Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology/Chapter 11

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Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology
by William Buckland

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661532Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology — Chapter 11William Buckland

CHAPTER XI.

Supposed Cases of Fossil Human Bones.

Before we enter on the consideration of the fossil remains of other animals, it may be right to inquire whether any traces of the human species have yet been found in the strata of the earth.

The only evidence that has yet been collected upon this subject is negative; but as far as this extends, no conclusion is more fully established, than the important fact of the total absence of any vestiges of the human species throughout the entire series of geological formations.^[1] Had the case been otherwise, there would indeed have been great difficulty in reconciling the early and extended periods which have been assigned to extinct races of animals with our received chronology. On, the other hand, the fact of no human remains having as yet been found in conjunction with those of extinct animals, may be alleged in confirmation of the hypothesis that these animals lived and died before the creation of man.

The occasional discovery of human bones and works of art in any stratum, within a few feet of the surface, affords no certain evidence of such remains being coeval with the matrix in which they are deposited. The universal practice of interring the dead, and frequent custom of placing various instruments and utensils in the ground with them, offer a ready explanation of the presence of bones of men in situations accessible for the purposes of burial.

The most remarkable and only recorded case of human skeletons imbedded in a solid limestone rock, is that on the shore of Guadaloupe.^[2] There is, however, no reason to consider these bones to be of high antiquity, as the rock in which they occur is of very recent formation, and is composed of agglutinated fragments of shells and corals which inhabit the adjacent water. Such kind of stone is frequently formed in a few years from sand-banks composed of similar materials, on the shores of tropical seas.

Frequent discoveries have also been made of human bones, and rude works of art, in natural caverns, sometimes inclosed in stalactite, at other times in beds of earthly materials, which are interspersed with bones of extinct species of quadrupeds. These cases may likewise be explained by the common practice of mankind in all ages, to bury their dead in such convenient repositories. The accidental circumstance that many caverns contained the bones of extinct species of other animals, dispersed through the same soil in which human bodies may, at any subsequent period have been buried, affords no proof of the time when these remains of men were introduced.

Many of these caverns have been inhabited by savage, tribes, who, for convenience of occupation, have repeatedly disturbed portions of soil in which their predecessors may have been buried. Such disturbances will explain the occasional admixture of fragments of human skeletons, and the bones of modern quadrupeds, with those of extinct species, introduced at more early periods, and by natural causes.

Several accounts have been published within the last few years of human remains discovered in the caverns of France, and the province of Liege, which are described as being of the same antiquity with the bones of Hyænas, and other extinct quadrupeds, that accompany them. Most of these may probably admit of explanation by reference to the causes just enumerated. In the case of caverns which form the channels of subterranean rivers, or which are subject to occasional inundations, another cause of the ad-mixture of human bones, with the remains of animals of more ancient date, may be found in the movements occasioned by running water.^[3]

↑ See Lyell's Principles of Geology, vol. i. pp. 153 and 159, first edit. 1830.
↑ One of these skeletons is preserved in the British Museum, and has been described by Mr. König, in the Phil. Trans. for 1814, vol. civ. p. 101. According to General Ernouf, (Lin. Trans. 1818, vol. xii. p. 53), the rock in which the human bones occur at Guadaloupe, is composed of consolidated sand, and contains also shells, of species now inhabiting the adjacent sea and land, together with fragments of pottery, arrows, and hatchets of stone. The greater number of the bones are dispersed. One entire skeleton was extended in the usual position of burial; another, which was in a softer sandstone, seemed to have been buried in the sitting position customary among the Caribs. The bodies thus differently interred, may have belonged to two different tribes. General Ernouf also explains the occurrence of the scattered bones, by reference to a tradition of a battle and massacre on this spot, of a tribe of Gallibis by the Caribs, about the year 1710. These scattered bones of, the massacred Gallibis were probably covered, by the action of the sea, with sand, which soon after became converted to solid stone.
On the west coast of Ireland, near Killery Harbour, a sand bank, which is surrounded by the sea at high water, is at this time employed by the natives as a place of interment.
↑ Since this work was in the press, the author has seen at Liege the very extensive collection of fossil Bones made by M. Schmerling in the caverns of that neighbourhood, and has visited some of the places where they were found. Many of these bones appear to have been brought together like those in the cave of Kikdale, by the agency of Hyænas, and have evidently been gnawed by these animals; others, particularly those of Bears, are not broken, or gnawed, but were probably collected in the same manner as the bones of Bears in the cave of Gailenreuth, by the retreat of these animals into the recesses of caverns on the approach of death; some may have been introduced by the action of water.
The human bones found in these caverns are in a state of less decay than those of the extinct species of beasts; they are accompanied by rude flint knives and other instruments of flint and bone, and are probably derived from uncivilized tribes that inhabited the caves. Some of the human bones may also be the remains of individuals who, in more recent times, may have been buried in such convenient repositories.

M. Schmerling, in his Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles des Cavernes de Liège, expresses his opinion that these human bones are coeval with those of the quadrupeds, extinct species, found with them; an opinion from which the Author, after a careful examination of M. Schmerling's collection, entirely dissents.

[1] See Lyell's Principles of Geology, vol. i. pp. 153 and 159, first edit. 1830.

[2] One of these skeletons is preserved in the British Museum, and has been described by Mr. König, in the Phil. Trans. for 1814, vol. civ. p. 101. According to General Ernouf, (Lin. Trans. 1818, vol. xii. p. 53), the rock in which the human bones occur at Guadaloupe, is composed of consolidated sand, and contains also shells, of species now inhabiting the adjacent sea and land, together with fragments of pottery, arrows, and hatchets of stone. The greater number of the bones are dispersed. One entire skeleton was extended in the usual position of burial; another, which was in a softer sandstone, seemed to have been buried in the sitting position customary among the Caribs. The bodies thus differently interred, may have belonged to two different tribes. General Ernouf also explains the occurrence of the scattered bones, by reference to a tradition of a battle and massacre on this spot, of a tribe of Gallibis by the Caribs, about the year 1710. These scattered bones of, the massacred Gallibis were probably covered, by the action of the sea, with sand, which soon after became converted to solid stone.
On the west coast of Ireland, near Killery Harbour, a sand bank, which is surrounded by the sea at high water, is at this time employed by the natives as a place of interment.

[3] Since this work was in the press, the author has seen at Liege the very extensive collection of fossil Bones made by M. Schmerling in the caverns of that neighbourhood, and has visited some of the places where they were found. Many of these bones appear to have been brought together like those in the cave of Kikdale, by the agency of Hyænas, and have evidently been gnawed by these animals; others, particularly those of Bears, are not broken, or gnawed, but were probably collected in the same manner as the bones of Bears in the cave of Gailenreuth, by the retreat of these animals into the recesses of caverns on the approach of death; some may have been introduced by the action of water.
The human bones found in these caverns are in a state of less decay than those of the extinct species of beasts; they are accompanied by rude flint knives and other instruments of flint and bone, and are probably derived from uncivilized tribes that inhabited the caves. Some of the human bones may also be the remains of individuals who, in more recent times, may have been buried in such convenient repositories.

M. Schmerling, in his Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles des Cavernes de Liège, expresses his opinion that these human bones are coeval with those of the quadrupeds, extinct species, found with them; an opinion from which the Author, after a careful examination of M. Schmerling's collection, entirely dissents.

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