The First Men in the World (Landmark Series, No.W-1)

by Anne Terry White Author

How old is man? Where did he come from? The answer to these questions and many others were found in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the age of discovery. One day a Spanish Don and his small daughter were exploring the caves on his estate when the child came running. "Bulls!" she cried in terror. On the ceiling in the adjoining cave were painted, in glorious color, pictures of the bulls. And in 1912 three brothers, sons of a French count, found drawings of animals on the wall of a cave. In another they found a great stone block on which were two statues of bison modeled in clay – the oldest statue in the world! These discoveries in France and Spain had been preceded by others. In 1828, a Frenchman found a stone hatchet in a pile of dirt, and established the fact that men had existed before the Ages of Bronze and Iron. In 1856, the discovery in Germany of a skeleton now known as the Neanderthal Man, and in 1892 in the Orient of another, now known as the Ape Man of Java, confirmed the Frenchman's theory. Then in 1899, in the interior of China, the Peking man was found. Step by fascinating step Mrs. White portrays man emerging from the jungle onto the plain, taking the big step upward in his long climb from prehistoric night toward the light of civilization. Beautifully written, and accurate in detail, this exceptionally fine book is a splendid introduction to the general history of mankind. Illustrated by Aldren Watson