364 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



Neolithic remains, may yet undergo considerable modification, 

 or even be altogether abandoned. Archaeologists have found 

 much difficulty in determining the comparative antiquity of 

 Neolithic implements by referring to the character of their 

 workmanship. That the beautifully shaped and highly polished 

 specimens of stone-work must be assigned to some advanced 

 stage of the Neolithic epoch admits of little doubt, but then it 

 is just as true that implements of a very rude character indeed 

 have been found associated with these in such a manner as to 

 lead to the conviction that both were used by one and the same 

 people. Even in cases where all the implements in one particular 

 "find," as in many "kitchen-middens," are rude and simple, it 

 does not necessarily follow that they pertain to an early part of 

 the Neolithic Age. So far as the evidence of the implements 

 alone is concerned, they might belong to the very closing stage 

 of Neolithic times. It is possible, in short, that they may be 

 the relics of some poor or comparatively weak tribes who might 

 have occupied Europe contemporaneously with stronger and 

 more advanced races. Unfortunately the student of Neolithic 

 archaeology is in large measure deprived of the help which 

 geology accords to the investigator who essays to interpret the 

 records of Palaeolithic times. It is only in rare cases that we 

 find any superposition of later Neolithic upon earlier Neolithic 

 accumulations. And even when such does occur it is often open 

 to us to suggest that the difference between the implements of 

 the two stages may not indicate the progress of any particular 

 race, but rather point to the dispossession of one tribe by another. 

 The succession of Palaeolithic deposits testifies to the lapse of 

 long ages, during the progress of which immense climatic and 

 geographical changes took place, and we feel certain that the 

 human implements obtained from the bottom layers are of much 

 greater antiquity than those of the topmost beds. But it is 

 seldom that the evidence of superposition in the case of Neolithic 

 deposits is of such a decided character. For however protracted 

 the Neolithic Age may have been, it was very inconsiderable 

 indeed when contrasted with the prolonged duration of the pre- 



