We may imagine that the gradual disappearance of the reindeer, an animal much more easily pursued and killed than the stag, was one of the causes of the substitution of the various arts of fishing for those of hunting.

It is to the excessively small or microlithic flints that the name Tardenoisian especially applies, and it is the vast multiplication of these microliths and their wide distribution over the whole area of the Mediterranean and of western Europe which constitutes the most distinctive feature of this industrial stage.(10) The triangular flint (Fig. 249) is certainly the most ancient Tardenoisian type. It occurs in the Azilian stations of the Cantabrian Mountains and of the Pyrenees, accompanied by the painted pebbles and with other flints of Azilian type, but without the graving-tools; to the east it is found in the stations of Savoy; and along the Danube it occurs at Ofnet, associated with remains of the lion and the moose, also with ornamental necklaces composed of the perforated teeth of the deer, identical with those found in the type station of Mas d'Azil in the Pyrenees. To the north this typical early Azilian culture extends to Istein, in Baden, where it includes the microlithic flint flakes, the gravers, and the little round scrapers associated here also with the stag and the prehistoric forest and meadow fauna of western Europe. Exactly the same stage of industrial development occurs in the grotto of Höhlefels, near Nuremberg, and in the shelter station of Sous Sac, Ain. We invariably find proofs of the variety of these pygmy flints as well as of their continuity from one station to another. All these facts compel us to assign a very long period of time to the spread of these industrial types.

The question which arises as to the sources of this special Tardenoisian industry again finds archæologists divided. Schmidt inclines to the autochthonous theory and regards the microlithic flint industry as an outgrowth of tendencies already well developed in the Magdalenian. Breuil, on the other hand,(11) dwells strongly on the evidence for circum-Mediterranean sources. In putting the questions, Who were the Azilians? Whence did they come? What were their ancestors? he is disposed to give the answer already quoted, that, whichever industry is examined, we are always obliged to look toward the south, toward some point along the Mediterranean, for the origin of these microlithic flints. In Italy, which he believes to have remained in an Aurignacian industrial stage throughout all the long period of Magdalenian time, he finds at Mentone a layer overlying the Aurignacian and containing small flints recalling the geometric forms of the Azilian, as well as a multitude of the small round scrapers (racloirs) characteristic of Azilian times. The upper layers at Mentone on the Riviera are paralleled by those observed near Otranto, in Sicily. It is certain, he continues, that all around the Mediterranean there was a number of distinct centres where microlithic implements of geometric form appeared, and where the accompanying industries, in different stages of development, were related to an Upper Palæolithic culture consisting of a continuous Aurignacian type.

The labors of de Morgan, Capitan, and others have thrown great light on the Palæolithic of Tunis, where a flint culture was developed only slightly different from that of the Azilian of Valle, Santander, of the Mas d'Azil, Ariège, and of Bobache, Drôme. A resemblance is also found in Portugal; and southern Spain, despite its poverty of typical implements, shows a similar evolution. Near Salamanca, northwest of Madrid, Spain, the grottos contain schematic figures and colored pebbles resembling the Azilian. In Portugal the hearths of Mugem and Cabeço da Arruda are distinguished by their triangular microliths and are undoubtedly Pre-Neolithic, because there is neither pottery nor any trace of domesticated animals, excepting, possibly, the dog.

To the north of Europe the discoveries in Belgium have especial importance, for typical Azilian implements, including small round scrapers, lateral gravers, elongated triangular microliths, and knife flakes are found associated with the remains of the reindeer in the grotto of Remouchamp and at Zonhoven. It appears in Belgium, as in Italy, that the use of the Tardenoisian microlithic flint types is prolonged into a later time than that of the typical Azilian flint implements—the scrapers, gravers, borers, and knife flakes—which, as we have seen, appear at the end of the true Magdalenian.

On the other side of the English Channel we again find these flints always unmingled with pottery and usually distributed along the sea or river shores. The best-known stations are those of Hastings, directly across the Channel opposite Boulogne, and of Seven Oaks, near London; in Settle, Yorkshire, is the Victoria Cave station. To the north, in Scotland, four Azilian stations have been discovered around Oban, on the western coast near the head of the Firth of Lorne, while Azilian harpoons have also been found on the Isle of Oronsay, at its entrance.

