Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/225

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
FOSSIL MAN (ITALY AND OTHER COUNTRIES)
165

hitherto found in the Grimaldi caves are stated to be of the Cro-Magnon type.

Race de Grimaldi.—The discovery of the two skeletons, male and female, in the Grotte des Enfants, which Verneau describes as belonging to a new race, intermediate between those of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon, marks an important addition to human palæontology. They lay close together in one trench, formed in a hearth-layer at a depth of 8.50 metres. The male was almost on its back, with the arms and legs flexed. The aged female lay, back upwards, with the arms and legs so strongly flexed beneath the body, that to retain them in

figure(s): 50 and 51

FIGS. 50 and 51. Two Skulls from the Grotte des Enfants, Mentone race de Grimaldi. (After Verneau.)

this position it was thought they must have been ligatured. Beneath the habitable area on which the skeleton lay was an undisturbed bed, which contained the jaw of a rhinoceros, teeth of a bear, and some bones of the goat. In the upper strata bones and horns of the reindeer were found. The negroid skeletons belonged to a short, dolichocephalic, and highly prognathic race, to which M. Verneau proposes to give the name of Race de Grimaldi. Figs. 50 and 51 are reproductions of the illustrations of their skulls as figured by Dr. Verneau : that on the left belonged to the young man and that on the right to the aged female. The cephalic index of the former was 69.72 and that of the latter 68.58, and their respective heights were 1.54 metres (5 feet 0½ inch) and 1.58 metres (5