THE METHODS OP ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH. 597 



there are no traces of a transition, it is clear one set of men and ani- 

 mals did not absorb the other. To myself this sudden hiatus and gap 

 means the occurrence of some sudden and widespread catastrophe 

 which desolated a wide area, and destroyed its living- creatures iu 

 great numbers, and the recolonization of tlie wasted area by migration 

 from elsewhere. To this great catastrophe the traditions of mankind 

 go back, as do the geological reference we can collect. It forms the 

 great divide in early human history. 



We must not, however, be misled. Some wild writers have argued 

 as if human beings were quite different in kind before and after the 

 divide. I see no evidence whatever of this. The human skulls found 

 with the remains of extinct animals by Lund in the caverns of Brazil 

 have all the characters of Indian skulls, while those found with the 

 extinct animals in Europe have the characters of European skulls, thus 

 showing that at this i)eriod the native races of America and of Europe 

 had already been differentiated, and it is extremely probable that the 

 so-called paleolithic, or as I prefer to call them, the antediluvial men 

 of Europe did not belong to one race, but to several races. Those who 

 find certain resemblances to simian skulls in those of antediluvial man 

 overlook the x)ower of drawing shown in the etchings of animals on 

 pieces of bone found in the French caves, which is quite unmatched in 

 after times until we reach a much later ])eriod, while the harpoons, the 

 needles, etc., are most skillfully fashioned. Whether the simian origin 

 of man be a factor or not, it is clear we have no evidence in archaeology 

 as yet to bridge the gap. If we want a key to the Avhole position we 

 must turn our backs upon civilized man and explore the fertile fields 

 of ethnography and the multiform types which we find among savage 

 and semisavage races. Many of these have survived from the time 

 before the great catastrophe, which did not in fact affect the Tropics. 

 In these latitudes we can find abundant material to study, showing 

 how man with very rude tools fashioned for himself very respectable 

 surroundings. These various tribes of savages are generally ignored 

 when we study history and archtBology. Xo greater mistake could be 

 made. Assuredly they present us with survivals on a great scale by 

 which we cau measure and test the phases of human i)rogress in its 

 earlier stages, and some time, perhaps, we may be able to get them all 

 into one pedigree, and to show how a real continuity combines them 

 all. Two lessons of great moment mc may learn from them. One is 

 that all these varieties of language, of ornament, of dress must have 

 taken a very long time to develop; and, secondly, w^hen we come into 

 actual contact with them we are struck by the further fact that they 

 are desperately conservative. The so-called mug money which marks 

 one of the very early chapters of our archaeological history still survives 

 in northeastern Africa. The ornaments and the customs of ancient 

 Egypt may be still found living in western Soudan and among the 

 tribes of Ashanti, while, if we turn to Australia and Tasmania, we 



