CHAPTER III
EVIDENTIAL MATERIALS (continued)—FURTHER DISCOVERIES IN BRITAIN, BELGIUM, AND FRANCE
Half a century has now passed since the theory of organic evolution captured the philosophic mind of the day, and at once placed the science of anthropology into the position of being one of the most fascinating of intellectual pursuits. Our object in the present chapter is to give some idea of the progress that has been made during this long interval, in investigating the history of humanity and civilization from the new standpoint. To condense the story of half a century's explorations and discoveries over a wide field by a crowd of eager and enthusiastic workers who, probably then for the first time, realized the grandeur of the conception of the uniformity of nature, is an effort which calls for some indulgence on the part of the reader. We will begin the task by a rapid survey of a few of the principal Palæolithic discoveries made in Western Europe up to the present time—for we are not yet in a position to isolate Britain from the Palæolithic area on the Continent.
Britain.—One of the most important archæological achievements in Britain was the complete excavation of Kent's Cavern, under the superintendence of Mr. Pengelly, F.R.S., and a scientific committee appointed by the British Association. The work was begun in March 1865, and continued without interruption till June 1880, at an expense of £1963.
The industrial remains found in Kent's Cavern, below the bed of stalagmite, calculated to throw light on the culture and civilization of its inhabitants, were made of stone, bone, and horn (probably that of the reindeer), and may be thus briefly described. Among objects made of stone were tongue-shaped, oval and triangular tools of flint and chert; worked flakes, scrapers and cores of flint; also a few hammer-stones, one of which was shaped like a cheese. Of bone, or horn, there were pins, awls, barbed harpoons, and a neatly formed needle, precisely similar to analogous objects found in the rock-shelter of La Madeleine (France). From the style of workmanship and form of these relics, especially the harpoons and needle, there can be no doubt that their original owners were contemporary with the late Palæolithic inhabitants of the caves of the Dordogne. On the other hand, the tongue-shaped implements (coup-de-poing) were found in a lower stratum, thus indicating an earlier date of occupancy, probably the Moustérien epoch.
Among the fauna represented in Kent's Cavern were mammoth, woolly-haired rhinoceros, reindeer, lion, bear, hyæna, Irish elk, horse, urus (wild ox), etc. But perhaps the most interesting among the extinct animals was the large sabre-toothed tiger (Machairodus latidens) represented by a few teeth.
A human jaw, said to have been found below the sheet of stalagmite, was described at the meeting of the British Association, held last year (1912) at Dundee. It seems strange that such an important human bone should have been hitherto overlooked.
Above the sheet of stalagmite which covered the Palæolithic deposits containing the industrial remains and bones of extinct animals was a layer of black earth or mould, interspersed among a mass of fallen blocks from the roof, in which were found a number of objects belonging to different phases of the later periods. Among them were flint flakes, cores and chips, spindle-whorls, a socketed bronze knife, broken weaving combs, pottery (some of which were Roman), etc., all showing that the cave had been frequented in Neolithic and Proto-historic times. The intervention of the stalagmitic layer between the debris of the two civilizations, the deposition of which implies a long, though somewhat uncertain, time, renders it impossible to trace any evolutionary connection between the people who frequented the cave before and after its occurrence. Hence to find a satisfactory explanation of the hiatus in human civilization thus suggested is one of the most controverted problems of the day, to which we will return later on.
About the year 1875 Professor Boyd Dawkins and the Rev. J. Magens Mello carried out a series of investigations in the Cresswell caves, Derbyshire, which showed that they were the abodes of a colony of Palæolithic races of the Magdalénien epoch. Among the industrial remains which these people left behind them were the following objects—well-formed flint flakes, borers and engravers; chisels, awls and a neatly-made needle of bone; a flat piece of bone ornamented with the incised head of a horse, and another oval piece with a serrated edge. These relics are quite sufficient to prove that the inhabitants of the Cresswell caves were contemporary with, and belonged to, the same race as the later Palæolithic men of Kent's Cavern. It may, however, be noted that in one or two caves a lower stratum of cave-earth contained osseous remains of the hyæna, bison, hippopotamus and the small-nosed rhinoceros—all representatives of a warm climate. But along with them there were no remains of man or his works.
According to Dr. Buckland the Hyæna Den of Kirkdale contained bones of the hyæna, representing some 300 individuals, and next in point of numbers came those of the ox and deer, but there was no evidence of the presence of man at any time in this cave.