Thus the spread of the very small Tardenoisian flint implements in the final stages of the Palæolithic precedes the southern advent of the Neolithic.

In Germany only six Azilian-Tardenoisian stations have thus far been discovered: two to the east of Düsseldorf, one in the neighborhood of Weimar, two on the headwaters of the Rhine, near Basle, and, by far the most important, the large and small grottos of Ofnet, on a small tributary of the Danube northwest of Munich. This last is exceptionally important because it is the only station where skeletons have been found buried with Azilian-Tardenoisian flints, thereby enabling us positively to determine the contemporary human races.

Burials in Azilian-Tardenoisian Times

The strange interment which gives Ofnet its distinction belongs to the period of Azilian-Tardenoisian industry.(12) This conclusion is not weakened by the absence of Azilian harpoons or painted pebbles, because at this time the cave of Ofnet served its frequenters only as a place of burial; there are no hearths or flint workshops to indicate continued residence, as during earlier Upper Palæolithic times.

This great ceremonial burial seems to afford the only positive evidence to be found in all western Europe of the kind of people who were pursuing the Azilian industry. The larger Ofnet grotto opens toward the southwest and has a length of 39 feet and a width of 36 feet. It was first entered in early Aurignacian times and shows successive layers of Aurignacian, early Solutrean, and late Magdalenian cultures, above which lies a thick deposit of the Azilian-Tardenoisian, in which is found the most remarkable interment of all Palæolithic times.

This is a ceremonial burial of thirty-three skulls of people belonging to two distinct races: respectively, brachycephalic and dolichocephalic, and certainly not related in any way to the Crô-Magnon race. In one group twenty-seven skulls were found embedded in ochre and arranged in a sort of nest, with the faces all looking westward. As the skulls in the centre were more closely pressed together and crushed than those on the outside, it seems probable that these skulls were added one by one from time to time, those on the outside being the most recent additions. About a yard distant a similar nest was found, containing six more skulls embedded and arranged in exactly the same manner. The interment probably took place shortly after death and certainly before the separate bones had been disintegrated by decomposition, for not only the lower jaw but a number of the neck vertebra were found with each skull. The heads had been severed from the necks by a sharp flint, the marks of which are plainly visible on some of the vertebræ.

It is noteworthy that most of these skulls are those of women and young children, there being only four adult male skulls. On this account some advance the theory of cannibalism; others that, being taken captive by a tribe of enemies, these unfortunate people were offered in sacrifice, in which case decapitation was the means of death. But, then, how explain the abundant ornaments of stag teeth and snail shells (Helix nemoralis) with which the skulls of the women and little children were decorated, and the treasured implements of flint with which all save one of the men and a few of the women and children were provided?

There are precedents for all these singular features of the Ofnet interment in other Upper Palæolithic burials, namely, the embedding in ochre, the offerings of ornaments of teeth and of shells, the separate interment of the skull—all these were customs more or less characteristic of the Upper Palæolithic, but never observed in Neolithic times.

It will be recalled that the custom of burying the entire body, as well as that of embedding the body in ochre, is first observed among the late Neanderthals and obtained throughout the entire Upper Palæolithic from the Aurignacian burials of Grimaldi to the Azilian, of Mas d'Azil. No other case, however, is known of the westward turning of the face: in most of the Upper Palæolithic burials the face of the departed looks toward the opening of the grotto; but, although the grotto of Ofnet opens toward the southwest, the skulls, without exception, were facing exactly to the west and looking toward the wall rather than toward the entrance of the cavern.

The New Broad-Headed and Narrow-Headed Races of Ofnet

The burials at Ofnet are the first observed in western Europe which present a mingling of races. This in itself is a fact of great interest; it is a prelude to what characterizes all the populations of western Europe at the present time, namely, the presence of races widely separated in origin and in anatomical structure, but closely united by similar customs, industries, and beliefs.

A second fact of even greater importance is the proof of the arrival in western Europe toward the close of Palæolithic times of two entirely new human stocks; one broad-headed, resembling the modern Alpine or Celtic type; the other narrow-headed, resembling the modern 'Mediterranean' type of Sergi. Beside these pure types there are several blended forms which are intermediate or mesaticephalic.

