A HISTORY OF NORFOLK means of subsistence consisted of such food as could be procured by hunting, fishing, etc. This race of men was widespread over the surface of the world. Remains which have been discovered show that it existed all over western and southern Europe, northern Africa, Asia Minor and over the whole extent of India. So much has been written about the supposed inferiority of man in the Palaeolithic age that many people have been led to suppose that he was a very low type of animal. This assumption, however, has been based upon insufficient data, and without due appreciation of the fact that he was in possession of artistic accomplishments of a by no means low order. It is clear from remains of his handiwork which have been discovered that he was able to make vigorous sketches of animals and other objects, and to fashion useful tools out of rough flints. Of his dwellings little is known save that he inhabited caves and rock-shelters, but it is impossible to suppose that he had no means of building houses and adapting many things and circumstances of nature to his require- ments. Clothing he doubtless made for himself from the skins of animals, and there is every reason to believe that he was able to make for himself many implements which are unknown to us for the simple but sufficient reason that they were composed of less imperishable mate- rials than flint and stone. With regard to the physical aspect of man in the Palaeolithic age it is interesting to have the valuable opinion of such an eminent authority as Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S.^ In an address delivered in 1898 before the Geologists' Association of London Mr. Newton said, in words too weighty and important to be epitomized : ' At present we have too few examples of the skulls of Paleolithic men to allow us to speak dogmatically of their typical characters, but what we do know about them shows that their cephalic index is much the same as the Neolithic men, from whom they seem to be chiefly dis- tinguished by the greater development of their brow ridges, their low and receding foreheads and their shorter stature. ' The advanced intelligence of Paleolithic man is abundantly proved by his tools and works of art, which have been preserved in far greater numbers than his bones. The well-fashioned flint implements, the strik- ing outlines of the mammoth, horses, reindeer and human figures incised on pieces of ivory and bone, as well as the clever carvings of animals in these same materials, are ample evidence that the men who lived with the Mammoth possessed no mean artistic ability and no little mechanical skill.' Mr. Newton adds : ' There will be a tendency to credit Paleolithic man with a somewhat higher social status than we have usually sup- posed him to have enjoyed.' Little if anything is known about the graves or methods of sepul- ture of man in the Paleolithic age, most if not all of the interments
- Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, xv. pp. 262, 263.
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