Page:Smithsonian Report (1909).djvu/657

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ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN EUROPE—MACCURDY.
541

and the neolithic above. This is the sort of evidence on which the science of prehistoric European archeology rests.

CAVERNS AND ROCK-SHELTERS.

Turning to the paleolithic caverns and rock-shelters, we find confirmatory evidence, although there is no direct stratigraphic relation between the superimposed cavern deposits and those of the river valleys. The chasm, we believe, is safely bridged, however, by the combined evidence of faunal and industrial remains. The results accumulated in the past decade of cavern exploration have been even more remarkable than those due to the investigation of valley sites. Like the researches of Commont at Saint-Acheul, much time has been given by cavern explorers to regions and even stations already well known. As examples there may be cited the caverns of Grimaldi, Le Moustier (Dordogne), and Altamira, Spain.

Rock-shelters and caves seem to have been employed as habitations before the close of the Acheulian epoch and continued to be so used thereafter throughout the paleolithic. A study of their floor deposits reveals a succession of culture levels corresponding to those found in valley deposits and classed as upper paleolithic.

The rock-shelter of La Quina (Charente), already mentioned, deserves more than a passing notice. Known since 1872 and often visited by archeologists bent on increasing their collections, La Quina came into the possession of Dr. Henri Martin in 1905, since which time he, with the help of friends, including M. Louis Giraux,[1] has carried on excavations that have led to important results.

Beginning at the bottom the section is composed of the following: (1) Alluvial sands deposited by the Voultron, a tributary of the Gironde, at the summit of which are found certain elements of an industry with Acheulian facies; (2) two clay deposits, the lower sandy and of a greenish tint, the upper dark. The contact between these is the so-called couche à ossements utilisés, which is also rich in a pure Mousterian stone industry; (3) a barren layer formed by debris from the one-time overhanging cliff; (4) vegetal earth.

Particular attention is called to the utilized bones, a subject treated in part 1 of a quarto memoir in preparation by Doctor Martin.[2] The traces of utilization are bunched incisions usually nearly transverse to the long axis of the bone. The bones and parts of bone thus marked belong to five categories: (1) The lower extremity of the humerus of the horse and certain bovidæ; (2) the first phalanx of


  1. The Yale University Museum is indebted to M. Giraux for a gift collection from La Quina, comprising stone industry as well as utilized bones.
  2. Recherches sur l'évolution du Moustérien dans le gisement de La Quina (Charente). lr fasc.: Ossements utilisés. In 4°, Schleicher Frères, 1907.