i68 



NATURE 



[February 9, 1922 



implement with early Palaeolithic flint implements 

 at Piltdown, the latter is briefly dismissed as " pos- 

 sibly the only exception." England has indeed 

 played a prominent pioneer part in unravelling the 

 problems of prehistoric man, and deserves full 

 acknowledgment. 



Mr. Burkitt begins with an excellent concise 

 account of man's relation to the glacial period in 

 western Europe, and shows how far the successive 



Fig. I.— Incised drawings rom caves in Dordogne and Cantabria. A. A feline, a bear, and a mammoth engraved 

 on the wall of the cave of Combarelles, Dofdogne. B. Head of a deer engraved on the wall of the cave of 

 Castillo, Cantabria, with a similar engraving on a piece of bone from the same cave. C. A hog-maned 

 horse engraved on the wall of the cave of La Pasiega Cantabria. From " Prehistory : A Study of Early 

 Cultures in Europe and the Mediterranean Basia." 



races may be correlated with the mild intervals in 

 this period which are marked by the retreat of 

 the glaciers in the Alps and Pyrenees. He also 

 refers to Baron de Geer's counting of the annual 

 layers of sediment which the ice of the last glacial 

 episode in Scandinavia deposited in the sea during 

 its retreat northwards. From this it is inferred 

 that man cannot have reached southern Scandinavia 

 imtil it was uncovered twelve thousand years ago. 

 NO. 2728, VOL. 109] 



The latest phases farther south in Europe must 

 therefore have been somewhat earlier. How long 

 before the glacial period man first appeared here 

 remains uncertain, but both the Abbe Breuil and 

 Mr. Burkitt are agreed that Mr. Reid Moir's dis- 

 coveries of worked flints in the Red Crag prove his 

 presence in the Upper Pliocene. 



Most of the volume is devoted to flint and bone 

 implements and art, and Mr. Burkitt traces the 

 successive developments in 

 a more exhaustive manner 

 than has hitherto been 

 attempted. He classifies 

 the flints, and not only 

 records the order of their 

 succession, but also de- 

 scribes exactly several 

 places of discovery which 

 prove their relative age. 

 He shows how bone har- 

 poons may be treated as 

 fossils, and points out the 

 minute differences which 

 mark the successive 

 periods to which they 

 belong. He also de- 

 scribes palimpsests among 

 the cave-pictures which ex- 

 hibit the superposition of 

 different styles of art. 

 He is thus prepared to 

 determine the relative age 

 of almost any discovery of 

 prehistoric human handi- 

 work. On the whole the 

 school of " prehistorians " 

 to which he belongs is 

 probably right, but it 

 makes no allowance for 

 sporadic outbursts of 

 genius. 



The study of the cave- 

 pictures is especially 

 fascinating, and Mr. 

 Burkitt treats it in great 

 detail. Besides the incised 

 figures on the rock, there 

 are paintings in ochre, oxide of manganese, carbon, 

 and kaolin, all mixed with fat. Those of 

 Palaeolithic age are isolated drawings, not grouped 

 in scenes, and the majority are in comparatively 

 inaccessible parts of the caves rather than in 

 ordinary living chambers. They were therefore 

 probably not designed for ornament, but in con- 

 nection with some ideas of sympathetic magic. ' ' No 

 doubt the wonderful naturalistic animals, sometimes 



