Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/190

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134
ANTHROPOLOGY

human skeleton at the bottom of the débris in one of these rock-shelters. The accompanying section (Fig. 38) shows the nature of the deposits under which it lay.

A. A habitable area, with remains of hearths, formed of blackish earth streaked with peroxide of iron, 0.37 metre, resting on the natural rock.

B. The next layer, 0.32 metre thick, consisted of yellowish earth mixed with limestone débris and mud from inundations.

C. Above this was another habitable area, 0.40 metre thick, with fireplaces, and containing many worked flints and bone carvings.

(z), Human skeleton lying on the rock-bed ; ACE, Magdalénien debris ; B D, Alluvial deposits.

Figure(s): 38

FIG. 38. Section of the Deposits in the Rock-shelter of Chancelade (Dordogne). (After M. Hardy.)

.

D. The uppermost bed was alluvial mud, 0.55 metre thick, which also contained a habitable area, E, rich in relics.

S. Stalactites from the roof.

It was at the base of the A deposits (x), at a depth of 1.65 metres, that the skeleton lay in contact with the rock.

The skeleton is described (L. Testut, Recherches Anthropologiques sur le squelette quaternaire de Chancelade, 1889) as that of a man of about sixty years of age. It lay on the left side, the head leaning forward and the hands and knees strongly bent towards the face. The height of this man, as calculated from the length of the femur, was 1.50 metres. The skull (Fig. 37) was large, well proportioned and dolichocephalic ; the forehead and chin were well developed and the superciliary