The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished RacesAllen, Emory Adams
History
The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished Races
Allen, Emory Adams
Archaeology; Indians; Prehistoric peoples
Other points of comparison strike us when reading Sir John
Lubbock’s account of their habits and customs. For instance:
“Their food, if cooked at all, is broiled or boiled; their
vessels, being of stone or wood, can not, indeed, be put on the
fires, but heated stones are thrown in until the water becomes
hot enough and the food is cooked.” “Their food consists
principally of reindeer, musk-ox, walrus, seals, birds, and
salmon. They will, however, eat any kind of animal food. They are
very fond of fat and marrow, to get at which they pound the bones
with a stone.” “The clothes of the Eskimos are made from the
skins of the reindeer, seals, and birds, sewn together with
sinews. For needles they use the bones of either birds or
fishes.” “The Eskimos have also a great natural ability for
drawing. In many cases they have made rude maps for our officers,
which have turned out to be substantially correct. Many of their
bone implements are covered with sketches.”
Eskimo Art.
In this cut we have a bone drill on which are sketched reindeer,
geese, a braider or flat-bottomed boat, a tent around which
various articles of clothing are hung up to dry, a woman
apparently engaged in the preparation of food, and a hunting
scene.
Now, we know that savage tribes, widely separated by time and
space, will, after all, under the pressure of common necessities,
invent much the same implements and live much the same life. But
still, where every thing seems to coincide, the climate, the
animals, the mode of life proved the same, and especially when
both are seen possessed of a common artistic skill, together with
the known fact that in the Western Continent the Eskimos did
formerly live much farther south; there is surely a strong case
made out, and therefore the probabilities are that the Eskimos
are the representatives of the Cave-men of Europe.42 And yet we
must be cautious on this point; or rather we remember that the
phrase, “predecessors of the Eskimos,” does not imply that they
were in all respects like them. An examination of the rude
sketches of the Cave-men left by themselves seems to indicate
that the whole body was covered with hair. “The hunter in the
Antler from Duluth Cave has a long, pointed beard, and a high
crest of hair on the poll utterly unlike the Eskimo type. The
figures are also those of a slim and long-jointed man.”43
This completes our review of the Paleolithic people, and it only
remains to present some general conclusions. The Glacial or
Pleistocene Age is seen to have been of immense duration, and
characterized by great changes in climate. We have found that two
races of men occupied Europe during this time. The men of the
River Drift are the most ancient.
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