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 THE PREHISTORIC AND PRIMITIVE ORNAMENT. 
  ivided according to the periods of deve 
 ~ lopment during which it existed Prehis 
 11 ~ tone Ornament extends over two great 
 ~ epochs : the Stone Age and the Metal 
 ~w ~ Age. It is, however, characteristic not 
  ~ alone of all peoples who lived on the 
   ~ ~1, )~ - .~ ' ~ ~ ~1. earth in Prehistoric times, peoples sepa 
  '  ,s~ ~ , ~ : ~ rated '  by thousands of years from each 
'     ~ ~: . ~ other, but even of people who exist at 
 -  ~ ~-~--~-~--. the present day. We find the Prehistoric 
   Stonerelief from Yucatan Ornament not only amongst the remains 
           (Globus 1884). of those races of people who lived along 
  the Mediterranean over 6ooo years ago, 
 but also the primitive ornament amongst different people who inhabit cer
 tain parts of the earth at present but who have not yet advanced beyond
 that stage of civilisation to which this style of Ornament is peculiar.
    The Prehistoric ornament embraces two periods: the Stone Age and 
 the Metal Age. 
    The Stone Age is generally supposed to have begun at the end 
 of the last period of the Tertiary Age, distinct proofs place it at the
 last epoch of the Diluvian Era. During the Paleolithic or Ancient Stone
 Age, stone was habitually used as the material from which tools were 
 made; in the Neolithic or later Stone Age the tools were polished and 
 given an artistic form, and vessels made of clay decorated with simple 
 ornamentations were manufactured. Lake dwellings, the burying of the 
 dead in caves, middens, barrows, cromlechs, and other numerous Mega 
 lithic monuments, the use and purpose of which are still matter of specu
 lation, are all characteristic of this era. In the course of time these
 early inhabitants arrived at a stage of development which enabled them