Prehistoric Britain/Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV
PALÆOLITHIC TYPES OF MAN—THEIR CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION
Of the comparatively large number of the fossil remains of man hitherto discovered and reported on by experts, only a few are of capital anthropological value. But, after eliminating from the records all doubtful or incomplete specimens, there remains a sufficient number to show that there were five or six human types living in Western Europe during some portion of the Pleistocene period, without counting the brachycephalic people who are supposed to have commenced to immigrate into Europe, during or about the close of the last phase of Palæolithic civilization.
1. Man of the River Drift Period.—Until the discovery of the Piltdown human skull and mandible, described in last chapter, the few osseous remains of the people who inhabited Britain and other parts of Europe when the swollen rivers were excavating their present valleys were too fragmentary to give much information as to their physical characters. Portion of a skull was found in brick-earth at Bury St. Edmunds, and figured in Man the Primeval Savage, but all that could be affirmed of it was that it was greatly elongated and especially developed in the occipital region. The flint implements associated with it were Acheuléen, or early Moustérien, types. Hence that individual, without straining fair presumptive evidence, might be assigned to the Neanderthal-Spy race. Then the Galley Hill skeleton must be set aside for the present, as it still lies under the cloud of doubt which was raised against the hypothesis that it was contemporary with the deposition of the gravels in which it was found. Objections on various grounds have been raised against nearly all the human remains found in alluvial deposits on the Continent, such as those of Grenelle, Clichy, Truchère, Olmo, Eguisheim, Brux, Brünn, Podbaba, etc.
As fabricators of the coup-de-poing type of implement, these River Drift men roamed along the river valleys and primeval forests of the south of England and Central Europe, which then abounded in subtropical animals and fruits sufficient to supply them with sustenance, without much labour.
It remains to be seen whether the Piltdown specimen of humanity is to be assigned to an earlier date than Chelléen (which was undoubtedly an inter-glacial epoch—the second, according to Professor James Geikie), on anatomical or geological grounds, both of which are at present undecided.
The Chelléen deposits are, of course, much older than the Moustérien epoch—how much older may be estimated by the time it has taken for a subtropical climate to veer round to one of Arctic severity, with a corresponding change in their concomitant faunas.
Fig. 8.—Side view of Eoanthropus dawsoni (13).
(After Smith Woodward.)
Since the MS. of this little book was placed in the hands of the publishers the full report of the Piltdown discovery has appeared (Quart. Journ. Geolog. Soc., Vol. LXIX). It consists of a remarkably precise description, with copious illustrations, of the human bones and their associated mammalian remains and flint implements. Owing to the number of points in which the Piltdown skull differs from other known types of fossil man, Dr. A. Smith Woodward has given this specimen of humanity the name of Eoanthropus dawsoni, in honour of the discoverer. By the kind permission of Dr. Woodward I have the pleasure of representing an outline of the restored skull, the position of the absent bones of the face being shown in white (Fig. 8). Also, for comparison with a sketch of the mandible (Fig. 9 B), there is one of a young Chimpanzee (A), from which the strong resemblance between them will be seen at a glance.
Fig. 9.—Mandible of a young Chimpanzee (a) and of the Piltdown Woman (b) (12). (After Smith Woodward.)
