Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/123

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CHRONOLOGICAL PROBLEMS AND LAND OSCILLATIONS
71

the relics and fauna are characteristic of the Magdalénien epoch.

Bones of the reindeer are also said to be found in the ancient alluvial deposits which border the lake between Veyrier and Scé, at a height of from 20 to 25 metres above the present level of the water. These remains, without being associated with the industrial relics of man, have been met with at Saint Prex, Lutry, and Cully—showing that the reindeer in a wild state inhabited the district after the melting of the great Rhone glacier.

Cave of Béthenas.

Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe, 0123.png

Fig. 16.—Skull found in the Cave of Béthenas (Isère). (After Jarricot.)

In the year 1866, M. Chantre, while excavating in the lower cave of Béthenas (Isère), a locality within the glacial area, came upon remains of a human skeleton, associated with the bones of badger and fox, and one good specimen of a flint knife. These objects were found, at the depth of 1 metre, in yellow mud (limon), with which the cave was filled. The proprietor, who had previously removed some of the yellow earth from the cave, informed him that he had disinterred several human skeletons near the entrance at a depth of 2 metres below the surface, but of which he had only retained one skull (Fig. 16), which he then handed to M. Chantre. M. P. Gervais, who then described the skull as brachycephalic (Zoologie et Paléontologie Générale, p. 114), thought it belonged