Chapter VIII: Neolithic Chronology

"We must imagine Europe in upper Paleolithic times again as a terminal region, a great peninsula toward which the human emigrants from the east and from the south came to mingle and to superpose their cultures. These races took the grand migration routes which had been followed by other waves of animal life before them; they were pressed upon from behind by the increasing populations from the east; they were attracted to western Europe as a fresh and wonderful game country, where food in the forests, in the meadows, and in the streams abounded in unparalleled profusion.... Between the retreating Alpine and Scandinavian glaciers Europe was freely open toward the eastern plains of the Danube, extending to central and southern Asia; on the north, however, along the Baltic, the climate was still too inclement for a wave of human migration, and there is no trace of man along these northern shores until the close of the Upper Paleolithic, nor of any residence of man in the Scandinavian peninsula until the great wave of Neolithic migration established itself in that region."[118]

We must now attempt to determine the succession of these great changes in the climate and face of Europe, and then see if we can fix any dates for some of the changes and for the introduction of new cultures.

In the oscillations of the ice-front marking the final retreat of the Alpine glaciers there were three epochs of advance. Two of these, the Bühl and Gschnitz advances, with the interval of retreat between them, were occupied by the Magdalenian or last epoch of Upper Paleolithic time. The third advance, the Daun Epoch, or perhaps the latter part of the Gschnitz and the first part of the Daun, is represented by the Azilian-Tardenoisian Epoch, a period of transition from Paleolithic to Neolithic time. These changes have been clearly traced by Osborn.[119]

We are most closely concerned with the changes which took place around the Baltic in Denmark and Scandinavia during this post-glacial retreat of the ice. Here also we find the same disappearance of the tundra and "barren-ground" fauna already noticed in France, and the appearance of a park-flora of forests interspersed with open glades or meadows. But we need not be surprised if we find that the retreat of the great Baltic or Scandinavian ice-sheet does not keep step exactly with that of the Alpine.[120]

1. The last ice-sheet had covered most of Scandinavia except the western half of Denmark and, perhaps, the most southern portion of Sweden. But a broad mass of ice covered most of Schleswig, at least the eastern half of Holstein, and a fairly wide zone of land south of and more or less parallel to the south shore of the Baltic. To the eastward and northward a great sea extended to the Arctic Ocean. This earliest stage marked the farthest advance of the ice just before the final retreat.

2. Slowly and gradually the ice retreated until finally it occupied only the mountains of the backbone of Scandinavia. The region of the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia, a large part of Sweden and a good portion of Finland were covered by a great sheet of water, the Yoldia Sea, connected by a broad sound at the present Skager Rack with the North Sea and Atlantic, and still opening widely into the Arctic Ocean northeastward. The submerged regions had been greatly depressed, especially in the north. The clays deposited along the shores of the sea are now raised often to a height of one hundred metres above tide-level. But to the southward the depression was only slightly marked.

1. Culmination of last advance of ice.
2. Yoldia Sea during retreat of ice.
3. Yoldia Sea at greatest size.
4. Scandinavia during Ancylus Epoch.

(The white represents the ice; dark gray represents the land; light gray the Baltic Sea.)]

It is important to our later study to notice that these clays, which are thick and fine-grained, are composed of thin layers of alternating dark material deposited in fall or winter, and lighter, more sandy, brought down by the spring freshets. The temperature of the sea could hardly have been much above freezing-point, as is shown by the presence of arctic forms of mollusks, like _Yoldia arctica_ and _Astarte borealis_. The land-plants of this epoch, the so-called Dryas flora, are dwarf cold tundra forms, now occurring in Spitzbergen, Lapland, and Arctic Russia and Siberia. But certain plants, especially in Sweden, lead us to infer that while the winters were long and severe, the short summers were warm or even hot. This does not surprise us in northern tundra regions. Reindeer still lived in the region. This Yoldia Epoch is our second great post-glacial stage. Man had apparently not yet reached Denmark, though some reindeer hunters probably roamed over Germany.

