As early as 1908, Breuil(34) discovered in the interior of the cave back of the grotto some quartzites worked into Acheulean types, proving that the cavern was entered in Acheulean times. Obermaier,(35) in the course of three years' work, has found that the floor of the grotto was possibly used as a flint-making station in Acheulean and, possibly, in Chellean times. The culture section which he has revealed here under the direction of the Institut de Paléontologie humaine can be compared only with that which Commont has found on the 'terraces' of the Somme at St. Acheul. The difference is that in the shelter of the Castillo grotto the climate is recorded only through the changing forms of animal life which are mingled around the fire-hearths and with the flints in the ascending levels.

The entrance to this grotto is on the side of a high hill overlooking the valley and might easily have been barricaded against attack. In early Acheulean times, when the flint workers were on the very floor of the grotto, the lower entrance of the cavern was still open, leading far into the heart of the mountain. The successive accumulations of débris, cave loam, fire-stones, bones, and innumerable flints, together with great blocks falling over the entrance of the cavern, reached a height of 45 feet, so that during the Upper Palæolithic only the upper entrance to the cavern was used by the artists of Magdalenian times. The subsequent Azilian and Eneolithic cultures were crowded under the very roof of the grotto at the sides.

This station, repaired to and then abandoned by tribe after tribe over a period estimated at present as not less than 50,000 years, is a monumental volume of prehistory, read and interpreted by the archæologist almost as clearly as if the whole record were in writing.

The first positive evidences of the use of fire are the layers of charred wood and bones frequently found in the industrial deposits of early Acheulean times.

Geographic and Climatic Changes

During the early period of development of the Acheulean industry, the geography, the climate, and the plant and animal life continued to present exactly the same aspect as during Chellean times. The mammals which we find in Thuringia in the lower travertines of the valley of the Ilm, at Taubach, near Weimar, and at Ehringsdorf, mingled with flints of early Acheulean industry, are of the same species as those found in the valley of the Somme mingled with the implements of the Chellean industry. The southern mammoth occurs at Taubach, and we find the straight-tusked elephant (E. antiquus), Merck's rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the lion, and the hyæna representing the ancient African-Asiatic migrants, while the north European and Asiatic life is represented by the giant deer, roe-deer, wild goat, brown bear, wolf, badger, marten, otter, beaver, meadow hamster, and shrew. Grazing in the meadows were the aurochs, or wild ox, and the wisent, or bison. There was one variety of horse, probably of the forest type. Thus, the fauna as a whole contains six Asiatic types, or eight if we include the bison and wild cattle. Of the forest life there are nine species, including the wild boar (Sus scrofa ferus) not mentioned above.

The layers of travertine are indicative of very important geographical changes which were occurring in central and southern Europe in the middle period of Third Interglacial times. The travertines of the Ilm and of other parts of central Germany were due to wide-spread volcanic disturbances and eruptions, accompanied by the deposition of travertines, gypsums, and tufas. To this volcanic disturbance in central France is attributed the deposition of the tuf de La Celle-sous-Moret, near Paris, which records the warm temperate climate of early Acheulean times, as well as the somewhat cooler succeeding climate of late Acheulean times. This uplift in the centre of Germany and France apparently left the region between France and Great Britain undisturbed, because there is evidence of continued free migration of the tribes and of the Acheulean cultures; but there appears to have been a wide-spread subsidence of the coasts of southern Europe by which the islands of the Mediterranean became isolated from the mainland, and the migrating routes between Europe and Africa across the central Mediterranean region were cut off. Thus, Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia were separated from the mainland after having received a large contingent of mammalian life from the continents both to the north and to the south. While descendants of the African and Asiatic mammals, as well as of the northerly European forest and meadow types, survive on these islands, there is, thus far, no indication that they were invaded by hunters carrying the implements of the Acheulean culture, although these Acheulean flint workers ranged over all parts of the Italian peninsula (Fig. 80), as indicated by the discovery of nine stations.