As to the flints, I do not deny the possibility of their being of pre-Chelléen date, as undoubtedly man produced ruder implements before he succeeded in manufacturing the highly finished tools of the coup-de-poing 
Fig. 10.—Three views of a Piltdown worked flint (a), compared with three views of one from Le Moustier (12). type; but it is a remarkable fact that the three specimens figured on Pl. XVI may be claimed as characteristic forms of the Moustérien epoch. On Fig. 10 the outline of one of the Piltdown series (A) is placed beside one (B) from the cave of Le Moustier (Reliq. Aquitanicæ, A. Pl. III). The operator in each case first chipped a portion of the surface of a selected nodule, then with one well-directed blow he struck off a large flake, having one surface worked and the other flat. This method was invented posterior to the use of the coup-de-poing, and the resulting tool being abundant in Le Moustier, it has been regarded as characteristic of the Moustérien epoch. As a workable tool it was found to be an improvement on the former, having a sharp cutting edge and requiring less labour in its manufacture. Besides, those finely chipped, thin and oval specimens, prevalent in Acheuléen stations, were more easily broken. The Moustérien flake is known to French archæologists as le grand éclat Levallois, from its abundance in the station of that name near Paris. During the Moustérien epoch its usefulness was so much appreciated that it almost entirely superseded the coup-de-poing, which so largely dominated the flint industry of the Chelléen and Acheuléen epochs. In opposition to the late G. de Mortillet, M. Rutot holds that the Levallois flakes are to be found in all deposits containing specimens of the coup-de-poing (Congrès de Dinant, Session XVIII, p. 150).
With regard to the geological age of the stratum in which the skull was found, Mr. Clement Reid writes (loc. cit., p. 150) as follows:
"The deposits are not pre-Glacial or even early Pleistocene—they belong to an epoch long after the first cold period had passed away: but they occur at the very base of the great implement-bearing succession of Palæolithic deposits in the south-east of England." One noteworthy feature of the Piltdown skull is that it has a broad and flattened appearance with a cephalic index of about 79, which makes it an exception to Palæolithic crania hitherto recorded. The only other instance, known to me, of a brachycephalic skull having been found in undoubted Magdalénien deposits is that of Placard (Charente), which had a cephalic index of 80. Curiously enough, like the Piltdown specimen, it was also that of a female. According to M. Hervé its high cephalic index was partly due to its sex, but in all other respects it possessed characteristic dolichocephalic characters. I wonder if pressure had anything to do with the flattening of the Piltdown cranium.
2. Neanderthal-Spy race.—We have already (Chap. II, p. 36) described the circumstances in which the Neanderthal skeleton was discovered, from which it will be seen that it was only the calvaria that was recovered; and consequently there is no evidence as regards its facial characters (see Fig. 4). One of the Spy skulls (Fig. 11), had, however, the mandible associated with it, and we can therefore form a better opinion of its general characters. It shows a low, retreating forehead, prominent eyebrows, marked prognathism, no chin and large third molar teeth.
Fig. 11.—Side view of Spy skull (No. 1) (13). (After Fraipont.)
The Spy skeletons were discovered in 1886, buried 1212 feet in fallen debris at the entrance to a grotto in the province of Namur, Belgium. The worked flints found in the cave were of the Moustérien types, and among the fauna represented were Rhinoceros tichorhinus, cave-bear, mammoth, hyæna, etc. No works of art were among the relics, so that the Spy troglodytes are justly regarded as belonging to an earlier period than that in which the reindeer-hunters and artists flourished.
The osteological characters of the Spy calvaria correspond in a remarkable degree with those of the Neanderthal specimen, as will be seen from the following tabular statement:
| Spy. | Neanderthal. | ||
| mm. | mm. | ||
|
200 | 200 | |
|
140 | 144 | |
|
104 | 106 | |
|
114 | 122 | |
|
580 | 590 (571?) | |
|
70 | 72 |
Fossil bones, showing more or less the characteristics of the Neanderthal-Spy race, have been found in the Trou de la Naulette, near Dinant, the caves of Malarnaud (Ariège), Chapelle-aux-Saints (Corrèze), Moustier and Ferrassic (Dordogne), the rock-shelters of La Quina and Petit-Puymoyen (Charente), Krapina (Croatia), Gibraltar, etc. Of these, the three most instructive remains found in recent times are those of Le Moustier, Chapelle and La Quina. These have been respectively described by MM. Klaatsch, Boule and Martin. The first two were regarded as burials of the Moustérien Age, and their skulls show all the osseous peculiarities of the Neanderthal-Spy race (Figs. 12 and 13). In both the facial bones were strongly prognathic, and the chin was undeveloped. M, Boule describes the man of Chapelle as having a bestial aspect, and places him, in point of cranial development, half-way between Pithecanthropus erectus and the lowest of present-day savages.
