EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY
OF SCIENTI
y of tools and weapons. They were practical botanists, able to distinguish different plants and to cultivate them for food. They were close students of animal life and expert hunters and fishers. They knew how to producG AND M
rigin of the decimal system. The simplest, and probably the earliest, measures of length are those based on various parts of the body. Some of our Indian tribes, for instance, employed the double ar
OF TIME; T
. Twelve lunar months give us the lunar year of about three hundred and fifty-four days. In order to adapt such a year to the different seasons, the practice arose of inserting a thirteenth month from time to time. Such awkward calendars were
or the beginning of the Bronze Age. The outer circle measures 300 feet in circumference; the inner circle, 106 feet. The
AWING AN
eros, which have since disappeared, and among many others, such as the lion and hippopotamus, which now exist only in warmer climates. Armed with clubs, flint axes, and horn daggers
D OF A GIRL (Musée
ng girl carved from m
cave deposits belongin
mewhat after the early
mouth alone
ion: PREHI
ON A TUSK FOUND
DRAWN ON
ED ON THE W
THE WALL OF A
an aurochs-later h
oothed tiger draggin
ainous mammoth hai
he bore them scribing
LIN
ARCHIT
ch are found in various parts of the Old World from England to India. They also erected enormous stone pillars, known a
of art. Recent discoveries in Egypt, Greece, Italy, and other lands indicate that
chambered tomb formed by laying one long stone over several other stones set upr
tion: CAR
Aveyron, a department
CE OF PREH
tists. Our survey of the origins of art shows us that in this field, as