What is man? / by J. Arthur Thomson.

  • John Arthur Thomson
Date:
[1923]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: What is man? / by J. Arthur Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    29/264 (page 13)
    calls for special remark—the splendid Cro-Magnon race. First found in Wales, afterwards in France, the Cro-Magnon people were remarkable in two ways—for their stature and for their art. The skeleton of an old man is a little over 6 feet 4 inches in height. The skeleton of a woman is 5 feet 5 inches, a little above the average to-day, but her cranial cavity exceeds that, of the average modern man. The Cro-Magnon physique seems to have been magnificent, suggestive of the Sikhs or some types of Central Asia. There are no beetling brows, and there is a prominent chin. But the other feature is their artistic skill, as dis- played in the sculpture, engraving, and painting found on the walls of caves in the Dordogne region, the Pyrenees, and North Spain. These are chiefly repre- sentations of animals, and show that a high excellence had been attained in the Upper Palaeolithic, in all probability 25-30,000 years ago. But the Cro-Magnon race seems to have declined mysteriously, like so many others, though there are hints of them still among inhabitants of the Dordogne. Very different from the Cro-Magnons is the Grimaldi type of Upper Palaeolithic men, best represented by the skeletons of a woman and a boy in the Grotte des Enfants, near Mentone. Some of the features have been regarded as negroid—the low narrow skull, the flattened nose, the prominent teeth, and the poor chin ; and it is possible that the Grimaldi men were invaders from North Africa who got a hold on Southern Europe