3. Toward the end of the Yoldia Epoch the land rose in southwest Sweden, connecting this country with Denmark and cutting the connection of the remains of the Yoldia Sea with the North Sea. A similar emergence in Finland completed the change of this sea into a great landlocked body of water called the Ancylus Lake, from the most common and characteristic mollusk, _Ancylus fluviatilis_. The glaciers had shrunken to a narrow band covering the mountains between Norway and Sweden. The climate, while moderating, was still cold. The Arctic flora retreated northward and was followed in Denmark by woods and even forests of willows, aspens, and poplars, entering from the south and southeast. These were followed by pines, especially in the dryer districts, later by alders, coming from the east across Finland, according to Hoops.[121] The Ancylus Epoch forms our third stage. The settlement at Maglemose probably took place toward its close.

4. The elevation and emergence of land so characteristic of the Ancylus Epoch was followed by a depression of this region, especially in its southern portions. That part of the Ancylus Lake corresponding to the Baltic regained broader and deeper connections with the North Sea than it has at present. Hence the waters of the Baltic contained a larger percentage of salt than now. The marine life, _Littorina littorea_, _Tapes_, and others, testifies to a rise in temperature since the Ancylus Epoch. Oaks had already begun to crowd out the pines, and will be followed after a time by the beeches loving a soil rich in humus, rather than the sandy barrens occupied by the pines. A similar evidence is furnished by other plants, some of which reached a higher latitude than now. The summer temperature was perhaps 2-1/2° Cent. higher than at present, an "optimum temperature" for the plant life of this region. This improvement of climate is most marked in northeastern Europe and seems far less noticeable even in Germany. Our fourth stage is marked by a greatly improved climate and the spread of the shell-heaps.

5. A fifth stage ushers in the full Neolithic period. Between the Littorina stage and the genuine Neolithic culture of lake-dwellings and megaliths there is a considerable gap in our knowledge, a period during which agriculture and domestic animals were brought in and utensils and pottery and general conditions were greatly improved.

We may now venture to attempt to gain an absolute chronology of more or less definite dates for the appearance of the cultures which we have noticed. We must clearly recognize that our best results can be only tentative and provisional. A careful study and comparison of the pottery of northern Europe will some day furnish data for a reliable system. For the sake of convenience we will begin by attempting to set a date for the close, rather than the beginning, of the whole Neolithic period. We have seen that this was brought about by the introduction of the metal bronze. Copper had come into use somewhat or considerably earlier, but it seems hardly worth while to consider it as characterizing a distinct period. It is rather the last phase of the Stone Age, when wider communications and trade were making the transition to the use of metals like bronze and iron.

According to Montelius,[122] who is our best authority on chronology, the use of bronze in sufficient quantities to mark the beginning of a new period took place in different countries at the dates given in the second column of the following table, the first column showing the date of the first use of copper:[123]

+-------------------------------+-----------------+
| REGION | YEAR B. C. |
+-------------------------------+--------+--------+
| | COPPER | BRONZE |
| +--------+--------+
| Egypt and Chaldæa | 5000 | 3000 |
| Troy, Greece, and Sicily | 3000 | 2500 |
| Hungary and Spain | 3000 | 2000 |
| Middle Europe and France | 2500 | 2000 |
| North Germany and Scandinavia | 2500 | 1900 |
+-------------------------------+--------+--------+

These dates mark the beginning of the more or less general use of metals, not the first appearance of a few imported articles. Some authorities would place the beginning of the Bronze period a few centuries earlier, and that of the introduction of copper some 500 years earlier.[124] Forrer dates the beginning of both epochs a little later than Montelius. The date 2000 B. C. would seem to mark the end of the Neolithic period in middle Europe with approximate accuracy.

In attempting to determine the date of the beginning of the Neolithic period we may begin with a remote point of departure for comparison and select the Bühl stage and the beginning of the Magdalenian Epoch. Nuesch made a careful estimate from the deposits at Schweizersbild near Schaffhausen, Switzerland. His method of estimating is described fully by Obermaier.[125] He places the beginning of the Neolithic deposits here at 6000 B. C., and considers 20,000 years as a fair estimate for the time elapsed since the first occupation of this locality by Magdalenian hunters at some time during the Bühl Epoch. Obermaier, summing up the evidence, concludes that the beginning of the Magdalenian Epoch could not have been later than 16,000-18,000 B. C., and that it ended not far from 12,000 B. C. Osborn says: "Bühl moraines in Lake Lucerne are estimated as having been deposited between 16,000 and 24,000 years B. C." He also appears to place the Maglemose culture at about 7000 B. C.[126]

