August 11, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



207 



easier; in fact among some races it is the only 

 art, and hence among such presumably the 

 older. In other cases it plays a secondary 

 role. In Europe at least it appeared only 

 after a long and brilliant period of naturalism. 

 The realistic art of the Cave period may be 

 looked upon as the art of the male, and that 

 of the neolithic period as that of the female; 

 in other words sex is supposed to be at the 

 basis of the differences between realism and 

 conventionalism. The making of basketry and 

 pottery was the work of woman, and their or- 

 namentation, the product of her mind. In 

 this cleavage religion, or the absence of it, 

 might also have had something to do ; for the 

 tendency of religious art is toward the con- 

 ventional, while that of profane art is toward 

 the natural. Thus in the opinion of the author 

 idols were unknown until the neolithic age. 



Our conception of prehistoric art is of neces- 

 sity based on partial evidence only. We can 

 know nothing of the then existing dance, 

 music and poesy; and very little of art as 

 expressed in personal adornment. 



It is justly pointed out that the differentia- 

 tion between the historic and the prehistoric 

 does not consist in a knowledge of any par- 

 ticular one of the three principal metals of 

 antiquity ; for in the Orient the historic period 

 long antedates the closing of the bronze age, 

 whereas the historic period in Europe begins 

 during the iron age. Differences equally 

 marked are to be noted elsewhere. The negroes 

 of Africa, for example, with their knowledge 

 of iron, have not yet reached so high a stage 

 of culture as did the prehistoric peoples of 

 Central and South America, among whom the 

 use of iron was absolutely unknown. 



The three great culture stages in Europe — 

 the paleolithic, the neolithic, and the age of 

 metals — correspond to three great phases of 

 art: Jagertum, Bauemtum, and Herren- or 

 Kriegertum. The art of the hunter stage 

 lasted longest and reached its highest develop- 

 ment in western Europe, especially southern 

 France and northern Spain; that of the peas- 

 ant stage took deepest root in central and 

 northern Europe ; while the martial stage first 

 came to fruition in southern Europe. The 



art of the first stage was naturalistic, of the 

 second geometric, and of the third a return 

 to a higher realism under the control of con- 

 ventionalism. 



The author takes issue with Breuil respect- 

 ing the age of the wall paintings of southern 

 and southeastern Spain. Erom the viewpoint 

 of art these certainly differ from the paleo- 

 lithic mural art of the Cantabrian region. It 

 is probable therefore that they belong to a later 

 epoch, even later than the Azilian, although 

 many of the designs on the painted pebbles of 

 Mas d'Azil have their counterparts in the 

 mural art of southern Spain as recently noted 

 by Obermaier. 



For Hoernes the Cave art of southern France 

 and northern Spain is a highly specialized 

 type, a peripheral culture phenomenon. Hence 

 from it the art of the succeeding epochs did 

 not and could not spring, because of a well- 

 known law in evolution that highly specialized 

 types of one geologic horizon do not give rise 

 to the types of subsequent epochs. 



In the field of ceramic art Hoernes distin- 

 guishes two fundamental methods of orna- 

 mental treatment: the Umlaufstil and the 

 Rahmenstil. The first with its space-filling 

 banded ornament is supposed to be the older, 

 although neither is wholly confined to the 

 neolithic period. The second with its panel or- 

 namentation goes logically with the various 

 forms of handled ware. The banded style, 

 on the other hand, is expressive of ware with- 

 out handles ; to it belong the spiral and mean- 

 der decoration. 



During the bronze age the best examples of 

 decorative art are to be seen in metal work; 

 this is especially true of northern Europe. 

 It was during this age that plant motives 

 first appeared. 



The passage from the bronze age to the iron 

 age took place slowly, at first in the Orient 

 and in Egypt; in Greece about 1200, in Italy 

 1100, and in central Europe about B.C. 1000. 

 In the ceramic field the Hallstatt epoch is 

 not so much an outgrowth from the bronze age 

 as from the neolithic age. The banded as 

 well as the panel style of the Hallstatt epoch 

 is foreshadowed in the neolithic pottery of 



