The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished RacesAllen, Emory Adams
History
The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished Races
Allen, Emory Adams
Archaeology; Indians; Prehistoric peoples
We must notice that all the implements found in the breccia are
similar to those of the Drift, being rudely formed and massive.
No doubt these are the remains of Drift men, who, for some cause
or other, temporarily visited the cave, perhaps contending with
the cave bear for its possession. But a time at length arrived
when for some reason neither animals nor man visited the cave.
The slow accumulation of stalagmite went forward until in some
places it had obtained a thickness of twelve feet. Freely
admitting that we can not determine the length of time demanded
for this deposition, yet none can doubt that it requires a very
long time indeed. Says Mr. Geikie: “How many centuries rolled
past while that old pavement was slowly accreting, no one can
say; but that it represents a lapse of ages compared to which the
time embraced by all tradition and written history is but as a
few months, who that is competent to form an opinion can doubt?”
But after this long period of quiet, from some source great
torrents of water came rolling through the cave. We know this to
be so, because in places it broke up this layer of stalagmite and
washed it away, as well as large portions of the breccia below,
and after the floods had ceased, occasionally inundations still
threw down layers of mud and silt. This accumulation is known as
cave earth, and is the layer containing the numerous remains of
the Cave-men. Here the explorers were not only struck with the
large number of implements, but at once noticed that they were of
a higher form and better made. Instead of the rude and massive
implements of the Drift tribes, we have more delicate forms
chipped all around. And we also meet with those that from their
form may have been used as the heads of spears or arrows. Flakes
were also utilized for various purposes. We also find implements,
weapons, and ornaments of bone—a step in advance of Drift
culture. They had “harpoons for spearing fish, eyed needles or
bodkins for stitching skins together, awls perhaps to facilitate
the passage of the slender needle through the tough, thick hides;
pins for fastening the skins they wore, and perforated badgers’
teeth for necklaces or bracelets.”6 Nothing of this kind has yet
been shown as belonging to the men of the Drift.
Flake—Cave-earth,<BR>Kent’s Cavern and Spear-head—, Kent’s
Cavern.
The bones of a large number of animals are also found in the cave
earth. The most abundant is the hyena, and no doubt they dragged
in a great many others; but the agency of man is equally
apparent, as the bones have often been split for the extraction
of marrow. Besides bones of the hyena, we have also those of the
lion, tiger, bear, and reindeer.7
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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