THE MOST ANCIENT MEN 377 



account of its prodigious range in time it is found neces- 

 sary to divide the Stone Age into two periods a later, 

 called the " Neolithic " (the new stone period), and an 

 older, stretching back until the traces of it are lost 

 in geologic changes of the earth, which is called the 

 " Palaeolithic " (the old stone period). 



Thus if we start on a time-journey to explore the 

 earliest traces of man in Europe, we pass along the centuries 

 back, through the Iron and the Bronze Ages of humanity, 

 and arrive at the vast Stone Age, which stretches away 

 into the obscurity of more than a hundred thousand, pro- 

 bably of many hundred thousand, years. The later or 

 newer fringe of the Stone Age is called the " Neolithic," 

 or newer Stone Age, or Age of Polished Stone, because 

 the men of that period polished their stone implements 

 after chipping them into shape. That which we dimly 

 see beyond is the "Palaeolithic," or older period of "stone- 

 weaponed " humanity, when polishing was unknown. 



The Neolithic civilisation comprised the Swiss and 

 Glastonbury lake-dwellers, who built houses on piles in 

 the water: also the makers of the kitchen-middens of Den- 

 mark, and the builders of the great stone avenues, circles, 

 and cromlechs, and the elevators of the solitary big stones 

 called " menhirs " most of them rougher and probably 

 two thousand or three thousand years older than the big 

 stones of Stonehenge. Our journey has now brought us 

 into the full darkness of prehistoric times. We cannot tell 

 how far back this " Neolithic " period reaches, but there 

 are things found which make it certain that it reaches to 

 7000 B.C., and probably a good deal farther. We are 

 now far in time behind the most ancient Greeks and the 

 more ancient Egyptians. Europe is a rich, moist pasture- 

 land, peat bogs are abundant and luxuriant woodlands ; 

 the climate is mild ; the wild animals are those which 

 to-day inhabit Central Europe, but more abundant. The 



