The Book of History (Vol. 1 of 18): A History of All Nations from the Earliest Times to the PresentVarious
History
The Book of History (Vol. 1 of 18): A History of All Nations from the Earliest Times to the Present
Various
World history
In addition to these, there are the primitive arts of man--the ceramic
art, spinning, and weaving. In the former, especially, an appreciation
of artistic form and decoration by ornament is developed. The ornament
becomes a kind of symbolical written language, the eventual deciphering
of which appears possible in view of the latest discoveries concerning
the ornamental symbolism of the primitive races of the present day.
Discoveries of dwellings prove an advanced knowledge of primitive
architecture; entrenchments and tumuli acquaint us with the principles
of their earthworks; and the giant chambers, built of colossal blocks
of stone piled upon one another, prove that the builders of those
times were not far behind the much-admired Egyptian builders in
transporting and piling masses of stone. The burials, whose ceremonies
are revealed by opened graves, afford a glimpse of the mental life
of that period. From the skulls and skeletons that have been taken
from the Neolithic graves, science has been able to reconstruct the
physical frame of Neolithic Man, which has in no way to fear comparison
with that of modern man. Of the ornaments of the Stone Age the most
important and characteristic are perforated teeth of dogs, wolves,
horses, oxen, bears, boars, and smaller beasts of prey. How much in
favour such ornaments were is proved by the fact that even imitations
or counterfeits of them were worn. Numerous articles of ornament,
carved from bone and deer-horn, were universal: ornamental plates and
spherical, basket-shaped, square, shuttle-like, or chisel-shaped beads
were made of these materials and formed into chains.
[Illustration: THE ICE AGE IN THE PRESENT DAY: AN ESQUIMAU WATCHING A
SEAL HOLE]
In the Swiss lake-dwellings of the Stone Age have been found skilfully
carved ear-drops, needles with eyes, neat little combs of boxwood, and
hairpins, some with heads and others with pierced side protuberances.
Remains of textile fabrics, even finely twilled tissue, and also
leather, were yielded by the excavations of the lake-dwellings of
that period, so that we have to imagine the inhabitants adorned with
clothes of various kinds.
[Sidenote: Man’s First and Oldest Animal Friend]
What raises man of the later Stone Age so far above Palæolithic Man is
the possession of domestic animals and the knowledge of agriculture.
As domestic animals of the later Stone Age we have proof of the dog,
cow, horse, sheep, goat, and pig. Among the animals that have attached
themselves to man as domestic, the first and oldest is undoubtedly the
dog. It is found distributed over the whole earth, being absent from
only a few small islands. Among many races the dog was, and is still,
the only domestic animal in the proper sense of the word. This applies
to all Esquimau tribes, to the majority of the Indians of North and
South America, and to the continent of Australia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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