Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period/Chapter 9

by William Boyd Dawkins

 

CHAPTER IX.

THE NEOLITHIC INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN OF IBERIAN RACE.

Physique.—Range over British Isles.—Range on the Continent.—Identification with the Iberian Race.—Celtic Invasion of Gaul and Spain in the Neolithic Age.—Historic Evidence as to Iberic and Celtic Races in Spain and Gaul.—The Iberic Race in Retreat.—The Iberic Race the Older.—Historic Evidence as to Iberic and Celtic Races in Britain.—Relation of Iberians to Ligures and Etruskans.—Iberic Element in the Present Population of Spain.—Iberic, Celtic, and other Elements in the Population of France.—Iberic Element in the British Isles.—The Witness of Language.—Traces of Neolithic Culture in Basque Dialects.—Survivals from the Neolithic Age.—Neolithic Superstitions still current in Europe.—General Conclusions.

We have now to discuss the difficult questions as to the relation of the Neolithic inhabitants of Britain to those of the Continent, as well as to races of men still living in the same area. Are they now banished from Europe in the same manner as the Cave-men, or are they still represented in the present population? These problems may be solved by combining the results of osteological enquiry with those of ethnology, history, and geography.

 

Physique of Neolithic Population in Britain and Ireland.

The researches of Thurnam and Davis, Wilson, Huxley, Busk,^[1] and others into the physique of the people described in the last chapter, who buried their dead in the tombs, and whose skeletons are met with in the alluvia and peat-mosses, reveal the important fact that the population of the British Isles was uniform in character through the whole of the Neolithic age. They were small in stature, averaging five feet five inches in height, according to Dr. Thurnam. The stature of the dead buried in the sepulchral caves of Perthi Chwareu, and in the chambered tomb at Cefn, is estimated by Prof. Busk at a maximum of five feet six inches and at a minimum of four feet ten inches.^[2] Their skulls are of fair average capacity, and are of the long or oval type^[3] (Fig. 110), the length being due to a development of the back of the head, termed by Dr. Broca "dolichocephalie occipitale," as distinguished from the "dolichocephalie frontale" of other races. The outline of the face was oval, the supraciliary ridges being less strongly marked, and the cheek-bones much less developed than in the round skulls, the upper and lower jaws small, and the lower part of the face not projecting beyond a vertical line dropped from the forehead (

orthognathic). The nose was aquiline, and the forehead low as compared with that of the round skulls (Fig. 111) to be described presently. Skulls possessed of these characters have been described by Huxley and Wilson from many places in Scotland, and they occur in Neolithic tombs in England, Wales, and Ireland, under circumstances which render it impossible to doubt that the whole of the British Isles was inhabited from the beginning to the close of the Neolithic age by the same small race in the same stage of culture. In Scotland it is identical with the people possessed of (kumbecephalic) boat-shaped skulls of Prof. Wilson,^[4] and in Ireland by those from chambered tombs, peat-mosses, and river-deposits, described by Prof. Huxley as belonging to the river-bed type, and by Dr. Thurnam to that of the "long barrows."

Fig. 110.—Long Skull of Neolithic Age, Long Barrow, Rodmarton.	Fig. 111.—Broad Skull of Bronze Age, Round Barrow, Gristhorpe.

In Figures 110, 111, we have given outlines of the two typical forms of skull, the long being obtained from the chambered tomb at Rodmarton, and the broad from the interment of the Bronze age at Gristhorpe, Yorkshire.^[5]

Prof Busk has noticed that some of the leg bones present peculiar characters, the thigh bone bearing an enormously developed linea aspera, and the tibia being flattened laterally, sometimes to the extent of presenting a section similar to that of the blade of a sabre.^[6] The latter character is not, as it is sometimes considered, a character linking man with the apes, but is probably related to the free use of the muscles of the feet uncontrolled by rigid sole or sandal. In the large collections of skeletons which I obtained from the sepulchral caves, and the caves of Perthi Chwareu, Rhos-Digre, and the chambered tomb near Cefn, this peculiar character was only met with in some of the older bones, and was absent in most of the men, and all the boys, women, and children. The same irregularity applies equally to the large collection of skeletons of Red Indians from the burial mounds preserved in the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, Mass., which I was allowed to examine by the kindness of Prof. Putnam in 1875. The flattened tibia has been observed among negroes, and it is not unknown even among civilised Europeans. It cannot therefore be taken to be a character distinctive of race, but one dependent upon the use, more or less, of certain muscles.

 

Range on the Continent: Belgium, France, and Spain.

These small men are proved by numerous discoveries to have had a wide range on the Continent in the Neolithic age. They have left traces of their presence in numerous interments in chambered tombs and caves in Belgium and in France,^[7] as well as in Spain and in Gibraltar.^[8] We may therefore conclude that at one period in the Neolithic age the population of Europe, west of the Rhine and north of the Alps, was uniform in physique, and consisted of the same small people as the Neolithic inhabitants of Britain and Ireland.

The researches of Dr. Virchow also prove that skulls of the same type occur in the peat bogs of north Germany and of Denmark, beariug a closer resemblance to those of the Basques than to those of any other race.^[9]

 

Identification with Iberian Race.

The next point to be considered is their relation to the present inhabitants of Europe. Have they been exterminated in the struggles which have taken place during repeated invasions, or are they still represented in the present population? The labours of Thurnam, Busk, Virchow, Huxley, Wilson, and others, combined with the observations of Dr. Broca,^[10] offer most conclusive evidence that they are still to be numbered among the living races of Europe.^[11]

The numerous skulls obtained from Basque cemeteries possess exactly those characters which have been remarked above in the Neolithic tombs and caves in Britain and on the Continent, and may therefore be taken to imply that the Basque-speaking peoples are to be looked upon as a fragment of the race which occupied the British Isles, and the area west of the Rhine and north of the Alps, in the Neolithic age.

