Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/281

Rh CAVE 269 rude pottery, and human skeletons, along with the broken bones of the pig, dog, horse, Celtic shorthorn, and goat. The remains of the wild animals belong to the wolf, fox, badger, bear, wild boar, stag, roe, hare, and rabbit. Most of the bones were broken or cut, and the whole group was obviously an accumulation which resulted from these caves having been used as dwellings. They had subsequently been used for burial. The human skeletons in them were of all ages, from infancy to old age ; and the interments had been successive until each became filled. The bodies were buried in the contracted posture which is so character istic of Neolithic interments generally. The men to whom these skeletons belonged were a short race, the tallest being about 5 feet 6 inches, and the shortest 4 feet 10 inches ; their skulls are orthognathic, or not presenting jaws advancing beyond a vertical line dropped from the forehead, in shape long or oval, and of fair average capacity. The face was oval, and the cheek bones were not prominent. Some of the individuals were characterized by a peculiar flattening of the shinbone (platycnemism), which probably stood in relation to the fres action of the foot that was not hampered by the use of a rigid sole or sandal. This, however, cannot be looked upon as a race character, or as a tendency towards a simian type of leg. These Neolithic cave-dwellers have been proved to be identical in physique with the builders of the cairns and tumuli which lie scattered over the face of Great Britain and Ireland. (See Thnrnam, Crania Britannica.} They have also been met with abundantly in France. In the Caverne da rilomme Mort, for example, in the department of Lozere, explored in 1871, the association of remains was of precisely the same nature as those mentioned above, and the human skeletons were of the same small type. The same class of remains has also been discovered in Gibraltar, in the caves of Windmill Hill, and some others. The human remains examined by Professor Busk are of precisely the same type as those of Denbighshire. In the work of Don Manuel Gongora J. Martinez (Antiguedades Pre/tis- toriras de Andalusia, 18G8), several interments are described in the cave of Murcielagos, which penetrates the limestone out of which the grand scenery of the southern Sierra Nevada has been to a great extent carved. In one place a group of three skeletons was met with, one of which was adorned with a plain coronet of gold, and clad in a tunic made of esparto grass finely-plaited, so as to form a pattern like that on some of the gold ornaments in Etruscan tombs. In a second spot further within, twelve skeletons formed a semicircle round one covered with a I tunic of skin, and wearing a necklace of esparto grass, | earrings of black stone, and ornaments of shell and wild boar tusk. There were other articles of plaited esparto grass, such as baskets and sandals. There were also flint flakes, polished-stone axes, implements of bone and wood, together with pottery of the same type as that from Gibraltar. The same class of remains have been discovered in the Woman s Cave, near Alhama in Granada. From the physical identity of the human remains in all these cases it may be inferred that in the Neolithic age a long-headed, small race inhabited the Iberian peninsula, extending through France, as far north as Britain, and to the north west as far as Ireland, a race considered by Professor Busk &quot;to be at the present day represented by at any rate a part of the population now inhabiting the Basque provinces.&quot; This identification of the ancient Neolithic cave-dwellers with the modern Basque-speaking inhabitant of the Western Pyrenees is corroborated by the elaborate researches of M. Broca^, Professor Yirchow, and Dr Thurnam into modern Basque skulls. It may therefore be concluded that in ths Neolithic age an Iberian population occupied the whole of the area mentioned above, inhabiting caves and burying their dead in caves and chambered tombs, and possessed of the same habits of life. The remains of the same small, oval-featured, long-headed race have been found in Belgium in the cave of Chauvaux. There is no evidence that any other race except the Iberic buried their dead in the caves of Britain. In Belgium, however, the exploration of the cave of Sclaig- neaux by M. Soreil proves that broad-headed men of the type defined by Professor Huxley and Dr Thurnam as brachycephalic, and characterized by high cheek bones, projecting muzzles, and large stature, the average height being 5 ft. 8 4 inches (Thurnam), inhabited and buried their dead in the caves of that region. In France they occur in the sepulchral cave of Orrouy (Oise) in association with those of the Iberic type. They have also been met with in Gibraltar. This type is undistinguishable from the Celtic or Gaulish, found so abundantly in the chambered tombs of the Neolithic age in France. Both these ancient races are represented at the present day by the Basques and Aquit- anians of France and Spain, and by the Celts or Gauls of France, Britain, and the Mediterranean border of Spain, their relative antiquity being proved by an appeal to their history and geographical distribution. For just as the earliest records show that the Iberic power extended as far north as the Loire, and as far oast as the Pihone, so we have proof of the gradual retrocession of the Iberic frontier southwards, under the attacks of the successive Celtic hordes, until ultimately we find the latter in possession of a considerable part of Southern Spain, forming by their union with the conquered the powerful nation of Celt- Iberi. The Iberians were in possession of the Continent before they were dispossessed by the Celts; they are recognized by Tacitus in Britain in the Silures of Wales ; and they are still to be seen in the small, dark, lithe inhabitants of North Wales (see Dawkins, Fortnightly Review, October 1874). From the present distribution of this non-Aryan race it is obvious that they were gradually pushed back westward by the advance of tribes coming from the East, and following those routes which were subsequently taken by the Low and High Germans. The exploration of the Grotta dei Colombi, in the island of Palmaria overlooking the Gulf of Spezzia, in 1873, proves that the stories scattered through the classical writers, that the caves on the Mediterranean shores were inhabited by cannibals, are not altogether without founda tion. In it broken and cut bones of children and young adults were found along with those of the goat, hog, fox, w r olf, wild cat, flint flakes, bone implements, and shells perforated for suspension. Prehistoric Caves of Bronze and Iron Ages. The extreme rarity of articles of bronze in the European caves implies that they were rarely used by the Bronze folk for habitation or burial. Bronze weapons mingled with gold ornaments have, however, been discovered in the Heatheryburn Cave near Stanhope, Durham, as well as in those of Kirkhead in Cartmell, in Thor s Cave in Staffordshire, and the Cat Hole in Gower in Glamorganshire. In the Iberian penin sula the Cave of Cesareda, explored by Signer Delgado, in the valley of the Tagus, contained bronze articles, associated with broken and cut human bones, as well as those of domestic animals, rendering it probable that cannibalism was practised in early times in that region. Professor Busk believes, however, that the facts are insufficient to support the charge of cannibalism against the ancient Portuguese. Caves containing articles of iron, and therefore belong ing to that division of the prehistoric age, are so unimport ant that they do not deserve notice in this place. As man increased in civilization he preferred to live in bouses of his own building, and he no longer buried his dead in the natural sepulchres provided for him in the rock.