Several caves in the south-west of England and Wales yielded bones of nearly all the extinct mammalia associated with flint implements. In Bosco's Den, one of the Gower Peninsula caves, no less than 750 shed antlers of reindeer were found. In another (Long Hole) the fossil remains included Elephas antiquus and E. primigenius, two species of rhinoceros, bear, lion, hyæna, bison and rein- deer, associated with well-formed flint flakes. Similar discoveries were made in the famous Hyæna Den of Wookey Hole, where the fossil remains of the animals of the period were counted in hundreds, the most numerous being hyæna, horse, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer, mammoth and Irish elk.
No fossil remains of man have hitherto been found in caves frequented by Palæolithic races in South Britain, with the exception of a female skeleton in the Paviland cave, described by Dr. Buckland, a molar tooth in the cave of Pont Newydd in Wales, and the hitherto overlooked jaw from Kent's Cavern. In France and other parts of the Continent the remains of fossil cave-men have been frequently met with.
The most rational explanation that can now be given for the presence of the bones of extinct animals in such large numbers on these rocky shores of the west of England and Wales, is that the English Channel was then mostly a well-watered plain, sufficiently rich in vegetation to attract herds of herbivorous animals, and which therefore soon became the happy hunting-ground for the great extinct carnivores. Except in Kent's Cavern, there is no decided evidence that man was a frequent visitor of the caves during the inter-glacial warm period which followed that of maximum glaciation. The early Palæolithic nomads appeared to have confined their wanderings to the river valleys, living on fruits, roots and the smaller animals.
Although some of the Pleistocene fauna, including the mammoth, reindeer and Irish elk, found their way into Ireland, no evidence of the presence of Palæolithic man in that island has yet been discovered. This may be accounted for by alterations in the relative level of sea and land. The Irish Channel being thirty-eight fathoms deep, while that between England and the Continent is only twenty fathoms, it would follow that the former would become sea, during a process of gradual submergence, long before the latter. When the British Isles stood at their maximum elevation continental mammals could roam as far as the Atlantic without any water impediment, but as the gradual submergence progressed the Irish Channel would be first blocked against them; so that for a considerable interval of time immigrants could still come to Britain but not to Ireland. A similar result would follow on the occurrence of an elevation of land after a state of submergence. From researches carried on some time ago in the cave of Balynamintra, County Waterford, it has been shown that the Irish elk was contemporary with Neolithic man in that neighbourhood.
In 1883 parts of a human skeleton were discovered, while excavating the Tilbury Dock, in a sandy stratum, at a depth of thirty-four feet from the present surface of the river bank. Professor Owen described these bones as those of a Palæolithic man, in a brochure entitled Antiquity of Tilbury Man. But his opinion has been questioned, on the
Fig. 5.—Profile of the skull of Tilbury man (13). (After Keith.)
ground that the osseous characters of the skull were not sufficiently pronounced to assign this individual to any phase of the prehistoric period (Fig. 5). In these circumstances the only safe conclusion is that of Mr. Spurrell, who relegates it to a transition period between that of the cave-men and Neolithic races—a conclusion which its stratigraphical position justifies (see Chap. X).
Another human skeleton was found in 1888, in the terrace gravels at Galley Hill, Kent, but for some inscrutable reason it was not reported on, or submitted to expert opinion, till 1895. The bones were then described at the Geological Society of London by Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S., as those of an individual who was contemporary with the people who used the flint implements disinterred from the terrace gravels—implements which undoubtedly possess the usual characters of "palæoliths." In the discussion which followed Dr. Newton's conclusion was questioned on the ground of insufficient evidence to prove that the skeleton had not been a more recent burial.
Dr. Garson thus summed up the special characters of the skeleton: "The short stature, the very dolichocephalic skull, the prominent glabella and superciliary ridges, and the well-marked ridges of the skull generally, the absence of prominence of the chin, and the large size of the last molar tooth, which was as large as, if not larger than, the first molar (Fig. 6). The large size of the head of the femur was also peculiar."
Under these circumstances it is manifest that no important deductions can be founded on the anatomical characters of the Galley Hill skull, beyond the fact that, like the other well-attested Quaternary skulls, it is dolichocephalic, and shows similar peculiarities, both as regards the receding forehead and the angular prominence of the occiput. It is, however, a more highly developed skull than the more recently discovered specimens of the Neanderthal-Spy race, such as those of Chapelle-aux-Saints, Moustier, Krapina, La Quina, etc.
