Chapter 6: The Prehistoric Beginnings of Civilization
– Paleolithic Culture
– Neolithic Culture
– The Transition to History
In this section, we are reminded by how many discoveries of the past 90 or so years have revised our understanding of our ancient past. The family tree of Homo Sapiens has likewise undergone much revision. Also, Durant acknowledges that he is only skimming the surface on prehistoric man – the necessary cost of such a broad endeavor is the simplification that opens one to criticism by more narrow experts. So it goes.
Durant again suggests a ‘heartbeat’ of history, this time in our prehistory, and he hints at bursts of progress between the four ice ages of the past 500,000 years, and implies some contraction and stagnation during them. And he cautions against the conclusion that the evidence transmitted to us through the millennia is representative of those ancient civilizations. “Like the Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon men are known to us as “cave-men,” because their remains are found in caves; but there is no proof that these were their sole dwelling place; it may be again but a jest of time that only those of them who lived in caves, or died in them, have transmitted their bones to archeologists.” (SoC, 92)
All the elements of civilization, save writing and the state, are present in our evidence of the old stone age (characterized by unpolished stone tools). And it appeared, even in Durant’s time, that tools, fire, painting, and sculpture were created not just by Sapiens, but by Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon as well. Those who discovered old stone age cave paintings in the 19th century were routinely accused of hoax or worse, their discoveries only being verified after their own passing. The paintings themselves, dating to around 16,000 BC, appear to be of mature and refined technique, evidence that art was not new, but was well-developed at the time. And that is just the paintings we have found, and the strokes that survived the ages. “Will Leonardo’s Last Supper, or El Greco’s Assumption, bear up as well as these Cro-Magnon paintings after twenty thousand years?” (SoC, 97).
The whole interpretation of history as progress falters when we consider that these statues, bas-reliefs, and paintings, numerous though they are, may be but an infinitesimal fraction of the art that expressed or adorned the life of primeval man. What remains is found in caves, where the elements were in some measure kept at bay; it does not follow that prehistoric men were artists only when they were in caves. They may have carved as sedulously and ubiquitously as the Japanese, and may have fashioned statuary as abundantly as the Greeks… They may have created masterpieces far superior to the fragments that survive.
SoC 97
Polished stone tools mark the transition to the Neolithic age around 10,000 BC in Asia and 5,000 BC in Europe. First discovered in trash mounds throughout Europe, they were accompanied by evidence of a thriving culture. Discovered first in Switzerland and later throughout the world, including modern civilizations, lake-dwellers, living on pile-dwellings, ate over 120 kinds of fruit. Appearing around the same time is a rock-carving depicting a plow pulled by two oxen. The new stone age marked one of the two most significant transitions in our history – from hunting to agriculture. It also shows the first evidence of domestication of animals, starting with our most faithful companion, the dog (around 8000 BC), then sheep, pigs, cows, and finally the horse.
The Neolithic also provides the first evidence of large-scale building and mining: pulleys, levers, grindstones, awls, pincers, axes, ladders, hinges. 10,000 years ago in Belgium, a miner was crushed by a falling rock; his pick remained clasped in his hands 100 centuries later. The Lake-dwellers used mortise and tenon joinery. Semi-precious stones were traded across long distances.
The coming of metals, copper, bronze, and iron, accompanied writing as we transition to recorded history. Here, the old terms copper-age, bronze-age, and iron-age have little meaning in terms of time, as they were ushered in (and sometimes skipped altogether) at different times in different locations. Writing progressed from pictorial representation of thoughts, to symbolic representation of syllables, and finally to symbols representing the first sound of the syllable. The Semitic names of the first two symbols gave us the word alphabet; the Phoenicians didn’t invent it, but did market it to the Mediterranean world and established a brand that has lasted perhaps 5000 years.
In undertaking a Story of Civilization, Durant recognized that his Story likely includes only a small minority of civilizations that have existed. Stories of lost civilizations abound in every culture and mythology. Some of them were certainly different and probably exceeded those we have discovered.
As Durant was writing, there was vigorous debate about where to locate the ‘cradle of civilization.’ Since Napoleon’s time, it had been assumed to be Egypt. In Durant’s the case was being made for Mesopotamia. One hundred years from now, it may very well be different, and older. Time conceals; and time may or may not tell.