The Meeting-Place of Geology and HistoryDawson, John William, Sir
Religion
The Meeting-Place of Geology and History
Dawson, John William, Sir
Deluge; Prehistoric peoples
4. Above this, in the surface soil and disturbed portions of the
underlying beds, are remains of the neanthropic period, including twelve
species of modern animals, but with no trace of the great extinct
quadrupeds. Connected with these were human skulls of the same type
found in the ancient burial barrows of England, and belonging to races
still extant. The Cresswell caves give no bones of palæocosmic men, but
they very well show the succession of the early period of mild climate,
the later severe climate, the extinction of the old animals contemporary
with the earliest men, and the final succession of modern men and
animals to the now insular Britain, which, in the times represented by
the beds one, two, and three above mentioned, was a part of the mainland
of Europe.
[Illustration: FLINT FLAKES OF TWO TYPES FROM PALANTHROPIC AND
NEANTHROPIC CAVES IN THE LEBANON]
But perhaps the most interesting views of the succession of early men
and the gap between the palanthropic and neanthropic periods are
presented by the Belgian caves explored by Schmerling and Dupont. The
latter has excavated more than sixty caverns, and has carefully noted
the mode of occurrence of their contents, collecting at the same time a
vast number of bones and implements, now admirably arranged in the
museum of Brussels. In Belgium the earlier anthropic period has been
characterised as that of the mammoth. The beginning of the neanthropic
is still a reindeer age, though that animal was apparently becoming
rare. It existed, as we know, in Central Europe till the time of Cæsar.
[Illustration: RESTORATION OF THE SEPULCHRAL CAVE OF FRONTAL, BELGIUM
(after Dupont)
1. and 2. Gravel and clay of mammoth age. 3. Surface of modern
accumulation of angular stones and clay. (D) Slab closing the sepulchre.
(S) Platform for funeral feasts. (F) Hearth. (R) Rock forming the walls
of the cavern.]
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