Page:Smithsonian Report (1909).djvu/714

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ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909.

and lower, middle, and upper Aurignacian. It was between the Acheulian and Mousterian deposits and at a depth of 3 meters that an almost complete human skeleton was found. Although in part crushed by the enormous weight of earth above, all the bones were in place with the exception of those of the right foot and hand, which had been displaced and partially destroyed, probably by some carnivore or rodent. The skeleton has been removed intact with care and, it is hoped, will soon be published in detail. Unlike the case of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, this was not an interment. The body was placed at one corner of the shelter and covered with branches or skins, perhaps a little earth, or all three of these combined. About the head and shoulders were three stones that might have served as weights. Gradually it was covered deeper and deeper by debris from the overhanging rocks and that left by succeeding Aurignacian populations. Its stratigraphic position is clearly defined. A more extended report as to its somatological characters is awaited with much interest. It should not only confirm but also supplement existing data bearing on the osteology of Homo primigenius, as did the remains from La Chapelle-aux-Saints.

Thanks to persistent, painstaking, systematic explorations, the Dordogne seems destined to maintain its lead in matters paleolithic. Herr O. Hauser who made the important discovery of Homo mousteriensis at Le Moustier in 1908 has been also rewarded with a rich harvest in 1909. At Combe-Capelle, near Montferrand-Périgord, he found on August 26 an adult male skeleton of Aurignacian age. The type, however, is of a higher order than that of his Homo mousteriensis, the difference being greater than might be inferred from its stratigraphic position. The remains had been interred, the pit being sunk into a deposit of Mousterian age. The stone implements found with the skeleton about the head, arms, knees, and feet are Aurignacian. For this reason Klaatsch suggests the name Homo aurignacensis hauseri. A number of snail shells were also deposited with the dead, probably as ornaments. As was the case the previous year at Le Moustier, Professor Klaatsch, of Breslau, was called to Combe-Capelle to superintend the removal of the skeleton (pls. 16, 17).

Klaatsch classes Homo aurignacensis hauseri with the human remains from Brünn (Mähren) and Galley Hill, near London. All three skulls are long and narrow, markedly dolichocephalic. In so far as the fragmentary condition of the Galley Hill skeleton will admit of comparison the other skeletal parts agree in type. Klaatsch also notes certain resemblances to the much later Magdalenian race, as represented by the skeleton found twenty years ago at Chancelade, also in the Dordogne. Although of rather short and powerful build, Klaatsch believes this Aurignacian race did not evolve directly from