Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/206

coins in gold, silver, and bronze. The only agricultural implements found in places of deposit of an undoubted prehistoric date, are scythes and sickles, and a mill composed of two stones resembling somewhat the pistrinum of the Romans. No implement of iron has been found in connection with the ancient civilizations of America. The mound builders appear to have wrought the rich specular ores of Missouri in the same manner as stone.—Prehistoric Monuments. Fergusson, in "Rude Stone Monuments," places little confidence in the classifications hitherto followed as a basis for establishing any historical relation with the human beings who used the objects discovered, or even for determining who they were. He proposes to classify finds according to the character of the places where they are made, and especially the degree of art exhibited in the structure of the prehistoric sepulchres from which nearly all the antiquarian objects have been taken. He maintains that the peculiarities of the mode of honoring the dead distinguish the races of mankind as definitely as speech. He classifies prehistoric sepulture as follows : I. Tumuli, a. Barrows of earth only. b. With small stone chambers or cists (microlithic). c. With chambers or dolmens formed of large stones (megalithic). d. With external access to chambers. II. Dolmens, a. Free standing dolmens without tumuli. b. Dolmens on the outside of tumuli. III. Circles, a. Circles surrounding tumuli. b. Circles surrounding dolmens, c. Circles without tumuli or dolmens. IV. Avenues. a. Avenues attached to circles. b. Avenues with or without circles or dolmens. V. Menhirs, a. Single or in groups. b. With oghams, sculptures, or runes. The earliest mode was simple inhumation, and if the deceased was of some importance a mound was raised over the grave. A sort of coffin was probably next devised, as seen in the rude cists so commonly found. In wooded countries the coffin was of wood, and, if the mound is old, perished long ago. Cists were expanded into chambers, to which at a later age passages for access were made. From the chambered tumulus sprung elaborate domed structures of either megalithic or microlithic architecture. The history of megalithic remains begins with the rude stone cists, generally called kistvaens, which by degrees became magnified into chambers, the side stones increasing from 1 ft. in height to 5 ft., and the capstone becoming a really megalithic feature, 6 to 10 ft. long by 4 or 5 ft. wide, and of considerable thickness. Many antiquaries insist, however, that all the dolmens (Celtic, daul, a table, and men or maen, a stone) or cromlechs (Celtic, crum or crom, crooked or curved, and lech, a stone) which are now standing free were once covered and buried in tumuli. The stone circles appear to have been introduced as substitutes for the circular earthen mounds which surround the early tumuli. They frequently enclose also dolmens, either standing on the level plain or on tumuli; but they are often found enclosing nothing that can be seen above ground. It is believed that the larger circles, more than 100 ft. in diameter, were not sepulchral, but cenotaphic, or temples dedicated to the honor or worship of the dead. The avenues are rows of stones, sometimes leading to circles, and are also designated as alignments or parallellitha. Those of the first class represent externally the passages in tumuli which lead to the central chamber, but it is difficult to divine the use of the avenues which are not attached to circles and do not lead to any important monuments. The menhirs, or tall stones (Celtic, men, stone, and hir, high), are stone pillars, with or without inscriptions, which gradually superseded the earthen tumuli as a record of the dead.—Of the conclusion that may be drawn from the character of finds in regard to the culture of the contemporary races, E. B. Tylor says: "The exclusive use of stone, bone, &c., for cutting and piercing implements, is in general a criterion of savage culture, though compatible with the settled and comparatively advanced state of the early Swiss lake dwellers. 2. Bronze-making indicates a more advanced and systematic civilization, up to the level of the Mexicans and Peruvians in modern, and the Aryan races in ancient times. 3. Iron-making is indispensable to high culture, but from the facility of its adoption is not of itself a proof of anything beyond a high savage state affected by intercourse with still higher conditions."—Human Remains. These have been found in surprisingly small numbers. Lyell explains their scarcity as the effect of nature's plan of disencumbering habitable areas of skeletons by means of "the heat and moisture of the sun and atmosphere, the dissolving power of carbonic and other acids, the grinding teeth and gastric juices of quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, and fish, and the agency of many of the invertebrata." The human remains regarded by eminent archæologists and osteologists as the oldest so far discovered are the fragments of the skeleton found in the Neanderthal cavern, near Düsseldorf, Germany; the fragments of a skull from Brüx, Bohemia; similar fragments of the Engis cave near Liége, Belgium; and the skeletons from a tumulus at Borreby, Denmark. The Neanderthal skull resembles that of Brüx, but is so extremely different in appearance from that of Engis, that according to Huxley it might be supposed to belong to a distant race of man- kind. Schaaffhausen and Busk speak of it as the most brutal of all known human skulls, and as greatly resembling those of apes. One of the Borreby skulls has also this resemblance, but the others are said to exhibit a much higher conformation. The Engis skull is deemed a near approach to the Caucasian type, and appears to possess at the same time a more decided claim to antiquity than that of the Neanderthal. The Borreby skulls belong to the stone period of Denmark, and the people to