Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/211

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FOSSIL MAN (FRANCE)
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draws his materials are the caves of Gourdan (Haute-Garonne), Fées a Marcamps (Gironde), Aurensan (Hautes-Pyrénées), les Forges (Tarn-et-Garonne), les Eyzies (Dordogne), Mas-d'Azil, etc.

(f) Notice of a human mandible found by MM. Roule et Reignault in the Grotte d'Estalas (Ariège), was read at the Academie des Sciences on the 22nd July 1895. It was found in a bed of clay, beneath stalagmite, and supposed to be that of a child of about ten years of age. Among the associated fauna were the cave-bear, horse, stag, ox, and brown bear (Ursus arctos). From these data no legitimate inference as to the period in which the owner of this jaw lived could be drawn, more especially as it disclosed no distinct Palæolithic characters. The chin was well-formed and projecting forward like ordinary mandibles.

(g) The circumstances in which MM. Girod et Gautier discovered human bones in volcanic scoriae at the foot of Mount Gravenoire are too indefinite to be discussed here (R.E.A., 1892, p. 269).

The Skeleton of La Quina.

On the 16th October 1911, Dr Henri Martin sent a note to the Academic des Sciences in Paris announcing the discovery of a human skeleton of the Neanderthal type, on the 18th September last, in the station of La Quina (Charente). The skeleton lay in a horizontal position, in an ancient muddy deposit of the river Voultron, forming part of the lower Moustérien debris, and at a distance of 4.50 metres from the base of the present cliff. The stratum in which the skeleton was embedded consisted of sandy clay, underlying a mass of fallen rocks from the cliff which in Moustérien times projected over the bank of the river. (See Fig. 47.) The skeleton was buried in its muddy bed to the extent of 0.80 metre, but it was not surrounded by a grave, nor was there any appearance of its having been intentionally inhumed. On the contrary, the situation and circumstances indicated that the body had either fallen from the cliff, or was carried by the current of the stream into the place where it was found, and so became permanently entombed in the sedimentary débris of the