474 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
that early man in Europe, including the Czechoslovak territories, 
did not completely die out, but left traces in the later population. 
These ancient strains represent the oldest, even though but a 
feeble root, of the people of these regions. 
NEOLITHIC POPULATIONS. 
If man in the Czechoslovak territories was scarce during the 
diluvial epoch, he was much more common there during the neo- 
lithic times. Meanwhile the climatic and environmental conditions 
had considerably changed; the diluvial fauna had become extinct; 
the reindeer receded to the far north. Man himself had advanced 
from the stage of a hunter to pastoral and agricultural life. His 
occupation now bound him to the soil, and we find his remains along 
rivers and other favorable locations both in Bohemia and Moravia, 
and even in parts farther east. Southernmost Bohemia, however, 
appears to have remained unsettled, which may be explained through 
its higher elevation, and hence colder climate with lesser fertility 
of soil, which characterizes this region to this day. 
The remains of a large number of neolithic settlements in Bohemia 
and Moravia lead to the conclusion that the earlier part of the 
neolithic period was of long duration in these countries. Its begin- 
nings in the Czechoslovak territories may be placed at as far as 4000, 
possibly even 5000 to 6000 B. C. 
The neolithic culture was distinguished by numerous and char- 
acteristic stone implements, various implements and tools of bone 
and horn, and especially by pottery. Some of the pottery was 
decorated in various ways, and its characteristics help us to sub- 
divide the epoch into a number of secondary phases or periods. It 
is unknown whether the art of making pottery originated gradually 
in the later part of the diluvial epoch or whether it developed or 
was introduced into the territories in question during the neolithic 
times, but no pottery has hitherto been found except in connection 
with neolithic or later burials. 
Curiously, we do not know as yet how the early neolithic popula- 
tion of Bohemia and its sister lands dealt with its dead, having thus 
far found no burials; but on the Rhine burials that may be attributed 
to a related stock have been discovered, and it was found that the 
people to whom they belonged were of the dolichocephalic type, which 
was widely prevalent in Europe in the neolithic period. 
Approximately 2000 to 1500 B. C. there began to enter from vari- 
ous directions into what are now the Czechoslovak territories, out- 
side influences, and with them came the first objects of metal—small 
copper axes and bronze jewelry. The culture changed, forming a 
large “transitional” period of a number of phases or localized 