Of the eight brachycephalic heads, six are those of children; the two adult brachycephalic crania belong to young women and are, therefore, not quite so characteristic as male skulls would be, for in general racial type is more strongly marked in men than in women; the remaining skulls are either of a blended form or purely dolichocephalic.

The relationship of the broad-headed race to other prehistoric and existing broad-headed races of western Europe is also a matter of very great interest. The Ofnet brachycephals are regarded by Schliz(13) as closely similar to the type skull of the so-called Grenelle race, which, in turn, is closely similar to the Furfooz type. Thus the cephalic index of one (Fig. 255) of these broad, flattened skulls of Ofnet is 83.33 per cent; the face is relatively narrow, the zygomatic index being low—76.34 per cent; the brain capacity of the female skulls does not exceed 1,320 c.cm. The skull is further described as small, smooth, and delicately modelled, with a correspondingly feeble dentition, the teeth being small; the processes of muscular attachment are slightly developed, all of which characters indicate that the skull belonged to a woman about twenty-five years of age. The forehead is low, broad, and prominent. It is altogether typically parallel to the 'skull of Grenelle,' as well as to the female 'skull of Auvernier' described by Kollmann. The peculiarity of this broad-headed race, like that of Grenelle and of Furfooz, is that, while the forehead is of only moderate breadth, the posterior part of the skull is extremely broad. The broad-headed people of Ofnet are thus definitely considered by Schliz(14) as members of the Furfooz-Grenelle race.

The narrow-headed race of the Ofnet burials is distinct in every respect and presents resemblances to the branch of the 'Mediterranean' race found in the foreground of the Alpine regions to-day, in which the head is of a pear-shaped type. The best preserved of these dolichocephalic skulls (Fig. 255) presents an index of 70.50 per cent, with a brain capacity in the male of 1,500 c.cm., while the smallest brain capacity is that found in one of the female skulls with 1,100 c.cm. Among the five adult purely dolichocephalic skulls the face is not in the least of the broad or disharmonic Crô-Magnon type, but is in proportion with the cranium, and is thus truly harmonic. The resemblance of this narrow-headed Ofnet skull to that of the Brünn race, which we have described as occurring in Moravia in Solutrean times, is only partial, and Schliz concludes that among the narrow-headed people of Ofnet we have a form of dolichocephaly which is not identical with any of the known early dolichocephalic forms of western Europe, but which pursues an independent line of development similar to the narrow-headed races in the borders of the Alpine region of the present day. Thus this head type, of a uniform elliptic contour, seems to have become a stable racial element of the Alpine population, since we meet it again in later prehistoric times in the region of the southern and western foreground of the Alps. Among the children's skulls, two are of the narrow-headed, pear-shaped type similar to the Alpine dolichocephals of to-day, that is, with a narrow forehead and very broad posterior portions of the skull.

Central Origin of the Broad-Headed (Alpine?) Races

The affinity of the broad-headed Azilian-Tardenoisian tribes of the Danube to those found in the Upper Palæolithic of northwestern Europe seems to be clearly established. The latter are sometimes known as the Grenelle race and sometimes as the Furfooz race. Boule(15) observes in regard to the skeletal remains of Grenelle which were found in the alluvium near Paris, in 1870, that it is quite impossible now, forty years after their discovery, to demonstrate their geologic antiquity. This is not the case with the Furfooz broad-heads, the age of which we regard as well established, but since the head type appears to be the same in both cases, we may speak of this race as the Furfooz-Grenelle.

In a cave near Furfooz, in the valley of the Lesse, Belgium, sixteen skeletons were discovered by Dupont in 1867. With the bones were found implements of reindeer horn and remains of the late Pleistocene fauna of northern Europe.(16) The reindeer and the tundra fauna of Belgium were contemporaneous with the early Tardenoisian culture and with the stag and forest fauna of southern France, so that the skeletons of Furfooz may safely be referred to Azilian-Tardenoisian times.