The Basques of the present day are, as might be expected from the many invasions they have undergone, by no means uniform; but the researches of Dr. Broca prove that the real Basque stock was small in stature, dark in complexion, with black hair and eyes, and with a long head; the other elements in the population, as at present constituted, having been contributed by the Celtic, and long afterwards by the Gothic and English invaders. Nor can there be any reasonable doubt as to this small, dark-haired people being identical with the ancient Iberians of history,^[12] who have left their name in the Iberian peninsula as a mark of their former dominion in the west. Thus, by a chain of reasoning purely zoological, we arrive at the important conclusion that the Neolithic inhabitants of the British Isles belong to the same non-Aryan section of mankind as the Basques, and that in ancient times they were spread through Spain as far to the south as the Pillars of Hercules, and as far to the north-east as Germany and Denmark.

 

The Celtic Invasion of Gaul and Spain in the Neolithic Age.

The Iberic population of the British Isles was apparently preserved from contact with other races throughout the whole of the Neolithic age. On the Continent, however, it is not so; a new set of men, differing in physical characteristics from them, make their appearance. They were bigger than the preceding, averaging, for the adult male, 5 feet 8⋅4 inches in height, according to Dr. Thurnam. The skulls (Fig. 111) are broad, or round (brachycephalic), the supra-occipital tuberosity or "probole" prominent, the parieto-occipital region often flattened, the supraciliary ridges more strongly marked than in the oval skulls. The face instead of being oval is angular, or lozenge-shaped, and the upper and lower jaws are so largely developed, and projected so far beyond the vertical line dropped from the forehead, that the term macrognathic has been happily applied to them by Prof. Huxley; their foreheads are high, broad, and expanded. Human remains of this kind are met with in caves and tombs in Belgium, France, and Spain,^[13] under conditions which show that the tall race occupied those regions in the Neolithic age, and the occurrence of the two forms of skull, with all the intermediate varieties, in chambered tombs and sepulchral caves reveals the fact that the tall invader and the small dark inhabitant of France dwelt side by side in the same area. The new invader is identified by Thurnam and Huxley with the Celtæ of history, whose tall stature, light hair, and fierce blue eyes, have been handed down as their principal characters. The Belgæ also were tall and fair, but their exact relation to the Celtic and Germanic or Teutonic tribes is uncertain.

 

Historical Evidence of Iheric and Celtic Races in Spain and Gaul.

These two races were in possession of Spain during the very earliest times recorded in history, the Iberians occupying the north-western region (see Map, Fig. 112), and the Celts, or Gauls, extending in a broad band south of the Pyrenees along the Mediterranean shore; according to Ephorus and Eratosthenes, as far as Cadiz or Gadeira (μέχρι Γαδέιρων), and forming isolated settlements also in Portugal. When they are first brought before us, they had already been dwelling side by side long enough to form, by their union, the powerful nation of Celt-Iberi of Castile, defining the pure Iberian on the west from the pure Celt on the east. The former pre- dominated over the latter to such an extent as to give their name to the whole peninsula, although they were no longer masters of the district best known to the Phœnicians and ancient Greeks on the side of the Mediterranean. Here the Ligurians are to be counted among the inhabitants, if the statements of Thucydides be true, that they expelled the Sikanoi from the district of the river Sikanos. In the north the Vascones then, as now, held the Basque provinces of Spain.

The distribution of these two races in Gaul is similar to that which we have noted in Spain. Iberia was believed by the ancient Greeks to have extended before their time beyond the Pyrenees, as far to the north-east as the Rhone;^[14] and Scyllax remarks incidentally that the Ligurians and mixed Iberians (Ἰβῆρες μίγαδες), dwelt on the shores of the Mediterranean, from the mouth of the above river as far as Emporium in Spain. To the

Fig. 112.—Iberic and Celtic Peoples in Europe in Historic Period.

north-west it extended as far as the ocean, but its northern frontier is undefined, as might be expected from the imperfect sources of accurate geographical knowledge possessed by the Greeks. The rich mines of copper, tin, and lead, might have tempted the adventurers of those days to penetrate into the western Pyrenees; or sailors returning from the amber coast of the Baltic, or the tin-producing districts of Brittany or of Cornwall, may have brought back news of the Iberic tribes on the coast of Aquitaine; but the region to the south-west of the great trade route from the Phocæan colony of Marseilles, through Celtic Gaul to Britain, inhabited by warring tribes, is not likely to have been well known to the ancient geographers. Their varying statements as to the northern frontier are justly interpreted by Dr. William Smith "to express the fact in ethnography that the Iberian race extended beyond the boundaries of Spain, and that they were to a great extent intermingled with the Celts in western Europe."^[15] In the time of Strabo the Pyrenees formed the northern boundary of Iberia.

