Page 221 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

8 SAMAGRA TILAK- 2 • THE ARC riC HOME

This shows that the progress of civilization was slow in some and
rapid in other places, the rate of progress varying according to the
local circumstances of each place. Broadly speaking, however,
the three periods of Stone, Bronze and Iron may be taken to
represent the three stages of civilization anterior to the historic
period.
Of these three different ages the oldest or the stone age is
further divided into the Palreolithic and the Neolithic period, or
the old and the new Stone age. The distinction is based upon the
fact that the stone implements of the Palreolithic age are found to
be very rudely fashioned, being merely chipped into shape and
never ground or polished as is the case with the implements
of the new Stone age. Another characteristic of the Palreolithic
period is that the implements of the period are found in places
which plainly show a much greater antiquity than can be assigned
to the remains of the Neolithic age, the relics of the two ages
being hardly, if ever, found together. The third distinction between
the Palreolithic and the Neolithic age is that the remains of
the Palreolithic man are found associated with those of many great
mammals, such as the cave bear, the mammoth and wooly-haired
rhinoceros that became either locally or wholly extinct before the
appearance of the Neolithic man on the stage. In short, there
is a kind of hiatus or break between the Palreolithic and Neolithic
man requiring a separate classification and treatment for each.
It may also be noted that the climatic conditions and the distribu-
tion of land and water in the Palreolithic period were different
from those in the Neolithic period; while from the beginning of
the Neolithic period the modern conditions, both geographical
and climatic, have prevailed almost unaltered upto the present time.
To understand the relation of these three ages within the
geological periods into which the history of the earth is divided
we must briefly consider the geological classification. The geologist
takes up the history of the earth at the point where the archreologist
leaves it, and carries it further back into remote antiquity. His
classification is based upon an examination of the whole system
of stratified rocks and not on mere relics found in the surface
strata. These stratified rocks have been divided into five principal
classes according to the character of the fossils found in them, and
they represent five different periods in the histOiy of our-planet.
These geological eras like the three ages of Stone, Bronze and Iron,