THE ORIGIN OF EUROPEAN CULTURE. 



17 



sudden appearance of a more highly developed civilization, brought 

 by an immigrant broad-headed race from the East. Two waves of 

 invasion were described : the first bringing polished stone, a later one 

 introducing bronze, cereals, agTiculture, and the domestication of 

 animals. jSTot even credit for the construction of the great stone dol- 

 men tombs was granted to the natives in Gaul, for these were all 

 ascribed to an invasion from the [N^orth. The undoubted submerg- 

 ence of the primitive long-headed population of France by a brachy- 

 cephalic type from the East, to which we have already adverted, was 

 held accountable for a radical advance in civilization. Even the ex- 

 istence of a bronze age was denied to this country, it being maintained 

 that the introduction of bronze was retarded until both metals came 

 in together from the Orient in the hands of the cultural deliverers of 

 the land. The absence of a distinct bronze age was speedily dis- 

 proved; but the view that France and western Europe were saved 

 from barbarism only by a new race from the East still held sway. 

 It is represented by the classical school of G. de Mortillet, Bertrand, 

 Topinard, and a host of minor disciples. The new school, holding that 

 a steady and uninterrupted development of culture in situ was taking 

 place, is represented notably by Reinach * in France and by Sergi + 

 in Italy. Their proof of this seems to be unanswerable. Granting 

 that it is easier to borrow culture than to evolve it, a proposition under- 

 lying the older view, it seems nevertheless that the West has too long 

 been denied its rightful share in the history of European civilization. 

 A notable advance in the line of culture entirely indigenous to 

 southwestern Europe has been lately revealed through the interest- 

 ing discoveries by 

 Piette at the sta- 

 tion of Brassem- 

 puoy and in the 

 grotto of Mas 

 d'Azil. Carvings 

 in ivory, designs 

 upon bone, evi- 

 dence of a numeri- 

 cal system, of set- 

 tled habitations, 

 and, most impor- 

 tant of all, of a domestication of the reindeer, of the horse, and 

 the ox in the pure stone age have been found; and that, too, in 

 the uttermost southwestern corner of Europe. In the lake dwell- 



Neolithic Ivmkv ('ai:vixg. Mas d'Azil. 

 (By special peruiissiou. Furtlier reproduction prohibited.) 



* Le Mirage Orientale, 1893 a ; and in his admirable outline of sculptural origins in 

 Europe (1894-'96). 



f Arii e Italici, Torino, 1898, especially pp. 199-220. 



VOL. LV. 2 