Fig. 6.—Side view of the Galley Hill skull (13). (After E. T. Newton.)
The skull was originally found by workmen, broken up by them, and most of the pieces thrown away on the spot. As many fragments as possible were subsequently recovered by the authors, from which the skull was restored. Half of a human mandible was found in a patch of undisturbed gravel by Mr. Dawson close to the place where the skull occurred. From the abstract in the Society's Proceedings are taken the following descriptive extracts:
"Two broken pieces of the molar of a Pliocene type of elephant and a much-rolled cusp of a molar of Mastodon were also found, besides teeth of Hippopotamus, Castor, and Equus, and a fragment of an antler of Cervus elaphus. Like the human skull and mandible, all these fossils are well mineralized with oxide of iron—many of the water-worn iron-stained flints closely resemble the 'eoliths' from the North Downs, near Ighthan. Mingled with them were found a few Palæolithic implements of the characteristic Chellean type. The gravel at Piltdown rests upon a plateau eighty feet above the river Ouse, and at a distance of less than a mile to the north of the existing stream.
"The skull (which unfortunately lacks the bones of the face) exhibits all the essential features of the genus Homo, with a brain capacity of not less than 1070 c.c, but possibly a little more. It measures about 190 mm. in length from the glabella to the inion, by 150 mm. in width at the widest part of the parietal region; and the bones are remarkably thick. The forehead is steeper than that of the Neanderthal type, with only a feeble brow-ridge; and the conformation of the occipital bone shows that the tentorium over the cerebellum is on the level of the external occipital protuberance, as in modern man. Seen from behind the skull is remarkably low and broad, and the mastoid processes are relatively small. The right mandibular ramus is nearly complete to the middle of the symphyses, lacking only the articular condyle and the upper part of the bone in advance of the molars. The horizontal ramus is slender, and, so far as preserved, resembles in shape that of a young chimpanzee (Anthropopithecus niger). The lower symphysial border is not thickened and rounded, as in man, but produced into a thin inwardly-curved flange, as in the apes. The ascending ramus is comparatively wide, with extensive insertions for the temporal and masseter muscles, and a very slight sigmoid notch above. Molars 1 and 2, which occur in their sockets, are typically human, though they are comparatively large and narrow, each bearing a fifth cusp. The socket of molar 3 indicates an equally large tooth, placed well within the ascending ramus of the jaw. The two molars have been worn perfectly flat by mastication, a circumstance suggesting that the canines resembled those of man in not projecting sensibly above the level of the other teeth. The weakness of the mandible, the slight prominence of the brow-ridges, the small backward extent of the origin of the temporal muscles, and the reduction of the mastoid processes, suggest that the specimen belongs to a female individual, and it may be regarded as representing a hitherto unknown genus and species, for which a new name is proposed.
"The authors conclude that the Piltdown gravel-bed is of the same age as the contained Chellean implements, which are not so much water-worn as most of the associated flints. The rolled fragments of molars of the Pliocene elephant and Mastodon are considered to have been derived with the flints from older gravels; while the other mammalian remains and the human skull and mandible, which cannot have been transported far by water, must be assigned to the period of the deposition of the gravel-bed itself. The remoteness of that period is indicated by the subsequent deepening of the valley of the Ouse to the amount of eighty feet."
The above conclusion seems to the present writer the most rational deduction from the facts, notwithstanding that the discussion elicited a conflict of opinion—some regarding the skull as belonging to the same age as the mammalian remains, which were admittedly Pliocene. As an undoubted human fossil of the River Drift period in Britain, the importance of the Piltdown skeleton, as a link in the evolution of humanity, cannot be over-rated (see Chap. IV, p. 70).
No other researches within the British area have added much to our knowledge of Palæolithic civilization since the exploration of Kent's Cavern. Numerous specimens of the so-called "palæoliths" are being collected from the implement-bearing gravel-pits of the River Drift deposits in various localities throughout the south of England. Also, a few old land-surfaces have been discovered, especially within the Thames valley, showing evidence of having been used as workshops for the manufacture of flint implements.
The discoveries of Mr. Worthington G. Smith at Caddington, near Luton, have disclosed two Palæolithic land-surfaces, one above the other, with implements indicating different stages of culture, from the coup-de-poing type down to late Moustérien instruments and tools.
