Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/66

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58
PREHISTORIC BRITAIN

Dr. Dupont classified all the relics found in these caves as follows:

1. Âge du Mammoth.—The principal relics associated with the mammoth were spear-points, a doll-like object of reindeer horn (suggesting an attempt at modelling the human form), a few articles showing efforts of rudimentary carving, and a bâton de commandement, also ornamented. These objects were found to be lowest in the cave débris and coeval with the time when the swollen rivers occasionally overflowed into the caves and left stratified beds of gravel or mud on their floors.

2. Âge du Renne.—The reindeer period coincided with the time when the rivers, by excavating their valleys more deeply, ceased their fluviatile deposits in the caverns, and so left their floors above the present highest flood-marks. The portion of their contents representing this age was characterized by angular blocks mixed with brick-earth. Of the fauna of the previous age—mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, Irish elk, hyæna, cave-lion and cave-bear—only the reindeer still survived. The industrial remains consisted of a few dart-points of horn, a bone needle, some perforated shells, perforated stone ornaments and flint flakes. The flint relics are said to manifest greater skill in their manufacture than in the previous age, especially in the process of secondary chipping.

3. Épogue actuelle.—The superficial blackish débris—the accumulated dust of more recent