THE ORIGIN OF EUROPEAN CULTURE. 31 



V. The northwestern corner of Europe, including Scandinavia, 

 Denmark, and the Baltic plain of Germany, throughout the prehis- 

 toric period has been characterized by backwardness of culture as 

 compared with the rest of Europe. It was populated from the south, 

 deriving a large part of such primitive civilization as it possessed 

 from the south and the southeast as well. 



That this region was necessarily uninhabited during the Glacial 

 epoch, long after the advent of man in southern Europe, is indu- 

 bitable. It is proved by the extent of the glaciated area, which ex- 

 tends on the mainland as far south as Hamburg, Berlin, and Posen, 

 and over the entire British Isles at the same time.* It was by the 

 melting of this vast sheet of ice that those high level river terraces 

 in France and Belgium were formed, in which the most ancient and 

 primitive implements of human manufacture occur. In the area be- 

 neath this ice sheet no trace of human occupation until long after this 

 time occurs. This fact of itself, is not absolutely conclusive, for 

 glaciation would have obliterated all traces of anterior habitation or 

 activity. As to the possibility of a tertiary population before the 

 Glacial epoch, it presents too remote a contingency for us to con- 

 sider, although we do not deny its possibility. It too far antedates 

 prehistory, so to speak. 



At the notable International Congress of Anthropology and Pre- 

 historic Archaeology at Stockholm in 1874 a landmark in these sci- 



Ot/ 



ences was established by substantial agreement among the leading 

 .authorities from all over Europe upon the proposition now before us.i 

 First of all, every one subscribed to the view that the palaeolithic or 

 oldest stone age was entirely unrepresented in Sweden. The earliest 

 .and simplest stone implements discovered in the southern part of that 

 country betray a degree of skill and culture far above that so long 

 prevalent in France and Germany. Stone is not only rubbed and 

 polished into shape, 'but the complicated art of boring holes in it has 

 been learned. Norway also seems to be lacking in similar evidence 

 of a human population in the very lowest stage of civilization. Stone 

 implements anterior to the discovery of the art of rubbing or polish- 

 ing are almost unknown. Only about Christiania have any finds at 

 all been made. In Denmark some few very rude implements have 

 been found. They are so scarce as to suggest that they are mere 

 Tejects or half-finished ones of a later type. The kitchen middens, 



* Cf. maps and data in J. Geikie, 1894; Penck, 1884 ; and Niederle, 1893, p. 25. 



f Bertrand, 1876 a and 1876 b, gives a full account of it. The best recent authorities 

 upon Scandinavian culture are Sophus Mueller, 1897, and Montelius, 1895 b. Other works 

 of reference are those of Worsaae, Nilsson, Hildebrand, Madsen and Rygh, full titles being 

 given in our supplementary Bibliography of the Anthropology and Ethnology of Europe. 

 Comprising nearly two thousand titles, it will be provided with a detailed subject index. 



