The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished RacesAllen, Emory Adams
History
The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished Races
Allen, Emory Adams
Archaeology; Indians; Prehistoric peoples
What shall we say to these results? If true, what a wonderful
antiquity is here unfolded for the human race, and what a
wonderful lapse of time is included in what is known as the
Paleolithic Age! How strikingly does it impress upon our minds
the slow development of man! Is such an antiquity for man in
itself absurd? We know no reason for such a conclusion. Our most
eminent scholars nowhere set a limit to the time of man’s first
appearance. It is true, many of them do not think the evidence
strong enough to affirm such an antiquity, but there are no
bounds given beyond which we may not pass.
Without investigation some might reject the idea that man could
have lived on the earth one hundred thousand years in a state of
Savagism. If endowed with the attributes of humanity, it may seem
to them that he would long before that time have achieved
civilization. Such persons do not consider the lowliness of his
first condition and the extreme slowness with which progress must
have gone forward. On this point the geologists and the
sociologists agree. Says Mr. Geikie: “The time which has elapsed
from the close of the Paleolithic Age, even up to the present
day, can not for a moment compare with the aeons during which the
men of the old stone period occupied Europe.” And on this subject
Mr. Morgan says: “It is a conclusion of deep importance in
ethnology that the experience of mankind in Savagery was longer
in duration than all their subsequent experience, and that the
period of Civilization covers but a fragment of the life of the
race.”32 The time itself, which seems to us so long, is but a
brief space as compared with the ages nature has manifestly
required to work out some of the results we see before us every
day. We are sure, but few of our scholars think this too liberal
an estimate. All endeavor to impress on our minds that the
Glacial Age is an expression covering a very long period of time.
As to the time that has elapsed since the close of the Glacial
Age there is some dispute, and it may be that we will be forced
to the conclusion that the close of the Glacial Age was but a few
thousand years ago. Mr. Wallace assures us, however, that the
time mentioned agrees well “with physical evidence of the time
that has elapsed since the cold has passed away.”33
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account