrupeds."[26]
FOSSIL SKULL OF THE ENGIS CAVE NEAR LIEGE.
The fossil skull from the cavern of Engis was deposited at a depth of
about five feet, under an osseous breccia containing a tusk of the
rhinoceros, the teeth of the horse, and the remains of small animals.
The breccia was about three and one-fourth feet wide, and rose to the
height of about five feet above the floor of the cavern. In the earth
which contained the skull there was found, surrounding it on all sides,
the teeth of the rhinoceros, horse, hyena, and bear, and with no marks
of the earth having been disturbed.
There was also found the cranium of a young person, in the floor of the
cavern, besides an elephant's tooth. When first observed, the skull was
entire, but fell to pieces when removed from its position. Besides these
there were found a fragment of a superior maxillary bone, with the molar
teeth worn down to the roots, indicating that of an old man; two
vertebræ, a first and last dorsal; a clavicle of the left side,
belonging to a young individual of great stature; two fragments of the
radius, indicating a man of ordinary height; a fragment of an ulna: some
metacarpal bones; six metatarsal, three phalanges of the hand and one of
the foot.
Dr. Schmerling found in this cave a pointed bone implement incrusted
with stalagmite and joined to a stone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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