A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



means of subsistence consisted of such food as could be procured by 

 hunting, fishing, etc. 



This race of men was widespread over the surface of the world. 

 Remains which have been discovered show that it existed all over 

 western and southern Europe, northern Africa, Asia Minor and over 

 the whole extent of India. 



So much has been written about the supposed inferiority of man in 

 the PalEeolithic age that many people have been led to suppose that he 

 was a very low type of animal. This assumption, however, has been 

 based upon insufficient data, and without due appreciation of the fact 

 that he was in possession of artistic accomplishments of a by no means 

 low order. It is clear from remains of his handiwork which have been 

 discovered that he was able to make vigorous sketches of animals and 

 other objects, and to fashion useful tools out of rough flints. Of his 

 dwellings little is known save that he inhabited caves and rock-shelters, 

 but it is impossible to suppose that he had no means of building houses 

 and adapting many things and circumstances of nature to his require- 

 ments. Clothing he doubtless made for himself from the skins of 

 animals, and there is every reason to believe that he was able to make 

 for himself many implements which are unknown to us for the simple 

 but sufficient reason that they were composed of less imperishable mate- 

 rials than flint and stone. 



With regard to the physical aspect of man in the Paleolithic age 

 it is interesting to have the valuable opinion of such an eminent authority 

 as Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S.^ In an address delivered in 1898 before 

 the Geologists' Association of London Mr. Newton said, in words too 

 weighty and important to be epitomized : 



' At present we have too few examples of the skulls of Paleolithic 

 men to allow us to speak dogmatically of their typical characters, but 

 what we do know about them shows that their cephalic index is much 

 the same as the Neolithic men, from whom they seem to be chiefly dis- 

 tinguished by the greater development of their brow ridges, their low 

 and receding foreheads and their shorter stature. 



' The advanced intelligence of Palaeolithic man is abundantly proved 

 by his tools and works of art, which have been preserved in far greater 

 numbers than his bones. The well-fashioned flint implements, the strik- 

 ing outlines of the mammoth, horses, reindeer and human figures incised 

 on pieces of ivory and bone, as well as the clever carvings of animals in 

 these same materials, are ample evidence that the men who lived with 

 the Mammoth possessed no mean artistic ability and no little mechanical 

 skill.' 



Mr. Newton adds : 'There will be a tendency to credit Paleolithic 

 man with a somewhat higher social status than we have usually sup- 

 posed him to have enjoyed.' 



Little if anything is known about the graves or methods of sepul- 

 ture of man in the Paleolithic age, most if not all of the interments 



' Proceedings of the Geoh^sts' Association, xv. pp. 262, 263. 

 254 



