Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/105

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CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION
97

Possibly some round pebbles, abundantly met with in the débris around the hearths, might have been used as "pot-boilers." A few stone mortars and pestles which occasionally turned up would appear to have been used only for mixing colouring matter to paint either their bodies or the walls of the caverns they frequented. Two small flasks or tubes made out of the cannon-bones of reindeer, which contained traces of ochre, are supposed to have been an artist's paint-box. Tailoring was extensively practised, and the needles, pins, buttons, etc., as well as the small flint implements used for such fine work, were abundantly met with. Their ornaments consisted of perforated teeth, shells and pendants, made of various materials.

The caverns adorned with wall pictures in the form of engravings, sculptures and paintings in various colours number about thirty, nearly all of which are situated in the south-west of France, the Pyrenees, and the north of Spain. They all belong to one phase of art which appears to have been practised for a long time. Although there are indications that the dawn of painting dates as far back as the Aurignacien Age, there can be no doubt that polychrome painting was the last phase in the evolution of Palæolithic art. M. Breuil has shown that in caverns with pictures of long standing a chronological sequence in the progressive stages of art can be established, by observing the superposition of one figure above another. But however this may be,