Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and ArtOsborn, Henry Fairfield
History
Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and Art
Osborn, Henry Fairfield
Art, Primitive; Prehistoric peoples; Stone age
As contrasted with the very numerous Acheulean sites of Italy, it is
surprising to note that only two Mousterian grottos have thus far been
discovered in this region: the Grotte delle Fate in the mountains of
Liguria, and the very important group of caves on the Riviera, near
Mentone, known as the Grottes de Grimaldi, close to the seashore and at
the very point where the Italian Alps abut upon the sea. Crossing to the
north, we note the superb Swiss grotto of Wildkirchli, on the headwaters
of the Rhine, 5,000 feet above sea-level.
[Illustration: FIG. 127. Outlook from the cave of Hornos de la Peña.
Photograph by N. C. Nelson.]
In all Germany there are only about seven stations of unquestioned
Mousterian age. Of these six are grottos, and the seventh, Mommenheim, is
a fluvial redeposit of loess along a small stream, where only _one_
implement has been found.(69) It is interesting to observe that in Germany
these Mousterian sites occupy the great wedge of territory between the
Scandinavian ice-fields on the north, and the Alpine on the south, and
that Wildkirchli was actually within the area of glaciation; while the
caves of Räuberhöhle and Šipka were not far from the glaciers which
clothed the Carpathian Mountains, and Baumannshöhle was not so very remote
from the great Scandinavian ice-field. In the region of the headwaters of
the Rhine and Danube the industry of the Neanderthal race has thus far
been traced only at the stations of Irpfelhöhle, Räuberhöhle, and
Sirgenstein. The latter cavern is of especial importance because it
comprises the entire Palæolithic history of this region, presenting a
series of successive culture layers from Mousterian times up to the
arrival of the Neolithic race. Further to the east are the Gudenushöhle,
near Krems, in Lower Austria, and Ochos and Šipka, in Moravia, while over
the Russian border are Wierschovie and Miskolcz. Well to the northwest of
Wildkirchli are the stations of Mommenheim and Kartstein, and to the north
that of Baumannshöhle.
WORKMANSHIP OF THE NEANDERTHALS
The dense communal life of Mousterian times may have favored a social
evolution, the development of the imagination and of tribal lore, and the
beginnings of the religious belief and ceremonial of which apparent
indications are found to be wide-spread among the entirely different races
of Upper Palæolithic times. The life is not, however, marked by industrial
progress or invention.
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