therein, denote that the cave, closed against all access from the exterior, must have been consecrated to human burials.
The fragmentary condition of the bones of certain animals, the mode in which they are broken, the marks of the teeth of the Hyæna on bones necessarily broken in their recent condition, even the distribution of the bones and their significant consecration, lead to the conclusion that the presence of these animals, and the deposition of all these remains, are due solely to human ageney. Neither the inclination of the ground, nor the surrounding hydrographical conditions, allow us to suppose that the remains could have been brought where they are found by natural causes.
The large amount of the remains of animals which had served as human food, and their presence at different levels, would indicate that successive assemblages had gathered at this spot. These assemblages probably took place on each occasion of the burial of the various individuals interred in the grotto. And it is highly probable also that the station ceased to be frequented when the sepulchral cave, being fully tenanted, would no longer afford space for further inhumations.
The gentle and prolonged action of simple atmospheric agencies, would be sufficient, in course of time, to account for the detachment of fragments from the escarpment of the adjacent rock, and the gradual accumulation of loose fallen earth, by which the site of the fire-place outside, and the slab closing the opening of the sepulchral cave, would be entirely covered.
The antiquity of the sepulchre cannot be ascertained either from tradition or history, nor from numismatic data, no document of this kind relating to it having been met with.
Regarding the subject archæologically, we perceive, in the absence of any kind of metal, and the common employment of implements and weapons of flint and bone, sufficient indications that the station of Aurignac should be referred to that ancient period of prehistoric times, denominated by antiquaries of the present day,—the age of Stone.
palæontologically, the human race of Aurignac belongs to the remotest antiquity, to which, up to the present tune, the existence of man or the vestiges of his industry have been traced. This race, in fact, was evidently contemporary with the Aurochs, Reindeer, Gigantic Elk, Rhinoceros, Hyæna, &c.; and, what is more, with the Great Cave Bear (U. spelæus), which would appear to have been the earliest to disappear in the group of great mammals, generally regarded as charactenstic of the last geological period.[1]
But, it will be said, how does it happen, if the sepulchre of
- ↑ The chemical examination by M. Delesse of the Aurignac bones, furnishes a further excellent means for determining the question of contemporaneity. The respective analyses which he has made demonstrate that the bones of the Reindeer, Rhinoceros, Aurochs, &c. have retained precisely the same proportion of nitrogen, as the homan bones from the same locality.
