The Arctic Home in the Vedas c4.17

c4.17

Various estimates have been made regarding the time of the commencement of the Neolithic age, but the oldest date assigned does not exceed 5000 B. C., a time when flourishing empires existed in Egypt and Chaldea. These estimates are based on the amount of silt which has been found accumulated in some of the smaller lakes in Switzerland since the lake-dwellers of the Neolithic period built their piled villages therein. The peat-mosses of Denmark afford means for another estimate of the early Neolithic period in that country. These mosses are formed in the hollows of the glacial drift into which trees have fallen and become gradually converted into peat in course of time. There are three successive periods of vegetation in these peat-beds, the upper one of beech, the middle one of oak, and the lowest of all, one of fir. These changes in the vegetation are attributed to slow changes in the climate and it is ascertained from implements and remains found in these beds, that the Stone age corresponds mainly with that of Fir and partly with that of Oak, while the Bronze age agrees mainly with the period of Oak, and the Iron with that of Beech. It has been calculated that about 16,000 years will be required for the formation of these peat-mosses, and according to this estimate we shall have to place the commencement of the Neolithic age in Denmark, the lowest, not later than 10,000 years ago.