Similar evidence is supplied by another "floor," explored by Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell at Crayford, which had the exceptional feature of preserving the actual flakes that were struck off in trimming flint nodules into shape. In one instance the implement was accidentally broken before it was finished, and Mr. Spurrell recovered the two broken portions, as well as the discarded flakes, and with remarkable ingenuity he has replaced the whole into their original position. These interesting relics are exhibited in the Natural History Museum at Kensington. The "workshop" was formed in deposits of brick-earth and sand, at a height of seventy feet above sea-level, and thirty-six feet from the present surface of the river.
Belgium.—Notwithstanding the extent and notoriety of Schmerling's early researches, it was not till the latter part of 1863, when Lyell's Antiquity of Man had attracted universal attention, that the Belgian authorities became alive to the importance of their caverns. Some of the leading savants, stung with reproach for having left it to foreigners to recognize the true significance of their famous countryman's early discoveries, conceived the project of exploring the caverns on the banks of the Meuse, especially those situated along its tributaries, the Lesse and Molignée, on a scale commensurate with the acknowledged importance of the subject. The Government readily sanctioned the project and supplied the necessary funds. M. E. Dupont, Director of the Royal Museum of Natural History, was appointed to carry out the investigations. Active operations were begun in 1864 and continued for upwards of seven years, during which some sixty caverns were more or less explored. Nearly 40,000 bones were examined and classified under the various species of animals they represented—while not fewer than 80,000 worked flints were collected. Judging from the work done at Furfooz in clearing out the Grotte des Nutans and the Trou du Frontal, on the bank of the river Lesse—the only two stations which the present writer had an opportunity of inspecting—the labour entailed in the excavations of so many caverns must have been very arduous.
Dr. Dupont classified all the relics found in these caves as follows:
1. Âge du Mammoth.—The principal relics associated with the mammoth were spear-points, a doll-like object of reindeer horn (suggesting an attempt at modelling the human form), a few articles showing efforts of rudimentary carving, and a bâton de commandement, also ornamented. These objects were found to be lowest in the cave débris and coeval with the time when the swollen rivers occasionally overflowed into the caves and left stratified beds of gravel or mud on their floors.
2. Âge du Renne.—The reindeer period coincided with the time when the rivers, by excavating their valleys more deeply, ceased their fluviatile deposits in the caverns, and so left their floors above the present highest flood-marks. The portion of their contents representing this age was characterized by angular blocks mixed with brick-earth. Of the fauna of the previous age—mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, Irish elk, hyæna, cave-lion and cave-bear—only the reindeer still survived. The industrial remains consisted of a few dart-points of horn, a bone needle, some perforated shells, perforated stone ornaments and flint flakes. The flint relics are said to manifest greater skill in their manufacture than in the previous age, especially in the process of secondary chipping.
3. Épogue actuelle.—The superficial blackish débris—the accumulated dust of more recent times—M. Dupont assigned to the period now in progress, when only the fauna of Neolithic times are met with, the reindeer having also vanished from the locality. The sepulchral remains of an extremely brachycephalic race were found in the Trou du Frontal, and associated with them were fragments of pottery, both of which must be assigned to Neolithic races, who also haunted these retreats (see Chap. X, p. 242).
In addition to the cave relics there is in the Brussels Museum another collection of roughly chipped flints from Mesvin, near Mons. These were found in a gravelly stratum resting immediately over tertiary deposits, but below two distinct beds of mud (limon). The special interest attached to them lies in the fact that in the same stratum were found remains of the following Quaternary fauna, viz. mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave-bear, cave-lion, Irish elk, reindeer, bison, horse and snails (Helix ericetorum). Neither of the two earlier elephants nor the hippopotamus appears to have been represented (Congrès d'Anthropologie et d'Archéologie préhistoriques, 1872, p. 265).
M. A. Rutot, Conservator of the Royal Museum of Natural History in Brussels, a distinguished geologist and a militant advocate of the theory that "eoliths" are human implements, has propounded a new system of classification which aims at proving, by various sections, especially one at Helin in the valley of the Lys, that the Chelléen epoch is not the earliest in Europe which has yielded remains of human industry. In his classification (Le Préhistorique dans L'Europe Centrale) he tabulates below the Chelléen, deposits called Strépyien, Mesvinien, Reutelo-Mesvinien ou Mafflien, and Reutelien. The Elephas antiquus is made to be contemporary with the last three deposits, and the mammoth appears on the scene with the Strépyien. Besides, M. Rutot has altered de Mortillet's well-known classification by changing the nomenclature without almost any change in the substance, thus bringing unnecessary confusion into the subject. He founds his theory upon the stratigraphical position of the objects and the degree of rudeness in their manufacture.
