[p. xiii]
The call for a third edition of this volume has afforded me an opportunity not only to correct a number of minor errors in the illustrations and text, to which friendly reviewers and critics have called attention, but also to add an account of the Palaeolithic history of Spain and of the western region of northern Africa.
The relations of the ancient life of the Iberian Peninsula with that of Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco were at times very close indeed. In fact, the very characteristic industry known as the Capsian, which developed in North Africa during Upper Palaeolithic times, extended throughout southeastern Spain, the two regions constituting a single archaeologic province. The art of Alpera and Cogul, which in the earlier editions of this work was attributed to Neolithic times, belongs rather to the close of the Palaeolithic and was probably contemporary with the Capsian and Tardenoisian flint industry of these stations. It embraces hunting scenes with numerous human figures in silhouette, wholly distinct from the possibly contemporaneous Magdalenian art of the north.
Before perusing Chapter VI, which covers the close of the Upper Palaeolithic in France, the reader will therefore do well to turn to the new and extensive note in the Appendix describing this African life and industry. A clear understanding of the sources of the flint industry of Aurignacian times and also of the Tardenoisian flint industry and so-called Azilio-Tardenoisian culture described in Chapter VI will thus be gained.
Although the recent researches in Spain have greatly extended our knowledge, it is still to France that we turn for the most significant developments in the prehistory of Europe. Since the first publication of this work French archaeology has [p. xiv] suffered by the tragic death of Déchelette in the war; and also by a suspension of the wonderful course of discovery and research that marked the decade preceding the fateful year of 1914. Many problems—especially those discussed in the earlier chapters of this work—which might have been cleared up by further French research have remained untouched. For the same reason it would be premature to reconsider the chronologic succession of human types and geologic events which was provisionally proposed in the first edition of this work in 1915. We hope that brighter days are coming when science and art may be able to resume their peaceful paths, and that materials may then be gathered for a fourth edition of this work in which some, at least, of the many unanswered questions may be reconsidered in the light of further researches in the archaeology of France.
The anatomy of Palaeolithic man has been debated in a long discussion about the Piltdown Race, and even at this writing it is not finally agreed that the Piltdown jaw belongs with the Piltdown skull, because the new evidence brought forward by Dr. Smith Woodward, although strong, is not deemed entirely conclusive. This uncertainty is an instance not of the failure, of scientific inquiry, but of the general desire of scientists to accept only that which has been conclusively demonstrated and to keep on seeking for conclusive evidence. Similar uncertainty exists regarding the anatomy of the Brünn Race, to which no new contributions have been made. It is interesting to record the fact that Professor J. H. McGregor, whose models and restorations of Palaeolithic man included in the illustrations of this book have been so widely appreciated, is now making a special and intensive study of Paleolithic man which will no doubt be attended by important results. Similarly, another colleague of the author, Professor William K. Gregory, is studying anew the evolution of the anthropoid apes and other Primates, so that further light on the anatomy and evolution of primitive man may shortly be expected.
Henry Fairfield Osborn.
May 1st, 1918.