Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/317

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THE PALÆOLITHIC RACES OF EUROPE
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ments and other evidence of human occupancy, and so they called it foyer supérieur. Below this there was a layer of clayey sand and blocks of fallen stones which covered another habitable area (foyer inférieur], much more extensive and richer in industrial remains than the former. The contents of both these hearths, as regards industrial remains and fauna, were precisely the same. The fauna was characterised by the superabundance of reindeer bones (twenty-three individuals) ; while the other animals, horse, wolf, fox, lion, a large ox, stag, saiga, etc., were only feebly represented. Among the industrial remains were stone picks, hammers, chisels, scrapers, borers, saws, burins, in great numbers. Also the microlithic flint instruments used for fine work. Objects of bone and horn needles, polishers, chisels, pointers, and cylindrical rods with chisel endings, and sometimes marked with cross striae (marques de chasse), tubes, whistles were abundantly turned up, especially about the lower hearth. It is particularly noted that no harpoons were found a fact which helps to define the chronological horizon of the station as early Magdalénien. Ornaments were represented by perforated teeth and shells, nassa, cyprea, pectunculus, etc.

The works of art, which were few in number, consisted of bones with geometric scratchings. One piece, however, showed the head of a horse, another that of a reindeer. An oval stone, about 3 inches in length, is figured by M. C. Schleicher, which, among other linear designs, has the head of a goat finely incised on it (L'Homme Préhistorique, p. no). An insect form carved in ivory, somewhat like one from the Cave of Trilobite (Yonne), and figured by de Mortillet (Le Préhistorique, 3rd ed., p. 426). A bâton de commandement, entire and perforated (20 centimetres long). Another baton had the end of a short branch sculptured into the form of a human foot, showing only four toes with nails well defined. A stone palette made of schist, 27 by 15 centimetres, having remains of ochre and manganese still adhering to its surface.

The domicile of these artists consisted of a sheltered terrace, 3 to 4 metres in breadth and 15 metres in length, looking towards a picturesque valley. Here was the hearth around which they manufactured their implements, weapons,