Primitive Man Part 26

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 153.--Plan of the Piles and Cross-beams in the _Marniera_ of Castione.]

The floor was covered with beaten earth to a thickness of 10 to 12 inches. Fragments of this kind of paving were found scattered about in two sandy heaps, almost entirely devoid of other _debris_, whilst the adjacent earth, of a blackish colour, contained a large quant.i.ty of relics of all kinds. It is probable that the huts of the inhabitants of the _marniera_ were situated upon these sandy heaps, and that the dark-coloured earth is the final result of the acc.u.mulation of refuse and various kinds of _detritus_ on the same spot.

It is not known whether the layer of beaten earth extended over the whole surface of the floor, or was confined to the interior of the habitations. In the former case, it is probable that it was rammed down with less care on the outside than on the inside of the huts, as is shown by the discovery of a storehouse for corn, the floor of which is formed by nothing but a layer of sandy earth placed upon the planks.

This storehouse, which, from the use to which it was put, could not have been used as a dwelling by any one, measured 13 feet in length, and 10 feet in width. It contained carbonised beans and wheat, spread in a layer of about 4 inches thick.

MM. Strobel and Pigorini found no remains of huts in the _marniera_ of Castione: probably because, having been built entirely of wood, they were completely destroyed by fire, numerous traces of which may still be detected. In addition to the carbonised corn and fruit already mentioned, many other objects bearing the evident marks of fire were, in fact, collected at Castione. The floor-slabs, the tie-beams, and the tops of the piles were often found to be half consumed.

But although at Castione there is no evidence forthcoming in respect to huts, information which bears upon this point has been obtained at other spots. MM. Strobel and Pigorini have ascertained that the pal.u.s.trine dwellings bore a great similarity to those on the Swiss lakes. The sides were lined with boughs, and the interior was daubed with clay. In Italy, just as in Switzerland, certain fragments of the clayey coating which have been hardened and preserved by fire have enabled us to draw these inferences.

At Castione several beds of ashes and charcoal containing remains of meals, pointed out the sites of the domestic hearths, round which they, doubtless, a.s.sembled to eat their food. Another bed of charcoal, mixed with straw, wheat, and pieces of burnt pottery, was found in a peculiar situation--it was embedded in a bank of calcareous pebbles vitrified on the surface; this bank was about 5 feet wide, and about 8 inches in thickness. The explorers thought that it was, perhaps, a place which had been devoted to the fusion of metals.

On the edge of the basin of the marsh, a kind of rampart or defensive work was discovered, composed of slabs as much as 16 feet in length, laid horizontally one over the other. These slabs were tied down by stakes driven in obliquely, and likewise placed one above the other, their ends being inserted between the slabs.

This last discovery, added to other indications, led MM. Strobel and Pigorini to the supposition that the pile-work of Castione, and doubtless also those in all the _marnieras_, were in the first place constructed as places of defence, and were subsequently converted into fixed and permanent residences. The basin of the marsh having been gradually filled up by the acc.u.mulations of _debris_ resulting from the presence of man, the habitations were built on a solid foundation, and a great portion of the former floor was done away with, which would account for so little of it now remaining.

The objects discovered in the _terramares_ and _marnieras_ do not essentially differ from those found in the pile-works of Switzerland.

They are almost all worn or broken, just as might be expected from finding them in rubbish heaps. There are a great quant.i.ty of fragments of pottery of a greyish or dark-coloured clay mixed with grains of quartz, imperfectly baked, and made without the aid of a potter's wheel.

The ornamentation is, in general, of a very simple character, but the shapes of the ears, or handles, are very varied. Some of the vessels are furnished with a spout or holes for the liquid to flow out. The _terramares_ also contain supports for vessels with round or pointed bottoms.

In the _marniera_ of San Ambrogio a slab of pottery was found, elliptical in shape, and about half an inch in thickness, concave on one side and convex on the other, and pierced with seventeen circular holes about a quarter of an inch in diameter. The idea was entertained that this object was used as a kind of fire-grating, for it bore traces of the long-continued action of fire.

The other objects most commonly found were weights made of baked earth, and perhaps used for the weaving-loom, much worn in the place where the cord pa.s.sed through on which they were hung; _fusaiolas_, or spindle-whorls, very varied both in shape and size, likewise made of baked earth; large mill-stones with a polished surface. Next, we have poniards or spear-heads, hatchets, and hair-pins, all made of bronze.

The _marniera_ of San Ambrogio has furnished a mould indicating that bronze was melted and cast in this district.

