The very large skeleton from the Grotte des Enfants, measuring 6 feet 4½ inches, was found associated with the remains of the reindeer, 15 feet below the surface, from which it would appear probable that the skeleton antedates the Aurignacian skeleton of Laugerie Haute, and even of Crô-Magnon. Thus the so-called man of Mentone may be an ancestor of the race which was found in Crô-Magnon and other regions of Dordogne. It is these men of great height, found in Barma Grande and the Grotte des Enfants, which Verneau selects for his description of the primitive members of the Crô-Magnon race, which at this time lived along the Riviera and in the valley of the Vézère and later spread over a vast area in western Europe. It is probable that in the genial climate of the Riviera these men obtained their finest development; the country was admirably protected from the cold winds of the north, refuges were abundant, and game by no means scarce, to judge from the quantity of animal bones found in the caves. Under such conditions of life the race enjoyed a fine physical development and dispersed widely.

With an average height of 6 feet 1½ inches, these cave-dwellers may be said to demonstrate one of the most striking traits of the Crô-Magnon race. In the proportions of the limbs and in the great size of the upper part of the chest these men are removed from the modern European type and approach some of the African negroid types, although there is not the least resemblance to the negro type in the skull or in the dentition. In contrast with the Neanderthals are three characters of the limbs: the leg was very long in comparison with the arm; they show a remarkable lengthening of the forearm in proportion to the upper arm and a still more remarkable lengthening of the lower leg or shin-bone in proportion to the thigh-bone; the tibia has an index of 81-86 per cent as compared with the femur, which is relatively greater than that of the average modern European, with a tibiofemoral index of 79.7 per cent. This long shin-bone indicates that these men were swift of foot, quite in keeping with their undoubted nomadic habits and wide distribution. The flatness of the tibia, which is strongly marked in 62 per cent of the skeletons, may well be due to the habit of squatting while engaged in fashioning flints and in other industrial occupations. The leg, long in comparison with the arm, and the thigh-bone, strongly developed, are both characters of a hunting race. The foot has a very protruding heel, but the sole and the toes are of moderate length. The hip-girdle is of a type which has nothing negroid about it, but is as fine as that of the most civilized whites; it is marked by its strength, the augmentation of all the vertical and transverse diameters, and the reduction of the anteroposterior diameters. The shoulders are exceptionally broad. The fact that the arms are relatively short as compared with the legs is also a high racial character. The upper arm is very robust, and in some cases the left arm is more largely developed, in others the right.

In all the skulls from these grottos near Mentone, the face shows the essential features of the Crô-Magnon race, its breadth being due to the development of the cheek-bones and the zygomatic arches, for the upper jaws are narrow, and the nose is thin or leptorhine. At the root the nose shows a marked depression, but it rises immediately to a considerable prominence; it thus undoubtedly had an aquiline profile. The orbits always present the form of a long rectangle, so characteristic of the race along the Vézère. All these characters leave no doubt of the racial affinity of the skeletons from the Grottes de Grimaldi with the original Crô-Magnon type. It must be concluded, therefore, that certain peculiar features noted in the type of the 'old man of Crô-Magnon' are purely individual, and that we are not justified in assuming the admixture of a foreign element to account for the weakness of some characteristics which we notice in the majority of the Crô-Magnon subjects from the caves of Grimaldi.

The highly evolved characters of the skeleton in this race are in keeping with the extraordinarily great cranial capacity. Broca estimated the 'old man of Crô-Magnon' as having a cranial capacity of 1,590 c.cm., and in the female the brain is estimated at 1550 c.cm. Verneau estimates the five large male skulls of Crô-Magnon type at Grimaldi as having an average capacity of 1,800 c.cm., the lowest being 1,715 c.cm., and the highest 1,880 c.cm. This race, observes Keith,(21) was one of the finest the world has ever seen. The wide, short face, the extremely prominent cheek-bones, the spread of the palate and a tendency of the upper cutting teeth and incisors to project forward, and the narrow, pointed chin recall a facial type which is best seen to-day in tribes living in Asia to the north and to the south of the Himalayas. As regards their stature the Crô-Magnon race recalls the Sikhs living to the south of the Himalayas. In the disharmonic proportions of the face, that is, the combination of broad cheek-bones and narrow skull, they resemble the Eskimo. The sum of the Crô-Magnon characters is certainly Asiatic rather than African, whereas in the Grimaldis the sum of the characters is decidedly negroid or African.

