church--Councils--Heretics--Paganism--Theodosius.




CHAPTER I

THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION

PREHISTORIC ARCHÆOLOGY


=Prehistoric Remains.=--One often finds buried in the earth, weapons,
implements, human skeletons, débris of every kind left by men of whom
we have no direct knowledge. These are dug up by the thousand in all
the provinces of France, in Switzerland, in England, in all Europe;
they are found even in Asia and Africa. It is probable that they exist
in all parts of the world.

These remains are called prehistoric because they are more ancient
than written history. For about fifty years men have been engaged in
recovering and studying them. Today most museums have a hall, or at
least, some cases filled with these relics. A museum at
Saint-German-en-Laye, near Paris, is entirely given up to prehistoric
remains. In Denmark is a collection of more than 30,000 objects. Every
day adds to the discoveries as excavations are made, houses built, and
cuts made for railroads.

These objects are not found on the surface of the ground, but
ordinarily buried deeply where the earth has not been disturbed. They