Page:Annualreportofbo1906smitfo.djvu/481

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
QUATERNARY HUMAN REMAINS IN CENTRAL EUROPE.
377

Myodes torquatus, Lagopus albus and alpinus, Lagomys pusillus, and Spermophilus rufescens. The same arctic-alpine fauna was associated in the posterior chamber with a well-marked archeological deposit showing several fireplaces and yielding flint implements of the superior paleolithic type. Layer (c1) inclosed the Elephas primigenius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, and a predominance of Equus caballus, whereas Rangifer tarandus was missing. Archeological specimens were numerous, especially in the inferior parts of this layer, and consisted of crude, atypical implements, made mostly from quartzite. Layer (c2) consisted in its superior portion of a mass containing numerous remnants of carnivores; it was 0.5 meter in thickness and showed no traces of the presence of man. Layer (d), inclosing the principal archeological deposit, contained also arctic-alpine fauna, including Gulo borealis, Myodes torquatus, Rangifer tarandus, Capella rupicapra, Capra (Ibex?), Arctomys sp., Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Elephas primigenius, Ursus spelæus, Bos primigenius, Equus caballus. The implements, about 3,000 in number, are with few exceptions only formless, rudimentary, quartzite spalls; they were disseminated through and about the fireplaces and were mixed with calcined bones.

A piece of human lower jaw was discovered at the side of a fireplace situated at the point where the middle portion of the cave ends and the badger hole commences. The fragment was in layer (d), at the depth of 1.40 meters, near the lateral wall, and lay in ashes. The middle portion of the bone is alone preserved; it contains three incisors, the two right bicuspids, and one right molar. The incisors are worn off to the cement. The bone shows that it had been subjected to the heat of ashes, if not directly to fire. Its color is identical with that of the animal bones found near by and in undisturbed deposits.

There is no doubt that this lower jaw belongs to the layer in which it was found, and that it is the most ancient human bone from the quaternary period in Austria.

THE DEPOSITS OF KRAPINA.

The human remains found by Gorjanović-Kramberger in the quaternary, diluvial deposits near Krapina, in Croatia, consisted of the fragments of 10 or 12 skulls, a large number of teeth, and many more or less defective other parts of the skeleton. They were in undisturbed layers, and with them were bones of a hot climate fauna (Rhinoceros Mercki), as well as a quantity of typical Mousterian implements. Some of the pieces of human bones are calcined; in general they are in a bad state of preservation.