Distribution of Acheulean Stations

The Acheulean stations are widely distributed along the Seine, Marne, and Somme in northern France, where flint is abundant and well adapted for fine workmanship. In central and southern France, where large flints are scarce, the Acheulean tribes were forced to use quartz, which fashions into clumsier forms. In the north the Acheulean workers continued on the old Chellean sites at Chelles, St. Acheul, Abbeville, and Helin. In late Acheulean times were established the new stations of Wolvercote on the Thames, near Oxford, and of Levallois on the Seine, near Paris, both famous for their 'Levallois' flint knives or blades. Near Levallois is the late Acheulean station of Villejuif, south of Paris, where the flints are buried in drifts of loess. In Normandy are the important stations of Frileuse, Bléville, and La Mare-aux-Clercs, which give the whole Acheulean development, both early and late. On a small tributary valley of the Vézère, in Dordogne, in late Acheulean times there was established the station of La Micoque, which gives its name to a number of miniature flints of distinctive form which were first found there and are known as the 'type of La Micoque.' Other stations, such as Combe-Capelle, also show examples of this 'miniature' Acheulean workmanship.

Altogether, over thirty Acheulean stations have been found in France, two—Castillo and San Isidro—in northern and central Spain, the single station of Furninha in Portugal, over eight in Germany, three in Austria, and three in Russian Poland. Especially remarkable is the wide distribution of this culture all over Italy, where explorations by no means exhaustive have resulted in the discovery of at least nine or ten very prolific stations extending from Goccianello in the north to Capri in the south, but not into Sicily as far as is at present known. Thus all of western Europe, excepting the area covered by the Scandinavian ice-fields on the north and by the Alpine ice-fields on the south, was penetrated by the workers of Acheulean flints, probably members, for the most part, of the Neanderthal race.

The general uniformity of Acheulean workmanship in all parts of western Europe is an indication that these Neanderthaloid tribes were more or less migratory and that the inventions of new and useful implements, such as the lance-pointed coup de poing of La Micoque and the flint-flakes of Levallois, which probably originated at an especial centre, or perhaps even in the inventive mind of a single workman, became widely distributed and highly distinctive of certain periods. The development of the implements in different regions is so uniform as to prove that the evolution of the early Palæolithic cultures extended all over western Europe and that the various types or stages were essentially contemporary.

Forms of Acheulean Implements

There is a close sequence between the coup de poing of the Chellean workers and its development into the finer and more symmetrical forms of the Acheulean. The latter, according to Obermaier,(36) is distinguished by the flaking of the entire surface, by the far more skilful fashioning, and by the really symmetrical almond form which is attained by retouching both the surface and the edges. This more refined retouch becomes the means of producing symmetrical instruments, with straight, convex, or concave cutting edges, as well as finer and lighter tools.

The early Acheulean industry belonged to a warm temperate climatic period and directly succeeds the Chellean, as shown in a most perfect manner in the quarries of the type station of St. Acheul on the Somme. In these earlier strata the prevailing forms of coup de poing are the 'pointed oval' and the 'lance-pointed,' the latter showing very simple chipping, a broad point, and a thick base. The oval coups de poing are smaller than the Chellean tools of the same kind, carefully fashioned on all sides and round the base, and very symmetrical; there are four distinct varieties of these: the almond type, oval almond-shaped, elongate oval, and subtriangular—the latter evolving into the finely modelled type of late Acheulean times. It may have been from these oval types that the disc form was finally evolved.

There is wide difference of opinion regarding the use of these thin ovaloid, triangular, and disc forms. Obermaier considers that they may have been clamped in wood, or furnished with a shaft, thus forming a spear head. Another suggestion is that they were used with a leather guard to protect the hand; and there is no doubt that in either case they would have served as effective weapons in chase or war. Another view is that of Commont,(37) who believes that not a single implement down to the very end of Acheulean times can be regarded as a weapon of war; this author maintains that many of these implements, including those dressed on both edges, were still in various ways grasped by the hand, although they do not present the firm, blunted grip of the ancient coups de poing.

We also note the development of a type of coup de poing, with cutting blade fashioned straight across the end: this primitive chisel or adze-shaped tool may have been used as a chopper, or as an axe, in fashioning wooden tools.

In the lance-pointed coup de poing of narrow, elongate shape, the flaking is very simple and the edges are continued into the short base, generally very thick, and often showing part of the original crust of the flint nodule, which is well adapted for the grip of the hand. This implement, which serves the original idea of the coup de poing, develops into the round-pointed and lance-pointed forms. There is no question that, whether in industrial use, in war, or in the chase, these implements were held only by the hand.

Industrial.
Coup de poing.
Ovaloid.
Double-edged.
Subtriangular.
Straight cutting blade across the end.
Disc-shaped.
Triangular—very thin and flat.
Hachette, chopper.
Grattoir, planing tool.
Racloir, scraper.
Perçoir, drill, borer.
Couteau, knife.
'Pointe' (Levallois blade).
'Pointe,' point—oval and chisel-shaped.

