Part 11 (1/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 61.--Another Staff of authority in Reindeer's Horn.]
This explanation appears the correct one when we consider the care with which these batons were fas.h.i.+oned. If the hypothesis of their being symbols of authority be adopted, the varying number of the holes would not be without intention; it might point to some kind of hierarchy, the highest grade of which corresponded to the baton with the most holes.
Thus, in the Chinese empire, the degree of a mandarin's authority is estimated by the number of b.u.t.tons on his silk cap. And just as in the Mussulman hierarchy there were pachas of from one to three tails, so it may be fancied that among primitive man of the reindeer epoch there were chiefs of from one to three holes!
We have already stated that in the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth the art of manufacturing a rough description of pottery was, perhaps, known in Europe. The men of the reindeer epoch made, however, but little progress in this respect. Nevertheless, if certain relics really belong to this period, they may have known how to make rough vessels, formed of clay, mixed with sand, and hardened by the action of fire. This primitive art was, as yet, anything but generally adopted: for we very rarely find _debris_ of pottery in close contiguity with other remains of the reindeer epoch.
The Archaeological Museum of Saint Germain is in possession of a hollow vessel, a natural geode, very large and very thick (fig. 62). It was found in the cave of La Madelaine (department of Dordogne); on one side it has evidently been subjected to the action of fire, and may therefore be presumed to have been used as a large vessel for culinary purposes.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 62.--A Geode, used as a cooking Vessel (?), found in the Cave of La Madelaine (Perigord).]
In a cave at Furfooz, near Dinant in Belgium, to which we shall subsequently refer, M. edouard Dupont found, intermingled with human bones, an urn, or specimen of rough pottery, which is perhaps one of the most ancient monuments of the ceramic art as practised by our primitive ancestors. This urn (fig. 63) was partly broken; by the care of M.
Hauzeur it has been put together again, as we represent it from the work of M. Le Hon.[9]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 63.--Earthen Vase found in the Cave of Furfooz (Belgium).]
It is in the reindeer epoch that we find the earliest traces of any artistic feeling manifested in man.
It is a circ.u.mstance well worthy of remark, that this feeling appears to have been the peculiar attribute of the tribes which inhabited the south-west of the present France; the departments of Dordogne, Vienne, Charente, Tarn-et-Garonne, and Ariege, are, in fact, the only localities where designs and carvings representing organised beings have been discovered. The departments in the east have not furnished anything of a similar character, any more than Belgium, which has been so thoroughly explored by M. edouard Dupont, or Wurtemburg, where M. Fraas has lately described various settlements of this primitive epoch.
It is not sufficient to allege, in order to explain this singular circ.u.mstance, that the caves in the south of France belong to a later period of the reindeer epoch, and that the others go back to the earliest commencement of the same age. Apart from the fact that this a.s.sertion is in no way proved, a complete and ready answer is involved in the well verified circ.u.mstance, that even in later ages--in the polished stone, and even in the bronze epoch--no representation of an animal or plant is found to have been executed in these localities. No specimen of the kind has, in fact, been found in the _kitchen-middens_ of Denmark, or in the lacustrine settlements of the stone age, or even of the bronze age.
It must, then, be admitted that the tribes which were scattered over those portions of the European continent which now correspond to the south-west of France, possessed a special talent in the art of design.
There is, moreover, nothing unreasonable in such a supposition. An artistic feeling is not always the offspring of civilisation, it is rather a gift of nature. It may manifest its existence in the most barbarous ages, and may make its influence more deeply felt in nations which are behindhand in respect to general progress than in others which are much further advanced in civilisation.
There can be no doubt that the rudiments of engraving and sculpture of which we are about to take a view, testify to faculties of an essentially artistic character. Shapes are so well imitated, movements are so thoroughly caught, as it were, in the sudden fact of action, that it is almost always possible to recognise the object which the ancient workman desired to represent, although he had at his disposal nothing but the rudest instruments for executing his work. A splinter of flint was his sole graving-tool, a piece of reindeer horn, or a flake of slate or ivory, was the only plate on which primitive man could stamp his reproductions of animated nature.
Perhaps they drew on stone or horn with lumps of red-chalk or ochre, for both these substances have been found in the caves of primitive man.
Perhaps, too, as is the case with modern savages, the ochre and red-chalk were used besides for painting or tatooing his body. When the design was thus executed on stone or horn, it was afterwards engraved with the point of some flint instrument.
Those persons who have attentively examined the interesting gallery of the _Histoire du Travail_ in the International Exposition of 1867, must have remarked a magnificent collection of these artistic productions of primeval ages. There were no less than fifty-one specimens, which were exhibited by several collectors, and were for the most part extremely curious. In his interesting work, 'Promenades Prehistoriques a l'Exposition Universelle,' M. Gabriel de Mortillet has carefully described these objects. In endeavouring to obtain some knowledge of them, we shall take as our guide the learned curator of the Archaeological Museum of Saint-Germain.
We have, in the first place, various representations of the mammoth, which was still in existence at the commencement of the reindeer epoch.
The first (fig. 64) is an outline sketch, drawn on a slab of ivory, from the cave of La Madelaine. When MM. Lartet and Christy found it, it was broken into five pieces, which they managed to put together very accurately. The small eye and the curved tusks of the animal may be perfectly distinguished, as well as its huge trunk, and even its abundant mane, the latter proving that it is really the mammoth--that is the fossil--and not the present species of elephant.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 64.--Sketch of a Mammoth, graven on a Slab of Ivory.]
The second figure is an entire mammoth, graven on a fragment of reindeer horn, from the rock-shelters of Bruniquel, and belongs to M. Peccadeau de l'Isle. This figure forms the hilt of a poniard, the blade of which springs from the front part of the animal. It may be recognised to be the mammoth by its trunk, its wide flat feet, and especially by its erect tail, ending in a bunch of hair. In point of fact, the present species of elephant never sets up the tail, and has no bunch of hair at the end of it.
A third object brought from the pre-historic station of Laugerie-Ba.s.se (M. de Vibraye's collection) is the lower end of a staff of authority carved in the form of a mammoth's head. The prominent forehead, and the body of the animal stretching along the base of the staff, may both be very distinctly seen.
On another fragment of a staff of authority, found at Bruniquel by M. V.
Brun, the cave-lion (_Felis spelaea_) is carved with great clearness. The head, in particular, is perfectly represented.
Representations of reindeer, either carved or scratched on stone or horn, are very common; we mention the following:--
In the first place the hilt of a dagger in reindeer's horn (fig. 65) of the same type as that shaped in the form of a mammoth. This specimen is remarkable, because the artist has most skilfully adapted the shape of the animal to the purpose for which the instrument was intended. The hilt represents a reindeer, which is carved out as if lying in a very peculiar position; the hind legs are stretched along the blade, and the front legs are doubled back under the belly, so as not to hurt the hand of anyone holding the dagger; lastly, the head is thrown back, the muzzle turned upwards, and the horns flattened down so as not to interfere with the grasp.