Fig. 12.—Side view of the ekull of Homo mousteriensis hauseri (13). (After M. Hauser.)
The facts with regard to La Quina skeleton are so recent that it was only on the 27th of June of last year (1912) that Dr. Martin was able to lay the reconstructed skull and mandible before the members of the Société Préhisiorique Française (Fig. 14). From the published details we see that there is a remarkable parallelism between the skulls and jaws of La Quina, Spy (No. 1) and La Chapelle. Dr. Martin also shows by the superposition of profile diagrams of three calvaria (La Quina, Pithecanthropus and a modern Arab) the great gulf in cranial development which separates modern humanity from the Moustérien races of the Palæolithic period.
Fig. 13.—Side view of the skull from Chapelle-aux-Saints after being restored by M. Boule (13). (From L'Anthropologie.)
The physical characters of the race may be thus stated:
Cranium dolichocephalic (cephalic index 70–75); forehead low and retreating (platycephalic); superciliary ridges very prominent; chin undeveloped, sloping backwards; alveolar prognathism strongly marked; stature small, about five feet; body massive, with short arms and bent legs.
Fig. 14.—Side view of La Quina skull (13). (After Dr. Henri Martin.)
3. Magdalénien race.—The next people of whom we have sufficient osteological data to fix their chronological horizon are the reindeer-hunters of France, whose works of art have so greatly astonished the modern civilized world. They are represented by three skeletons found at the stations of Laugerie Basse, Chancelade and Duruthy. Their special characters are as follows: Crania well filled and dolichocephalic (cephalic index 72–74); forehead full and lofty; superciliary ridges moderately prominent; chin well formed; orthognathic profile; stature small, 5 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 4 inches.
L'Homme écrasé of Laugerie Basse lay on a Magdalénien floor in the attitude of sleep underneath a fallen block which had crushed his spine. A number of shells from the Mediterranean were scattered about over the body, which apparently had adorned the man's dress. There can be no doubt that this skeleton belonged to a man who was contemporary with the culture debris over which he reposed (Fig. 15b).
Fig. 15.—Side views of the skulls of Chancelade (a), and Laugerie Basse (b). (Greatly reduced.)
The Chancelade skeleton was found buried in a small rock-shelter beneath several layers of Magdalénien debris. The body was in a bent-up position, and around it were streaks of peroxide of iron, supposed to have been used for ritual purposes (Fig. 15a).
The Duruthy skeleton had also been crushed by fallen rocks, which damaged the skull so much that no precise measurements could be taken of it. It was, however, clearly dolichocephalic and in all respects similar to the skulls of Laugerie Basse and Chancelade. Near it was found a necklace composed of fifty canine teeth (three of lion and the rest of bear), most of them having been adorned by various devices—one having the figure of a seal, another that of a pike, and a third a form which looks like a glove for the forearm.
The Magdalénien people appear to have been the direct descendants of the Neanderthal-Spy race, and to have occupied not only the same geographical area, but a considerable extension of it, as shown by the number of stations discovered within regions formerly covered by glaciers. Their well-filled skulls are an indication of the intellectual advancement that had taken place since their nomadic forefathers entered Europe.
4. The Cro-Magnon race.—The physical characters of this race have been derived from one specimen, viz. that known as the "Old Man" of Cro-Magnon, which was found, along with portions of four other human skeletons (supposed to be one family), on the surface of the débris at the back part of the Cro-Magnon cave. The characters are as follows:
Cranium highly developed (cephalic index 73–76); forehead large, lofty and well-shaped; superciliary ridges fairly prominent; face short but broad; chin well formed; orthognathic profile; stature tall, over 5 feet 10 inches in height.
