Fall Journey: 



Hunt With The Cavemen 



by Edith Fleming, Raymond Foundation 



Mankind was probably cradled in Africa and from this 

 birthplace gradually spread into Asia and finally into Eur- 

 ope. Our own hemisphere was unpeopled until about 

 25,000 years ago when the Paleo-Indians began to filter 

 across the Bering Straits from Asia. This is recent com- 

 pared to the antiquity of man in Europe, where more than 

 500,000 years ago small bands of hunters roamed the coun- 

 tryside foraging and hunting wild animals. Between 100,000 

 and 35,000 years ago Neandertal people lived in Europe. 

 Cartoonists have depicted them as slow-witted and bestial, 

 but recent research and study indicates they were more like 

 modern man than was formerly believed. They are now 

 classified by many as a type of Homo sapiens, but the 

 first truly modern man, called Cro-Magnon Man, did not 

 migrate into Europe from the Middle East imtil the late 

 Ice Age, about 35,000 years ago. 



The story of the early hunters of Europe can be followed 

 on the Fall Journey, "Hunt With The Cave Men." Pre- 

 historic man pitted his skills against animals like the woolly 

 rhinoceros, woolly mammoth, cave bears, bison, wild horses 

 and reindeer. These furnished the necessities of life — food, 

 clothing, tools, fuel for fire, even oil for stone lamps. 



Gradually, these primitive people invented new and 

 better tools and worked out improved hunting methods. 

 Stone and bone tools as well as the bones of animals found 

 in caves or at camp and hunting sites tell the story. Enor- 

 mous piles of bones have also been found at the bases of 

 cliflfs, leading some scientists to conjecture that organized 

 hunting bands pitched camps near the trails the animals 

 followed from winter feeding grounds to smiimer pastures 

 and drove the animals over the cliffs to kill or immobilize 

 them. 



Only the hunter's skill stood between him and starvation 

 and he apparently resorted to magic to augment his own 

 powers. In subterranean cave passages primitive artists 

 drew lifelike pictures of great animals they hoped to kill. 

 To make these drawings these people had to move through 

 dark and dangerous tunnels lighted only by burning animal 

 fat flickering in a stone lamp. Perhaps the early hunter 

 braved the dangers of becoming lost or being attacked by 

 an animal in the belief that this test of courage might work 

 a stronger magic. 



Through thousands of years man worked out a way of 

 life suited to the Ice Age. Then the glaciers receded and 

 as the climate grew warmer, water from the melting glaciers 

 formed rivers, lakes and marshes. New kinds of trees grew 

 and forests eventually covered what had once been frozen 

 tundra. The great animals of the Ice Age died off or moved 

 farther north and the hunting life of that period came to an 

 end. The cave art evidently disappeared about the same 

 time. 



New animals, including deer and wild boar, roamed the 

 land and man was forced to adapt his himting methods to 

 this new environment. He developed new weapons — bows 

 and arrows, spears with tiny flint points. Instead of large 

 hunting bands needed to hunt the large cold weather ani- 

 mals, single hunters pursued the smaller, more elusive game 

 of the warmer period. 



New sources of food were available, too, including seeds, 

 nuts and berries. Groups of families could live together 

 where these foods were plentiful and there was abundant 

 fish and game. There had been great changes in the cli- 

 mate, in the character of the country, in the animals and 

 food sources and in the way people lived. They were learn- 

 ing to get the most benefit from their environment and ap- 

 proaching a time when they would develop farming skills. 



The Fall Journey Number 55, will take boys and girls 

 on their own or with their families through the Museum's 

 Hall of European Prehistory (Hall C). Here they will travel 

 through thousands of years, starting with early himters and 

 completing their journey with the prehistoric farming sun- 

 worshippers of Western Europe. 



A new journey is offered every three months by the Ray- 

 mond Foundation. With the successful completion of four 

 journeys boys and girls are awarded certificates naming 

 them "Museum Travelers." After eight journeys tRey be- 

 come "Museum Adventurers" and 12 journeys make them 

 "Museum Explorers." After 16 successful journeys they are 

 ready for a special journey, "The Voyage of the Beagle," 

 when they study in the Museum exhibits the natural history 

 described by Charles Darwin on his famous voyage. Young- 

 sters successfully completing the special journey will be 

 awarded certificates as members of the "Museum Discov- 

 erer's Club." 



Journey question sheets and further information on the 

 Journey Program may be obtained at the Information Booth 

 in Stanley Field Hall or at the South Door of the Museum. 

 The Fall Journey begins September 1, ends November 30. 



SEPTEMBER Page 15 



