Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/203

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FOSSIL MAN (FRANCE)
147

the fallen rocks, most of the trunk and long bones were broken and dispersed, being probably eaten by wild animals. Near it were collected various flint implements and some fifty pierced canine teeth, three of lion and the rest of bear, which evidently had been strung together to form a necklace. Immediately above this was a thin layer of land shells, showing that the shelter had been for some time uninhabited. Above this was an accumulation of refuse 2.70 metres in depth (No. 3), containing broken bones (reindeer, oxen, horses, and stag), ashes, and worked objects of flint and bone among the latter being a harpoon with a double row of barbs, like those from La Madeleine. No. 4 consists of a thick talus, which covered the opening into the rock-shelter. This latter was also protected by a barrier of the fallen rocks, and behind it was a sepulchral vault enclosing upwards of thirty skeletons. From the character of the grave-goods associated with the bones— pointers of bone, some beautifully chipped lance-heads of flint, and fragments of pottery—this burial was regarded as belonging to the Neolithic period. We have thus positive proof that Neolithic people were in the habit of constructing ossuaries in caves formerly occupied by Palæolithic men, hence the difficulty of determining to which race the remains belonged a difficulty which has frequently occurred, as at Solutré, Aurignac, Trou du Frontal, and the caves of Grimaldi.

The necklace, which belonged to the crushed man, was a real work of art, most of the teeth having been adorned by various devices one had the figure of a seal (Pl. IX., No. 12), another that of a pike, and a third a form which looks like a glove for the forearm.

Human Jaws of Petit-Puymoyen.

In 1906 M. A. Favraud discovered, in face of a rugged escarpment of rock overlooking the beautiful valley of Eaux Claires, in the Commune of Puymoyen (Charente), an inhabited site of the upper Moustérien epoch known under the name of Petit-Puymoyen, in which fragments of three human jaws were found. The fauna associated with the station included the reindeer (some twelve individuals), horse (6), ox (5), wolf (2), hyæna (one premolar tooth), dog and fox (each one canine