Something has broken into the long lethargy of his
primitive career, and set him upon a progressive path. Let us see
if a careful review of the stages of his culture confirms the
natural supposition that this "something" was the fall in the
earth's temperature, and how it may have affected him.
CHAPTER XX. THE DAWN OF CIVILISATION
The story of man before the discovery of metal and the attainment
of civilisation is notoriously divided into a Palaeolithic (Old
Stone) Age, and a Neolithic (New Stone) Age. Each of these ages
is now subdivided into stages, which we will review in
succession. But it is important to conceive the whole story of
man in more correct proportion than this familiar division
suggests. The historical or civilised period is now computed at
about ten thousand years. The Neolithic Age, which preceded
civilisation, is usually believed to be about four or five times
as long, though estimates of its duration vary from about twenty
to a hundred thousand years. The Palaeolithic Age in turn is
regarded as at least three or four times as long as the
Neolithic; estimates of time vary from a hundred to five hundred
thousand years.
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