We shall trace this great race through the Solutrean and Magdalenian stages of the Upper Palæolithic and consider its disappearance and possible distribution at the close of Magdalenian times. It will then be interesting to consider the evidence of the survival of the descendants of this race in various parts of western Europe and possibly among the primitive inhabitants of the Canary Islands, known as the Guanches.

Evidence of Other Races

It is a mooted question whether the Crô-Magnons were the only people inhabiting Europe in early Aurignacian time or whether there were also two other races, the Grimaldi and the Aurignacian. As we have seen in the preceding pages, there is no evidence that the negroid Grimaldi race ever became established in Europe; the idea of the presence of a negroid race has taken the fancy of archæologists like Breuil and Rutot, when seeking an African, Egyptian, or Bushman analogy in certain phases of early Aurignacian art; but it rests merely on the slender evidence afforded by the isolated skeletons of a woman and of a boy.

The case of the Aurignacian race is different; this is held by competent anatomists (Klaatsch,(22) Keith(23)) to be distinct from the Crô-Magnon race and to bear some resemblance to the Brünn (Brüx, Předmost, [?] Galley Hill) race which, we know, became established in central Europe certainly as early as Solutrean times, if not before.

The so-called Aurignacian race (Homo sapiens aurignacensis), described as a subspecies of existing man, is based upon a type found in the shelter of Combe-Capelle near Montferrand, Périgord, in the summer of 1909 by O. Hauser.(24) It is commonly known as the 'Combe-Capelle' man from the scene of its discovery, or as the Aurignacian man (Homo aurignacensis); if a subspecies, it certainly belongs to Homo sapiens. The adult male skeleton was discovered lying undisturbed in the lowest stratum of an Aurignacian industry and was carefully disinterred by Klaatsch and Hauser. It was apparently a case of ceremonial burial; a great number of unusually fine flints of early Aurignacian type was found with it, also a necklace of perforated shells (Littorina, Nassa); the limbs were bent.(25) Water saturated with lime had dripped upon the burial-place, resulting in the remarkable preservation of the skeleton. This skeleton is compared by Klaatsch with that of Brünn, Moravia, and of Galley Hill, near London, from which he concludes that it represents a distinct type, the Aurignacian race; the stature is 5 feet 3 inches, as compared with 6 feet 1½, inches, the average in the five Crô-Magnon males of Grimaldi; the brain case is well arched and falls within the variation limits of Homo sapiens. The skull is very long and narrow, the cephalic index being 65.7 per cent; in some points it shows a striking similarity to that of Brünn, in others it varies from it in the direction of the recent European form; the face is not narrow nor is it prognathous; the lower jaw is small with a well-developed chin. Klaatsch finds many characteristics resembling those of the Crô-Magnon race, including the Chancelade type which is a late Crô-Magnon. He suggests that the Crô-Magnon type may be considered a further development of the Aurignacian. It seems probable that the Aurignacian man is a member of the true Crô-Magnon race and that additional evidence is required to establish it as distinct. Schliz(26) considers that this skull is an intermediate form between that of the Crô-Magnon and the Brünn race, an indication that these two races were undergoing a parallel development.

Burial Customs

Similar customs of burial prevailed widely in Aurignacian times, as we have observed from the use of color in the Paviland interment of western Wales and in the Brünn interment of Moravia. This is a feature seldom found in the Neanderthal burials, although the latter are accompanied by signs of great reverence and by an abundance of ornaments and finely finished flints. Up to the present time the races of the Upper Palæolithic have been studied with far less anatomical precision than those of the Lower, and the attribution of many of the burials to the Crô-Magnon race awaits verification.

We have little record of the Paviland burial except that the skeleton was that of a man of the Crô-Magnon race and colored red. Of the burial of Aurignac we have no record other than that seventeen skeletons were placed close together; it would appear that this compound burial may have been the sequel of a battle or, less probably, that of an epidemic. The type skeletons of the Crô-Magnon race were simply lying on the surface of a deep shelter; thus there has always been some doubt as to their exact archæological age; a large number of perforated shells was found among the bones, as well as pendants of ivory.