When Cæsar conquered Gaul, the Iberian Aquitani possessed the region bounded by the river Garonne, the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees. The subsequent addition by Augustus to Aquitania of the fourteen tribes inhabiting the district between the Garonne and the Loire, was probably due to the fact that their manners and customs were more akin to the Aquitani than to the Celtee, and that therefore they were more easily governed from the same centre as the former, than from that of the latter. They are considered by Dr. Broca, on ethnological grounds, to be a mixed race, like the Celt-Iberi of Spain. An ethnological connection also between Aquitaine and Brittany (Armorica), may be inferred from the remark of Pliny, "Aquitania Armorica ante dicta;"^[16] considered an unaccountable blunder by Dr. Latham. The truth of Pliny's statement, however, is confirmed by Dr. Broca's map of the stature and complexion of the peoples of France, to be examined presently (Fig. 113). The Celts occupied the region from the Loire to the Seine, ranging as far to the east as Switzerland, and they were masters of the country extending from the frontiers of Aquitaine into the valley of the Rhone, being conterminous with the Celts of Spain. Thus the south-western districts of France and Spain were occupied by an Iberian population, represented now by the small dark Basques, while the Celtic peoples inhabited the region extending from the valley of the Seine, through central France, into the valley of the Rhone, and over the Eastern Pyrenees, into southern Spain.

 

The Iberic Race in Retreat.

This westward retrocession of the frontier of Iberia, from the Rhone to the Pyrenees, is a most important historical fact. It shows that before the days of Strabo the Iberic peoples were retreating under the pressure of invaders from the east. At the dawn of history they held a position in Europe far more important than in later times, but far less important than that which they occupied in the Neolithic age, when they have been proved, by the discoveries in sepulchral caves and tombs, to have lived as far to the north-east as the Rhine. In this respect, then, the historical narrative agrees with the conclusions at which we have arrived from the distribution of the human remains over the Continent. The relative antiquity also of the two races in Europe is settled. The Iberians were the possessors of the land from which they were ultimately driven by the invasion of the Celtic peoples farther and farther to the south-west into those fastnesses in which they were compelled to make a stand by the waters of the ocean.

 

Iberic Race the Older.

This invasion of the regions west of the Rhine took place, as we have seen, in the Neolithic age, and long before the dawn of history in those regions. In the days of Cæsar the Belgæ possessed the country from the Seine and Marne as far north as the Scheldt, and pressed upon the Celtæ, with whom they were probably closely related in language and physique. They were in their turn pushed to the west by the advance of the Germans in the Rhine provinces. Thus we have the oldest population, or the Iberian, in the western parts of France and Spain, being pushed farther and farther westward by the Celts; the Celts in their turn by the Belgæ; and these again by the Germanic tribes. The Neolithic aborigines are in the west; and the relative positions (Fig. 112) of the three peoples mark their relative antiquity in Europe.

 

Historic Evidence as to Iberic and Celtic Peoples in Britain.

An appeal to the ancient history of Britain reveals the same elements in the population in the same relative positions as in Gaul. Just as the Celts pushed back the Iberian population of Gaul as far south as Aquitania, and swept round it into Spain, so they crossed the Channel and overran the greater portion of Britain, until the Silures,^[17] identified by Tacitus with the Iberians, were left only in those fastnesses which were subsequently a refuge for the Welsh against the English invaders. And just as the Belgæ pressed on the rear of the Celts as far as the Seine, so they followed them ultimately into Britain, and took possession of the Pars Maritima^[18] or southern counties. The unsettled condition of the country at the time of Cæsar's invasion was due to the struggle then going on. The Iberian populatian by that time had been driven as far as they could go to the west, not only in Spain and in Gaul, but also in Britain, and were restricted to those areas in which the ethnologist can trace their blood in the present population. Since that time, however, they must have been profoundly affected by the invasions of the various Germanic tribes, who settled in their land, and forced back upon them the Celtic and Belgic peoples, ever pressing them to the west.

 

Relation of Iberians to Ligurians and Etruskans.

Before the Celtic invasion Gaul was inhabited by other tribes than the Iberian. The Ligures dwelt in the district round Marseilles, and held the region between the river Po and the Gulf of Genoa to the western boundary of Etruria, and they extended along the coast of the Mediterranean as far as the Pyrenees, that is to say, over the area included under the name of Iberia in its more ancient sense. They have also left marks of their presence in the name of the Loire (Ligur), and possibly in Britain in the obscure term Lloegrians (Lloegr). From the intimate manner in which they are associated with the Iberians by classical writers, coupled with their agreement in small stature and swarthy complexion, it may be inferred with tolerable certainty that they were related to each other, as the Frank to the Goth, or the Dane to the Norman, and that they belong to the same non-Aryan branch of the human race. It is also by no means improbable that the small swarthy Etruskans, whose empire extended in the earliest times recorded by history north of the Alps into Tyrol, and who held dominion also over Lombardy, belong to the same non-Aryan stock, since they were conterminous, and were driven away from their ancient possessions by the same invading peoples. Just as the Celt poured down through central France, isolating the Ligurian and the Iberian, so he poured through the passes of the Alps into Lombardy, sundering the Etruskans of Rhætia and Noricum from those of Etruria proper. In my belief the Iberians of France and Spain, the Silures of Wales, the Ligures of southern Gaul and northern Italy, and the small dark Etruskans, are to be looked upon as ethnological islands isolated by successive invasions, pointing out that if we could go deep enough in past time we should find that the whole of Europe was inhabited solely by a swarthy non-Aryan population.

 

The Iberic Element in the present Population of Spain.

The physical characters of the races defined in the preceding pages are still possessed by the present inhanitants of Spain, France, and Britain. The Iberic element in the population of Spain has mainly contributed to the long-headedness of the modern Spaniard, although that character may be partially derived from Gothic and Moorish invaders. The Basques on the north-west, protected from attack by their inaccessible country, have preserved the race-characters, as might be expected, in their greatest purity.^[19] With regard to the rest of the peninsula, sufficiently accurate observations have not yet been made to justify any conclusions as to the exact areas now occupied by the descendants of Iberian aborigines and Celtic invaders. The problem is rendered almost hopeless from the great changes which must have resulted from the conquest of the Goths and Moors, for if the former contributed their fair or "xanthochroic" characters to the modern Spaniard, it is no less certain that the latter have equally handed down to him their dark complexions and lithe active forms. I do not know that any important physical difference has been observed between the Moor and the Iberian; and it is very probable that the two are closely allied together, and connected with the Berbers of northern Africa, considered by Professor Busk to belong to the same stock as the Iberians.