Among the human remains found in the Belgian caverns are two finds of capital importance, viz, the Naulette mandible and two skeletons known as Les Hommes de Spy. The former (Fig. 7) was found at a depth of 4⋅50 metres in the débris of the Trou de la Naulette, near Dinant, and though only a fragment, it presents certain characters which differentiate it from the corresponding bone in modern races, notably in the absence of the chin and the size of the socket for the third molar tooth. The latter will be discussed in the next chapter.
France.—On entering the Dordogne district we are on classic ground as regards the home of Palæolithic man in France. Here, on the rocky banks of the Vézère, are some thirty caves and rock-shelters, which have yielded an immense assortment of handicraft work illustrating his industries, occupations and amusements. With the exception of a few sporadic finds, referred to in last chapter, but which had little effect on current opinion, it was from the discoveries in the caves of this romantic valley that anthropologists first realized the significance of the old-world civilization which has bequeathed to mankind so many specimens of their skill in engraving, sculpture and painting.
Fig. 7.—Two views of the Naulette Jaw showing absence of chin and large socket of molar 3 (34). (After Dupont.)
Edward Lartet, an ardent palæontologist, who, in 1861, gave publicity to the fact that, in the cave of Aurignac, human bones and manufactured objects were associated with a number of extinct animals, had his attention directed to the Dordogne by seeing, in the hands of a friend in Paris, a carbonized bone embedded in a piece of calcareous breccia which had been found in that locality. This was in 1862, and almost immediately Lartet went to see the spot where the fossil bone had been discovered, and made some excavations merely to gratify his own curiosity. Here he became associated with Henry Christy, a generous Englishman who became intensely interested in such discoveries. These two explorers arranged investigations on a large scale—Christy paying all expenses. They began operations in the now famous station of Les Eyzies, the spot where the Paris carbonized bone had been found, and pushed on the work with such activity that before the end of 1863 the whole débris was cleared out, and the relics scientifically examined and classified. Encouraged by their success, they then extended their explorations to the caves of Le Moustier, Gorge d'Enfer, La Madeleine, Laugerie Haute and Laugerie Basse. While these investigations were in progress Messrs. Christy and Lartet conceived a scheme for the exploration and description of the antiquities of Aquitaine, and at once set about collecting materials for a great work on the subject, under the title of Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ. But, unfortunately, just after the first fasciculus had been placed in the hands of the printer, Mr. Christy died (May 4, 1865). Henceforth the labour of editing the projected work fell to M. Lartet, and, to enable him to do so effectually, Mr. Christy's trustees supplied the funds. But, alas! in January 1871, M. Lartet also died, before the work was finished. Ultimately it was carried out and published in 1875, by a number of Christy's friends, under the editorship of Professor Rupert Jones. Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ is largely made up of essays on the various phases of the culture of the reindeer hunters, together with descriptions of the customs of modern savages, supposed to throw light on the early inhabitants of Aquitaine. The chief value of this magnificent work now lies in its eighty-seven plates of illustrations drawn on a large scale. From what it contains we can imagine how much archæological science lost by the premature death of its original authors.
The early discoveries of Lartet and Christy in the Dordogne caves, and the scientific recognition of the strange flint objects found by M. Boucher de Perthes in the gravels of the Somme valley as the genuine tools of an ancient race of inhabitants, coming so prominently before the scientific world much about the same time (1858–1863), roused a spirit of research among French prehistorians, which has ever since continued at an accelerated pace. It was speedily ascertained that their country was exceptionally rich in vestiges of the old Aquitainian civilization, brought to light from the caves and rock-shelters of the Vézère valley. In 1908 M. Déchelette estimated the number of analogous stations, discovered and described in France up to date, at 118; but their number has considerably increased since then. In addition to the antiquarian results from these sheltered habitations must be reckoned the discoveries in the implement-bearing gravels, which are scattered so profusely throughout the alluvial deposits of the principal river basins in the middle and southern portions of France—Seine, Somme, Loire, Garonne, Adair and Rhone. The assortment of objects showing human workmanship, in the form of implements, weapons and ornaments, collected from these inhabited sites and alluvial deposits, now forms a remarkable feature of all the French archæological museums, especially the Museum of National Antiquities at Saint-Germain. In fact this splendid museum was virtually founded for the special purpose of giving accommodation to the relics pouring in from all quarters, as a consequence of the rise of the new science of anthropology and prehistoric archæology. When the great collections of the Old World civilizations, which now adorn the halls of the Louvre, Hôtel Cluny and the Palais des Thermes, were organized, prehistoric archæology was scarcely known, and so there was little space for this department in any of these museums. To remedy this defect the old Château of Saint-Germain was restored and fitted up as a special museum for the prehistoric antiquities of France.