The most remarkable Crô-Magnon burials of undoubted Aurignacian age are those of the Grottes de Grimaldi; the infant skeletons found here are neither colored nor decorated, but occurred with a vast number of small perforated shells (Nassa), evidently forming a sort of burial mantle. Similarly, the female skeleton was enveloped in a bed of shells not perforated; the legs were extended, while the arms were stretched beside the body; there were a few pierced shells and a few bits of silex. One of the large male skeletons of the same grotto had the lower limbs extended, the upper limbs folded, and was decorated with a gorget and crown of perforated shells; the head rested on a block of red stone. In the 'man of Mentone,' found in 1872, the body rested on its left side, the limbs were slightly flexed, and the forearm was folded; heavy stones protected the body from disturbance; the head was decorated with a circle of perforated shells colored in red, and implements of various types were carefully placed on the forehead and chest. Similarly in the burial of Barma Grande three skeletons were found placed side by side in a layer of red earth containing a large quantity of peroxide of iron; two of the skeletons rested on the left side, the limbs extended or slightly flexed; the forehead and chest and one of the limbs were encircled with shells.

In the burial of the so-called Aurignac man of Combe-Capelle, described above, the limbs were outstretched and the body was decorated with a necklace of perforated shells and surrounded with a great number of fine Aurignacian flints. It appears that in all the numerous burials of these grottos of Aurignacian age and industry of the Crô-Magnon race we have the burial standards which prevailed in western Europe at this time.

We must infer that the conception of survival after death was among the primitive beliefs, attested by the placing with the dead of ornaments and of weapons and in many instances of objects of food. It is interesting to note that the grottos and shelters were so frequently sought as places of burial, also that the flexed limbs or extended position of the body prevailed throughout western Europe into Neolithic times, as well as the use of color through the Solutrean into Magdalenian times. It is probable from their love of color in parietal decorations, and from the appearance of coloring matter in so many of the burials, that decoration of the living body with color was widely practised, and that color was freshly applied, either as pigment or in the form of powder, to the bodies of the dead in order to prepare them for a renewal of life.

Aurignacian Flint and Bone Industry

As pointed out in the introduction of this chapter, the geographical distribution of the early Aurignacian industry is especially interesting in its bearing upon the routes by which the Crô-Magnon race entered Europe. "We can hardly contemplate an origin directly from the east," says Breuil,(27) "because these earlier phases of the Aurignacian industry have not as yet been met with in central or eastern Europe." A southerly origin seems more probable, because the Aurignacian colonies appear to surround the entire periphery of the Mediterranean, being found in northern Africa, Sicily, and the Italian and Iberian peninsulas, from which they extended over the larger part of southern France. In Tunis we find a very primitive Aurignacian like that of the Abri Audit of Dordogne, with implements undoubtedly similar to those of Chatelperron, in France. Even far to the east, in the cave of Antelias, in Syria, as well as in certain stations of Phœnicia,(28) culture deposits are found which are characteristically Aurignacian. Again, in southern Italy implements of typical Aurignacian form, tending toward the superior stage, are found in the grotto of Romanelli, Otranto.

On the other hand, in favor of the theory of local or autochthonous evolution of this culture is the direct succession described below of Aurignacian prototypes and early Aurignacian implements above the older Mousterian layers in the various stations of Dordogne. In fact, the relation of the Aurignacian industry to the preceding Mousterian is one of the most important in the history of Palæolithic archæology, because of the change of race which occurred at this time. How far is it derivative and autochthonous, how far is it new and influenced by invasion and the handicraft of a new and superior race?

Art.
Microlithique, microlith.
Burin, graver (first appearance).

Industrial.
Coup de poing, hand-stone (rare and degenerate).
Pointe, point.
[AN]Chatelperron (curved).
double-pointed.
Racloir, scraper.
convex.
concave.
straight.
double-edged.
triple-edged.
Grattoir, planing tool.
Perçoir, drill, borer.
Couteau, knife, blade.
Enclume, anvil stone.
Percuteur, hammer-stone.

War and Chase.
Pointe, point.
Pierre de jet, throwing stone.
Couteau, knife, blade.
Pointe de lance, bone lance-heads.