Fig. 16.—Side view of the skull of the "Old Man" of Cro-Magnon (13). (From Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ.)
The Cro-Magnon skull (Fig. 16), has, in point of osseous development, some resemblance to those of the Magdalénien race, and hence it is sometimes classified as belonging to the latter. But the great size of all the Cro-Magnon skeletons is sufficient to place them in a category by themselves. The geographical distribution of the race, so far as at present known beyond the rock-shelter of Cro-Magnon, is almost confined to the caves of Grimaldi. Here, out of about a dozen skeletons sufficiently well preserved to have their osteological characters determined, all have been recorded as belonging to the Cro-Magnon type, with the exception of two which M. Verneau describes as a new race. All the skeletons of the Cro-Magnon type found in the Grimaldi caves were ceremonial interments by inhumation, except one body which had been carbonized; but as ornaments precisely similar to those found with the inhumed bodies were associated with the carbonized bones, there can be little doubt that the latter also belonged to the Cro-Magnon race. The bodies at the time of burial appear to have been covered over with a layer of the red oxide of iron, instances of which have been recorded from other widely separated localities, such as the interment known as the Paviland red woman in the Gower Peninsula, and others at Chancelade, Mas-d'Azil, Brünn (Moravia), etc.
5. Race de Grimaldi.—Of this race two skeletons have been found in the "Grotte des Enfants," near Mentone, one being that of a young man and the other that of an aged female. They lay close to each other and evidently belonged to the same race, with a type of skull which Dr. Verneau describes as negroid, and disclosing anatomical characters intermediate between those of the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon skeletons (Fig. 17). Their physical characters may be thus stated:
Cranium elliptic, cephalic index (male) 69⋅72 and (female) 68⋅58; forehead fairly well developed; face strongly prognathic; chin slightly receding; stature small, 5 feet to 5 feet 2 inches in height.
Fig. 17.—Side view of the skull of the negroid youth from the Grotte des Enfants (13). (After Verneau.)
The position of these negroid skeletons in the cave was nearly 212 feet lower than that of another skeleton which measured 6 feet 312 inches from head to foot. This veritable giant has been described by Dr. Verneau as belonging to the Cro-Magnon race—thus proving the existence of two very different races in the same locality, and almost on the same chronological horizon.
6. Homo heidelhergensis.—Professor Schoetensack of Heidelberg has lately described a human mandible found at a depth of twenty-four metres from the surface, in ancient fluviatile deposits of the river Neckar, situated at a place called Mauer, ten kilometres south-east of the town of Heidelberg. Along with it, in the same bed, bones of the following animals were found: stag, elk (Alces latifrons), cave-lion, horse (Equus stenonis?). Rhinoceros etruscus, and Elephas antiguus. The bones of the last named were very abundant, and among them (quite close to a mandible) lay the human jaw. Shells similar to those of the Cromer forest beds were also found in the same deposits.
Fig. 18.—View of the human mandible of Heidelberg (about 12). (After Schoetensack.)
The Heidelberg mandible is the only bone of this skeleton known, and, in some respects, it is the most simian-like hitherto come to light, especially as regards the enormous size of the ascending ramus, which is nearly double that of a modern man (Fig. 18). The absence of the chin is also a prominent feature. As regards the arrangement and relative size of the teeth, this jaw seems to come nearer modern specimens than most of those hitherto recorded as Palæolithic. Some palæontologists profess to see a parallelism between it and that of Australian savages.