Only two of the Furfooz skulls were preserved in good shape; they are of brachycephalic or sub-brachycephalic form, and, following the suggestion of de Quatrefages and Hamy, these skulls have been spoken of as belonging to the 'brachycephalic Furfooz race.' The men of this race may certainly be regarded as belonging to Upper Palæolithic times, whereas the brachycephalic race found at Grenelle, near Paris, is probably Neolithic. This by no means prevents the Furfooz and the Grenelle types belonging to the same general brachycephalic race; it is altogether probable that they do, and that with them may be included the Ofnet broad-heads.

There are several opinions regarding the geographic centres from which these broad-heads entered Europe; it is generally believed that they came from the high plateaus of central Asia. By Giuffrida-Ruggeri the Furfooz race is identified with the existing broad-headed Alpine race (Homo sapiens alpinus), and is mistakenly adduced as proof that the Alpine race originated in Europe and is not in any way related to the Mongolian races of central Asia. A more conservative view(17) is that the recent European broad-headed types commonly included under the Alpine race cannot yet be traced back to the Furfooz-Grenelle ancestors, because their connection is too problematical. Schliz, on the other hand, considers that the Furfooz-Grenelle race survived in northwestern Europe and corresponds with that which became the builders of the megalithic dolmens of Neolithic times, the latter being but slightly modified descendants of the original Furfooz race; he believes, moreover, that these broad-headed peoples first occupied central Europe and then extended to western Europe, where they correspond to the Alpine race, at least in part; that they also migrated to the north and were the basis of the broad-headed races now found in Holland and Denmark.

Southern Origin of the Narrow-Headed (Mediterranean?) Races

While it seems probable that the broad-heads represent a central migration from Eurasia, evidence of an industrial and cultural character indicates that the narrow-heads came from the south; this is seen both in the south Mediterranean origin of the Tardenoisian flint industry and in the new schematic influences on the decadent art of Upper Palæolithic times.

It seems, observes Breuil, as if the schematic influences in art during Upper Palæolithic times always extend from the south toward the north; they predominate entirely in the painted rocks of Andalusia, in the Pyrenees, and in Dordogne. In the grotto of Marsoulas, Haute-Garonne, the Azilian motifs are clearly superposed upon the Magdalenian polychromes. This purely schematic phase, which abruptly follows the figure art of middle Magdalenian times, first made itself felt in the late Magdalenian. There was a sudden loss of realism which does not indicate affiliation but rather the infiltration of strange elements from the south; the precursors of the destructive invasion of the Azilian-Tardenoisian tribes who were driven from their Mediterranean homes by the westward advance of the conquering Neolithic races. We imagine(18) that in southern Spain there dwelt in Upper Palæolithic times a population differing from the Magdalenians of France and of the Cantabrian Mountains in their lower artistic tastes. It would therefore appear that the schematic art had its home toward the south of the peninsula of Spain about the time of the invasion of the Azilian culture in France.

Northern Origin of the Baltic (Teutonic?) Races

For the first time the retreat of the Scandinavian ice-fields and the less severe climate permitted a northern migration route along the shores of the Baltic. This is the first known migration of any tribes along this route, which throughout all glacial times had been blocked by the vicinity of the Scandinavian and Baltic ice-fields, but which was now opened by the approach of the more genial climate which succeeded the long Postglacial Stage. Whether this Baltic invasion was the advance wave of a northern long-headed Teutonic race is wholly a matter of conjecture.

"Other peoples," observes Breuil,(19) "known at present only from their industries, were advancing toward the close of the Upper Palæolithic along the northern and southern shores of the Baltic and persisted for an appreciable time before the arrival of the tribes introducing the early Neolithic Campignian culture which accumulated in the kitchen-middens along the same shores. Like the southern races of Azilian-Tardenoisian times, these northerly tribes were truly Pre-Neolithic, ignorant both of agriculture and of pottery; they brought with them no domesticated animals excepting the dog, which is known at Mugem, at Tourasse, and at Oban, in northwestern Scotland. In the use of bone harpoons of elegant form and in the taste displayed in fine decorations engraved upon bone, these tribes suggest the culture of the Magdalenians, but a close examination shows that it could not have been derived from the Magdalenian type. The community of style with the painted and engraved figures found in western Siberia and in the central Ural region and north of the Altai Mountains denotes rather an Asiatic and Siberian origin.

