BOOK REVIEWS

PREHISTORY AND PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

The Antiqitity of Man. SIR ARTHUR KEITH. 2 vols, 753 pp., 266 ills. New and enlarged edition, completely revised and reset. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott, 1925.

The first edition of this work appeared as one volume in 1915. I n ten years much has been learned concerning man’s antiquity and much of this added knowledge receives treatment in the new edition. The new matter is covered by seven new chapters as follows: 11. Neolithic Communities in Crete, Egypt and Babylonia, V. Con- tinental types of Man during the Later Paleolithic Periods; XVIII. Malta and the Land-Bridge to Africa; XIX. Ancient Man in South Africa; XX. Rhodesi,an Man; XXI. The Face and Status of Rho- desian Man; and, XXIII. The Wadjak and Talgai Men. Four of the old chapters have been renamed,

The author’s approach remains practically the same but the theories which he upheld in the first edition have been very much modified to conform with the trend of recent developments in the field of man’s .antiquity. While “interested in abstract problem of man’s origin and antiquity” he is “more directly concerned with the concrete question of the origin and antiquity of men of our own type.’’ Where and when did the European type of man come into existence? Sir Arthur believes that “all indications point to the East as his evolutionary cradle,” but he adds: So far the oldest human remains found in Egypt and Mesopotamia are of people who differ from the present inhabitants of these lands in matters of detail only.

I n the first edition, much emphasis was placed on the evidence deduced from such finds as the skeletal remains from Galley Hill and the Ipswich skeleton. Most authorities were then of the opinion that full-blown modern man made his advent into Europe in the latter third of the Pleistocene Epoch; they believed this to have been his first appearance in that region. Sir Arthur attempted to prove that this was not his first but his second appearance. He now admits that the recently accumulated evidence does not favor the contention he then held. To quote his own words:

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1 have expected, during these past ten years that remains of the modern type of man would be found under circumstances which would prove their early Pleistocene Age. No discovery of the kind has been made. Nay, one of the discoveries on which I leaned-that of the Ipswich skeleton-has given way

. . . .Then other evidence on which I relied to prove the permanency of the modern type-to prove how resistant it is to evolutionary change-has given way.

That is to say, the Egyptians have not bred true to type for 6000 years as he had supposed; neither is the English Neolithic type the same a s the modern English type.

The author’s view regarding the duration of the Pleistocene Epoch has also suffered a change: he has reduced it from 400,000 to 200,000 years; in fact he sees no objection to reducing again by one-half. He admits that

all the early Pleistocene men, who are beyond question of that date, are more brutal, more simian, than the Galley Hill man.

In other words, so far as Pleistocene man is concerned, evolution has proceeded at a more rapid pace than he had previously thought. He even seems willing to give up his last stronghold-Galley Hill- for he concludes

it becomes easier to doubt this evidence than to believe that human evolution ever becomes stationary.

Still another reason has led Sir Arthur to alter his conception of the rapidity and manner of man’s physical evolution, and this has to do with the law of uniform or collateral evolution which has a wider significance than he had formerly supposed. Such a law implies that species descended from a common ancestral stock may assume simultaneously characters which the ancestral stock did not possess.

The author believes that migration has played only the most minor part in shaping man’s physical evolution.

We have to presume, until we can prove to the contrary, that each racial type has been evolved in that part of the world where now we find it, and we have to apply this rule not only to living races but to extinct and fossil races of mankind.

Rhodesian man comes in for special treatment, especially so far as structural make-up is concerned. His just place seems to be in the modern stem soon after this stem had broken away from the Neanderthal line. , . .He stands to the modern type in almost the same relationship as Heidelberg man does to Neanderthal man.

420 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S . , 28, 1926

Regarding early man in the new world, Sir Arthur has seen no evidence to lead us to suppose that any race preceded the American Indian. He does not think the primitive nature of Hesperopilhecus, recently described by Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn as a high form of Pliocene Anthropoid, can be upheld.

The text and illustrations of the two volumes axe practically confined to the story of man’s organic evolution, as seen through the eyes of an anatomist; in this field Sir Arthur is a master. His illustra- tions of skulls are for the most part profile and full-face views. Each is set in a standard frame which bounds the chief limits (diame- ters) of a modern Englishman’s skull of mean size. His orientation of the skull is not in harmony either with the horizontal plane of the Frankfort Agreement or with that of Broca-the two horizontal planes recommended by the Committee of the last International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archaeology.

GEORGE GRANT MACCURDY

Der diluviale Mensch in Europa. F. BIRKNER. Innsbruck: Ver- lagsanstalt Tyrolia, 1925: 148 pp., 2 pls., 278 figs. 3rd. edition. This neatly printed little book will serve as an admirable intro-

duction for the lay reader or student who wishes to familiarize himself rapidly with the results of prehistoric research in Europe. The specialist will probably be attracted more particularly by the second chapter, which deals with “Die Kultur des diluvialen Men- schen in Mittleleuropa,” following the more general treatmen€ of Pleistokene culture and preceding a discussion of the spiritual (geistigen) characteriuics of early man as revealed by a r t activities and burial customs. The final chapter is devoted to cranial and skeletal remains. Professor Birkner is eminently conservative in his judgments, and the value of his exposition is greatly enhanced by numerous good illustrations.

ROBERT H. LOWIE

The Axe Age;d Study in British Prehistory. T. D. KENDRICK. London, Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1925. 174 pp., 19 ills. (Price 6s net.) This rather original work deals with the cultural advance from

Paleolithic hunting to Neolithic farming, particularly in Great Britain. Kendrick undertakes the thesis that the Neolithic complex