Page:Annualreportofbo1906smitfo.djvu/498

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394
QUATERNARY HUMAN REMAINS IN CENTRAL EUROPE.

Gutmann skull and the bones from the neolithic burials both show a people of small stature. The resemblance of the Egisheim skull to those of these later discoveries makes it very probable that they are cotemporaneous, though it should be remarked that the same hill contains also other graves, ranging in age from the neolithic to those of the time of the Francs.

THE FINDS OF BOLLWEILER AND OF TAGOLSHEIM.

The former consist of seven human skeletons, more or less complete, discovered in 1869, with numerous fragments of pottery and signs of its manufacture in place. The pottery dates probably from different epochs, all postquaternary. The bones found at Tagolsheim consist of the remains of fourteen human bodies, buried in symmetrically made tombs in the loam and accompanied with some fragments of crude pottery. Evidently they, also, can not be regarded as quaternary.

(e) THE RHINE PROVINCE.

THE DEPOSIT OF STEETEN-AM-LAHN.

This find consists of the remains of at least eight human skeletons recovered from the upper part of the earth and debris in front of a cave. In the same layer were found numerous flint implements and bone of mammoth. The whole formed probably a part of the former contents of the cave. The age of the human bones is uncertain.

In a neighboring cave were found remains of paleolithic as well as of neolithic culture, and even of the age of metals. Fragments of human bones were dispersed nearly everywhere, but their age can not be established.

THE NEANDERTHAL MAN.

No other discovery has been so much discussed as that of the Neander valley. The latest controversy concerning this find was carried on between the geologists C. Koenen and H. Rauffe. The latter has published three studies which utilize in a masterly manner all the information that can be had from the earlier reports and from our actual geological knowledge. The writer has in a similar manner arrived at the same conclusions as Rauffe, and it will be sufficient to report the decisions of the latter.

The valley known as Neanderthal is traversed in part of its course by the stream Duessel, which in one place penetrates the Devonian limestones. This part of the valley is about 60 meters deep and the sides show numerous caves. It was in one of these, known as the small "Feldhofer Grotte," that the "Neanderthal man" was, in 1856, discovered. The cave is on the left side of the river, about 25 meters