20 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 
our means of livelihood, but in brain and body we have 
changed only in minor details. We may presume that 
evolution works slowly so far as the human body is 
concerned. 
One other point may serve to show that the status 
of Neolithic man was higher than is usually supposed. 
The people of France of that period buried their dead 
in caves or large artificially prepared subterranean 
chambers. None of these Neolithic sepulchral chambers 
have been more systematically and scientifically investi- 
gated than the one accidentally discovered in 1908 on 
the side of a hill, at Vendrest, some sixty miles to the 
east of Paris. ^ Remains of over a hundred and twenty 
individuals, representing both sexes and all ages, were 
found within this ancient tomb. A fall of earth and 
rocks had buried the doorway of the sepulchre about the 
close of the Neolithic period, for all the worked flints and 
ornaments found within the sepulchre were of that age 
of culture ; no traces of the Bronze or Iron periods were 
found. No less than eight of the skulls had been 
opened during life by the operation known as trepanning 
or trephining. It is clear, too, that in the majority of 
cases those Neolithic men undertook and successfully 
carried out operations which even modern surgeons 
hesitate to perform (fig. 10). 
When we try to fathom the reasons which led men so 
long ago to practise these daring surgical procedures, we 
have to study the art of surgery as practised amongst 
modern primitive races. Lately, Dr W. E. Redman 
presented to the museum of the Royal College of 
Surgeons, England, five skulls showing how the 
operation of trepanning is carried out by the natives of 
New Ireland, one of the islands in the Bismarck 
Archipelago, to the east of New Guinea. Accompanying 
the skulls are the sharp obsidian flakes with which 
the operation was performed and the vegetable bandage 
which was applied to secure the dressings over the 
1 La sepulchre neolithiqiie de Belleville a Vendrest: Rapport general 
par Dr Marcel Badouin. Soci^te Prehistorique Frangaise, 191 1, 