We may now turn to the great Scandinavian ice-sheet, whose retreat may have begun somewhat later and proceeded more slowly on account of its more northerly position. Here De Geer has made a report based on a very careful study of the annual layers of deposition formed during the glacial retreat. We have already seen that the material brought down by the spring freshets differs in color and texture from that of late summer and autumn. Hence these annual layers are almost as distinct and as easily counted as the rings in the trunk of a tree. This method promises great accuracy of results, and the thickness and character of the layers and their included organic remains throw much light on the climatic and other conditions under which they were laid down. But even here the length of certain periods of halt in the glacial retreat can be only very roughly approximated. The number of annual layers of deposit in the Swedish Lake Ragunda lately drained shows the number of years since the lake was uncovered almost at the end of the retreat of the Scandinavian ice.

Says Sollas: "The Ancylus Lake was in existence at a time when the ice had very nearly, though not quite, accomplished its full retreat, _i. e._, a little more than 7,000 years ago (the length of post-glacial time); and Baron de Geer, although he has not yet been able to bring the beach of the lake into connection with his system of measurements, thinks, as he has kindly informed me, that its probable date may be 7,500 years counting from the present."[127]

Menzel, in a chart embodying the results of his study of De Geer's work, places the beginning of the retreat of the ice in Germany at 21,000 B. C., the maximum of the Littorina depression and epoch of kitchen-middens at 6000 B. C., full Neolithic at 4500 B. C., beginning of Bronze period 1700 B. C.[128]

Keilhack, basing his study on the silting and dune-formation at Swinepforte, estimates that the time elapsed since the maximum of the Littorina depression down to the present has been about 7,000 years, making the date of the depression about 5000 B. C. He considers his estimate as somewhat more probable than De Geer's.

Anderson has called attention to the change of position of the earth's axis at different times. When the position of the earth's axis was such as to give most sunlight in Sweden, the midnight sun was above the horizon at Karesuanda, the most northern astronomical station, 62 days. During the time of most unfavorable position it was above the horizon only 38 days, a difference of 24 days. This change should influence climate and vegetation. The period of maximum sunshine, according to this view, was 9,000 years ago, about 7000 B. C., somewhat earlier than the maximum of the Littorina depression. It would tend to give a climatic optimum at nearly the same time as estimated by Menzel.

Steenstrup[129] discovered the succession of forest growths in the peat-bogs or moors of Zealand, north of Copenhagen. In the layers of some of the depressions he found what seemed to be almost a complete record of forest life from the time of the retreat of the glaciers. The upper layers of peat contained remains of trees still flourishing in the surrounding country: alders, birches, and beeches. Then came oaks, and still deeper the pines. Beneath these were aspens, arctic willows, and other plants of the far north. Remains of the reindeer occur in their lowest layer. The pines hardly, if at all, reached Denmark before the Ancylus Epoch, preceding periods showing only the Dryas flora.

The pines had a hard struggle for life at first. They are dwarfed and their rings of annual growth are very thin, sometimes as many as seventy to the inch of thickness. Still some of these dwarfs attain the very respectable age of 300 to 400 years. Gradually they prospered, and in the upper layers there are trunks more than a metre in diameter. All these facts point to early and long occupation. Steenstrup reckoned the age of the oldest layers of these accumulations at 10,000 to 12,000 years, dating their beginnings therefore at 8000 to 10,000 B. C. Pine was still growing in the neighborhood of the shell-heaps, or the capercailzie or pine partridge would probably not have occurred.

But in the shell-heaps we find only oak charcoal, not pine. This was at least beginning to retreat and give place to the oak. At Maglemose we find pine charcoal but oak pollen grains in layers apparently of the same age as the settlement. Placing the shell-heaps in the early part of the pine epoch would date them as early as 7000 B. C., or even earlier, according to this chronometer. Hence the older writers, who placed the shell-heaps in the pine epoch, dated them considerably farther back than we do now.

Steenstrup's study, a work of genius, is entirely compatible with and probably implies a considerably later date than we used to accept.