Culture and Civilization
In the absence of positive chronology, every student of the pre-history of man will recognize the necessity of having some convenient method of tabulating the recorded phenomena in their order of succession, as geologists have so successfully done by collating fossils, and other organic remains, with the superposition of strata. In prehistoric archæology various methods have been suggested, of which the following may be noted as applicable to the Palæolithic period:
In 1869 Gabriel de Mortillet conceived the happy idea of classifying the industrial remains of the Palæolithic people in chronological sequence, according to the degree of culture disclosed by the relics found on certain stations which he regarded as typical. His mode of classification (with the recent addition of Aurignacien) is the most practical that has hitherto been suggested, and is therefore adopted in this work. According to this system the whole range of Palæolithic civilization is divided into six epochs, viz. Chelléen, Acheuléen, Moustérien, Aurignacien, Solutréen and Magdalénien. All these so-called epochs are but mere landmarks on the high- road of advancing civilization, and are in- tended to represent, as nearly as possible, the successive phases of Palæolithic culture. Some kind of nomenclature is absolutely necessary, as otherwise it would be impossible to fix attention on any particular fact in the progressive stream of civilization, without having recourse to more or less descriptive details. It is therefore essential to have precise ideas associated with these milestones by the way, so that by the mention of a single name we at once know in what part of the road we are travelling. The attainment of this object will be best accomplished by a brief description of the typical stations on which the nomenclature is founded, and of a few of their most characteristic relics.
1. Chelléen.—So named from the station of Chelles, a small plateau of alluvial deposits, eight miles east of Paris and eight metres above the bed of the Marne, from which it is distant two kilometres. A section shows three separate layers, within a thickness of eight metres, resting on Tertiary deposits. The lowest layer is especially interesting, on account of the number of teeth of Elephas antiquus and meridionalis which it has yielded, associated with remains of Hippopotamus major, Rhinoceros merckii, Trogontherium, cave-bear and cave-hyæna, together with flint implements almost exclusively of the coup-de-poing type. These animals were survivals from the Pliocene Age, and the presence of their bones in any locality indicates a warm climate. The middle portion of the deposits was cemented by calcareous infiltrations, and according to G. de Mortillet both it and the upper sandy gravels were later formations, and contained only bones of the mammoth, together with those of the northern fauna and stone implements of Moustérien types.
2. Acheuléen.—The flint implements found at Saint Acheul, at Amiens, in the valley of the Somme, from which the Acheuléen epoch derives its name, are not very different from those of Chelles. The former have a greater variety of forms, and the coup-de-poing becomes sensibly thinner, smaller, and more delicately chipped at the edges. The more pointed of the Chelléen forms are known to the workmen as "ficrons," while the almond-shaped specimens, called "limandes," are characteristic of Saint Acheul. Moreover, the two earlier elephants and the Rhinoceros merckii have been found in the alluvial beds at Abbeville. Human bones, with perhaps the exception of the Piltdown skull and mandible, have not been found in these river gravels sufficiently well preserved to inspire confidence in drawing precise racial conclusions from them; but the flint implements are valid proof that man lived at that time in Central Europe as far west as England, and some parts of the Spanish peninsula. The coup-de-poing, which was the chief weapon or implement used by him, has been found not only along his highways and by-ways in European countries, but in Algeria, Egypt, Sahara, Congo, the Cape, Palestine, Persia and India.
3. Moustérien.—This term is derived from the well-known cave of Le Moustier, situated on the right bank of the Vézère, and about ninety feet above it. It was examined by Lartet and Christy in 1863, and subsequently by De Vibraye, Messénat, and others. Besides the deposits in the interior of the cave, there was an outside plateau in which a human skeleton of the Neanderthal-Spy type has been recently found (Fig. 12), see p. 181. During its habitation by man the climate appears to have been cold and damp, and among the contemporary fauna were the mammoth, woolly-haired rhinoceros, cave-bear, and musk-ox. The two earlier elephants, hippopotamus and Rhinoceros merckii were not represented—thus indicating a cold climate.
The special features of the industrial remains found in Le Moustier were the scarcity of the coup-de-poing, and the splitting up of flints into smaller implements, such as scrapers and large flakes, mostly trimmed on one side only—the éclat Levallois of French writers. This multiplication of small implements was due to the fact that man, owing to the coldness of the climate, was obliged to seek shelter in caves, or improvised huts, and to clothe himself with skins, the preparation of which entailed the use of special tools and instruments. On the whole, the remains of man's handicraft works disclose an advance on those of the Drift-men; but there was a sufficient sprinkling of the coup-de-poing types to show that both people were of the same race.
