678 



HISTORICAL GEOLOGY 



having yielded the fragments of at least 100,000 horses. Other 

 animals, such as the mammoth, rhinoceros, bison, and reindeer were 

 also eaten. The presence of charcoal in their caves shows that 

 Paleolithic men knew how to produce fire by friction, and that they 

 probably roasted the flesh upon which they largely subsisted. They 

 apparently knew nothing of agriculture and had no domestic animals, 



not even a dog. The 

 stone arrows, lance 

 heads, and hatchets, 

 as has been said, were 

 never ground at the 

 edges nor polished. 

 In some caves imple- 

 Fig. 585. — Carvings on bone made by Paleolithic man. ments made of bone, 



such as arrows, har- 

 poons, fishhooks, awls for piercing skins, and needles are not un- 

 common. The love of adornment is proved by the occurrence of 

 numerous perforated teeth and shells which were doubtless strung 

 into necklaces. The artistic skill displayed in carvings on bone 

 and ivory (Fig. 585), sketches on mammoth tusks (Fig. 586), as 

 well as pictures on the walls (Figs. 587, 588) of their caves, is unex- 

 pected, being superior to that possessed by any other primitive men 

 ancient or modern. Indeed, in our own time few people not artists 

 can equal some of the art of Paleolithic man. Although there is no 

 perspective composition in the pictures, the drawing is excellent and 

 the proportions and postures are unusually good. Sketches were 

 made in red and black (Figs. 587, 588), as well as 

 outline drawings in black. The artists chose 

 almost exclusively the large animals of the time, 

 the bison, mammoth, reindeer, horse, boar, and 

 rhinoceros. Man for some reason was seldom 

 portrayed. During the Paleolithic the making 

 of flint implements was gradually perfected, and 

 before its close bone and horn implements of 

 highly useful and artistic forms were made. 



Paleolithic man had a crude form of religion, and the dead were 

 buried ceremoniously. There appears to have been a division of labor, 

 some men devoting themselves to hunting, some to flint making, and 

 some to art, although it is hardly probable that the specialists in any of 

 these groups were not often employed in other work. 



Fig. 586. — Paleolithic 

 carving of a mammoth. 



