Herbert Norris - Ancient European Costume and Fashion

The people of this period constituted a fifth race of mankind, of moderate stature and slender proportions. Those who resided on the western side of the island now known as Great Britain were dark, and of the Iberian type. Those on the eastern side were fair, and very like the Gauls ( see ).

. A man of the Palolithic Age (first race)

. A man of the same (second race)

rig. 3. A man of the same (fourth race)

. A man of the Neolithic Age

Arms and weapons . Flints and other hard stones, worked into fine points and edges by a process of chipping, formed the spear-heads and knife-blades with which these prehistoric warriors fought their adversaries and hunted their prey.

The spear-heads were bound by thongs of hide to strong wooden poles. Axe-heads, with holes for their hafts, were treated in the same way. The knife-blades had holes worked into them, and were fastened to wooden or bone handles by wooden pegs ( see ).

Javelin-heads were made of horn, either with smooth, sharp edges finishing in a point, or barbed in several places. These were bound to poles by threads of sinew.

Bows and arrows were extensively used, especially in the chase. Arrow-heads were very skilfully shaped out of flint and bone, with grooves for fastening them on to the shafts. It is even suggested that these people poisoned their arrows, as grooves, apparently for that purpose, have been found in some of them.

In the later Stone Age, spear-heads, knife-blades, and so forth, were no longer sharpened merely by chipping, but by grinding, and finished off with a polish, and were made in various technically perfect forms. Suitable handles were regarded as especially important, and the stone implements were provided with a hole, notch or groove for fixing.

Dwellings. This race made dwellings by digging pits. The earth was thrown up all round, forming a small breastwork. In the centre of the pit a stout upright, or branch of a tree, was raised, and this supported other branches, radiating from the centre to the top of the mound to form a roof, which was covered or thatched with bracken, twigs, etc., and often covered with earth. From the outside these pit-huts had the appearance of molehills. The burying places (tumuli) were similar in outward appearance. The more important tumuli enclosed chambers built of colossal blocks of stone piled one upon another, and these were the temples, as well as the burying places, of these prehistoric people. The admirable construction of these tumuli proves that the builders of the time were little less dexterous than the Egyptians in transporting and piling masses of stone.