First, as for transition from the older culture, it is important to note throughout that the 'Aurignacian retouch' is identical with the Mousterian; this retouch is on one side of the flake only and gives it a short, abrupt, and blunt edge. As we shall see, it is essentially different from that discovered by the Solutrean flint workers and employed in Solutrean times, a superior technique which produced a sharp, thin edge, many of the implements being dressed on both sides. On the other hand, Breuil concludes that the early Aurignacian industry can only in part be derived from the late Mousterian and that it is partly due to the invasion of a race which ranks much higher in the scale of intelligence than the Neanderthal.

The pure early Aurignacian industry is seen in the regions of Dordogne and the Pyrenees in the layers of Chatelperron, Germolles, Roche au Loup, Haurets, and Gargas. The cave of Gudenushöhle, near Krems, in Lower Austria, exhibits a very primitive phase of the early Aurignacian. Here numerous small flints were found, resembling those found at Brive by the Abbés Bardon and Bouyssonie; similar microliths are also found at Pair-non-Pair, Gironde, at various stations in Dordogne, and at the Grottes de Grimaldi, on the Riviera, in layers of corresponding age.

The chief invention of this stage is the 'Chatelperron point' (Fig. 149), a direct development from the curved point of the Abri Audit (Fig. 151) and a dominant type of the early Aurignacian culture. Small almond-shaped 'coups de poing' are still met with at Chatelperron and a few other localities, but Breuil suggests that these may not be real examples of Aurignacian industry but implements carried off from older stations.

The use of elongated flakes is another feature of this early industry, but the retouch of the edges cannot compare with the fine 'grooved retouch' of the middle Aurignacian; as yet the flakes are thick and large. Many of the scrapers are 'keeled' (grattoirs carénés).

An entirely new implement appears in addition to the triangular and elongate flakes of flint shaped into points and scrapers of forms; this is the primitive graving-tool, or burin, which at first is quite rare, but which we know was designed by the Crô-Magnon artists for their early engravings on stone (Fig. 149).

Art Implements.
Microlithique, microlith.
[AO]Burin, graver.
Ciseau, chisel.
[AO]Gravette, etching tool (first appearance).

New Industrial Implements.
Pointe, point (leaf-shaped).
[AO]Grattoir caréné, keeled scraper.
Perçoir, drill, borer.
[AO]curved (first appearance).
Couteau, knife, blade.
[AO]curved-in edges.
Poinçon, awl (bone).

New Implements of War and Chase.
Pointe à cran, shouldered point (stone).
Pointe de sagaie, javelin point (bone).

A fourth highly distinctive feature of the early Aurignacian is the use of a variety of implements of bone and horn consisting chiefly of javelin points and drills and of coarse, spatula-like tools.

In the middle Aurignacian the flake industry reaches its perfection of form and technique; the edges of the flakes are shaped all around with the 'grooved retouch' resulting in symmetrical forms such as the oval, double-ended 'points,' the leaf-shaped 'points,' and the double scrapers; this, in fact, is the culmination of the 'Aurignacian retouch,' which afterward begins to decline. The retouch of the long flakes is fine and parallel, but as yet the flakes themselves are generally thick and heavy, so that their ends are, perforce, much broader than those of the Solutrean and Magdalenian fashion. One of the most distinctive forms of this middle Aurignacian industry is the 'keeled scraper' (grattoir caréné) with an abruptly grooved retouch (Fig. 150).

Still more significant in connection with the rapid artistic development of these people is the remarkable increase in the number and variety of graving-tools, including numerous curved gravers. Almost all the chief types of gravers (burins) have now been invented, and tools of bone have become extremely numerous and varied. To engraving and linear design have been added the art of sculpture and the primitive use of color (Breuil,(29) Schmidt(30)).

In the Dordogne region this evolution of the middle Aurignacian is exemplified at Le Ruth, Le Roc de Combe-Capelle, and the principal layers of the Abri Audit as well as at the shelter of Laussel. It is well developed also at Le Trilobite, on the headwaters of the Seine.

In the late Aurignacian (Breuil,(31) Obermaier(32)) there is a notable departure from the Mousterian fashion of chipping the flakes; even the distinctive blunt 'Aurignacian retouch' is somewhat weakened; but at the same time the work on the elongated flakes becomes more facile and skilful. For delicate, artistic work there appear extremely small implements or 'microliths' of various shapes.

