\ 



V 



THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION 



SIGNS of the approach of Neolithic culture begin to 

 appear in northern Europe about 8000 b. c; possibly 

 as early as 10,000 b. c. The important part of the 

 period extended from about 6000 b. c, or a Httle earlier, 

 until about 2500 b. c. At its very dawn this region enjoyed a 

 very favorable and mild climate, and peoples poured north- 

 ward and westward. The Mediterranean race spread from 

 the sea from which it took its name into France and England. 

 Broad-headed people appear in the highlands bordering the 

 Rhine and Rhone and in the foot-hills of the Alps. Primi- 

 tive tribes seep from Russia and Poland into Germany. Later 

 a wave or tide of immigration seems to have poured up the 

 Danube valley. All these people finally met and mingled in 

 Central Europe.^ 



Very early we find them making pottery, and beginning 

 to smooth or polish at least the edge of some of their stone 

 axes. Generally they use less brittle material than flint. 

 They seem to have experimented on various sorts of often 

 rare rocks and minerals, and finally to have become quite 

 expert practical mineralogists. They made baskets and nets, 

 and learned to weave cloth of an excellent quality.^ They 

 lived in half underground huts; later, as at Grosgartach and 

 the Lake Dwellings, in very comfortable wooden houses. 

 They raised wheat and barley and other grains. They had 

 domesticated animals: dogs, sheep, cattle and swine. The 

 savage has become civilized. If we could have spent a sum- 



^55- 36- i6i. 

 ^55' 131 



53 



