NEOLITHIC PERIOD 



The Neolithic period in Europe followed the Paleolithic, prob- 

 ably not through the development of the Cave Man but by the 

 immigration of a higher type of man. The climate and fauna 

 of Europe had then become practically as at present. The 

 mammoth was no longer known. Conditions of life were less 

 severe. Neolithic man preferred to build him a crude house in 

 the open, or on piles in some shallow lake, rather than dwell in 

 caves. He domesticated the dog and horse and practiced a rude 

 type of agriculture; he was familiar with the arts of weaving and 

 pottery manufacture, and had learned to mine flint for his im- 

 plements. Old shafts have been discovered containing deer 

 horns which were used as picks; these shafts also served as facto- 

 ries for implements. In England the dead were buried in long 

 barrows or mounds. 



The Neolithic period in Europe is represented in the exhibit 

 by the fine arrow points from Rudston and Scambridge, York- 

 shire, England. Of the arrow heads from Antrim, Ireland, one 

 is carefully flaked and chipped while the other is flaked but 

 only partially chipped, evidently an unfinished specimen. Espe- 

 cially interesting are prongs of the reindeer, horses' teeth, and 

 bone chisels, all from the Lake Dwellings in Switzerland. 



But of more finished workmanship than anything which the 

 European exhibit presents are the finely chipped implements 

 from the Neolithic villages of the Fayum in Egypt. The flint 

 saw here exhibited is one of the finest known specimens of the 

 work of the Stone Age, and the knives and arrow points are scarce- 

 ly inferior. Comparison with the implements of the American 

 Indian of this same cultural period will be facilitated by the in- 

 stallation of the North American Indian Collection during the 

 next month. 



Laura M. Bragg 



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