The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 4, April, 1864 — John Shaqi
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 4, April, 1864Various
Religion
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 4, April, 1864
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Passing over the fossil human remains and works of art of the 'recent'
period, as found in the delta and alluvial plain of the Nile, in the
ancient mounds of the valley of the Ohio, in the mounds of Santos in
Brazil, in the delta of the Mississippi, in which, at the depth of
sixteen feet from the surface, under four buried forests, superimposed
one upon the other, was found, a few years ago, a human skeleton,
estimated by Dr. B. Dowler to have been buried at least fifty thousand
years--in the coral reefs of Florida, in which fossil human remains were
found, estimated by Professor Agassiz to have an antiquity of ten
thousand years--in the recent deposits of seas and lakes, in the central
district of Scotland, which bears clear traces of an upheaval since the
human period, and in the raised beaches of Norway and Sweden--passing
over these for want of space for minute detail, we go back to the
post-pliocene period, and find the bones of man and works of art in
juxtaposition with the fossil remains of extinct mammalia.
In the cavern of Bize, in the south of France, and in the caves of
Engis, Engihoul, Chokier, and Goffontaine, near Liege, human bones and
teeth, together with fragments of rude pottery, have been found
enveloped in the same mud and breccia, and cemented by stalagmite, in
which are found also the land shells of living species and the bones of
mammalia, some of extinct, and others of recent species. The chemical
condition of all the bones was found to be the same. Quite a full
account is given of the researches of MM. Journal and Christol in the
Bize cavern, and of Dr. Schmerling in the Liege caverns, and every
effort made, apparently, by the author, to weigh candidly and honestly
the evidence for and against the contemporaneous existence and
deposition of the human and mammalian remains. And while he admits that
at one time he was strongly inclined to suspect that they were not
coeval[3], yet he has been compelled by subsequent evidence, especially
in view of the fact that he has had convincing proofs in later years
that the remains of the mammoth and many other extinct species, very
common in caves, occur also in undisturbed alluvium, imbedded in such a
manner with works of art as to leave no room for doubt that man and the
extinct animals coexisted, to reconsider his former opinion, and to
assign to the proofs derived from caves of the high antiquity of man a
much more positive and emphatic character.
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