Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/191

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FOSSIL MAN (FRANCE)
135

ridges not prominent. The right temporal region showed signs of an extensive cicatrised fracture, and besides, it had been slightly injured by a workman's tool, so that very precise measurements were not available ; but upon the whole the Chancelade skull seems to have been quite up to that of the old man of Cro-Magnon in point of cranial development.

M. Hardy thought from the excessively bent-up position of the body that the flesh had been removed before burial ; but if not, the body must have been ligatured to keep it in such a position. Also, in his desire to be absolutely correct, he states that the streaks of peroxide of iron above referred to were not limited to the region of the skeleton, but extended over the whole horizontal area of the station ; at the same time the ochreous matter was in greater abundance near the body.

"J'ajouterai cependant que le peroxyde de fer était en plus grande abondance auprès du squelette, et qu'il n'est pas impossible que dans l'une des inondations dont la station de Chancelade gardait les traces, ce fer dilué par les eaux se soit trouvé réparti un peu partout." (C.A.P., 1889, p. 403.)

Homo Moustériensis Hauseri.

On the 16th September 1907, M. O. Hauser commenced excavations in the lower grotto of the well-known station of Le Moustier, in a spot which had not previously been disturbed. At first he found only enormous quantities of flint chips, with occasional specimens of Acheuléen types. On the 7th March 1908, his chief workman unearthed a few fragments of bones, and, thinking they might be human, immediately sent for M. Hauser. They turned out to belong to a human skeleton, which, for protection, was temporarily covered over with earth so as to give time to have the bones extracted in the presence of competent witnesses. After being seen by a number of distinguished professors and others (l0th August 1908) the skeleton was ultimately taken out of its matrix in pieces under the care of Professor Klaatsch of Breslau, by whom the skull, as far as possible, was restored.

The body of this person is said by Dr. Klaatsch and the discoverer to have been buried intentionally, with sepulchral rites, beneath undisturbed strata of Moustérien age. The right