Art.
Microlithique, microlith.
Burin, graver.
Ciseau, chisel (of stone and bone).
Gravette, etching tool.
Pic, pick (triangular or quadrangular, for sculpture).

Ceremonial.
Bâton de commandement, ceremonial staff (first appearance).

New Industrial Implements.
Grattoir, planing tool [AP]long but not thick.
Aiguille, needle (bone, first appearance).

New Implements of War and Chase.
Lance and spear head types, of stone:
(a) Pointe à cran, shouldered point.
(b) Pointe à soie, tongued point (Font Robert type).
(c) Pointe de laurier(?), laurel-leaf point(?).
Couteau, knife, blade (bone, first appearance).

The early and middle Aurignacian 'point' and the 'grattoir,' sharpened all around, as well as the incurved flake become less frequent. The grattoirs, or planing tools, are somewhat higher and narrower than those of the early Aurignacian but not very different in form; two forms of grattoir are recognized, one long and not very thick, the other high and keel-shaped (grattoir caréné).

Among the perçoirs a curved form is very characteristic, and we also note a variety of small knives, or couteaux.

The inventive genius of this people is displayed in the rapidly increasing variety of flint implements designed for fishing or for the chase. Toward the end of the Upper Aurignacian there appears the shouldered spear head (pointe à cran), and also a lance form of which the most perfect types have been found at Willendorf, in Austria, and at Grimaldi, on the Riviera. More or less sporadically there appear specimens of the tongued spear heads (pointes à soie), such as are found at Spy, Font Robert, and Laussel. This type of flint is constantly found associated with rudely formed prototypes of the Solutrean laurel-leaf point.

Decorative art has now become a passion, and graving-tools of great variety of shape, curved, straight, convex, or concave, diversified both in size and in style of technique, are very numerous. We may imagine that the long periods of cold and inclement weather were employed in these occupations. The use of the reindeer horn is developing, and the decoration of the bone with very fine lines drawn by the microlithic tools is at times very remarkable. Here appear the earliest examples of the so-called bâton de commandement, which is supposed to have served as a ceremonial staff or wand; it is made of the reindeer antler with a great hole bored at the point where the brow tine unites with the main beam; some of these bâtons are ornamented with rude engravings, but not as yet with sculpture.

Strong and very sharp graving-tools were also needed for the sculpture out of ivory and soapstone of such human figures and figurines as the statuettes found in the Grottes de Grimaldi and at Willendorf and still more powerful tools for such work as the large stone bas-reliefs of Laussel. At this time the Crô-Magnons were also fashioning stronger tools for the engraving of animals in stone, for shallow forms of bas-relief on the walls of the caves, and for other animal outlines. The most evolved animal figures of this period arouse the thought of Magdalenian art in its beginnings.

As this industrial evolution widens it is apparent that we witness not the local evolution of a single people but rather the influence and collaboration of numerous colonies reacting more or less one upon the other and spreading their inventions and discoveries. These people were essentially nomadic and no doubt carried the latest types of implements from point to point or bartered them in trade. Thus there is not only a definite succession in such places as Dordogne, but in more remote regions the form of the implements may take on some important differences.(33) There are also other localities where the industry seems for a while to be suspended; thus in the Cantabrian Mountains of Spain we find only the early and the late Aurignacian.

Stations similar in culture to those of Dordogne extend northward into Germany and Belgium and eastward into Austria and Poland. Thus the characteristic flint spear heads, known as the pointe à soie and pointe à cran extend from Laussel along the Vézère to Willendorf, in Austria; and the female figures of Baoussé-Roussé (Grimaldi) and of Willendorf represent the same stage of evolution as the large stone bas-relief of Laussel. Again, we observe some relations between the Aurignacian cultures of Austria and of the Italian peninsula, such as the pointe à cran, derived from the gravette and found both in various stations of northern Italy and at Willendorf. In western Russia the Aurignacian station of Mezine, Chernigov, shows clearly the types of the superior Aurignacian in the graving of bone and ivory, in the small bâtons recalling those of Spy, in Belgium, and of Brassempouy, in southwestern France, in the large bone piercers perforated at the head, suggesting the primitive needles from the shelter of Blanchard, and in the degenerate statuettes resembling the type of Brassempouy.

