The habitations of man in all ages of the world’s history
At first man built twig huts in trees, but becoming better matched with his animal foes he took to caves and underground habitations. Our illustration of the latter shows a section through the soil. Lake dwellings marked a distinct advance. Other varieties of primitive habitations are the leaf hut, the tents of skin, the mud hut, and the beehive hut of stone. Roman villas are still models of beauty. American “skyscrapers” are peculiar to our time; but all early forms of dwellings, while marking progress, have existed contemporaneously throughout history.
The first wanderers of the earth - Tribal migration in prehistoric times
From the painting of “Cain” by Ferdinand Cormon
Vivid scenes of ancient life depicted by contemporary artists
The walls of the tombs in Egypt form a great picture gallery of the vanished life of that country and are invaluable to the historian. This fragment from the British Museum shows how vividly the domestic figures were realised.
Ancient Egypt’s strange books and pictorial records, made of papyrus
Papyrus, a tall, graceful, sedgy plant, supplied the favourite writing material of the ancient world, and many priceless records of antiquity are preserved to us in papyri. The pith of the plant was pressed flat and thin and joined with others to form strips, on which records were written or painted. The above is a photograph of a piece of Egyptian papyrus, showing both hieroglyphics and picture-writing. The oldest piece of papyrus dates back to B.C. 3500.
The World as known to its first historian
The world as known to Herodotus is shown by the white part of this map, indicating the limited range of ancient geographical knowledge.
Prehistoric Man
Stone Age Man
Man and the Universe
Prehistoric Men Attacking the Great Cave Bears
Scene from the Prehistoric World - Early Ice Age
Early ice age, when mammoths roamed the earth and man was arising
The Saurian Age