Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/239

13, 1885.] problem, many refused to admit the human origin of the flints; among them John Evans, whose competency to pronounce an opinion cannot be questioned. Of those who believed them to be the work of men, some thought that they were of more recent origin than the beds in which they were found. In their judgment, the flints came from the surface, and had been washed by floods into crevices previously existing in the miocene clays. Thus the question was practically left in the same condition in which it stood before: the sanguine believed that the existence of the tertiary man had been demonstrated, while the cautious waited for further evidence. We do not find in the report any thing essential added to the abstracts of the various arguments that have been previously published; and the editor apologizes for not having given any figures of the particular objects that served as the basis for discussion, on the ground, that, as Ribeiro had not made the necessary selection, he feared to do it himself, lest he might by chance omit some capital piece of evidence.

Many important papers in various departments of archeology, read before the congress, are here given at length, of which we have only space to allude to a few, especially such as relate to the antiquities of Portugal.

The publication of the careful account of the researches of Sen. Vasconcellos in the valley of the Douro, with the accompanying plates, will have a tendency to add Portugal to the list of the countries of Europe in which the quaternary gravels have yielded human implements. The objects found consist of a number of very rude quartzites of the St. Acheul type, which, however, some of the members refused to admit to be artificial at all. Thus far, no organic remains have been found accompanying them in this locality; but in a cavern at Furninha, near Peniche, on Cape Carvoeiro, Sen. Delgado has discovered a deposit of quaternary gravel, which had been introduced by a natural opening in the roof, and in this he found a fragment of a lower human jaw, together with a fine specimen of a flint axe of the St. Acheul type. These are all the instances given of the discovery of vestiges of the quaternary man in Portugal, although Sen. Ribeiro, in his opening address, alludes to them as having been made in the valley of the Tagus, in the district of Alemtejo, and near Coimbra.

One of the most interesting papers is Sen. Delgado's methodical and lucid narrative of his exploration of the cavern of Furninha, and of the discoveries made in itpertaining to the neolithic period. Great quantities of human bones were found, and many of them were broken, as if to extract the marrow, and calcined, precisely like those of animals used for food; so that the explanation of cannibalism at once suggests itself. But as pottery, polished stone axes, and other implements and ornaments were also found with them, Cartailhac stoutly maintained the theory that the cavern had been used as a place of sepulture. Although cannibalism has undoubtedly been practised by many modern savage races, its existence among the prehistoric peoples of western Europe is much disputed. An animated discussion upon this point, and a reference of the facts and arguments to a commission of experts, resulted in about an equal division of opinion.

Sen. Ribeiro gave an account of his exploration of kitchen-middens situated on the southern bank of the Tagus, about forty miles above Lisbon. The largest covered an area of some three hundred feet by a hundred and eighty, and was about twenty-one feet thick in its deepest part. The most remarkable circumstance connected with it was the discovery, in this restricted space, of no less than a hundred and twenty human skeletons, without any of the usual objects that accompany prehistoric interments. Not a trace of pottery was found, and such implements as were met with were of the rudest description, made of quartzite or flint and bone. Many bones of animals were scattered throughout the mass, but none of domestic animals except the dog. Like the kitchen-middens of Denmark, these seem to belong to the very beginning of the neolithic period. The study of the crania found in them, shows, according to Quatrefages, a type quite distinct from that of Cro-Magnon.

An entertaining paper by Sen. Pedroso gives an account of certain popular forms and customs in reference to marriage, still lingering in out-of-the-way villages in Portugal, which seem directly traceable to the ancient practices of polyandry and marriage by force.

The recent discoveries by Dr. Prunières in la Lozere, of several sepulchral caverns containing bones, in some of which stone arrow-heads are still embedded, are briefly noted. As the crania are all purely dolichocephalic, it is a fair inference that we have here proof of a struggle between the early race of Cro-Magnon and a brachycephalic, neolithic race of dolmen-builders who were acquainted with the use of the bow, since the arrow-heads precisely resemble those found in the dolmens.

We regret that we have no space to allude