THE PALANTHROPIC AGE 67 



witness to the similarity in all important characters of 

 the oldest prehistoric men with that variety of our 

 species which is at the present day at once the most 

 widely extended and the most primitive in its manners 

 and usages. 1 



1 Perhaps no feature of this early human age is more remark- 

 able than its artistic productions. Recent testimony, more especially 

 that of the very careful explorers of the depcsits at Spy, in Belgium, 

 seems to show existence of the potter's art, though this until lately 

 was denied. These people ornamented their clothing with pearly and 

 coloured shells, and made beautiful necklaces. We have already 

 noticed that found in the cave of Goyet. At Sordes, in the Pyrenees, 

 in a very old interment of this period, there was a necklace of forty- 

 three teeth of the cave lion and cave bear, carved wi'h figures of 

 animals (see p. 71). The handle of a piercer, represented on p. 59, 

 is a marvel of skilful adaptation of an animal form to produce a handle 

 fitted to be firmly and conveniently grasped by the human hand. The 

 figure of the mammoth on p. 68 shows how a few bold lines may 

 produce a vigorous and truthful sketch ; and multitudes of such carvings 

 and drawings have been found in France as well as in Germany and 

 Belgium. Even the chipping of flint is an art requiring much skill to 

 produce the fine knives, spears, &c., so commonly found, and there is 

 evidence that these were fitted into strong and probably artistic handles. 

 All this and much more testifies to the fact that our palaeocosmic men 

 were no mean artists as well as artificers. 



2 



