The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished RacesAllen, Emory Adams
History
The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished Races
Allen, Emory Adams
Archaeology; Indians; Prehistoric peoples
The men of the Caves supported life by hunting. But a very small
part of their food supplies could have been drawn from the
vegetable kingdom. When the climate was so severe that Alpine
mosses grew at Schussenreid, acorns and like nuts would be about
all they could procure from that source. The animals hunted by
the Cave-men were principally reindeer, horses, bisons, and,
occasionally mammoths and woolly rhinoceros. But they were not
very choice in this matter, as they readily accepted as food any
animal they could obtain by force or cunning. Wolves and foxes
were not rejected, and in one cave large numbers of the bones of
the common water rat were obtained. We know what animals were
used as food, because we find their bones split for the purpose
of procuring the marrow they contained. This was evidently to
them a nutritious article of diet, since they were careful to
open all the bones containing it, and bones so split are
frequently the only means of detecting the former presence of man
in some bone caves.
We must not forget that at that time the shore of the Atlantic
Ocean, during a large part of the Paleolithic Age, was situated
much farther west than it is now, and so in all probability many
refuse heaps are now underneath the waves. From certain drawings
that are found in some French caves, we know they were used for
hunting both seals and whales.
We can not doubt that the capture of a whale afforded as much
enjoyment to them as it does to a tribe of Eskimos now. Bones of
birds and fishes are found in many instances. The salmon appears
to have been a favorite among fishes. Among the birds are found
some species now only living in cold countries, such as the snowy
owl, willow grouse, and flamingo. This is but another proof that
the climate of Europe was then very cold.
Whale and Seal, Incised on Bone.
The Cave-men were not afraid to attack animals greatly superior
to them in strength. In the Hohlefels Cave in Germany were found
great quantities of the broken and split bones of cave bears, an
animal very similar to the grizzly, and probably its equal in
strength. The reindeer was the main reliance of these tribes. Its
bones are found in great abundance, and it doubtless was to them
all it is to the Lapps of Europe to-day, except, of course, that
it was not domesticated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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