4. Aurignacien.—Prior to 1852 the small grotto of Aurignac (Haute-Garonne) was concealed by a talus, and only then incidentally discovered by a workman in pursuit of a rabbit. The entrance was closed by a stone slab, and inside were the remains of seventeen human skeletons, which, on the discovery becoming known, were, by order of the mayor of the town, removed and reburied in the parish cemetery. Outside the flagstone which closed the entrance to the cave were found, along with ashes and a hearth made of flat stones, a finger-marked circular hammer-stone used for chipping flints, and "a great variety of bones and implements; amongst the latter not fewer than 100 flint articles—knives, projectiles, sling-stones and chips, and among them one of those silicious cores, or nuclei, with numerous facets, from which flakes or knives had been struck off. . . . Among the bone instruments were arrows without barbs and other tools made of reindeer horn, and a bodkin formed out of the more compact horn of a roe-deer." (Antiquity of Man, p. 184.) One of the bone objects, pointed at one end and having a broad split base, is regarded as giving the station its special character. Scattered through the earth were the broken bones of extinct animals, among which were the following: hyæna, cave-bear, cave-lion, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer, Irish elk and mammoth.
Besides the characteristic Aurignac bone point, split at the base for attachment to a shaft, there were various objects of bone, or horn, in the form of pins, pointers and chisel-like instruments with transverse scratchings (marques de chasse), which, according to Breuil, are characteristic of the stations of this epoch. Great progress was also made in the art of working in flint, as shown by the number of new and extremely varied forms of flint implements, often of small size, which were then in use.
5. Solutréen.—The station of Solutré (Saône-et-Loire) was an open-air encampment, having a fine exposure to the south, and sheltered on the north by a steep ridge. The climate was mild and dry, the glaciers were already on the retreat, and the rivers less torrential. The remains of the settlement, covering an area of some 10,000 square metres, are situated just beyond the limits of the cultivated land, and within a short distance of a spring of excellent water.
The special features of the Solutréen stage of culture axe well defined. First of all comes a marked advance in the manufacture of flint implements, as disclosed by the beautiful workmanship on the so-called laurel and willow-leaf lance-heads, which show flaking almost as fine and delicate as that on the sacrificial knives of Egypt. The fine chipping on these weapons could not be produced by the ordinary method of hammering, so that the artists of the period had already experience in doing this work by pressure. An equally characteristic object is the willow-leaf point (pointe à cran), which has one side of the stem, or hilt, cut away, leaving a tang-like appendage.
Another distinguishing feature of this station was the predilection of its inhabitants for horse-flesh, as shown by the extraordinary quantity of the bones of this animal found among the débris. Although the reindeer was largely represented it was not, in point of numbers, anything like the horse—a peculiarity which was reversed in the succeeding Magdalénien epoch.
Sculpture on stone was practised, as shown by the finding of four quadrupeds carved out of limestone pebbles. The art of engraving on bone was also known but, apparently, little practised. From the lumps of pigment and ochre occasionally met with on the hearths, it is supposed that painting was carried on to some extent. Bone needles with perforated eyes were for the first time found in the upper strata.
6. Magdalénien.—The rock-shelter of La Madeleine, which gives name to the Magdalénien epoch, was situated on the right bank of the Vézère, at the base of a limestone escarpment with an almost vertical face, about five metres from the river and only six metres above its level. It was completely excavated by Messrs. Lartet and Christy, and the principal relics found are figured in Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ. The most characteristic animal was the reindeer, which shows that the climate had still a sub-Arctic character. The mammoth, though abundant at the commencement of the epoch, was gradually becoming scarce, and towards its close the extinction of the last of the Palæolithic elephants was a fait accompli in Central Europe.