War and Chase.
Coup de poing.
Of pointed and lance-pointed types.
Pierre de jet, throwing stone.
Couteau, knife.
'Pointe,' dart and spear heads.

The small implements of the early Acheulean included a great variety of designs developing out of the far more primitive tools of Chellean and Pre-Chellean times, namely, the planing tool, the scraper, the borer, and the knife. Each of these types develops its own variety, often fashioned with great care, primitive blades, straight-edged cutting tools, with the back rounded or blunted for the grip of the fingers, scrapers with straight or curved edges, and perçoirs or borers. The scraping and planing tools, doubtless used for the dressing of hides, are now more carefully fashioned. We also observe the racloir and the scraper finished to a point which is the precursor of the graving tool of the Upper Palæolithic.(38)

Characteristic of this stage is the systematic use of large 'flakes' or outlying pieces of flint struck off from the core, which were used as scrapers or planes, or developed into small 'haches,' or coups de poing.

The core or centre of the flint nodule still constitutes the material out of which the large typical implements are fashioned; but the flake begins to lend itself to a great variety of forms, as witnessed in the evolution of the Levallois knives of the Upper Acheulean and the highly varied flake implements of the Mousterian and Aurignacian industries.

The 'pointe,' or point, is a special implement chipped out of a short, sharply convex flake, taking the form of a blunt dart or spear head, pointed at one end and oval or flat at the other.

Late Acheulean Climate

The Acheulean industry continued over a very long period, and by the time the late Acheulean culture stage had been reached a decided change of climate ensued in western Europe. Along the borders of the Danube and of the Rhine, in the valley of the Somme, and even in central and southern France there are indications of a cool dry continental climate, similar to that which is now found on the southern steppes of Russia, in the Ural Mountains, and in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea. Indications of this climate have been mentioned above, as seen in the plant life in the tuf de La Celle-sous-Moret, near Paris, where there are evidences that trees of a cool temperate climate took the place of the warm temperate forests of early Acheulean times.

That the climate should be considered as cool and arid rather than comparable with the bitter-cold climate of the 'upper loess' period, when a true steppe fauna entered Europe for the first time, is further indicated by the fact that late Acheulean implements are more frequently found in the centre and north of France than in the south.

To the far north, before the close of Acheulean times, the Scandinavian ice-fields had again begun to advance southward; the region bordering the glaciers was cold and moist and favored the migration from the tundra regions of the woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros to the locality still frequented by the Acheulean flint workers, for it is said(39) that Acheulean flints are occasionally associated even with the remains of these tundra mammals. At the very same time the Acheulean flint workers along the Somme may have enjoyed a more genial climate.

It is only through this interpretation of the various climatic and life zones in western Europe that we can explain the survival on the River Somme, or return to this river from the south, of a warm temperate fauna, hippopotami, rhinoceroses, and elephants, in the Mousterian period, which is even subsequent to the close of Acheulean times.

The valleys of the two great river-systems of southwestern France, the Dordogne draining the central plateau, and the Garonne draining the eastern Pyrenees, were now sought by the Acheulean flint workers. The valley of the Vézère, a northern tributary of the Dordogne, cuts through a broad plateau of limestone in which the streams have hollowed out deep beds with vertical sides. Here the landscape of late Acheulean times bore the same general aspect as at present.(40) Evidences of a change of climate are observed even in the sheltered valleys where the flint workers were seeking the warmer and sunnier river-slopes. The river channels were the same as they are to-day, and the quarries of the early Acheulean flint workers are found quite close to the streams; but as the period progressed they moved up nearer to the cliffs and shelters. Here, too, there is evidence that a dry continental climate prevailed. On the upper levels of the old plateaus of Dordogne we still find the Quercus ilex occurring quite frequently, a tree which belongs to relatively dry regions and which in southern Russia is reckoned with the flora of the steppes. Yet the greater aridity toward the close of the Acheulean stage was probably not such as to prevent the growth of forests along the borders of the streams. Thus, in the mammalian life of the period there was, perhaps, a division between the more hardy forms which frequented the dry plateaus above and the forest-loving and less hardy forms which frequented the river-valleys.

