Another fact, upon which M. Dupont has with justice insisted, adds
to the probability arising from various considerations, of our being
right in attributing to these quaternary men a kind of religion more
or less analogous to Fetishism. In the Trou de Chaleux, a mammoth’s
ulna was placed by the side of a hearth upon a slab of sandstone. Now
the mammoth no longer existed in Belgium at the close of the age of
the reindeer, and this bone must have been found in the alluvium of
the preceding age. It had doubtless been the cause of an error which
may be observed even at the present day, and had been looked upon as
having belonged to a giant. The place of honour which was allotted
to it in the dwelling of the troglodytes seems to intimate that it
had become an object of veneration.
IX. Very few remains of the two races of Furfooz and that of
Grenelle, have been discovered in other quaternary deposits than
those which have just been mentioned. The former are, however,
represented in the basins of the Somme and the Aude; the latter has
been met with at two or three points in the basin of the Seine. We
have seen that it existed at Solutré, and the skull of Nagy-Sap in
Hungary must probably be referred to it. These facts are sufficient
to show that since the glacial epoch the races in question have
occupied an extensive area.
In the neolithic age, we find the mesaticephali of Furfooz extending
from the Var and Hérault to Gibraltar; the sub-brachycephali are
represented from Verdun to Boulogne-sur-mer, and to Camp-Long from
Saint-Césaire; they intermingled with the ancient inhabitants of
Cabeço d’Arruda in Portugal.
The brachycephalic race of Grenelle, has, however, left the most
distinct traces. It has been discovered in France in several dolmens,
and in the Round Barrows in England. In Denmark it constitutes the
brachycephalic type of Eschricht, and in Sweden forms a dozen of
the total number of the skulls found in dolmens by Retzius and his
successors.
The intervention of these different races in the formation of
existing races is equally evident. The exact demonstration of the
fact is, however, often difficult. The crossing which took place
between groups placed in such close contact with each other, more or
less confused the types. Other brachycephalic types, amongst others
the Celtic race, such as it has been described by M. Broca, came to
add to the confusion. Nevertheless, when visiting the valley of the
Lesse, several members of the Congress of prehistoric Anthropology
recognised skulls and faces as bearing in the clearest manner, the
distinctive marks of the local fossil races, and these traces are
still more frequent in the rural population which supplies the
markets of Antwerp.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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