Neolithic, or the Age of Polished Stone.— The notion formerly prevalent that there was a sudden clearing away of Paleolithic men and things, and an equally sudden supersession of Neolithic people and culture, has been aban doned before the progress of information. Men in different parts of the world have always ad vanced toward better conditions at an unequal pace; and in most cases, as, for example, our North American Indians, who at the time of their discovery by Europeans were in the Neo lithic stage, no evidence can be found of just how or when the advanced step was taken. In southern Europe, where circumstances favor a clearer local understanding of prehistory, it appears probable that between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago strangers began to filter in from the eastward along the Mediterranean shores, and to settle in selected spots; and that this process went on —not always peacefully, we may imagine—until the inferior occupiers of the land had been displaced, or absorbed and educated, and the superior culture was generally established—a matter probably of a few cen turies. These immigrant conquerors, who brought with them new arts of life, and dis possessed the wandering hunters, introduced in western Europe the Neolithic Age. Whether a similar conquest or a more peaceful process of intellectual development produced the same re sult in other parts of the world remains to be discovered. In the earlier part of their history, at least, the Neolithic men continued to make and use strong hatchets, picks, flake-knives, etc., of flint and quartz, but the patterns were more serviceable; and they introduced an entirely new article in the stout axe, the chisel-like 'cell,' and other tools made of granite, jasper and other tough rocks, and formed by hammering, grinding, and then, often, polishing. This is the distinctive mark of the Neolithic period, but other dstinctive innovations followed, of which the most important, socially, perhaps, was the of pottery. They had the rudiments of agriculture, had domesticated the dog and ox and pig, refused to hunt horses for food but captured and tamed them; and to carry on these domestic industries they were settled in defen sive houses and villages, an excelllent idea of which may be had from the remains of their lacustrine towns (see LAKE-DwRix.rts) in
Switzerland and Italy. This article may fitly be dosed by a comprehensive extract from Boyd Dawkins's standard work