 

Iberic, Celtic, and other Elements in the Population of France.

We are able to form an accurate idea of the origin, both of the complexion and stature, of the present inhabitants of France, from the labours of Dr. Broca,^[20] to whom we are indebted for admirable maps, based on the army returns for each department from 1831 to 1860. These show the number of exemptions per one thousand conscripts on account of their not coming up to the standard of height of 1⋅56 metres (= 5 feet 11/2 inches), and therefore indicate the average stature in each department. The intimate relation of stature to the prevalent complexion may be gathered from the following table of exemption per one thousand, the "départements noirs, gris, et blancs" being occupied respectively by dark peoples with black hair and eyes, people with brown hair and gray or brown eyes, and people with light complexions and eyes;—

Départements noirs.75⋅47à174⋅85
„gris.54⋅77à74⋅40
„blancs.24⋅39à54⋅11

From this it is evident that the exemptions are nearly thrice as many in the "départements noirs" as in the "départements blancs," and we may therefore conclude that the swarthy (see Fig. 113) inhabitants of France at the present time are the shortest, and the fair the tallest. The "départements noirs" are mainly centered in the old province of Aquitania of Augustus, in which the jet black eyes and hair and swarthy complexions of the natives strike the eye of the traveller. We may, therefore, conclude that these characters have been handed down by direct descent from the ancient Aquitani or Basques (Aquitani, Auski [Auch], Eusques, Basques, Vascones), with comparatively little change from the infusion of new blood since the time of the Roman

conquest of Gaul. In Cæsar's Aquitania, as might be expected from the open and defenceless country, the maximum change has taken place. Out of the eight departments into which it is now divided, only one (Landes) presents the Basque characters, and these have probably been preserved by the vast stretches of sand which have acted as a barrier against invasion.

Fig. 113.—Physical Characters of the French People. (Broca.)

The enormous preponderance of Basque characters in the district between the Garonne and Loire is shown in the fact that out of a total of twenty-eight departments no less than twenty-one come under Dr. Broca's definition of "départements noirs." In this we have the clearest proof that the choice by Augustus of the latter river as the boundary of the province was due to the identity of race of the dwellers south of the Loire with those of the Garonne, which would cause them to be more easily governed from a Basque than from a Celtic centre. (Compare Maps, Figs. 112, 113.) The five departments of Loire Inférieure, Vendée, Maine et Loire, Deux Sèvres, and Charente Inférieure, in which the prevailing population is of moderate stature, with brown hair and gray or brown eyes, lie on the seaboard open to invasion; and the six "départements gris," south of the Garonne, mark the settlements of the fair-haired Visigoths, Franks, and English, who have been masters of that country from the year A.D. 419 to the present day. That the ancient population was to a considerable extent dispossessed is demonstrated by the conditions under which it passed under the Gothic yoke, that two-thirds of the land and one-third of the slaves were to become the property of their conquerors.^[21] The departments in question may be said at the present day to be occupied by a Celt-Ibero-Teutonic people, whose physique is intermediate between the vanquished and the victors.

Outside the boundaries of Aquitaine the Iberian blood asserts itself in the swarthy small inhabitants of Brittany—in the east in Ardèche, and in the south in Aude and Arriège. I have already hinted at the probability of a connection between Armorica and Aquitaine from a passage in Pliny which has been quoted, and we have seen that Iberia, in ancient times, extended eastward to the Rhone and westward to the ocean. The Armoricans made themselves conspicuous above the rest of the provincials of Celtic Gaul by their coherence, and their obstinacy in confronting the Teutonic invaders. In the midst of the confusion which followed the downfall of the Roman empire they preserved their freedom, and even asserted the dignity of the Roman name, and resisted the attacks of Clovis with such success as ultimately to be admitted to an honourable and equal union.^[22] We might, therefore, expect that the ancient population would be represented in greater purity in Brittany than in those districts which were repeatedly harassed by Frank, Goth, or Burgundian. The present dark Bretons are conterminous with the dark inhabitants of Aquitaine, consequently I should feel inclined to hold that the northern frontier of Iberia extended in ancient times so as to embrace that province. It must, however, be remarked that during the conquest of Britain by the English the defeated Britons emigrated in considerable numbers to Brittany, and were themselves, to some extent, of Iberian derivation.

The broadness of skull which predominates in the inhabitants of the "départements noirs et gris" is considered by Dr. Broca to be a character derived from the Celts, along with others not found in the small, dark, typical Spanish Basques.

The ancient Ligurians are represented by the dark small inhabitants of the Hautes and Basses Alps, who are not distinguishable from the rest of the small dark French peoples. A suggestion, therefore, which we have thrown out in the preceding pages, that they may belong to the same stock as the Iberians, founded mainly on the geographical relations of the two peoples, is supported by an appeal to their physical characters.

Just as the Iberian element in the French population finds its centre in the Aquitania of Augustus, so is Belgic Gaul the headquarters of the tall, fair-haired element, considered by Dr. Broca and M. William Edwards,^[23] the representatives of the ancient Belgæ, whom they identify with the Kymri or Cimbri. It may more probably be referred to the repeated invasions of the north-eastern provinces by tall Germanic peoples, by whom the Belgæ were driven westward, and into the central and southern parts of France. The intermediate zone of Celtic Gaul is occupied partly by fair tall peoples, who may be of Celtic, Belgic, or Teutonic ancestry, but principally by a gray-eyed, brown-haired race, of moderate stature, the natural result of the fusion between the tall fair and the small dark races. This is considered by Dr. Broca to be the result of the union of the Celt with the Iberian, and to constitute the Celtæ of Cæsar as distinguished from the Belgæ.

