Chapter III: The Dawn Men

The best scientific estimates agree that the third warm interglacial stage opened about 100,000 years ago, and lasted between 50,000 and 60,000 years. It must be remembered, however, that the eolithic industry may have commenced more than a hundred thousand years before this. The borders of one river, the River Somme at St. Acheul, France, give us a vista of the whole story of the succession of geologic events, from the eolithic culture through the whole Old Stone Age to the neoliths, or polished stones. The animal life during this period, as indicated by the remains, included the mammoth, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, a primitive horse, the sabre-tooth tiger, elephants, and many lesser species. This animal life is associated with eoliths, with the next stage of stone industry, called pre-Chellean, and with some later Chellean chipped implements.

The pre-Chellean differs from the pure eoliths in that it included stones for weapons, as well as stones for tools or implements. It is to be noted that there are three methods of concurrent chronology, depending upon the kind of evidence. The purely geologic evidence gives us the age by the geologic changes, such as the glaciers, and the accompanying animal remains; the human skeletal remains give us the successive pre-human and human races; while the implements give us the successive stages of industry or culture, such as the eolithic, pre-Chellean, etc. In the pre-Chellean, there is no longer any question of human handiwork; these stones were shaped by men or submen. It is possible that these primitive flint-workers entered Europe by way of the northern coast of Africa, which was united to Europe by two land bridges, one at Gibraltar and the other by way of Sicily to Italy. The stone remains are restricted to Spain, France, Belgium, and Great Britain. None are found in Germany or central Europe. Thus it is clear that this race did not enter directly from the east. The best stations are discovered along the rivers Somme and Seine. The eoliths found in connection with the Piltdown flint workers, or Dawn Men, were typical eoliths, and not as advanced as the real pre-Chellean. At this time the flint workers, from the specimens discovered, were not designing the shapes of their implements and weapons; they were utilizing the natural shapes of the flakes and stones. In the industry, a second stage had been reached. There was first the use of the stone hammer, to make the sharpened edge; now came, in addition, the retouch, with a second stone, which further sharpened the implement by knocking off small chips on alternate sides of the cutting edge, giving it a saw-like effect. This retouching further made the stone usable, by blunting any sharp edges which might injure the hand of the user. Often the smooth, water-worn end of the flint was preserved for this purpose. The name of these typical stones is hand-stone, or the French _coup de poing_.

Among the types of implements and weapons are the following: the planing tool, the scraper, the borer, the knife, the hammer-stone, the throwing-stone, and the hand-stone or _coup de poing_.

The user of many of these implements was discovered at Piltdown, in Sussex, England. This lies between two branches of the River Ouse, west of Kent, in which many eoliths have been found. The discoverer, Dawson, places the age of the remains as during the first half of the Pleistocene, or Ice Age. About 1911, two portions of a skull were found here. Careful search revealed a broken jaw, a tooth, two nose bones, and other sections of the skull; all of these were fossilized. Nearby were Pliocene mammals, such as the mastodon, the mammoth, and the hippopotamus; in the same heap from which the Piltdown skull was taken were found portions of a rhinoceros, hippopotamus, beaver, and deer. There was also found a single flint, worked on one side, of a very primitive or pre-Chellean type.

This indicates that the Piltdown man, who has been named _Eoanthropos_ or dawn man, belonged to the period before the true Chellean. The skull is much less like the apes than any previously discovered. The nose was flattened, resembling in this some of the existing Malay and African races. The chin was extremely receding; the teeth are relatively longer and narrower than those in the modern human jaw. The face projected forward; the teeth may be called ape-like. Ape-like chin, parallel grinding teeth, narrow human lower molar teeth, steep forehead, practically no brow ridges (such as the later Neanderthal race possessed)—this was the dawn man. The authorities are inclined to the opinion that the race may have existed at about the same time as the Heidelberg man. But the Heidelberg man was probably an ancestor of the Neanderthal race, which largely disappeared later; while the Piltdown man was a probable ancestor of the recent species of _Homo sapiens_, to which we belong. Some, it is true, hold that the Piltdown jaw does not belong to the Piltdown skull; but in any case it is clear that the Piltdown man was either a direct ancestor of the modern human, or a near side-branch.

