614 



PSYCHOZOIC ERA— AGE OF MAN— RECENT EPOCH. 



wheat and barley ; fruits — wild apples, blackberry, etc. ; coarse cloth, 

 not woven but plaited — have also been found. In a word, we have 

 here all the evidences of communities far above the state of savagism. 



Fig. 977.— Lake-dwellings, restored (after Mortillet). 



From this time the history of man may be traced, by means of his 

 remains, through the time of Megalithic structures, through the Bo- 

 man age, step by step, to the present time. But this belongs to the 

 archaeologist, not the geologist. The Neolithic may be regarded as 

 the beginning of the Psychozoic era — the connecting link between 

 geology and archaeology. The Bronze age and all that follows it belong 

 clearly to archaeology. 



Primeval Man in America. 



Supposed Pliocene Man— Calaveras Skull. — Several cases are re- 

 ported of human bones and works of art having been found in the 

 sub-lava drift described on page 601. These cases are none of them 

 thoroughly well attested, though the evidence is such as to make us 

 suspend our judgment. The best attested cases are the Calaveras skull 

 mentioned by Whitney, and the Table Mountain skull reported by 

 C. F. Winslow. Besides these there are several cases reported of mor- 

 tars and pestles found in the sub-lava deposit. Many claim these as 

 evidence of the existence of man in a somewhat advanced stage of 

 progress (at least as much so as the Neolithic man of Europe), on the 

 Pacific coast, during the Pliocene period. The doubts in regard to 

 this extreme antiquity of man are of three kinds, viz. : 1. Doubts as 

 to the Pliocene age of the gravels — they may be early Quaternary. 

 2. Doubts as to the authenticity of the finds, no scientist having seen 

 any of them in situ. 3. Doubts as to the undisturbed condition of 

 the gravels, for auriferous gravels are especially liable to disturbance. 