The physical differences which are evident, when we compare the ancient Celt known to the Greeks and Romans with the present inhabitants of Celtic Gaul, may be explained by the consideration that the hordes who invaded ancient Greece and Italy were on the move, and therefore of comparatively pure race, while the modern Celt is the result of the conquerors dwelling side by side with the conquered, in the same country, for an unknown number of centuries. The use of the terms Ιβηρες μιγαδες, Κελτο-Λιγυρες, Κελτ-Ιβηρες, proves that this fusion of races was going on in the earliest times recorded in Spanish or Gaulish history. Plutarch, in his Life of Æmilius Paulus (vi.), speaks of the Ligures in southern Gaul as being mingled with the Gauls, and the Iberians living by the shores of the Mediterranean in southern Gaul.

 

Iberic Element in British Isles.

The Iberic element in the present population of Britain^[24] is traceable in several areas, which offered refuge to the peoples in possession of the country before the invasion of the English. The strong resemblance borne by the small dark Silures to the Iberians was remarked, as we have already noticed, by Tacitus. At the present day his observation applies equally to the small swarthy Welshman, with long head and Iberian physique. The broad-headed dark Welshman is identical with the broad-headed dark Frenchman, and the Welsh people may be defined ethnologically as principally Celtic and Iberian, every intermediate variety between the two extremes being represented. The Silures no longer form a compact ethnological island, but are scattered and dispersed, and mingled with other races, English as well as Celtic.

In Scotland the small dark Highlander,^[25] and in Ireland the black Celts to the west of the Shannon, still preserve the Iberian characteristics in more or less purity, crossed with Celtic, Danish, Norse, and English blood (see Fig. 112).

From this outline of the evidence of history and ethnology it will be seen that the Iberic tribes occupied an important position in Europe in ancient times, and are still amply represented in the present population. When we consider the many invasions of strangers, and the oscillations to and fro of different peoples, it is impossible not to realise the strange persistence of the race. Through all the troubles which followed the conquest of Gaul by Cæsar, and of Britain by Claudius, through the terrible events which accompanied the downfall of the Roman Empire, causing the Britons to be exterminated over a large part of England, and the almost total extinction of the ancient type of Roman in Italy, the Iberian lived, and still is found in his ancient seats, with physique scarcely altered, and offering a strong contrast to the fair-haired Celtic, Belgic, and German invaders. The Iberian race is known to the ethnologist and historian merely in fragments, sundered from each other by many invasions and settlements of the Aryan race. It is shown by the researches into caves and tombs to have been in possession of the whole of Europe north and west of the Rhine, in the Neolithic age, and has been traced by Dr. Virchow into Germany and Denmark.

 

The Witness of Language.

If, as we have seen above, the Iberian race is still represented in Britain, we may naturally inquire whether there be any traces of it offered by the Welsh language. In discussing this question Professor Sayce remarks that "language cannot be the test of race at all, but only of social contact. We cannot argue from the exceptional phenomena of the stereotyped families of Aryan, Semitic, and Turanian speech. Savage and barbarous dialects are in a constant state of flux and change, while conquest, migration, and other causes, occasion the borrowing of new languages, and the loss of old ones. . . . The Basques, physically and linguistically, are the representatives of a race which preceded the Kelts, and were driven by them into the mountain fastnesses of the extreme West, just as the Finns were by other Aryan tribes in the North. Just as the existence of light-haired persons among the Basques shows only that mixture of blood which was to be expected, so, from the present state of the Basque language, we cannot draw any conclusion against the view that the primitive population with whom the Aryan Kelts came into contact spoke older but cognate dialects. The oldest Basque with which we are acquainted does not date back beyond three or four centuries; before that time there was no literature, and the changes undergone by languages other than literary are astonishingly rapid and extensive. The few native inscriptions of early date found in northern Spain, so far as they can be deciphered, show little resemblance to modern Basque, while Strabo^[26] states that not only had the Iberians many different dialects, but several different alphabets as well. This points to want of intercourse, bringing with it a great diversity of language. Numerous as these languages were, however, they must have had a general resemblance to one another, since Strabo (Book iv.) says they were like the idioms of Aquitania, in contradistinction to those of Celtic Gaul. The modern French Basque dialects are not descended from any of those of Aquitania, since their speakers first entered France after the fall of the Roman Empire, but they would be later descendants of some cognate dialect or dialects. Basque is the sole survivor of what may be called the Iberian family of speech, which was displaced by the Keltic invaders. It is useless to seek for traces of Basque words in local names, whether in France or elsewhere. Basque is too modern to allow us to know the forms of its words even a thousand years ago, while nothing is so soon corrupted as a proper name. Humboldt's attempt to explain local names in Western Europe by means of modern Basque is necessarily a failure. Until the Keltic vocabulary has been thoroughly examined, and its non-Aryan residuum made out, it is impossible to compare it with those Basque roots which have been extracted from a comparison of the Basque dialects."^[27]

I have every reason to believe that "the dissolving action of time," as Dr. Broca happily calls it, has obliterated the non-Aryan tongue, which may reasonably be believed to have been formerly spoken by the Neolithic aborigines of Britain. We have too many instances, writes Mr. Freeman, in "recorded history of nations laying aside the use of one language and taking to the use of another, for any one who cares for accuracy to set down language as any sure test of race. In fact the studies of the philologer, and those of the ethnologist strictly so called, are quite distinct, and deal with two different sets of phenomena."^[28] Even if then we assume that there be no traces of Basque roots in the Celtic languages of the British Isles, that fact does not affect the question as to the origin of the small dark peoples of Wales, Scotland, and of Ireland.

