more difficult to make than those previously described. One of the specimens was never finished, for the part above the eye has not been rounded off. From this it would seem that the eye was probably made first, before the needle was sharpened at one end and rounded at the other, so as to save time in case the needle should break in the process of boring, which doubtless was frequently the case. To the best of my knowledge these two specimens are the only bone needles with oval eyes which were found in the cave. They probably form a transition to the bronze needles, which, if I mistake not, have chiefly oval eyes.[1] These two needles are nearly 214 inches in length; they are thicker than the others, and look more bulky. All the needles were found in the upper relic-bed, and they evidently indicate a more advanced degree of civilisation amongst these prehistoric men, for doubtless with these needles they made the reindeer skins into clothes.
It can hardly be said what was the use of the implement drawn, Plate XIII. fig. 73. I do not remember ever having seen drawings of similar specimens in bone. A second, almost exactly similar, was also found (Plate XIV. fig. 88). The ornamentation of one of them is good, and indicates a considerable degree of artistic talent.
Just as little can be said as to the use of the bone implement drawn, Plate VIII. fig. 46. It is thin, and nearly three inches long, and is brought to a point at both ends.[2] In the cave at St. Madeleine similar implements were found in tolerable abundance, and M. Lartet believed that they may have been used as fishhooks, when stuck diagonally into another piece of bone. This
- ↑ See Keller's Lake-Dwellings, 1866 (English translation), Plate XXXVI. figs. 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 18. The whole of these are of bronze, and were obtained at the lake-dwelling of Nidau.
- ↑ It is perhaps not wise to assume that similar implements have always similar uses; but there is most certainly a striking resemblance between this implement and that figured from Wangen by Br. Keller in his Lake-Dwellings (English translation), Plate XIV. fig. 23. Dr. Keller says that these implements occurred at Wangen rather plentifully, and he seems to consider them as fishing implements. He adds, however, that they are now in use on the Untersee for catching ducks.
furnished only two coarse needles having an oblong head and eye, not pierced by boring, but rather by cutting with a sharp instrument. One of these needles has been illustrated by M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards in his note on the works of man found in this cave at Lourdes.'—Ann. des Sc. Nat. 4me. Série Zool. vol. xvii. 1862, p, 243, Pl. VI. fig. 3.
This quotation is from the Reliq. Aquit. p. 140. The whole of the treatise is most interesting; it is by the late M. Lartet, and commences page 127. The title is 'On the employment of sewing-needles in ancient times.'
