Cave Hunting: Researches on the evidence of caves respecting the early inhabitants of EuropeDawkins, William Boyd
History
Cave Hunting: Researches on the evidence of caves respecting the early inhabitants of Europe
Dawkins, William Boyd
Antiquities, Prehistoric -- Europe; Caves -- Europe; Europe -- Antiquities; Prehistoric peoples -- Europe
The human remains occurred in the same confusion as at Perthi-Chwareu,
and were associated with fragments of coarse pottery, flint flakes, and
bones of ruminants. The occurrence of polished stone celts indicates
the neolithic age of the interment.
_Skulls from French Tumuli._
Both long and broad skulls also occur in the chambered tombs of France,
although the latter by far predominate. Those from the Long Barrow at
Chamant are dolicho-cephalic and ortho-cephalic, with cephalic index
ranging from ·71 to ·78 (Broca), and other similar cases are quoted by
Dr. Thurnam from Noyelles-sur-Mer, Fontenay, and other tumuli. In the
large sepulchral chamber at Meudon, that contained 200 skeletons, the
majority of the skulls were brachy-cephalic, although twenty of them
were of the ortho-cephalic type. This mixture may be accounted for,
most probably, by the two races, which are clearly defined from each
other in Britain, being intermingled in France.
Dr. Thurnam, summing up the whole evidence as regards the distribution
of races in the tombs of Gaul, concludes that the two races came
into contact in Gaul at an earlier period in the neolithic age than
in Britain. And this must necessarily have been the case from the
geographical position of our island, which could only be invaded, in
those times, by the races in possession of the contiguous mainland of
France and Belgium. Both these regions must have been conquered before
an invasion could have taken place.
_The Dolicho-cephali of the Iberian Peninsula, Gibraltar._
The researches carried on from 1863 to 1868, by Captain Brome, aided by
Dr. Falconer and Professor Busk,[127] into the caves of Gibraltar, have
resulted in the proof that, in the neolithic age, that barren rock was
inhabited by a race of men identical with that which is found in the
long barrows and caves of Great Britain.
The enlargement of the military prison on the top of Windmill Hill
revealed the existence of a deep fissure, containing dark earth,
mingled with charcoal and broken bones, which led into a series of
chambers. The upper of these is described by Captain Brome as being
completely choked up to the roof with earth, charcoal, and decomposed
bones of mammals, birds, and fishes, flint flakes, and pottery. Below
were two floors of stalagmite, filled with loose stones and earth,
through which a shaft penetrated into a fissure at a lower level,
leading into a lower chamber that had a free communication with the
surface, since the current of air was so strong as to extinguish the
lamps. In this also human remains and works of art were met with. The
passages were very complicated, and in some of them a red breccia
contained the remains of the pleistocene mammals, the spotted hyæna,
the _Rhinoceros hemitœchus_, and others. This series of passages and
chambers is described by Captain Brome and Professor Busk as “Genista
Cave No. 1.”
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