Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/253

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CHAP. VII.]
SKELETONS OF CAVE-MEN.
225

middle of a stratum at a mètre from the surface, along with flint implements and a sacrum of a cave-bear, deeply cut, and the remains of the spotted hyæna, mammoth, and woolly rhinoceros. It presents the same characters, but in a less marked degree, as that of Naulette.

Human skeletons, probably of the age of the Cave-men, have been discovered by M. Massenat in the refuse-heaps under the rock-shelter of Laugerie Basse.[1] One of these, termed "the crushed man," lay at a depth 4 mètres in the débris of ancient hearths, and underneath large blocks of stone which had fallen from the rock above. It was in the crouching posture, and had apparently been crushed by the rocks above. According to Dr. Hamy it belongs to the same long-headed, robust race of men, whose remains are met with in the rock-shelter of Cro-Magnon. Other human remains, previously obtained from the same place by M. Massenat, possess long skulls of the usual Neolithic type, as well as the flattened tibia and other modifications of bones of the thigh and leg, which, in Professor Busk's opinion, show that the feet were not hampered in their movements by a rigid sole or sandal.[2]

A human frontal and lower jaw from La Madelaine, together with flattened (platycnemic) tibiæ, are also recorded by Professor Edward Lartet, and are referred by Dr. Hamy to the age of the Cave-men.

A human tooth, found in the cave of Plas Newydd, already referred to, is the only piece of the human frame of late Pleistocene age foimd in Great Britain.

  1. Rel Aq., p. 256.
  2. Cave-hunting, c. v.