The Magdalénien people started life, as it were, with a working knowledge of the discoveries and mechanical inventions of their predecessors; and hence their arts, industries, accomplishments, etc., represent the final out- come of Palæolithic culture and civilization. In the debris of their stations are to be found the perfected results of the application of mechanical principles to the improvement of the tools and implements requisite for the accomplishment of their daily avocations. Their principal occupation was the chase, the produce of which constituted their staple food; and to capture the big game of the neighbourhood in sufficient quantity entailed the use of a variety of new and improved weapons. One characteristic feature of the age was the practical knowledge that bone, ivory and reindeer-horn were better materials for the manufacture of piercing implements than flint. Hence, the rapid disappearance of the laurel-leaf blades, which gave place to a series of improved weapons made of bone and horn—daggers, long cylindrical lance-heads, barbed harpoons, and quite a number of small dart-points to be affixed to light wooden shafts. The new lance-heads thus requisitioned consisted of flat or conical rods, pointed at the distal end, and adapted at the other for attachment to the shaft by several mechanical processes. Sometimes the proximal end had a wedge-shaped slit into which the shaft penetrated—an enlarged example of the typical Aurignacien point. This process was sometimes reversed by making the slit in the shaft. In other cases the attached end of the lance-head terminated in a slanting splay, so as to be spliced with a corresponding one in the shaft. Others had the proximal end terminating in a blunt cone, so as to form a loose joint—in which case the blunt end of the head had either a circular ridge, or two projecting lobes, or a small perforation placed a little above the cone, which served for the attachment of a string when the head of the spear was intended to remain m the animal's body. When spearing salmon the string was attached to a float which indicated the position of the wounded fish. These arrangements were, perhaps, more applicable to the barbed harpoons, of which so many beautiful specimens were found by Lartet and Christy on the Magdalénien stations of the Dordogne. Some of these weapons are so small as to be sometimes described as arrow-points; but there is no evidence to show that the bow was known to the Palæolithic people.
Both spears and harpoons were thrown by the hand, but this action was sometimes assisted by an apparatus called by French writers propulseur, or spear-thrower, which consisted of a stick made from the beam of a reindeer-horn, with a notch at one end in which the butt end of the lance rested. In discharging the weapon the operator manipulated with his fingers in such a way as to give a greater impulse and a better direction to the lance than if he merely threw it with the hand. That mysterious but often highly ornamented object, the so-called bâton de commandement, though known as early as the Solutréen Age, was only now met with in sufficient numbers to be regarded as an object of utility. With regard to the multiplicity of manufactured objects requisite for the management of domestic affairs, the people had now learned to make a better selection of the raw material for special purposes. For this reason needles were always made from a portion of the surface of a long bone, the cannon-bone of a horse's leg being generally preferred for this purpose, on account of its hardness. Long slender pieces were cut out of the bone by sharp flint implements. The eye was made by scraping a small hollow near one end, and a similar one on the other side just opposite the former, and worked till the two met. The perforation thus effected had the characteristic of being narrow in the middle and opening out into a conical expansion on both sides. Hence a needle offered for sale having a bored hole would be at once recognized as a forgery. Ivory was equally good for the making of a needle, but latterly this was becoming a scarce commodity. Spears and harpoons were made of reindeer-horn because of its solid consistency—long bones being unsuitable on account of being hollow in the centre. Only the smaller lance-heads were made of bone.
The art of engraving on plaques of bone, ivory and stone now became so common that there was hardly a manufactured tool but was adorned with figures of the contemporary fauna, especially the animals hunted for food—horse, reindeer, aurochs, goat, mammoth, etc. Into this category comes the famous relic in the form of a piece of ivory from the outside layer of the tusk, having incised on it the outline of a hairy elephant.
The domain of art, sculpture, engraving and painting assumed a wider range, embracing not only the small plaques with miniature figures, but the decoration of the walls of inhabited caves with sculptured friezes and life-size paintings of animals.