The most convincing proof of an arid climate in the north of France with prevailing high westerly winds is found in the layers of 'loess' which occur on the 'terraces' of the Somme, the Seine, the Rhine, and the Danube. These 'lower loess' layers of Third Interglacial times frequently contain implements of the late Acheulean industry. Thus, at Villejuif, south of Paris, late Acheulean implements are found embedded in drifts of 'loess.' In the valley of the Somme, flints of the middle Acheulean stage are also found in the loess ancien and 'river-drift.' In the tuf de La Celle-sous-Moret the layer of 'loess' immediately overlies the tufa layer containing late Acheulean implements and proofs of a cooler climate.

Among the most famous of the 'loess' stations of late Acheulean times is that of Achenheim on the upper Rhine, west of Strasburg. Here the 'older loess' contains a typical Acheulean culture.

With this prolonged epoch of cooler temperature the hippopotamus and the southern mammoth retreated to the warmer portions of southern Europe, and their remains are no longer found associated with the late Acheulean flints. The more hardy straight-tusked elephant and Merck's rhinoceros still continued in the north, apparently well adapted to sustain a very considerable fall in temperature.

Forms of Late Acheulean Implements

The coups de poing of the late Acheulean exhibit a great advance upon the Chellean, being fashioned into dagger or lance forms, with all the edges carefully chipped. The ovaloid implements of late Acheulean times are often worked into fine and sharp blades, which may have been used like butcher-knives for dismembering the carcasses of game and for cutting up the pelts, while the fine almond and disc shapes may have been used as scrapers to cut off the tissues of the inner surfaces of the hides, which were finally dressed by the grattoir, or flint planing tool. In brief, the coup de poing reaches its acme of development in late Acheulean times, both in the fineness of flaking and retouching and in its symmetry of form. The use of large flakes of flint and the retouching both of the borders and of the extremities of these flakes shows a constantly improving technique. It is in the thin, flat, triangular blades and in the lance-pointed forms that the coup de poing reaches its culmination; but we still observe the development of the oval or almond-shaped forms and of the flattened discs. The implements of this time reach their greatest perfection in the north of France, where flint is so abundant.

The late Acheulean is further distinguished by an advance in all the finer and smaller implements and tools. The knives are now very fine and perfect, although they retain the broad, thick form of the original flint fragment and seldom attain the symmetrical shape which characterizes the blades of the Upper Palæolithic.(41) The 'points' are also of finer technique, with their edges converging from a broad base to a well-formed point. It is generally assumed that these were held in the bare hand, but it is quite as probable that they were attached to wooden shafts and used as dart or spear heads. By far the most numerous as well as the most varied of the smaller tools were the racloirs, or scrapers, which were developed, doubtless, by the increasing use of skins for clothing as a protection against the somewhat more rigorous climate of late Acheulean times. Probably the women of the tribe were employed in dressing hides by means of these scrapers, which were either flat and broad with crescent-shaped edges, flat and narrow, or double-edged with rounded ends. The development of other fine tools—borers, small discs, triangular and ovaloid shapes, miniature coups de poing, and many varied forms besides—is best witnessed in the station of La Micoque, close to the junction of the Vézère with the Dordogne. These miniature implements may well have been used in the final dressing of skins for clothing, in the chase of smaller kinds of game, or at feasts for splitting marrow-bones.

No bone implements whatever have been found even with these late Acheulean flints, but it is important to observe that the majority of these stations are open and exposed to the weather and that bone implements would not be preserved here as they would in the sheltered grottos and caverns to which the flint workers repaired in the Mousterian and succeeding times.

As regards the finish of these flint implements, it is important to note that it is fine only by comparison with the crude work of the early Acheulean or the still coarser types of Chellean times and that the very finest work of Acheulean times appears thick and clumsy when contrasted with the finer work of the Upper Palæolithic.

The chef-d'œuvre of the late Acheulean industry is the Levallois flake, first found at Levallois-Perret, near Paris, which de Mortillet believed to be fashioned out of a divided coup de poing with a flat under-side, but which may have been evolved from the very large primitive flakes of Pre-Chellean date. These flakes date back earlier than the Chellean coup de poing but continued in use after its invention and may have been greatly perfected into the Levallois type. This type of 'couteau' is a large, wide, thin flake of fairly symmetrical shape, with a flat back formed by the original smooth surface of the flake. These implements are pointed, oval, or sharply rectangular in form and present the most characteristic tool of the closing stage of the Acheulean industry.

It is most interesting at this point to observe the two modes of evolution which seem to pervade all nature: first, the gradual perfection and modification in size and proportion of a certain older form; second, the sudden change or mutation into a new form, which in turn enters the stage of gradual improvement.