"The decorative designs of these Baltic peoples were very different from those of the Crô-Magnons in Magdalenian times, and are not schematic; the conception of the animal figures, although naturalistic, is as crude as that of the early Aurignacian figures, and is far inferior to that of the Magdalenian stage." "It is probable," continues Breuil, "that in these northerly regions the closing cultures of the Upper Palæolithic developed along more or less parallel lines with those observed in the south in giving rise to ethnographic elements which travelled along the littoral regions of the northern seas."

This race and culture is described by Obermaier(20) as follows:

When primitive man took possession of Denmark the sea-coast was so remote that he could also reach southern Scandinavia. The station of Maglemose in the 'Great Moor,' discovered and described by F. L. Sarauw, of Copenhagen, in 1900, is near the harbor of Mullerup on the western coast of Zealand and not far from the shore of an ancient freshwater lake formation. These people were lake-dwellers, living perhaps on rafts but not on dwellings supported by piles. From these rafts it is supposed the implements dropped into the lake. The 881 flint implements found here include scrapers, borers, cleavers, and knives, as well as microlithic flints. They show no trace of the Neolithic art of polishing, merely suggesting certain chipped styles observed in the 'kjöddenmöddings.' (See Figs. 263, 264, and 265.) The influence of the Palæolithic is much stronger, especially in the case of the microlithic Tardenoisian types. In the industrial culture of Maglemose, however, far more important than stone are implements of horn and bone. These the Maglemose folk obtained from the wild ox, moose, stag, and roe-deer, fashioning them into tools of various types, some of which are shown in Fig. 261. Many of these tools are ornamented with conventional designs or very crude animal outlines on one or both surfaces.

The forests of this time consisted of the characteristic northern flora including numerous evergreens, the birch, aspen, hazel, and elm, but without any trace of the oak. There is absolutely no trace of pottery in the Maglemose deposits. Of great interest is the fact that skeletal remains of the domestic dog are found here.

The Maglemose culture of the Baltic region is regarded as contemporary with the Azilian and Tardenoisian in the south. It contains types, not of flint but of bone, which are prophetic of the Neolithic. Traces of this culture have been found throughout northern Germany, in Denmark, and in southern Sweden, as well as to the east and in the Baltic provinces. Although no human remains have as yet been discovered, it is highly probable that these people belonged to the northern Teutonic races.

Conclusion as to the Relationships of the Palæolithic Races

Thus in southern, central, and northern Europe the close of Upper Palæolithic times is marked by the invasion of new Eurasiatic races, all in a Pre-Neolithic stage of industry and art. It is not improbable that these races were advance waves from the same geographic regions as the Neolithic tribes which followed them.

From the earliest Palæolithic to Neolithic times it does not appear that western Europe was ever a centre of human evolution in the sense that it gave rise to a single new species of man. The main racial evolution and the earlier and later branches of the human family were established in the east and successively found their way westward; nor is there at present any ground for believing that any very prolonged evolution or transformation of human types occurred in western Europe.

We should regard as wholly unproved the notion that either of these Palæolithic races of western Europe gave rise to others which succeeded them in geologic time; the only sequence of this sort to which some degree of probability may be attached is that the Heidelberg race was ancestral to the Neanderthal race.

In most instances, such races as the Piltdown, the Crô-Magnon, the Brünn, the Furfooz-Grenelle, and the Mediterranean arrived fully formed, with all their mental and physical attributes and tendencies very distinctly developed. There is some evidence, but not of a very conclusive kind, that the modification of certain of these races in western Europe was partly in the nature of a decline; this was apparently the case both with the Neanderthals and with the Crô-Magnons.

We may therefore imagine that the family tree or lines of descent of the races of the Old Stone Age consisted of a number of entirely separate branches, which had been completely formed in the great Eurasiatic continent, a land mass infinitely larger and more capable of producing a variety of races than the diminutive peninsular area of western Europe.

A review of these races in descending order, in respect to stature, the cephalic index, and brain capacity, is presented in the following table:

The chief authorities for these measurements are Schwalbe, Dubois, Keith, Smith, Woodward, Boule, Sollas, Sera, Klaatsch, Fraipont, Makowsky, Verneau, Testut, and Broca.