Distribution of the Aurignacian Industry

When the general geographic distribution of the Aurignacian (Fig. 153) is compared with that of the Mousterian (Fig. 125) it is surprising to find how many of the stations are identical; it would appear as if the Crô-Magnons had driven the Neanderthals from their principal stations over all of western Europe for the pursuit of their own industries and of the chase. We have already spoken of the invasion of the Mousterian stations along the Riviera, in the Pyrenees, in the Cantabrian Alps, and along the Dordogne and the Somme; this occupation also extends along the Meuse, the Rhine, and the Danube; but, whereas there are only six stations in all Germany of unquestioned Mousterian age, there are more than double that number in Aurignacian times. The Crô-Magnons entered the grottos of Sirgenstein and Räuberhöhle, near the headwaters of the Danube; northwest of Sirgenstein they established the open 'loess' station of Achenheim, west of Strasburg; in the lower layers of the 'newer loess' was also the station of Völklinshofen, south of Achenheim; along the middle Rhine were the 'loess' stations of Rhens and Metternich, and to the far north, close to the borders of the Scandinavian glacier, was the somewhat doubtful Aurignacian station of Thiede. The Crô-Magnon men entered the Sirgenstein grotto and scattered the implements of their culture above the 'lower rodent layer,' composed of the Obi lemming, and also left remains of the woolly rhinoceros, the woolly mammoth, the stag, and the reindeer on the floor of the cavern. The Upper Aurignacian also extends down the Danube as far as Willendorf, and possibly to Brünn, Moravia, which last, however, may be of Solutrean age. Altogether between seventeen and twenty Aurignacian stations have been discovered in the region north of the Danube and along the Rhine.

Aurignacian Art[AQ]

The strongest proof of the unity of heredity as displayed in the dominant Crô-Magnon race in Europe from early Aurignacian until the close of Magdalenian times is the unity of their art impulse. This indicates a unity of mind and of spirit. It is something which could not pass to them from another race, like an industrial invention, but was inborn and creative. These people were the Palæolithic Greeks; artistic observation and representation and a true sense of proportion and of beauty were instinct with them from the beginning. Their stone and bone industry may show vicissitudes and the influence of invasion and of trade and the bringing in of new inventions, but their art shows a continuous evolution and development from first to last, animated by a single motive, namely, the appreciation of the beauty of form and the realistic representation of it.

This art, as first discovered by Lartet and further made known through the brilliant studies of Piette and Breuil, is industrial (l'art mobilier), consisting of the decoration of small personal belongings, ornaments, and implements of stone, bone, and ivory. According to the later researches of Sautuola, Rivière, Cartailhac, Capitan, and Breuil it is also mural or parietal (l'art pariétal), consisting of drawings, engravings, paintings, and bas-reliefs on the walls of caverns and grottos. It remained for Breuil especially to demonstrate that the mobile and the parietal art are identical, the work of the same artistic race, developing along closely similar lines, step by step. Thus the art becomes a new means not only of interpreting the psychology of the race but of establishing the prehistoric chronology.

Dating of the Art

One of the first questions which rises in our mind is this—how is this art dated; how can these steps be positively determined?

The age of these engraved or painted designs on the walls of the caverns is determined in a number of ways described by Breuil.(36) The simplest method is where the wall designs of one period are covered by the archæological layers of succeeding periods. This has been observed in four cases, as at Pair-non-Pair, Gironde, where primitive engravings of horses, caprids, and bovids are buried under flints characteristic of the late Aurignacian mingled with bones of the mammoth, rhinoceros, lion, hyæna, bison, and reindeer. Again, the deeply engraved bison on the wall of the grotto of La Grèze, Dordogne, is found beneath a talus of Solutrean flints associated with remains of the bison, reindeer, and rhinoceros. In the Grotte de la Mairie, Dordogne, are found several finely engraved middle Magdalenian figures of animals buried beneath late Magdalenian implements associated with the reindeer fauna.

Very important, indeed, is the age of the sculpture and bas-reliefs found in Laussel. The human sculptures are determined to be of late Aurignacian age, because they are buried in an early Solutrean talus. The splendid wall sculptures of the series of horses in the Cap-Blanc shelter, near the Laussel shelter, are shown to be of middle Magdalenian age, because of the upper Magdalenian strata which covered and partly concealed them.

