THE RACES OF EUROPE

BROAD-HEADED CRANIA OF NEANDERTHALOID INSPIRATION

Fig. 10. Afalou #12. Afalou bou Rummel, Algeria. Early *Oranian.

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Fig. 11. Hvellinge #1. Sweden Mesolithic.

Fig. 12. Fjelkinge, Skane, Sweden. Neolithic.

Redrawn to scale: Fig. 10, from Boule, M., Vallois, H., and Verneau, R., AIPH, Mem. 13,1934, Plate 13. Fig. 11, from Aichel, O., Der deutsche Mensch, Plate 17; also Kossinna, G., Ursprung und Verhreitung der Indogermanen, Fig. 134, p. 123. Fig. 12, from Retzius G., Crania Suecica Antiqua, Plates 39-40.

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MESOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC CRANIA OF MEDITERRANEAN TYPES

Fig. 13. Muge, Portugal. Late Mesolithic or Earliest Neolithic.

Fig. 14. Long Barrow, British Neolithic.

Fig. 15. Corded from Gotland, Neolithic.

Redrawn to scale: Fig, 13, from Vallois, H., Anth, vol. 40, 1930, Fig. 2, p. 344. Fig. 14, from Crania Britanmca, vol. 2, Plate 59. Fig. 15, from Kossinna, G., Ursprmg und Verbreitung der Indogermanen, Fig. 102, p. 90.

THE MESOLITHIC PERIOD

(1) THE HISTORICAL SETTING

The Mesolithic cultural period, which follows the final Palaeolithic in Europe, is wholly post-Pleistocene in that continent, and extends roughly from immediately post-glacial time to 3000 B.C. and later.

The Mesolithic manner of living was primarily similar to that of the Upper Palaeolithic. People still relied on hunting and the gathering of wild vegetable products for food, and the population must have remained as sparse as ever. Man had acquired but one domestic animal—the dog, which may have helped in hunting, but which was not bred for eating, and hence served as only an indirect source of food. The Mesolithic econ­omy was, therefore, a prolongation of the Upper Palaeolithic system into relatively recent times; in the technical sense, however, there were certain improvements; with the introduction of microliths composite weapons were made; dugout canoes furnished good water transportation, and tree- felling axes must have made the building of adequate houses possible. The forerunners of the textile arts were probably developed to permit the manufacture and use of fish nets, good basketry, and matting.

The cultures of the Mesolithic period in Europe may be divided into two elements of different origins, which in many regions met and blended. One was the intrusive Tardenoisian with its advanced microlithic tech­nique, which came in from the south across the straits of Gibraltar, and perhaps around the eastern end of the Mediterranean.¹ These migrations into Europe from the south were caused by climatic shifts incident upon the final glacial retreat. As the glacier moved northward to take up its last stand in the high Scandinavian land-mass, the erstwhile well-watered and temperate belts of North Africa and the Near East suffered a gradual desiccation. As the rain-belt moved northward, zones of temperate and sub-tropical climate shifted from Africa to southern and central Europe, and the climate of Europe became warmer in early post-glacial times than it is at present. The people who brought the elements of the Tardenoisian complex northward had been accustomed to hunting on open grasslands before their arrival in Europe, and they, therefore, settled in sandy regions

¹ Clarke mentions this second route as a possibility. Clarke, J. G. D., The Mesolithic Settlement oj Northern Europe, pp. xiv-xv.

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