568
ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909.
the appearance of flat, perforated harpoons (fig. 18) made of staghorn, that replaced two successive types of Magdalenian harpoons—the older with a single row of lateral barbs and the younger with two rows of lateral barbs.
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Fig. 17.—Inscription, from the upper Magdalenian, La Madeleine (Dordogne). After Piette, L'anthr., vol. 15, p. 164, 1904.
The stratigraphic position of the Asylian, reposing on the upper Magdalenian, is in harmony with the cultural and faunal elements. This is the horizon of the remarkable painted pebbles (fig. 18) found in the cavern of Mas l'Azil[1] (Ariège), that have thrown so much light on paleolithic systems of writing and their connection with subsequent systems. According to Piette we are indebted to the Asylian for at least a dozen symbols that have come down from the close of the Quatenary through the Phenician.
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Fig. 18.—Asylian culture, from the cavern of Mas d'Azil (Ariège). Above, perforated harpoons of stag horn; below, pebbles with painted designs representing a cursive system of writing. After Hœrnes, Der diluv. Mensch in Europa, p. 79, 1903.
Archaic
- ↑ Provincial form for Maison d'Asyle, whence Piette's name (Asylian) for the epoch.
