Cave Dwellers Of The Stone Age (1960)

A visit to a museum gives us the rare opportunity to learn about the life of prehistoric man more than 25,000 years ago. Parts of the story have come from the graves of these early men. Other parts can be told by the tools and weapons found in their cave dwellings. These primitive tools and weapons are many thousands of years old. It is through these uncovered objects that we have been able to form a picture of early man's life. As glaciers came down from the north, the climate became colder and man was forced to leave his forest home to seek shelter in caves. That is why we call him a cave man. The objects which this ancestor of man, the Neanderthal, has left give us clues about his life in the old stone age. Much time must have been spent preparing weapons for hunting, which was his principal activity. One of these weapons, the bola, made of stones and strips of hide, is still used by South American cowboys. The Neanderthal's struggle for survival must have been difficult. He knew nothing about growing food or of making pottery or weaving. What little he had he got from the killed animal. This man, short, stocky build with deep set eyes and heavy jaw, dared to attack wolves, foxes, wild horses, bison, and even the cave bear. By careful butchering, animals furnished him not only with food, but skins for clothing and tendons and bones for weapons. His living quarters were crude and appear to have lacked organization. Bones left over from past meals littered the floor of the cave. Because of such findings, scientists are fairly certain that the Neanderthal never attained a highly developed social organization. His cave home was also his workshop for tool making, and he already practiced the art of stonework with some skill. Using a stone as a hammer, he found that he could shape a lump of flint and also break bones. By chipping pieces of flint, he obtained the hard tools which he needed for cutting. The scrapers, knives, and spearheads which he probably attached to the ends of long sticks to kill his prey. This museum piece shows how long of practice taught the Neanderthal to skillfully detach flakes and flake blades from a core of flint. In this way, he was able to obtain many tools out of just one selected piece of flint, such as this one. But no one really knows how many thousands of years it took to develop the skill which produced all these influence. During this era, the glaciers retreated and the climate, though still harsh, became relatively drier and warmer. The Cro-Magnan man who appeared during this temperate interval looked much like man today. He depended upon animals for most of his food, probably following herds of wild animals. [screaming] Like his ancestors, he lived and hunted in groups. When a herd was cited, a band of men encircled the animals with the help of a brush fire which blocked one area of escape. Then they tried to turn the herd toward a natural barrier where the animals would be trapped and within reach of their spears. With the scouting completed, beaters with torches began to drive the game out into the open. As the animals approached, the hunter prepared to throw his spear. He did this with the help of a throwing device similar to those which are still being used by Eskimos and Australian aboriges. Back to his fire, he brought the kill. Reindeer, bison, horse, mammoth, and wild boar. The animals were butchered with sharp stone knives. Very little was wasted by the crow magnum. Besides the meat, the skin, tendons, bones, and even the antlers we used much of the time. The entire tribe followed the herds, and as was often customary among primitive people, women did much of the work by carrying the burdens from camp to camp. In front of them at some distance marched the hunters. As he wandered, always in search of food, the Crow Magnum supplemented his diet with food from the rivers. Women gathered a variety of animals and plant life out of the shallow water near the river's edge. They placed the food in sacks made from animal hides. Fishing was another important activity during this period. It is believed that hunters adapted their spearthrowers to serve as harpoons in catching fish. They probably attached their movable spears to a stick with animal tendons and in this way were able to recover the spear together with their catch. The name Crow Magnum comes from the Crow Magnuman cave in the Dodd Dona region of southwestern France where the first evidence of this race was discovered. The Crow Magnum's home in these limestone caves along the river banks, although still crude, appear to have been well organized. The Cromagnant people used animal bones to fuel their fires and always kept a small pile of them around the hearth ready for use. Close to the entrance where there was sunlight, women prepared the animal skins to be used for clothing. They learned to stitch by using sineu of tendon as thread and a pointed bone for punching holes into the hive. But before the skins were stitched together, they were softened and treated with the help of flint scrapers. These skins served as the Crow Magnum's only clothing, and several women working together prepared hides for the entire clan. Two or three skins stitched together made up a type of drapery