The late Acheulean is seen to present the climax of a gradual and unbroken development from the early Chellean industries and ideas; and to our mind this is strongly suggestive of a corresponding evolution of manual skill and mental development in the workmen themselves, who may have been partly of Pre-Neanderthaloid race.

The next industrial stage, namely, the Mousterian, which certainly presents the closing workmanship of the Neanderthal race, shows a marked retrogression of technique in contrast to the steady progression which we have observed up to this time. We have, in fact, witnessed a number of successive stages of progression, which are to be followed in the Mousterian by a stage of retrogression. Such a retrogression in industrial development may for certain known or unknown reasons occur in the same race. It is a noteworthy parallel that in the Upper Palæolithic, where the Solutrean culture represents the climax and perfection of flint working, the succeeding Magdalenian shows marked retrogression in the technique of flint retouch.

The Krapina Neanderthaloids

In northern Croatia, near the small town of Krapina, in the valley of the Krapinica River, is the now famous cavern of Krapina, where in 1899 was made the fourth discovery of the remains of men of the Neanderthaloid race in western Europe, twelve years after the discovery of the men of Spy, in Belgium, and forty-three years after the discovery of the man of Neanderthal. Even now opinion is divided as to the age of the human remains found in this cavern. The discoverer, Professor Gorjanovič-Kramberger of Agram considered that the stone implements and chips were of Mousterian age, and Breuil still refers them to the early, or so-called warm, Mousterian period; this opinion is shared by Déchelette. Schmidt, however, regards Krapina as a true Acheulean station, lacking in some of the typical implements, and of the same age as the 'loess' station of Ehringsdorf.

The mammals found in the cavern certainly belong to the very late Acheulean period and include Merck's rhinoceros, the cave-bear, the urus, a species of horse, the giant deer (Megaceros), the beaver, and the marmot (Arctomys marmotta).

The cavern was originally washed out by the river, but now it is 82 feet above the present water-level. When found it was completely filled with sand and gravel deposits, weathered fragments from the roof and walls, and loose stones and boulders.(42) Enclosed in this mass, in separate strata which are perfectly distinguishable, there lay, variously distributed through the different layers, thousands of animal bones, mingled with hundreds of human bones, and hundreds of stone implements and chips.

During the years 1899-1905 Gorjanovič-Kramberger made a thorough exploration of the contents of this cavern, and published a complete account of his researches in 1906.(43) There were about three hundred pieces of human bones, among them many small fragments, also many sizable pieces of skull and several entire limb bones perfectly preserved. The bones are of a strongly characterized type, and the lower jaws, face bones, bones of the thigh and arm, the teeth, and the bones of many children establish the Krapina race as belonging unquestionably in the same group with that of Neanderthal and of Spy.

The skull of the Krapina man (Fig. 93) is somewhat broader or more brachycephalic than that of any other members of the Neanderthal race. In general, the race is somewhat dwarfed, of broader head form and with less prominent supraorbital processes. The species is unquestionably Homo neanderthalensis, of which the Krapina men constitute a local race. Schwalbe and Boule observe that the greater breadth of the Krapina skull is partly due to the manner in which the bones have been put together,(44) and they do not consider that the Krapina man represents a different subrace (Homo neanderthalensis krapinensis) as held by the discoverer. The cephalic index of one Krapina skull is recorded as 83.7 per cent (?) as compared with 73.9 per cent, the cephalic index of the true H. neanderthalensis, a difference which, as above noted, may be partly due to the restoration. The bones are in such a fragmentary condition that it is impossible to form a proper estimate of the brain capacity in either the males or females of this race; nor is it possible to estimate the stature. The space between the eyes is the same as in the Neanderthal race; the angle of the retreat of the forehead (52°) is nearly the same as in the Gibraltar female Neanderthal skull (50°), this high forehead being due to the lesser development of the supraorbital ridges. That the brain was of a low, flat-headed Neanderthal type is shown by the close similarity of the index of the height of skull (42.2) to that of one of the men of Spy (44.3), as compared with the lowest index among the existing races of men (48.9); yet the Krapina man presents a considerable advance over Pithecanthropus, in which the index of the height of skull is only 34.2.

The jaw is more slender than that of the Heidelberg man but is still thick and massive; the chin is receding, a characteristic of all the Neanderthal races.

The broken condition of all the human bones in this cavern, and the abundant indications of fire, have led to the charge that the Neanderthals of Krapina were cannibals, and that these mingled remains are the bones of animals and men collected here during cannibalistic feasts. Against this supposition Breuil observes that none of the human bones are split lengthwise, as is the usual practice when extracting the marrow, but they are broken crosswise. This is the only evidence of such practice that has been found during all Palæolithic times, and we should hesitate to accept it unless corroborated by other localities.

