﻿436 Prof. Mantovani — Is Man Tertiary ? 



the alluvial deposits having, as already stated, been produced by the 

 action of water derived from the melting of the snows of the glacial 

 epoch, it follows that the animals, whose remains occur therein, 

 and the makers of the flint implements associated with them, were 

 living before the Glacial period which destroyed so many of the 

 great Mammalia. 



Man must therefore have appeared at the end of the Pliocene 

 period, and during this early time he was in the Palceolithic era, as 

 evidenced by the fabrication of his weapons of silex. No metals 

 nor pottery of any kind have been found in these formations. 



Let us now examine the evidence relative to man during the 

 Neolithic age. The Koman country is very rich indeed in remains 

 referable to this more recent epoch. Everywhere in the surface 

 soil are found extraordinary quantities of flint knives and spear- 

 heads, finely formed and polished, and sometimes magnificent 

 hatchets of smoothed stone. These objects are not only found 

 scattered over the surface of the soil, but they are frequently met 

 with accumulated in limestone caverns, imbedded in stalagmite, 

 and associated with them are the fragments resulting from the 

 manufacture of the weapons themselves, in fact a true manufactory 

 of Neolithic implements; a thing unknown in the Palseolithic period, 

 the weapons of which are so inferior in finish and workmanship. 



Whilst antiquaries divide the prehistoric period into two distinct 

 epochs, namely, the Palceolithic (or Archgeolithic) and the Neolithic, 

 the difference in workmanship between the objects which have been 

 found is so great, that for a long time I believed it might be possible 

 to define an intermediate or transition period from the Pala3olithic to 

 the Neolithic. And, indeed, I believe we have found in this district 

 good evidence of such a transitional stage, which I would propose 

 should be designated the Miolithic period. 



This new period embraces two very distinct although contem- 

 poraneous geological formations. These are, (a) the recent traver- 

 tine (so-called to distinguish it from the ancient travertine already 

 described), and (b) the 'peperino ' formation, a kind of volcanic tuff 

 which occurs in thick strata around the Latial Volcanos. In these 

 two formations are imbedded not only a great quantit}'- of worked 

 flints but also pottery. The flint weapons are not rough like the 

 Palaeolithic, nor are they so smoothed and highly finished as in the 

 Neolithic period. The pottery is made of a kind of marl entirely 

 worked with the hands without the use of the potter's wheel, which 

 was evidently unknown ; and the vessels are very imperfectly 

 baked, or perhaps only sun-dried. Under the ' peperino ' of the 

 Latial Volcanos a vast necropolis exists, where hundreds of these 

 utensils lie buried beneath the volcanic dust. The improvement in 

 the manufacture of flint weapons as compared with the Palaeolithic 

 type and the presence of a necropolis are certainly indicative of 

 progress in the social condition of these ancient inhabitants of Italy. 



But here a fact of the highest importance must be mentioned, 

 namely, that in the necropolis above mentioned, and also in the 

 tombs inclosed in the recent travertine, we found mixed with the 