which was strung across the entrance of the cave for shelter. Ends were attached through holes carved in the rocks. This drapery undoubtedly helped to keep the dwelling warm at night, but more important, it was probably used to discourage wild animals from wandering into the area. Crow Magnum hunters spent the daylight hours searching for food. Sometimes returning to the protection of their homes with game, sometimes empty-handed. It was then that bones were crushed on a stone plate to rekindle the fire on which the meal would be prepared. Cro-Magn man like his ancestor the Neanderthal did not have pottery but he knew how to produce a sack of leather which would hold water. He placed hot stones from the fire into this sack to boil water and in this way he was able to stew the roots and bulbs of plants which he ate with his meat. Animal flesh was cut up with stone knives and roasted on a stick over the flames. As darkness fell upon the cave, lamps carved out of stone and fueled with animal grease were lighted with fire from the hearth. The stone lamp provided the only source of light in the dark dwelling. But when the sun went down, the hearth fire was covered with large stones to conserve the heat. The necessity of keeping the fire going was of great importance to Cro-Magn man, for its heat and light played a dominant part in his life. The clan that shared a cave usually slept in a protected corner under blankets of skins or furs. Their beds for the night consisted of dried grass spread over the stones of the cave floor. And so it was in this way, day after day, from season to season, that Crow Magnum people managed to survive with some degree of success. Although they still didn't know how to grow food or spin yarn, they were increasingly skilled in hunting and fishing and had discovered the food value of many fruits and berries which enriched their diet. They also gathered nuts, the eggs of wild birds, and the tender roots of plants. The life of Cro-Magn was primitive and not without hardship, but it was not completely without joy, for he did have music. The hollowedout bone of a vulture became a kind of flute, and it is believed that he spent many happy hours listening to the magic sounds that came from this instrument. Flint continued to serve as the basis of his handiccraft and he further developed his knowledge of stonework with amazing skill. Using his primitive tools he made long blades minutely chiseled and finely sharpened. He had developed his chisels from the simple scrapers. With these chisels, he was able to whittle the bones and especially the antlers of reindeer. Archaeologists uncovered many finely chiseled handles made from antlers and numerous arrowheads and spears. Cro-Magn evidently had many kinds of tools and weapons. The shape of the stone often indicated its use. A hammer, scraper, spearhead, cleaver, chisel, axe, or pick. His spear handles were at first made out of wood, but he learned that bones were easily carved and were more durable. By using fire, he found that he could shape the bones to better serve as spear handles. Scientific expeditions have uncovered many kinds of prehistoric objects. Needles, spear throwers, harpoons, and even statues. The Cro-Magn also began to shape the human figure in bone. Further testimony of Cro-Magn's creative ability has been preserved in the deep recesses of some of these caves in France. With great skill, this man of the old stone age left a record of his life on the cave walls, the earliest recorded history. The artwork of the cave dwellers is believed to have a religious origin and a definite pattern. A sign or symbol usually marks the approach to the sanctuary. The path to these almost inaccessible corridors sometimes leads through long passages decorated with stelactites and stelagmites. From there, the path leads to the large drawings surrounded by longforgotten signs. Occasionally figures are superimposed one over the other. A lion, a horse, and a deer. New drawings were apparently added as time went on. Cave artists of that time first discovered that manganese made black marks on the walls. Then it is thought that they discovered iron ores which added color to their drawings. In this way, they expressed themselves and perhaps even communicated with each other. Among the many signs are found hand marks which are stencled outlines with mutilated fingers as well as many horses. Their skillful artwork tells us of the many kinds of animals that lived during this period. The horse, the reindeer, there were also wild cattle and bison. The drawings also tell of their constant struggle for survival. Here, a cave artist is shown a bison attacking a hunter. Through these drawings and by the skeletons and the tools and weapons that we see today in museums, archaeologists have been able to piece together the story of the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnan man and their way of life. It is a story that goes back many thousands of years before written history. But even though it has been some 10,000 years since the Cro-Magnet man disappeared from Europe, he is still important today. For it was his primitive discoveries, his amazing artwork, his skill and knowledge that form a link between the beginnings of man and the world of today.