662 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 747 



(Ariege) is noted, as well as similar finds in 

 northern Germany, Russia and Denmark. 

 The north was colonized at a later epoch than 

 were western and southern Europe, Miiller 

 placing the date at about 6000 years B.C. 



The appearance of the stone ax, chipped but 

 not polished, is what marks the beginning of 

 the neolithic period. It was in the kitchen 

 middens of Denmark that the two principal 

 forms of this ax were first recognized. These 

 shell heaps seem to have been the dwelling 

 places of the people, as numerous hearths are 

 foiind in them. Here implements were made 

 and repaired. Sherds of a coarse pottery 

 without ornament are also found. Two types 

 have been determined : large jars with pointed 

 bottom, and shallow bowls. The dog was 

 already domesticated, but had evidently been 

 brought to the Danish peninsula from south- 

 eastern Europe. The stone axes of the 

 kitchen midden types are found not only to 

 the eastward as far as Russia, but also in 

 southern England, over France, where it char- 

 acterizes the so-called Campignian epoch, and 

 in Italy. This is also the epoch of small 

 arrow points with transverse edge. 



But it would be an error to suppose that the 

 civilization of the north and of the south had 

 the same aspect. New elements were repla- 

 cing the old in Italy long before they reached 

 Denmark. On the other hand, the tardiness 

 on the part of the latter country was an im- 

 portant factor in the splendid development of 

 its local neolithic industry. 



With the second stage of the neolithic 

 period appeared the polished stone ax, a much 

 better tool than its predecessor. It ushered 

 in a period of general industrial development 

 that continued uninterrupted for about 2,000 

 years. In the Balkan peninsula, Greece, Italy 

 and Spain, none of the polished stone axes are 

 of flint, although this material was used in the 

 manufacture of other tools and arms. A 

 striking example of this is afforded by the 

 prehistoric station of Butmir near Sarajevo, 

 Bosnia, where about six thousand axes and 

 chisels were found and not one made of flint; 

 although there was plenty of flint in the neigh- 

 borhood and it was used in other forms. 

 North of the Alps, on the contrary, polished 



flint implements occur with increasing fre- 

 quency until England and Scandinavia are 

 reached. This state of things is no doubt due 

 to the longer duration of the neolithic period 

 in the north and to the amount of labor re- 

 quired to polish flint. 



The art of polishing stone implements evi- 

 dently originated in the Orient, as did the 

 other characteristic element of the later 

 neolithic, i. e., the georaetric ornament on the 

 pottery that replaced the realistic art of the 

 paleolithic. This epoch was preeminently in- 

 fluenced by the domestication of animals. To 

 the dog were added the sheep, the goat, the 

 hog and ox. Agriculture became more and 

 more important. Wheat, barley and miUet 

 were all cultivated and all came from the 

 Orient, as did the domestic animals. The 

 people became less and less nomadic in their 

 mode of life. They lived for the most part in 

 villages composed of huts half underground. 

 These followed one general plan — a round or 

 oval excavation covered by a roof of branches 

 and reeds and strengthened by the application 

 of clay. This type of dwelling spread over 

 Europe as far as Scandinavia and persisted 

 for centuries. It was during this epoch that 

 the first burials properly so-called were made. 

 They were similar to present-day burials in 

 that they were simple ditches sunk in the 

 ground and were individual sepultures as op- 

 posed to the communal sepultures of the 

 caverns; or of the dolmens of a later period. 

 The dead were placed on the side, with arms 

 sharply flexed at the elbows, bringing the hands 

 to the region of the face; and the legs folded, 

 bringing the knees near the breast. The same 

 mode of burial was practised during the 

 neolithic period of Egypt. Curiously enough, 

 the same method of burial was used by the 

 Indians of southern Connecticut before the 

 advent of the Europeans. 



Only 6,000 years is given for both the paleo- 

 lithic and the neolithic period in Egypt, i. e., 

 from 10000 B.C. to 4000 B.C. For southern 

 Europe the first epoch of the neolithic period 

 is supposed to have begun about 5000 B.C., and 

 the second epoch of the neolithic about 4000 

 B.C. These epochs began about 1,000 years 

 later, respectively, in Scandinavia. 



