354 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



harmonizing i)ower, greater analysis, higher judgment, better intellect, 

 becomes a leader of those about him and out of his judgment or through 

 his study or experience he discovers or develops new ideals and so 

 changes the standards of taste and beauty for his generation. But 

 there seems to have been practically no change of the ideals of the 

 Paleolithic man in the center of France. So the flint chipping and 

 bone polishing, while they might have been steps of evolution in 

 man's progress, at last ended in the art objects presented in the first 

 chapters. 



The discussion of these abstruse, unknown, psychological questions 

 is not here attempted, though the facts presented are pregnant with 

 suggestions, which can not be here considered, as to the causes which 

 impelled the wild hairy savage of Paleolithic times to produce these 

 art works. We ask ourselves which of his tastes were gratified, which 

 of his longings after, the beautiful were satisfied, what folds of the 

 brain or what parts of his nervous system were set into harmonious 

 action, and why and how did the making of these designs produce 

 pleasure in him as he made them, or how did they gratify him when he 

 possessed them? 



An examination of these questions would be aside from the author's 

 intention and beyond his powers. He has no desire to enter into a 

 X)hilosophic, nietaphysic, or psychologic discussion as to the origin of 

 the art instinct in man or its evolution in his mind. This paper is a 

 contribution to the history of art rather than to the science of art, and 

 is intended as a record of the actual manifestations of art in the various 

 epochs of human culture in prehistoric times, showing the earliest speci- 

 mens, and thus presenting the idea indicated by the title "Prehistoric 

 Art, or the Origin of Art as Manifested in the Works of Prehistoric 

 Man." • 



The term "prehistoric" is used in this paper in the ordinary and usual 

 sense, as being prior to history, before the beginning of history, mean- 

 ing of course human history. As history can be only in writing, this 

 means before written history. Prehistoric science does not depend on 

 historical records made contemporaneous with the happening of the 

 events recorded; it is based upon the evidence of the objects them- 

 selves. The discovery of these objects and the birth of the science of 

 prehistoric anthropology lie within the present century. Prehistoric 

 anthropologists have investigated these objects and the various deposits 

 containing them as to (1) their human origin, (2) the geologic age of 

 the stratum in which they are found, (3) their original deposit in that 

 stratum at the time it was formed (that is to say, an absence of intru- 

 sion or disturbance), (4) the association and sui)erposition of tlie imple- 

 ments and objects in the stratified deposits; and by the knowledge and 

 experience thus obtained they have determined that man made these 

 objects and, therefore, he existed in these localities in times of high 

 anticpiity. 



This paper deals with the art of making and decorating these objects. 



