Page:The history of Little England beyond Wales and the non-Kymric colony settled in Pembrokeshire.pdf/38

12 CHAPTER II.

THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD.

No Commingling of Blood between Men of the First and Second Stone Age — Appearance of Neolithic Man — Improvement in Implements — Earth Movement in Progress during Neolithie Times — Remains found in Cornwall and Carmarthenshire — Did Man in Pembrokeshire during Neolithic Times Dwell on Land which is now Submerged — Flint Flake from Whitesand Bay — Ox Skull from Wiserman’s Dridge — Irish Elk from Pendine — Raised Beaches at Manorbier, Tenby, Caldy Island, &c. — Cliff Castles — Hut Circles — Caves — The Little Hoyle — Kitchen Midden on Giltar — Flint Factories — Finds of Implements — How did Neolithic Man in Pembrokeshire dispose of his Dead? — His Long Barrows — Cromlechs — Stone Avenues, Alignments, Monolithe and Circles — Habits of Neolithic Men.

WE cannot tell how, or why, Palæolithic man left Britain, nor can we say how long (if at all) the land lay uninhabited. We know not who followed him; but there is no evidence as to the intervention of any race before that which is known indifferently as Silurian, Iberian, or Neolithic. It is pretty clear there was no intermingling of blood between these people and Palæolithic man. We must bear in mind that during the period which intervened between these two races, the configuration of land and water, and the climate of North-western Europe, were revolutionized. Palæolithic man left Britain an arctic corner of the continent of Europe; Neolithic man found it a peninsula, if not an island, with a climate much resembling that which it now enjoys. The Neolithic men were no petty clan, for they colonized part of Asia, Northern Africa, and the whole of Europe.

During the long period of their supremacy they maintained an equal, unprogressive stage of culture. They were not members of that great Aryan family from which nearly all the nations of modern Europe spring; indeed, with the exception of a few outlying fragments surviving from this priscan stock, all Europeans are of one blood, the exceptions being Basques, Magyars, Finns, and some of the people of South Wales. In person these allophylians were short, with dusky complexions, and black curly hair growing on their long, narrow heads. Professor Busk estimates the stature of the Neolithic dead (buried in the sepulchral caves of Perthi Chwareu, and in the chambered tomb at Cefn) at a maximum of 5 ft. 6in., and a minimum of 4 ft. 10 in. Professor Rolleston after his immense experience in the measurement of crania concluded that the brain power of the male and female Neoliths was nearly equal. The Neolithic people had advanced as far in civilization when they first appeared on the scene as they had done when driven from it by the metal working Aryans. They tilled the soil, and sowed it with wheat, barley, oats, and rye; bred domestic animals, the ox, horse, sheep, goat and dog; wove cloth and made pottery ; but they were far behind their predecessors in artistic feeling. Like the men of the Pleistocene period they were unacquainted with the art of fusing metals; but had greatly improved on the stone implements. Palæolithic man simply chipped out an ovate form, sharpening the lesser end, and held the broader one in his hand dagger-wise. Neolithic man first chipped out his celt much in the same fashion as his predecessor had done, but then ground it all over to an