T,T,0 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 83 



GEOLOGY 



Geological information about the Mousterian period is not as 

 precise or full as is desirable/ but it permits of several valuable 

 conclusions. A survey of the better-known Mousterian sites, from 

 Germany and Belgium southward, shows that fully one-third of 

 them were in the open, while of the remainder quite a few (La Quina, 

 Sergeac, La Ferrassie, etc.) are found in and about shallow rock- 

 shelters that could not have afforded much protection. In Switzer- 

 land, moreover, the earlier Mousterian man lived in caverns at a 

 high elevation (Wildkirchli, 4,905 ft.; Drachenberg. 8,028 ft.).' All 

 of this indicates that the climate during a considerable part of the 

 Mousterian period was not severe enough generally to drive man into 

 the caves, or even down from the mountains, thus pointing to inter- 

 glacial rather than glacial conditions. There is no evidence of any 

 critical geological manifestations, either about the beginning or about 

 the end of the Mousterian period. 



The cultural remains of the Mousterian in the open stations, as 

 well as those in caves, denote both considerable age and long duration 

 of the period. In the open the remains lie mostly in old gravels or 

 sand, rarely in clay or loess, or in travertine rock of lacustrine origin. 

 There may be two or three cultural strata or horizons (as at Ste. 

 Walburge, High Lodge, Ipswich, Amiens, etc.), indicating a repeated 

 occupation of the same site after shorter or longer intervals, though 

 there have not been found as many occupational layers as in some 

 of the caves. 



ARCHEOLOGY 



Neither paleontology nor geology, evidently, explains Neanderthal 

 man ; perhaps we may learn more from archeology. 



OCCUPATIONS 



The chief activities of man in nature relate to his housing and 

 clothing, to the obtaining and preparing of his food, and to the 

 manufacture of tools, utensils, and weapons. Let us see briefly how 

 Neanderthal man compared in these respects with his forbears and 

 his followers. 



' Many details are given in Bayer, Jos. Der Mensch im Eiszeitalter, Leipzig 

 and Wien, 1927; in Werth, E., Der fossile Mensch, 3 parts, Berlin, 1921-1928; 

 and in the books of Boule, Keith, MacCurdy, Obermaier, Sollas and others on 

 prehistory cited at the end of this treatise. 



' See MacCurdy, G. G., Human Origins, Vol. i, 1924. 



