xxiv. is RACES OF MAN 649 



there were a series of upper Palaeolithic cultures (Aurignacian, Solu- 

 trean, and Magdalenian) in which besides wonderfully chipped flints 

 there were also fine bone and ivory needles, blades, and other instru- 

 ments. These were probably made by men of H. sapiens type, whose 

 skulls first became abundant in caves and deposits of the last glacial 

 period. 



The question of the first appearance of//, sapiens is, however, com- 

 plicated by the skulls found at Swanscombe and Fontechevade, from 

 Middle and Upper Pleistocene levels. These 'presapiens' fossils lack 

 the Neanderthal characters (brow ridges, occiput, &c.) but are thick 

 and more heavily built than modern skulls. Evidently from the Middle 

 Pleistocene onwards there has been a considerable variety in the 

 human populations, but all may be included in one species. 



The details of the replacement of these species and races by each 

 other remain obscure. Probably invading races often took over parts 

 of the cultures of their victims, as well as bringing in their own culture, 

 so that the whole story becomes very confused. It is usually con- 

 sidered that H. neanderthalensis did not evolve into H. sapiens, at least 

 in Europe, but was replaced by a wave of invaders coming from central 

 Asia. Similarly, at the end of the Palaeolithic period, about 14,000 

 years ago, the hunters of that time gave place first to a series of little- 

 known Mesolithic invaders, builders of the lake-dwellings found in 

 various parts, and then to the Neolithic people, who were farmers and 

 city-builders and from about 9000 B.C. onwards dominated the Middle 

 East and south Mediterranean region and thence spread outwards, 

 developing the series of cultures known as the Bronze and Iron Ages. 



The history of man, like that of so many other mammals, has there- 

 fore possibly been of a series of invasions from the central Asiatic 

 land-mass, and it is not surprising that remnants of earlier types should 

 be found surviving today on the tips of the continents, towards the 

 south. The most conspicuous of these are the Australian Aborigines, 

 who show several primitive features, both of structure and of culture. 

 The brow ridges are better developed than in any other men and the 

 forehead and chin recede. These Blackfellows are nomadic hunters, 

 without fixed abode, and their social organization and instruments are 

 those of a Palaeolithic stage of life. 



In something the same way the Bushmen of South Africa, though 

 not physically of a primitive type, preserve traces of Palaeolithic culture, 

 including art conventions similar to those used by the Aurignacian 

 people who painted bison and mammoths in the caves of Altamira in 

 Spain 50,000 years ago. 