In domestic economy there is evidence that the kitchen ménage was well looked after. They roasted the flesh of the captured animals and utilized their skins as garments. Possibly some round pebbles, abundantly met with in the débris around the hearths, might have been used as "pot-boilers." A few stone mortars and pestles which occasionally turned up would appear to have been used only for mixing colouring matter to paint either their bodies or the walls of the caverns they frequented. Two small flasks or tubes made out of the cannon-bones of reindeer, which contained traces of ochre, are supposed to have been an artist's paint-box. Tailoring was extensively practised, and the needles, pins, buttons, etc., as well as the small flint implements used for such fine work, were abundantly met with. Their ornaments consisted of perforated teeth, shells and pendants, made of various materials.
The caverns adorned with wall pictures in the form of engravings, sculptures and paintings in various colours number about thirty, nearly all of which are situated in the south-west of France, the Pyrenees, and the north of Spain. They all belong to one phase of art which appears to have been practised for a long time. Although there are indications that the dawn of painting dates as far back as the Aurignacien Age, there can be no doubt that polychrome painting was the last phase in the evolution of Palæolithic art. M. Breuil has shown that in caverns with pictures of long standing a chronological sequence in the progressive stages of art can be established, by observing the superposition of one figure above another. But however this may be, it is now generally admitted that ultimately engraving on cavern walls became subservient to painting in colours and free-hand drawing.
Among the fauna depicted on the walls of Altamira, and Marsoulas neither the reindeer nor any of the extinct animals are to be found. Though distant from the principal centre of the painted caverns of Perigord, they are regarded by MM Cartailhac and Breuil as having passed through the same phases of evolutionary art. The usual animals in these caves are bison, horse, goat and stag. Besides animal forms, there are groups of enigmatical signs, graffiti and a sort of pictographic arrangement of coloured dots and lines, structures of a tectiform character supposed to represent wooden enclosures, etc. Man is also represented by about a dozen incomplete designs, badly drawn, grotesque in character, and altogether inferior in execution to the animal figures. But this peculiarity need not cause surprise, as it is a feature of Palæolithic art, in general; for no human representation hitherto known of this kind, whether engraved or painted, goes beyond the artistic efforts of children.
An exception, however, may be made to this sweeping generalization in deference to the opinion of the late M. Piette, who entertained the theory that Palæolithic man first acquired the art of sculpturing animals, and that, after practising high and low relief, he learned ultimately to draw incised figures on the flat. This theory was based on the discovery of a few small human figurines, sculptured in ivory, showing great artistic merits, under stratigraphical conditions, which he regarded as pre-Solutréen, and in which no drawings were found—the latter having appeared only in later strata.
Perhaps the most novel discovery was that in the cave of Niaux (Ariège) animal figures, similar in design to those on the walls, had been traced on the now hardened mud of the floor. Such figures were observed in several places in the inner recesses of the cave, especially under low overhanging rocks where visitors could not walk; and, singular to relate, they remained as clear and distinct as if they had been recently executed. Among them the following animals are represented, viz. bison, ox, horse, trout, and man, but of the last only a footprint—surely one of the most marvellous of footprints on "the sands of time."
The system of human economy founded in these early days was the outcome of the free play of natural laws little affected by the principles of religion or ethics. The reflections of these Palæolithic folk had probably for the most part to do with the habits of the animals they hunted, and the strategic means by which they could be waylaid and captured. Of agriculture, the rearing of domestic animals, the arts of spinning and weaving, and the manufacture of pottery they appear to have been absolutely ignorant. But yet, in an environment of such primitive resources and limited culture associations, these wild hunters developed a genuine taste for art, and cultivated its principles so effectually that they have bequeathed to us an art gallery of some four or five hundred specimens of engravings, sculptures, and even paintings in colour, many of them being so true to their models that they bear a favourable comparison with analogous works of the present day.