The following table shows the dates assigned by different students to Maglemose and the shell-heaps:

+---------------+-------------------+------------------------+
| | B. C. | B. C. |
| Obermaier | Maglemose, 10,000 | Shell-heaps, 8000 |
| Forrer | | Shell-heaps, 8000-6000 |
| Sollas | Maglemose, 7,500 | |
| Osborn | Maglemose, 7,000 | |
| Menzel (Chart)| | Shell-heaps, 6000 |
| Keilhack | | Shell-heaps, 5000 |
+---------------+-------------------+------------------------+

The shell-heaps and Maglemose hardly seem to differ in age as much as Obermaier thinks; De Geer's study was very careful and certainly demands respectful attention. The tendency toward later dates for these cultures seems to be strong and increasing. If we place Maglemose at 7000 to 7500 B. C., and the shell-heaps 6500 to 6000 we have probably made them as ancient as the facts can well allow. It is better to hold judgment still somewhat in suspense. Even if Obermaier should yet prove to be correct in his apparently extreme dates, it is still evident that the Neolithic period began late and was of short duration compared with the millennia in which Paleolithic time was reckoned.

Our records are scanty for the earlier portions of the more or less than 5,000 years which we have allowed for the Neolithic period.[130] We find the shell-heap culture spreading from Denmark into Sweden and Norway. Following closely, or overlapping it, crossing Norway from the region of Christiania, we find the Nostvet and Arctic cultures, perhaps nearly related, perhaps distinct, but leading over to the genuine Neolithic Scandinavian culture. Here we find forms intermediate between the axe and "pick" of the shell-heap and the axes of later epochs.

We have already described the rude, somewhat triangular axe of the shell-heaps. The axe of Paleolithic time had had nearly the shape of an almond. We will compare the pointed end to the back, and the cutting edge to the edge of our axe or carpenter's hatchet. The earliest polished axes of Denmark still retained nearly the shape of a somewhat long and thin almond.[131] Their cross-section might be compared to an ellipse with pointed instead of rounded ends. This is the "_spitznackiges Beil_" of Müller and Montelius. It occurs all over Europe and still farther, while the two following forms have a continually more restricted distribution. It is not found in the village settlements or stone graves, and evidently characterizes a period between these and the shell-heaps.

The second form, the _dunn_--or _schmalnackiges Beil_--may be compared to a long and flattened almond with a small part at the pointed end removed and a narrow strip cut off from each side. The flatter surfaces nearly meet at the end opposite the cutting edge, leaving this end thin. The surfaces have become much more nearly flat, and the cross-section a rectangle with somewhat short ends and slightly curved sides. These belong to the period of the earliest stone graves or still earlier. They could be easily fastened in a wooden handle. This form is very common in Scandinavia.

The third form, the _breit_--or _dick_--_nackiges Beil_, has almost exactly the shape of a thick chisel-blade with broad and thick back opposite the edge, and is rectangular in cross-section. It appears in the later megalithic tombs and the underground stone vaults or cists.

Hammer axes--Late Neolithic.

Thin-backed axe. Dunn-nackiges Beil--Early and Mid-Neolithic.

Palæolithic hand-stones--"Coups-de-Poing."]

Late in the Neolithic period, usually after the introduction of copper, we find an axe--or "hammer-axe"--shorter and much thicker, somewhat in the shape of a very light stonemason's hammer, and with a hole for the handle. These axes sometimes had two cutting edges, sometimes one edged and the other blunt for hammering. Many of them were exceedingly beautiful in form, design, and finish. But this method of fastening the head to the handle greatly weakened the brittle stone. Many of them were probably merely articles of luxury or adornment. The hole was made by twirling a stick or bone, with plenty of sand, water, and patience.

We have thus in the axes and the megaliths a well-established sequence of forms, but no means of fixing dates except at the beginning and end of the whole period. Apparently there was a long time between the Scandinavian shell-heaps and the fully established Neolithic culture, of which we have practically no records.

Peculiar types of axes (except the mattock), and the megaliths do not occur in the province of the banded pottery, which itself will probably some day give us the clew to a system of chronology. The pottery of Thessaly, Thrace, and certain parts of the Balkan Peninsula is being gradually synchronized with that of Mycenæan and pre-Mycenæan Greece. Important discoveries seem reasonably certain in a not distant future. We can only wait for them with what patience we can assume.

