FROM PR1\1IT1\ F. TO MODERN MAN -6i 



they seem to ha\c possessed a cerebral capacity which was nearly if not 

 quite equal to that of modern man. They were capable of advanced education 

 and had strongly developed esthetic as well as religious feelings. Their 

 society was highly different iated along the lines of capacity and talent for 

 work Their artistic productions as shown in the mural decorations in their 

 caves were of such excellence as to place them among the truly great achieve- 

 ments of the human kind. The Aurignacian culture established by the advent 

 of the Cro-Magnon race in southwestern Europe ultimately succeeded the 

 Mousterian industry. It introduced the art of f^ngraving and sculpture, 

 together with a greater refinement in all of the instruments employed during 

 the previous cultural periods. 



A comparison of the Aurignacian period with the stages which had 

 gone before emphasizes one striking fact. In the pursuits of industry and 

 domestic life, little in the way of innovation was added by the Cro-Magnon 

 race. It adapted and perfected what the Mousterians had used with 

 greater or less advantage. But what it did add, neither the Mousterian nor 

 any other preceding period possessed, namely, tools and implements for 

 sculpture and engraving. Chief among these were the drill, engraver, etcher, 

 carving chisel, mortar, hammer-stone and polisher, all of which were inti- 

 mately connected with the artistic activities of this new and highly intel- 

 lectual race of man. The Cro-Magnon also passed through certain cultural 

 phases which show the same general tendencies observed in previous races. 

 As in the first flush of any renaissance, so with the awakening of a new race, 

 the initial period is usually the most fertile in productive ingenuity. Then 

 comes the gradual culmination as it did m the Solutrean Period which was the 

 acme of achievement in the Hint industry. Declining greatness followed next 

 in the Magdalenian Age which brought the closing stage of Cro-Magnon 

 culture. The same familiar cycle of juvenescence, maturity and decline which 

 characterized the development of earlier races did not fail to apply its 



