The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished RacesAllen, Emory Adams
History
The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished Races
Allen, Emory Adams
Archaeology; Indians; Prehistoric peoples
We learn, in the second place, that the cultivated plants are all
immigrants from the south-east—their native home being in
South-eastern Europe and Asia Minor. We shall afterward see that
this is true of the domestic animals also. There can be but one
explanation for this. The ancient inhabitants of Europe must have
come from that direction, and brought with them the plants they
had cultivated in their eastern homes, and the animals they had
reduced to their service. The traces of agriculture thus found in
Switzerland are by no means confined to that country. In other
countries of Europe, such as England and France, we also find
proofs that men cultivated the earth. In localities where we do
not find the grain itself, we find their rude mills, or mealing
stones, which as plainly indicate a knowledge of the agricultural
art as the presence of the cereals themselves.23
As we have stated, Neolithic man in Europe possessed domestic
animals. He was not only a cultivator of the soil, but he was a
herdsman as well; and he kept herds of oxen, sheep, and goats.
Droves of hogs fattened on the nuts of the forest, and the dog
associated with man in keeping and protecting these domestic
animals. We know that the Swiss Lake inhabitants built little
stalls by the sides of their houses, in which they kept their
cattle at night. But these domestic animals were not descendants
of the wild animals that roamed the forests of Europe. Like the
plants, they are immigrants from the south-east. Our best
authorities consider they were brought into Europe by the
invading Neolithic tribes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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