Page:Book of the Riviera.djvu/331

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PREHISTORIC MEN
263

then others have been found, and the present proprietor has preserved them in situ, under glass, in the cave, at the precise levels at which discovered. In 1892, three were found, all lying on their left sides. One of these had pertained to a young woman. All three had been buried along with their personal ornaments, and all with the ferruginous powder over them.

Finally, in 1894, another human skeleton was unearthed at a higher level; and soon after again another.

All these interments belong to man at a period before the use of metals was known, and when the only tools employed were of bone and flint The purpose of covering them with red oxide was to give to the bodies a fictitious appearance of life. The men were of a great size, tall and well built, taller indeed than are the natives of the Riviera at the present day; and the heads are well developed—the skulls contained plenty of brains, and there is nothing simian about the faces.

A little prehistoric museum has been built on a platform near the caves, where most of the relics found in them are preserved ; but some are in the museum at Mentone itself.