The various layers indicate that the cavern was successively occupied by man; in or near the hearths are found stone implements, broken and incinerated bones, and pieces of charcoal, which may indicate that this grotto was visited only at intervals, perhaps during the colder seasons of the year.

CHAPTER III

From deposits found at Grimaldi, in the Grotte des Enfants and in the Grotte du Prince, it has long been said that men of early Mousterian times lived contemporary with the hippopotamus, the straight-tusked elephant, and Merck's rhinoceros in the genial climate of the Mediterranean Riviera. More recently the same animals have been found as far north as the Somme valley in the 'river-drifts' of Montières-les-Amiens.(1) Here, again, we find remains of the hippopotamus, the straight-tusked elephant, and its companion, Merck's rhinoceros, in Mousterian deposits, a surprising discovery, because it had always been supposed that a cold climatic period had set in all over western Europe even before the close of the Acheulean culture. But there is also evidence of a temperate climate still prevailing in the Thames valley in the period of the Mousterian 'floors.'(2) Again, along the Vézère valley, Dordogne, we find that at the station of La Micoque, where the industry marks the transition between late Acheulean and early Mousterian times, Merck's rhinoceros is found in the lowest layers associated with remains of the moose (Alces).

There is evidence that Merck's rhinoceros and the straight-tusked elephant lingered in western Europe during the whole period of the early development of the Mousterian industry. As observed above, these animals were hardier than the southern mammoth, which was the first of the Asiatic mammals to disappear, soon to be followed by its companion, the hippopotamus. Even after the advent of the closely associated tundra pair, the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros, Merck's rhinoceros persists, as, for example, in the deposits of Rixdorf, near Berlin, where this ancient type occurs in the same deposits with the woolly mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the reindeer, and the musk-ox, as well as with the forest forms, the moose, stag, wolf, and forest horse. The extreme northern latitude of this deposit explains the absence of the straight-tusked elephant, which may at the time have been living farther to the south. The same mingling of south and north Asiatic mammals is found at Steinheim, in the valley of the Murr, some degrees to the west and south of Rixdorf, not far from Göttingen, where we find Merck's rhinoceros(3) and the straight-tusked elephant in association with the woolly mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the giant deer, and the reindeer.

Thus the Neanderthal races were entering the Mousterian stage of culture during the close of the Third Interglacial Stage and during the early period of the advance of the ice-fields from the great centres in Scandinavia and the Alps. As these ice-fields slowly approached each other from the north and from the south a very great period of time must have elapsed during which all the south Asiatic mammals abandoned western Europe or became extinct, with the exception of the lions and hyænas, which became well fitted to the very severe climate that prevailed over Europe during the fourth glaciation, and even during the long Postglacial Stage which ensued. The large carnivora readily become thoroughly adapted to cold climates, as they subsist on animal life wherever it may be found; tigers of the same stock as those of India have been found as far north as the river Lena, in latitude 52° 25', where the climate is colder than that of Petrograd or of Stockholm, while the lion throve in the cold atmosphere of the upper Atlas range. Thus the cave-lion (Felis leo spelæa) and the cave-hyæna (H. crocuta spelæa) doubtless evolved an undercoating of fur as well as an overcoating of long hair, like the tundra mammals. In size the lion of this period in France often equalled and sometimes surpassed its existing relatives, the African and west Asiatic lion; it frequently figures in the art of the Upper Palæolithic artists and survived in western Europe to the very close of Upper Palæolithic times.

The Fourth Glaciation

Penck(4) has estimated that the first maximum of the fourth glaciation in the Alps was reached 40,000 years ago, and that after the recession period the second maximum ended not less than 20,000 years ago. This would extend the Mousterian industry over a very long period of time, for there can be no doubt that the Mousterian culture was practically contemporaneous with the fourth glaciation, even if a briefer period of time should be allotted to this great natural event.

The fourth glaciation, like the first, is believed to have been contemporaneous in Europe and North America,(5) a fact which is of especial importance to American anthropologists in connection with the question of the date of arrival of primitive man in America. In both countries the glaciation reached an early maximum, which was followed by a period of recession of the ice-fields, a time during which a somewhat more temperate climate prevailed, but this in turn gave way to a second advance of as great severity as the first.[AE]