Out of the eoliths and the later pre-Chellean implements came that stage of human industry called the true Chellean. These workers improved the older types of implements, and invented new ones. The flint worker was still largely dependent upon the natural shape of the shattered fragment of flint; he had not yet learned to shape it symmetrically. Half a dozen definite varieties of the hand-stone or _coup de poing_ can be distinguished; De Mortillet speaks of this as the only tool of the Chellean tribes, used for all the purposes of axe, chisel, saw, and awl—an early combination tool. The pointed form was undoubtedly used as a dagger, both in war and in the chase.

There was plenty of game to chase, even if the larger mammals had still to be avoided. Roaming Europe at this period were the Southern mammoth, the hippopotamus, the straight-tusked elephant, the broad-nosed rhinoceros, the hyena, lion, and bison. The hyena now found is the spotted one, which had replaced the older striped hyena; the lion has taken the place of the great sabre-tooth tiger. Red deer and giant deer crashed through the brush; the brown bear appears for the first time; there are varieties of wild horses, and a primitive species of wolf. Some of these the Chellean men hunted; among their regular prey were badgers, martens, otters, beavers, and still smaller mammals.

In all the continents, except Australia, we find stone implements similar, in their main outline, to the Chellean; but there are always minor differences. This indicates that the development was probably a natural one occurring to primitive man widely scattered, rather than that the Chellean culture spread over the world.

It is noteworthy that not a single pre-Chellean or Chellean station has been found in Germany, Switzerland, or the rest of central Europe. But the next stage, the Acheulean, is found throughout these regions. During Chellean times this land might have been unfavorable for human habitation; or the traces of man’s occupancy might have been washed away, or may be still undiscovered. The Rhine, the Danube, even north Germany, exhibit traces of the next period. In general, the Acheulean flint workers, like the Chellean, preferred open country to caves and grottoes. Up to this time man has been largely an outdoor dweller. But a noteworthy exception to this is found in the great grotto of Castillo, near Puente Viesgo, in Santandar, northern Spain. This cavern was filled with deposits to the depth of 45 feet, from the floor to the roof; Obermaier, who first explored these deposits thoroughly, found here thirteen layers, covering eleven stages of industry, and presenting a natural museum of the history of western Europe from Acheulean times to the Age of Bronze, in Spain. For fifty thousand or more years this great grotto was used, and then abandoned, by tribe after tribe. It is a monumental volume of prehistory, which can be read by the archeologist almost as clearly and precisely as if it were in printed type. It is in the first period found here, the Acheulean, that the first positive evidence of the use of fire by man is found, in the shape of charred wood and bones. The discovery of fire has been made. Man is on his road to what we call progress.

The Acheulean stone implements and weapons are increasingly numerous. We find half a dozen varieties of the hand-stone, used for many purposes; we find choppers, planing tools, scrapers, drills, borers, knives, blades, and points. For the war and chase there are lance-points, throwing stones, knives, and dart and spear heads. The core or center of the flint is still used for the large typical instruments; but the flakes are coming into wider use in a great variety of forms. Gradually the blades grow finer and sharper; they were probably used for butcher knives for dismembering the carcasses of game, and for cutting up the skins; other tools were used as scrapers to clean the hides, which were finally dressed by the aid of the planing tool. The smaller implements are much improved. The knives are fine and perfect, although lacking the symmetrical shape of later stages. In all probability, the women of the tribe were the ones who dressed the hides. Some of the finer implements were used to split marrow bones, and furnish a choice feast. The stone work is a great improvement over the crudity of the Chellean workers; but it seems rough indeed, compared to the work of the Upper Paleolithic age, and rougher still when contrasted with the polished stone of the Neolithic Age.

These first three races, the Ape-man or _Pithecanthropos erectus_, the Heidelberg man, and the Piltdown or Dawn Man, have left few skeletal remains. We are next to study a race about which we can speak with much more certainty—the Neanderthal Men.