Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric PeoplesNadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
History
Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples
Nadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
Archaeology; Prehistoric peoples
One of the few crania that can with certainty be said to have belonged
to Lake Dwellers of Switzerland was found at Sutz, near Zurich; this
skull was fractured at the back. The roundness of the wound, which had
been serious enough to cause death, has led authorities to conclude
that it was made with one of the formidable pick-hammers, so many of
which were found in the lake of Bienne.17 Nilsson speaks of a human
cranium pierced with a flint arrow, and of another, both found at
Tygelso (Scandinavia), containing a dart made out of the antler of an
eland.18 At Chauvaux, at Cesareda, and Gibraltar other crania have been
found bearing the marks of mortal wounds, and if we cross the Atlantic
we meet with similar instances. Lund tells us that at Lagoa do
Sumidouro crania were found pierced with circular tools, whilst near
them lay the implements that had caused death.19 At Comox, in Vancouver
Island, a skeleton was found with a flint knife imbedded in one of the
bones, and at Madisonville (Ohio) another, one of the bones of which
was pierced by a triangular stone arrow; whilst beneath a mound in
Indiana was picked up a skull pierced by a flint arrow more than six
inches long. Excavations at Copiapo (Chili) brought to light the
skeleton of a man who had sustained no less than eight wounds from
arrows. The force with which they must have been shot is really
astonishing; one had broken the upper jaw and knocked out several
teeth, penetrating to the brain; and others were still sticking in the
vertebrae and ribs.20
In the New as in the Old World man survived many of these horrible
wounds, and a skull found under a mound near Devil’s River shows a
serious wound inflicted many years before death, and one of the
Peruvian crania in the Peabody Museum bears a long frontal fracture,
doubtless produced by the violent blow of a club; the five or six
fragments still to be made out are, so to speak, solidified, and the
wounded man had evidently lived on for many years, thanks apparently to
his good constitution alone, for there are no signs of the performing
of any surgical operation, such as the removal of the splinters of
bone, for instance.21
In 1884 a human vertebra, with an arrow-head imbedded in it, was picked
up on the island of Santa Cruz. The apophysis was broken, and the
extent of the fracture shows the great force of the blow. The victim
evidently died of the wound, for there is no sign of its having been
healed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account