Page:Annualreportofbo1906smitfo.djvu/488

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384
QUATERNARY HUMAN REMAINS IN CENTRAL EUROPE.

quaternary sand. According to mine warden R. Pfeifer, the ax lay underneath 2 feet of surface loam and 11/2 feet of the quaternary sand, whereas the skeleton to which the Most skull belonged was 2 feet lower. The explorations of the locality by Woodřich have shown the sand to be modern. If greater antiquity were assigned to the bones, then it would have to be accepted that they were carried from the quaternary loess into the sand. Luschan, who studied the question, arrived at no conclusion. The subject of the antiquity of the skull remains undecided.

THE PODBABA SKULL.

Podbaba is a well-known locality near Praha (Prague). From time to time excavations in this place for commercial purposes revealed recent or prehistoric burials. During the winter of 1888 the brick makers of Pobdaba brought several times to Prof. A. Frič, in Praha, bones of the reindeer, mammoth, and rhinoceros, and one day a piece of human skull. Immediately steps were taken to ascertain exactly where this came from, but Professor Frič could simply establish the fact that the specimen was found in a layer of undisturbed brick earth, at the depth of 2 meters below the surface loam.

Granting that the information given by the workmen was correct, it is, in the writer's opinion, not yet proved that the skull belongs to the loess formation, for posterior dislocations and cavings-in are very frequent in this deposit.

THE LIBEŇ SKULL.

According to personal information by Dr. J. Babor, the calvarium in question came from the loess deposits in Libeň, the eighth ward of Praha, and was found in the loess immediately above the underlying Silurian formation. In the brickyards of this ward discoveries of quaternary animal bones (Rangifer tarandus, Arctomys marmotta, Hyæna spelæa, etc.) are quite frequent. In the immediate vicinity of the Libeň skull, but at a higher level, were, it is said, pieces of other skulls and fragments of pottery. No specialist examined these finds, and their stratigraphic conditions were never thoroughly inquired into. The fragment was taken by a physician who was in no way a geologist. From him it was several years afterwards secured by Doctor Babor, but by that time a thorough examination into the subject had become impossible.

THE SKULL OF STŘEBOCHOVICE.

The news of the discovery of a human skull at Podbaba recalled to a certain proprietor of Jemnik an analogous find made five years before in a separate locality. As far as could be learned, this other