 

Traces of the Neolithic Culture in Basque Dialects.

The identification of the Neolithic aborigines with the Iberic race of history, and with the modern Basques, is confirmed in a most unexpected manner by the recent philological inquiry carried on by the Abbé Inchauspé^[29] into the dialects of the Pyrenees. He points out that the Basque names for cutting tools are as follow:—

Axe ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................	Aizcora.
Pick ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................	Aitzurra.
Knife ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................	Aizttoa.
Scissors ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................	Aizturrac.

Aizcora is composed of aitz (aitza, atcha), a stone, and gora high, lifted up = stone mounted in a handle.

Aitzurra = aitz, and urra to tear asunder, a stone to tear in sunder the earth.

Aizttoa = aitz, and "ttoa". a diminutive = little stone.

Aizturrac = aiztto, a small stone or knife, and urra to tear asunder, the final c marking the plural. This then means " little stones for tearing asunder," in contradistinction to Aitzurra, or a stone for tearing asunder—i.e. a great stone.

These words, with the exception of the third, which is confined to the Valley of Roneal in Spanish Navarre, are used by the Basque-speaking peoples both of France and Spain. Their derivations are accepted by Prince Lucien Bonaparte, and they prove that the Neolithic age has not passed away without leaving its mark behind among the non-Aryan inhabitants of France and Spain, in those places where the aboriginal population is to be found in its greatest purity. They point back to a time when the Neolithic civilisation and Iberic dialects spread over the whole of Europe north of the Alps and west of the Rhine, and probably also over Germany and Denmark.

 

Survivals from Neolithic Age.

The principal domestic animals and cereals, and many of the European fruits, are directly traceable, as we have seen, to the Neolithic age. The Neolithic population also is still represented by the Iberic and Celtic peoples. It is not, therefore, surprising that the Neolithic age should have left traces which survived, long after it had passed away, in the manners and customs of the European peoples of the succeeding ages. The polished stone axes were gradually supplanted, as will be seen in the next chapter, for purposes of every-day use by better implements of bronze, and ultimately came to be looked upon with awe and respect. In Italy, France, Germany, and Scandinavia,^[30] in the Middle Ages, they were termed thunderbolts, and were supposed to be endowed with miraculous powers in healing the sick, and in averting the evil eye from men and beasts. In the two last countries they were termed Thor's hammers (Thor's viggar). In Greece the smaller ones were used as amulets, and imitations of them were made in sardonyx and carnelian. Some even of the larger ones have been perforated for suspension.

Flint arrow-heads also had a superstitious value. In this country they are known as elf-darts, and their form is still preserved in carnelian necklaces used by the Bosnian peasantry.^[31] They also sometimes form the central pendant of the magnificent necklaces found in the Etruskan tombs. The flint flake, universally used as a knife in the Neolithic age, was preserved by the superstition of succeeding ages, and long survived in ceremonials. It was used by the Egyptians for making the first incision in the body of the dead for purposes of embalming, and by the Israelites in circumcision. It was, however, more closely associated with the rites of burial. Those used in the circumcising of the Children of Israel were buried in Joshua's tomb.^[32] Nor was this custom of burying flint flakes unknown in the West. In the Romano-British cemetery at Hardham^[33] in Sussex, they were placed in an oaken chest containing the cinerary urn, the sandals, and the various other articles belonging to the dead. They have also been discovered in association with Romano-British remains in the camp at Worle Hill near Weston-super-Mare, and in the Isle of Thanet.^[34] The latest instance of their having been used in this manner in Western Europe is that offered by the Merovingian cemetery of Caranda^[35] in the commune of Fère-en-Tardenois, Aisne, in which great numbers of flint flakes and arrow-heads, and in some cases fragments of polished stone scrapers were found along with a battle axe, and the characteristic Merovingian brooches interred with the bodies. Their abundance is accounted for by the fact of the cemetery having been situated near the spot where the flint implements were manufactured, like that described at Cissbury. In other Merovingian cemeteries the flint implements are scarce, and are, according to M. de Mortillet, found under conditions which show them to have been used as amulets. In Britain, therefore, we may conclude that flint flakes were used in burial ceremonies in the Romano-British age, as late as the fourth century after Christ, and in France as late as the Frankish conquest. A parallel case of survival in religious ceremonial, after the things had passed away from every-day life, is that of the sacerdotal vestments in the Christian churches, in which the ordinary dress of the Roman gentleman of the time has been preserved.

The Neolithic civilisation formerly spread over Northern Africa, the whole of Europe, and Asia, the islands of the Pacific, and the Americas, and lingered in remote places until the introduction of iron in the course of the present century. In the days of Captain Cook it was to be studied in nearly all the islands of the Pacific, and perhaps may still survive in some remote islet as yet unvisited by European sailors.

 

Superstitions handed down from the Stone Age.