In other instances we can date a drawing in a cavern by the period at which the opening was closed; for example, the cave of La Mouthe, Dordogne, was closed in by a Magdalenian layer of flints which touched the roof and firmly sealed up the entrance until recent times. Again, at Gargas, Hautes-Pyrénées, we know that the last occupation by the Crô-Magnons was near the end of Aurignacian times, as indicated by a hearth filled with late Aurignacian flints and with the remains of the bear, hyæna, horse, and reindeer; the opening of the grotto was buried beneath these foyers, which obstructed the entrance until the cave was rediscovered at a comparatively recent date. Also at Marsoulas, Haute-Garonne, there are two hearths, one late Aurignacian, the other late Magdalenian; the grotto was then closed until recent times. The grotto of Niaux, on the Ariège, which contains fine examples of drawings of middle Magdalenian times at a distance of 1,800 feet from the entrance, was protected for a long period by a lake 6 feet deep and several hundred feet long. At Altamira, near Santander, the superb frescoed ceiling was buried, long before Neolithic times, by the closing up of the entrance, which was rediscovered only about thirty years ago.

A third method of dating the art is still more significant; it is through a similarity in the engravings on bone, found in the old hearths associated with flints, to the mural decorations which are found upon the walls. Thus, at Altamira, engravings on bone associated with Solutrean and Magdalenian flints enabled Alcalde del Rio and Breuil to date the engravings on the limestone walls. Hence, in grottos which have never been closed up and which have been frequented at different times from the Palæolithic to the present epoch one observes that the mural designs in the caverns are invariably accompanied by Upper Palæolithic implements with a similar style of decoration; and this is the case at Font-de-Gaume, Combarelles, Portel, Mas d'Azil, Castillo, Pasiega, and Hornos de la Peña. The bone engravings of the female red deer found at Altamira are identical in their artistic period with those found on the walls of the same grotto. The excavations at Castillo, where numerous shoulder-blades of the deer were found engraved in the same style as those of Altamira, prove that all these engravings and drawings are to be referred to ancient Magdalenian rather than to upper Solutrean times. The engravings upon the walls in the grotto of Hornos de la Peña, of Aurignacian times, are dated through the discovery at the base of the layer of Aurignacian flints of an engraved equine figure similar to the engravings at Altamira.

A fourth method applies to those not infrequent cases when two or three designs are superposed one upon the other, from which it necessarily follows that the underlying designs must antedate those above.

Through the application of these four methods Breuil has succeeded in dating all the steps in the advance of art from Aurignacian into Magdalenian times.

Engraving, Painting, and Sculpture

In the archaic drawings of the caverns of Pair-non-Pair, La Grèze, and La Mouthe most of the animal figures are somewhat heavily and deeply engraved; the proportions are not true; the head is usually too small, with a large, short body which is often lightly modelled, resting on thin extremities. Quadrupeds are frequently represented with but two legs, as in the case of the mammoth. That the powers of observation were only gradually trained is shown by the fact that details which in later drawings are well observed are here overlooked; the profile drawings of animals, with one fore leg and one hind leg represented, are quite like those of children.

Progress toward a true representation of animal form in drawing begins very early; even in middle Aurignacian times primitive drawing and engraving commences to replace sculpture. Both the flint 'burins' and the engravings on the walls of the grottos show that the beginnings of drawing may be traced back to early Aurignacian times. While the Palæolithic artists early in the Aurignacian had obtained a certain facility in plastic work, their drawings, which are solely contours—somewhat imperfect and deeply engraved lines—show a gradual development. The degree of skill attained in late Aurignacian times we know from the engraving of a horse on a stone fragment from Gargas, and from a sketch of the hinder quarter of a horse found in the cave of Hornos de la Peña, which is engraved on the frontal bone of one of the wild horses; the latter is strikingly similar to one of the engravings found at the entrance to the same grotto. The engravings on a slab of slate of the heads of two woolly rhinoceroses(37) (Fig. 161) probably belong to the late Aurignacian. Similar attempts are found in the Abri Lacoste. Ornamentation develops in the middle Aurignacian, but retains a simple geometric character.