An attentive study of the bones of animals contained in the _terramares_ has led to the following information being obtained as to the _fauna_ of Upper Italy during the bronze epoch.

With respect to the mammals which lived in a wild state, the existence has been ascertained of a species of stag of much greater size than the present variety, and about equal to that of the lacustrine settlements of Switzerland (fig. 154); also of a wild-boar, much more powerful than that of Sardinia or even of Algeria, the roe, the bear, the rat, and the porcupine. In different spots have been found stags' horns and bones, and also sloe-stones which have retained the impression of the teeth of some small rodent. The bear, the wild-boar, the stag and the roe, have, at the present day, disappeared from the country. The porcupine, too, has migrated into regions further south, which leads to the supposition that the temperature of the provinces of Parma and Modena is a little lowered since the date of the bronze epoch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 154.--The Chase during the Bronze Epoch.]

It is to be remarked that in these settlements, contrary to what has been noticed in Switzerland, in the lacustrine habitations belonging to the Stone Age, the remains of wild animals are met with much more rarely than those of domestic animals; this must be consequent on a superior and more advanced stage of civilisation having existed in Italy. Among the domestic species found we may mention the dog, two breeds of which, of different sizes, must have existed; the pig of the peat-bogs, the same variety as that of which the bones were discovered in Switzerland; the horse, the remains of which, although rare, testify to the existence of two breeds, one large and bulky, the other of slighter and more elegant proportions; the a.s.s, of which there are but few bones, could not, therefore, have been very common; the ox, the remains of which are on the contrary very abundant, like the dog and the horse, is represented by two distinct breeds, the more powerful of which appears to have descended from the _Bos primigenius_ or _Urus_; lastly, the sheep and the goat, the remains of which can scarcely be clearly distinguished on account of their great anatomical resemblance.

When we compare the present _fauna_ with that of which we have just given the details, we may perceive several important modifications. Thus the pig of the peat-bogs, one breed of oxen, and a breed of sheep (the smallest) have become entirely extinct; and the common sheep, the goat, the horse, and the a.s.s have a.s.sumed much more important dimensions. With regard to the wild species of mammals, we have already said that some have become less in size, and others have disappeared. Hence results one proof of a fact which is beyond dispute, although often called in question, namely, that the intelligent action of man working by means of domestication on wild natures, will ultimately succeed in ameliorating, reclaiming, and perfecting them.

The skulls and the long bones found in the _terramares_ are almost always broken for the purpose of extracting the brain and the marrow, a very ancient usage which had endured to this comparatively late epoch.

But instead of being split longitudinally, as was the case in preceding epochs, they are generally broken across at one end. The _terramares_ and the _kitchen-middens_ have this peculiarity in common--that all the dogs' skulls found in them have been intentionally broken; a fact which proves that in Italy, as in Denmark, this faithful guest or servant of man was occasionally, in default of some better food, and doubtless with much regret, used as an article of subsistence.

No remains of fish have been found in these _marnieras_; from this, MM.

Strobel and Pigorini have justly concluded that the inhabitants of these pile-works were not fishermen, and that, at all events, the water which surrounded them was shallow and of limited extent.

The species of birds, molluscs and insects, the remains of which have been found in the _terramares_, are likewise determined. The existence of the domestic fowl and the duck, no doubt living in complete liberty, has been duly recognised; but it is thought that the appearance of these species must not be dated further back than the _end_ of the bronze epoch, and perhaps even the beginning of that of iron.

The examination of the insect remains has enabled us to ascertain that the refuse food and rubbish must have lain for some little time in front of the doors of the habitations before it was pushed into the water; for in it, flies, and other insects of the kind, found time to be born, to mature, and to undergo their whole series of metamorphoses; a fact which is proved by the perforated and empty envelopes of their chrysalides.

We mention this last fact as one of the most curious instances of the results which science and inference may, in combination, arrive at when devoted to the novel and interesting study of some of the earlier stages in man's existence. But, on the other hand, it gives us but a poor idea of the cleanliness of the Italian race during the bronze epoch. It would seem to us that a feeling of the dignity inherent in the body of man, and the cares that it so imperiously claims, would have been now more strongly developed than at a period when men dwelt confined in caves. This, however, is not the case. But have we, in the present day, any right to be astonished when we see, even now, the prevalence, in some of the great cities of America, of certain practices so disgusting in character and so opposed to the public health?