We have seen in the preceding chapter that in the Neolithic age the tombs were the habitations of the dead,^[36] in which they were supposed to live. This superstition has been current in Europe from that remote age to the present time. The Scandinavian warriors, who had entered the gates of Walhalla and sat in Odin's Hall, made visits to their tombs on the earth. Helge, one of the heroes of the Edda, in spite of the magnificent welcome which he received from Odin, returned on horseback into his tumulus, accompanied by many horsemen. There he received the visit of his surviving wife, who lay down by him in the sepulchre. The inhabitants of the tumuli—the spirits of the mountain, the Voettir, the Elves, and the Manes,—are traceable over the greater part of Europe, and are supposed still to be able to avenge themselves on mortals by whom they have been disturbed. The tumuli in the Isle of Man are protected from destruction by this superstition: and it is reported in the island that the dread of their occupants is still so strong, that about the year 1859 a farmer offered a heifer as a burnt- sacrifice, that he might avert their anger, excited by the exploration of a chambered tomb near the Tynwald Mount by Messrs. Oliver and Oswald. This is probably the last example of a burnt-sacrifice in civilised Europe.

On some of the stones composing the tombs in Britain and Ireland are to be seen small round holes, seldom more than three-quarters of an inch to an inch deep. These have evidently been made on purpose, and they have been traced, by M. Desor^[37] and others, over a large part of Europe, from the Pyrenees to Scandinavia, sometimes occurring on tombs, and at others on isolated blocks of stone. They are called cups, bowls, basons, "marmites du diable," and in some places in Germany "stones of the dead." From these names, coupled with the fact that at the present time they are filled with butter or lard, Mad^lle. Mestorf concludes that they were intended to hold offerings to the souls of the dead, who were waiting again to be clothed with a human body to appear among mortals. The prosperity of the living would depend on their good will. This superstition has taken deep root in the religious sentiment of Europe, and, like many others, has been sanctioned by Christianity. Sometimes the bowls are accompanied with Christian signs. In the neighbourhood of Niemegk-in-der-Mark, in Prussia, there is a holed stone bearing the name of Bischofs-stein, and the figure of a cross and of a cup. In no less than twenty-seven churches in Prussia, and two in Sweden, these holes have been made in the walls of the churches after they were built. In the town of Griefswald it used formerly to be the practice to get rid of fevers and other maladies by blowing into them. Sometimes they bear marks of having been recently filled with grease. According to M. Hildebrand, the Swedish peasants of the present day call them elfstones, and place in them needles, buttons, and the like, as offerings to the elves. These holes have been observed in some of the Icelandic churches built by Scandinavian colonists. The "cup-stones," as they are termed by the countrymen, are still pointed out to the stranger on the moors near Eyam, Derbyshire, and were used for offerings when the village was desolated by the Plague. The Pin Hole Cave, in Cresswell Crags, derives its name from the habit of putting pins into a hole, and is to be looked upon as a survival of this superstition in the north of England, which has been traced as far south as the Pyrenees, and has left its mark in the holed-stones of India, The worship of ancestry is probably one of the oldest forms of worship, if not the oldest, in the world, and it still survives in Europe in the respect paid to elves, fairies, and "little-men."

 

General Conclusions.

From the facts mentioned in the last two chapters, it will be seen that the continuity between the Neolithic age and the present day has been unbroken. It is marked not merely by the physique of the present Europeans, by many of the domestic animals and cultivated seeds and fruits, and many of the arts, but by the testimony of language, and it is emphasised by the survival of the Neolithic faith in the shape of widely-spread superstitions. In every respect the Neolithic immigrant into Europe was immeasurably superior to the Palæolithic man of the caverns.

At the beginning of the Prehistoric period the small, dark, non-Aryan farmers and herdsmen passed into Europe from Central Asia, bringing with them the Neolithic civilisation, which took deep root. The section of them which spread over Gaul, Spain, and the British Isles, is only known to us as the Iberic aborigines. Outside these limits we meet with traces of the Iberic peoples in Sicily, Sardinia, and in Northern Africa. They have also left their mark in Asia Minor in the name Iberia (= Georgia), in the same manner as the Gauls have left their name in Galatia, or modern Anatolia, south of the Aladag mountains. After a lapse of time sufficient to allow the non-Aryan Neolithic civilisation to penetrate into every part of the Continent, the Celtic Aryans poured in, and made themselves masters of a large part of Gaul and Spain in the Neolithic age. It may be inferred from the geographical position of Germany, as well as from the distribution of the human skulls, and the evidence of history, that it also was held by these two races of men. The Iberic peoples were probably driven from the regions east of the Rhine by the Celts, and they in their turn by the Belgæ, just as within the Historic period the Belgæ were pushed farther to the west by the Germans, who in their turn were compelled to leave their ancient homes to be occupied by Sclaves. Thus we have evidence of two distinct races in Neolithic Europe, the older, or non-Aryan, and the newer, or the Aryan. There is no reason to believe that the Iberic tribes derived their culture from, or were related in blood to, their predecessors the Cave-men. The progress of civilisation in Europe has been continuous from the Neolithic age down to the present time, and in that remote age the history of the nations of the west finds its proper starting-point.

1. Thurnam, Mem. Anthrop. Soc., vols. i. and iii. Thurnam and Davis, Crania Britannica. Wilson, Prehistoric Man, and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland. Laing and Huxley, Prehistoric Remains of Caithness. Busk, Journ. Ethnol. Soc. Lond., 2d ser. ii.
2. The stature of the people buried in the long barrow of Nether Swell, Gloucestershire, is estimated by Prof. Rolleston at 5 feet 5 inches for the men and 4 feet 9 to 10 inches for the women. Journ. Anthrop. Inst. v. p. 21.
3. Human skulls are classified, according to Dr. Thurnam and Prof. Huxley, as follows—the basis of classification being the "cephalic index," or the ratio of the extreme transverse to the extreme longitudinal diameter of the skull, the latter measurement being taken as unity (Huxley):—

   1. I.

      Dolichocephali, or long skulls,with cephalic index at or below ⋅70 ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   1. Subdolichocephalifrom ⋅70 to ⋅73 ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   1. II.