Our real and definite knowledge of the age of the lake-dwellings is hardly better. Hoops tells us that they belong to the Beech period of the Swiss flora. But this period may be much older in Switzerland than in Scandinavia; how much older we do not know. The underground stone burial-cysts of Switzerland look late. The small number of the villages containing no trace of copper and the high grade of household arts and technique in even the oldest of them suggest the same conclusion. Here again it seems dangerous to even conjecture a date.

Montelius, whose opinion on these subjects is certainly of great value, says: "All things considered, I am convinced that the first stone graves were erected here in the north more than 3,000 years before Christ."[132] (It may be safe, therefore, to date them provisionally between 3000 and 4000 B. C.) "The epoch of the dolmens with covered entrance (_Gangräber_) begins about the middle of the third millennium B. C., and the epoch of the stone vaults or cysts (_Steinkisten_) corresponds to the centuries about 2000 B. C."

CHART I. POSTGLACIAL STAGES

RETREAT OF ICE AND CHANGES

+----------------+---------------------+-------------------+----------------+ | | | PARALLELS IN | | | SCANDINAVIA | WESTERN AND | ASIA AND | DATE | | | MIDDLE EUROPE | ELSEWHERE[133] | | +----------------+---------------------+-------------------+----------------+ | | 1. Aachen Stage. | | 24,000 (to | | | | | 40,000) B. C. | | Ice-retreats in| Solutrean. Dry | | [134] | | northern | and Cold. | | | | Germany. | Steppe and | | | | | Tundra Fauna. | | | | | | | | | Swedish-Finnish| 2. Bühl Stage. | | 16,000 (to | | Moraines. | Early | | 24,000) B. C. | | | Magdalenian. | | [135] | | | Moist and cold. | | | | | Tundra. | | | | | | | | | Yoldia Period. | Middle Magd. | | | | Dryas Flora. | Steppe | | | | | Loess formed. | Susa founded. | | | | | | | | Glaciers in | 3. Gschnitz Stage. | Anau founded.[136]| 10,000 B. C.? | | Mountains. | Late Magdalenian.| Neolithic | [137] | | | | Settlements in | | | Ancylus | | Crete. | | | Dryas, Birch, | | | | | Pine | | | | | Maglemose. | | | | | | | | | | Littorina | 4. Daun Stage. | | 6,000 B. C.? | | Depression. | | | | | Optimum | Azilian-Tard. | | (7,000) B. C.? | | Climate. | | | | | Oak. | Campignian. | Sumerians in | | | Shell-heaps. | | Babylonia. | | | | | | | | Full Neolithic.| Full Neolithic. | Predynastic | 4,000 | | Beech. | | Egyptians. | (-6,000) B. C.?| | | | Copper Period. | | | | | | | | Bronze Period. | Bronze Period. | XI-XIII Egyptian | 1,900- | | | | Dynasties. | 2,500 B. C. | +----------------+---------------------+-------------------+----------------+

CHART II. CHANGES OF CLIMATE IN DENMARK[138]

1. Arctic climate. Temperature about 8° Cent. Younger Yoldia
layers, Older Dryas period. Flora: _Dryas octopetala_, _Salix
polaris_.

2. Subarctic climate. Temp. 8°-12° Cent. Older Dryas. Flora as
in 1.

3. Climate becomes moderate, continental. First maximum temp.
12°-15° Cent. Birches, poplars, junipers.

4. Climate subarctic. Temp. 8°-12° Cent. Birches.

5. Climate arctic. Temp. 8° Cent. _Salix polaris._

6. Climate subarctic. Temp. 8°-12°. Younger Dryas period.

7. Temperature moderates. Dry continental climate. _a._ Aspen
Epoch; _b._ Pine period with oaks beginning to appear=Ancylus
period.

8. Moderate insular climate. Temp. 15°-17° Cent. Climatic
optimum. Older Tapes layers, Maximum of Littorina depression.
Shell-heaps.

9. Temp. 15°-17° Cent. Probably slightly cooler than 8. Oak
Epoch. Beech begins to appear but is still rare. Younger Tapes
(Dosinia) layers.

10. Moderate insular climate about 16.1° Cent. Beech Epoch.
Mya layers.

These climatic changes seem to argue for a comparatively recent date for the Littorina depression and the shell-heaps.