Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/172

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ANTHROPOLOGY

who also haunted these retreats, that we must assign the earthenware as well as the sepulchral remains of the brachycephalic race found in the Trou du Frontal. The entire collection of relics from these caverns is preserved and well exhibited in the Royal Museum of Natural History in Brussels. Besides tickets describing the bones anatomically and zoologically, there are skeletons, plans, and geological sections of the different caverns, so that at a glance the visitor can have a fair idea of the character of the remains. In addition to the cave relics there is in the same place another collection of roughly chipped flint instruments from Mesvin, near Mons (PI. XII.). These were found in a gravelly stratum resting immediately over Tertiary deposits, but below two distinct beds of mud. The special interest attached to them lies in the fact that in the same stratum were found the bones of some of the extinct Quaternary fauna thus proving that in structure, position, and association, these flints belong to the Palæolithic period.

Among the caverns investigated by M. Dupont and classified under the mammoth age, the following are the more important :— Trous de I'Érable, du Sureau, du Chêne, du Lierre, and Philippe, on the river Molignee ; Les trous Magrite, de la Naulette, Balleux, de Chaleux, de l'Hyène, de l'Ours, des Nutons, du Frontal, etc., on the banks of the Lesse above Dinant. Beyond these two localities only one other important station was excavated, viz., Caverne de Goyet, on a tributary of the Meuse called Samson.

The stations which are classed as containing relics of the reindeer age are Trous de Nutons, du Frontal, de Chaleux, Rosette, and Reuviau.

Only two of these early inhabited sites contained human bones sufficiently well preserved to be of scientific value, viz., Trou de la Naulette and Trou du Frontal. Remains of four human skeletons were found in the Trou Rosette, but no satisfactory explanation of their presence could be suggested. Some fragments were also found in the kitchen-midden at Goyet.

Trou de la Naulette.

The cave of Naulette, situated on the left bank of the river Lesse, near Dinant, has a straight entrance gallery terminating