      Orthocephali, or oval skulls⋅74 to ⋅77 ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   1. Subbrachycephali⋅77 to ⋅79 ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   1. III.

      Brachycephali or broad skullsat or above ⋅80 ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

   It has been argued from the diversity in the forms of the skulls observable at the present time among people living under artificial conditions, such as ourselves, that it is impossible to tell a man's race by the shape of his skull. To some extent this is true of our highly organised communities in Europe and America, where people of different nations and races are continually coming into contact, and where life is removed farthest from its natural and simple surroundings. But it does not apply to people living under the conditions of those described in this chapter, nor does it apply to simple communities at the present time. The same habits of life, common to a tribe or a race of rude civilisation, coupled with comparative purity of blood, certainly produced a greater uniformity in the shape of the head, than that which we observe among ourselves. It seems, therefore, to me little less than idle to say that the unity of type running through the whole of these Neolithic skulls is of no significance, because in certain hatters' shops in Manchester, London, or Vienna, the outline of the heads is so variable. In these cases the difference is brought about by abnormal conditions of life, and the mixture of different races through commerce.

   For practical purposes it is much more convenient to treat the long and oval skulls under the same heading. As an example of it we may take the description of the skull from the primary interment in the barrow of winterbourne Stoke, described by Dr. Thurnam (Mem. Anthrop. Soc. i. 44) as follows:—"The greatest length is 7⋅3 inches (the glabelloinial diameter 7⋅1 inches), the greatest breadth is 5⋅5 inches, being in the proportion of 75 to the length taken as 100. The forehead is narrow and receding, and moderately high in the coronal region, behind which is a trace of transverse depression. The parietal tubers are somewhat full, and add materially to the breadth of this otherwise narrow skull. The posterior borders of the parietals are prolonged backwards, to join a complex chain of Wormian bones in the line of the lambdoid suture. The superior scale of the occiput is full, rounded, and prominent; the inion more pronounced than usual in this class of dolichocephalic skulls. The superciliaries are well marked, the orbits rather small and long, the nasals prominent, the facial bones short and small, the molars flat and almost vertical, the alveolars short but rather projecting. The mandible is comparatively small but angular, the chin square, narrow, and prominent."

4. Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, 2d edit, vol. i. c. ix.
5. For figures and descriptions see Thumam, Mem. Anthrop. Soc. Lond. i. pp. 152-153.
6. For details, see Cave-hunting, c. v. vi.
7. For details, see Cave-hunting, c. vi.
8. Intern. Congr. Prehist. Archeol. Norwich, vol. 1869, p. 106.
9. Matériaux, 1870, p. 340.
10. Broca, Anthrop. Mém. Paris, i. p. 1, iii. p. 147.
11. For details, see Cave-hunting, c. vi., and an Essay in Fortnightly Review, Sept. 1874, p. 323.
12. Broca, Sur l'Origine et la Repartition de la Langue Basque, Rev. Anthrop., 1875.
13. For details, see Thurnam and Davis, Crania Britannica. Thurnam, Anthrop. Mem. Soc. Lond. I. and III.; Rolleston, in Greenwell and Rolleston's Ancient British Barrows.
14. Strabo, iii. 166.
15. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, i. 1078; Article "Hispania."
16. iv. 17.
17. Agricola, xi.
18. Cæsar, i. xii.
19. Broca, Sur l'Origine et la Repartition de la Langue Basque. Rev. Anthrop. 1875.
20. Mém. Soc. Anthrop. de Paris, i, p. 1, iii. p. 224. The accuracy of these maps is confirmed by those published by Dr. Boudin, Mém. Soc. Anthrop. de Paris, ii. pp. 227 and 231.
21. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, iv. 440.
22. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, iv. 440.
23. Mém. d'Anthropologie, i. p. 284.
24. See Huxley, Journ. Ethnol. Soc. Lond. II. 4, p. 382, On the Ethnology of Britain.
25. In these pages I have merely identified two of the elements in the Celtic peoples. There may have been others, hut the determining of these must be left for future discovery. The tall, long-headed, dark and red haired men are probably, as Professor Huxley points out, of Scandinavian, and the tall, long-headed, fair men of Low German origin. Both these became intermingled with the older Celtic population of Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, within the Historic period.
26. iii. p. 139.
27. Journ. Anthrop. Inst., vol. v. Part I., p. 26.
28. Contemporary Review, "Race and Language," March 1877. On this question see also Journal of Anthrop. Inst., v. i. pp. 1-29.
29. Matériaux, 1875, p. 218.
30. Evans, Ancient Stone Implements, c. iii Cartaillac, L'Age de la Pierre dans les Souvenirs et les Superstitions Populaires. Paris, 8vo. 1878. Mahudel, "Sur les prétendues pierres de fondre," Matériaux, 1875, p. 145. This paper was read in 1730. Moscardo, Matériaux, 1876, p. 1. Montélius, La Suède Préhistorique, Stockholm, 1874, 8vo. (Nilsson, Paris.
31. One of these obtained by Mr. Arthur Evans is in Mr. John Evans' collection at Nash Mills.
32. For a criticism on Exodus xxiv. 30 (Septuagint), see Evans, Ancient Stone Implements, p. 8.
33. Sussex Archæol. Coll., 1863.
34. Journ. Ethnol. Soc. Lond. i. p. 8.
35. Matériaux, 1875, p. 105.
36. C. F. Wiberg, Matériaux, 1877, p. 408.
37. Desor, Falsan, and Mestorf, Matériaux, 1878, pp. 259-287.