Osculati, an Italian traveller, relates that at all the street corners in the city of Guayaquil, in the republic of Ecuador, heaps of filth are to be seen which exhale an insupportable odour. Similar heaps exist at the very gates of Mexico, where, at the present time, they form small hills. These facts ought to render us indulgent towards the neglect of cleanliness by our ancestors during the bronze epoch.

Such were the animal remains collected in the _terramares_. The vegetable remains consisted of grains of carbonised corn, broken nuts, acorns, halves of burnt apples, stones of the dog-berry, plums and grapes.

In concluding our consideration of the pal.u.s.trine settlements, we may add, that some have recently been discovered in Moravia and Mecklenburg.

At Olmutz, a city of Moravia, M. Jeitteler, a learned Viennese, has found piles sunk into the peat, along with various bronze and stone objects, ornamented pottery, charcoal, charred wheat, numerous animal bones, and a human skeleton of a brachycephalous race. All the facts lead to the belief that this will not be the last discovery of the kind.

We must also state that the _terramares_, or deposits of the remains of habitations on the edge of marshes, are not peculiar to Europe exclusively. On the coast of Africa (at San Vicente) M. Strobel found remains of an exactly similar nature; and Dr. Henrique Naegeli, a distinguished naturalist of Rio Janeiro, has testified to the existence on the coast of Brazil of like deposits, which he proposes to subject to a thorough examination.[35]

FOOTNOTES:

[34] 'Les Terramares et les Pilotages du Parmesan;' Milan, 1864.

(Extract from the 'Atti della Societa Italiana di Scienze naturali.')

[35] 'Materiaux pour l'histoire positive et philosophique de l'Homme,'

by G. de Mortillet. Paris, 1865: vol. i. p. 397.

CHAPTER V.

Weapons, Instruments, and Utensils contained in the various Lacustrine Settlements in Europe, enabling us to become acquainted with the Manners and Customs of Man during the Bronze Epoch.

We have just spoken of the discovery and investigation of the _lacustrine habitations_ found in various parts of Europe, and also of the _pal.u.s.trine villages_ of Northern Italy. These rich deposits have thrown a considerable light on the primitive history of the human race.

With the elements that have been thus placed at our disposal, it will be possible to reconstruct the domestic life of the tribes of the bronze epoch, that is, to describe the weapons, instruments, and utensils which were proper to the every-day proceedings of this period.

In order to give perspicuity to our representation or account, we have cla.s.sed the lacustrine habitations under the head of the _bronze _epoch.

But we must by no means forget that these lacustrine villages contained other objects besides those belonging to the bronze epoch; there were also found in them a number of articles which must be referred to the preceding period, that is, the polished-stone epoch.

It is a question indifferent to our purpose, whether the lacustrine villages were constructed during the Stone Age, as inferred from the presence in some settlements of stone objects only, or whether the habitations were built during the bronze epoch, some of the articles made of stone and dating back to the preceding period being still preserved in use. For it is certain that the larger number of lacustrine settlements do not go back beyond the bronze epoch. But as certain objects made of stone form a portion of the implements found in these ancient habitations, we must commence by describing these relics of the Stone Age; although we shall considerably abridge this description, so as to avoid repeating those details which we have already given in the preceding chapters.

The stone weapons and instruments are found to consist, in Switzerland as elsewhere, of hatchets, spear-heads and arrow-heads, hammers, saws, knives and chisels.

The hatchets and hammers are made of various materials, as flint, quartzite, diorite, nephrite, jade, serpentine, &c. But the other weapons and implements are, nearly all of them, of flint.

The hatchet was in continual use, not merely as a weapon but as a tool; thus, very numerous specimens of it are found in the Swiss lakes.

The hatchets, however, are generally speaking, small in size. Their length varies from 2 to 8 inches, and their width, at the cutting edge, from 1-1/2 to 2 inches. Fig. 155 represents one of the flint hatchets.

They are the same shape as the Danish hatchets during the polished-stone epoch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 155.--Stone Hatchet from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland.]

The most simple plan of fixing a handle to the small-sized hatchets, which were in fact chisels, consisted in inserting them into a piece of stag's horn, hollowed out for this purpose at one end. In this way they obtained a kind of chisel which was very ready of use. Fig. 156 represents this kind of handle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 156.--Stone Chisel with Stag's-horn Handle from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland.]

There was also another mode of fixing handles to these instruments. The shaped flint was previously fixed in a holder of stag's horn. This holder was itself perforated through the middle with a round hole, in order to receive a wooden handle. It then became a complete hatchet.

Fig. 157 represents one of these hatchets fitted with a handle, in a way similar to many of the specimens in the Museum of Saint-Germain.