Characteristic remains of the Palæolithic civilization have been found in numerous localities throughout Central Europe, among which the following may be noted:
Chancelade, Combe-Capelle, La Ferrassic, La Mouthe, Combarelles, Cap-Blanc and La Micoque, all in the Dordogne district. La Quina, Petit Puymoyen, Placard and Mont- gaudier (Charente); Chapelle-aux-Saints (Corrèze); Altamira (north-east of Spain); Niaux (Ariège); Marsoulas (Haute-Garonne); Lorthet (Haute-Pyrenées); the rock-shelter of Schweizersbild, near Schaaffhausen; the Grimaldi caves near Mentone, and the station of Krapina (Croatia).
In some of these stations a new phase in the culture of the Palæolithic people has been recently brought to light, viz. the habit of adorning the walls of the caves by figures of animals drawn, sometimes in incised lines, or painted in different colours, and sometimes sculptured in bas-relief. Over a score of these wall-painted caverns are now on record, the earliest, that of Altamira, having been discovered in 1875, but for upwards of ten years it remained under a suspicion that the drawings were not of the Palæolithic period. Ultimately other analogous discoveries came to light in the caves of La Mouthe, Pair-non-Pair, Marsoulas, Combarelles, etc., which soon dispelled the doubt raised about the genuineness of the Altamira paintings. Now Altamira holds a pre-eminent position as one of the greatest marvels of Palæolithic art.
Among the river deposits which have yielded relics of man's works of special interest are the stations of Chelles and Levallois, near Paris, and the gravels of Mauer, near Heidelberg.
The large amount of archæological materials recovered from these and other stations, too numerous to be here mentioned, represent a vast period of time covering at least one inter-glacial warm period, and a subsequent recrudescence of another ice age, with its accompanying Arctic climate. On the retreat of the last mer de glâce the climate became gradually ameliorated, and ultimately merged in that of the historic period. Coincident with these changes in the climate and physical geography of Europe since man appeared on the scene, the flora and fauna of the country, which are so dependent on a uniform environment for the stability of their racial characters, could not fail to have been greatly modified. The result was the bringing together into Central Europe of a number of species of animals representing faunas so widely apart as those of subtropical and Arctic regions. But this intermingling of animals from different quarters did not take place in a haphazard manner, but was effected in strict accordance with the exigencies of the cosmic environment. As man appeared in Western Europe during a warm inter-glacial period and lived on through a subsequent climate of Arctic severity, we have evidence to show that a succession of animals adapted for such climatal changes were his contemporaries. Thus in the lowest deposits at Chelles the fauna included Elephas antiquus, E. meridionalis. Hippopotamus major, Rhinoceros merckii, Trogontherium, cave-bear and cave-hyæna. These animals were survivals of the Pliocene Age, and their presence in any locality indicates a warm climate.
The same species of animals have also been found in the lower deposits of the valleys of the Somme and Thames. When, however, we examine the animal remains of the inhabited caves of the Moustérien epoch, we find that the first five of the above-named animals were no longer represented, but instead of them were remains of the mammoth, woolly-haired rhinoceros, cave-bear and cave-hyæna.
During the earlier part of the Magdalénien epoch the fauna was chiefly represented by the mammoth (sparingly), reindeer, horse, wild cattle, etc. But the mammoth soon left the neighbourhood, retiring to Siberia, doubtless with the hope of adapting his hereditary modus Vivendi to Arctic conditions of life. The experiment was, however, unsuccessful, as he soon succumbed to the severity of the climate, and, sad to relate, the last lingering individuals of the species met the fate of extinction by being frozen in ice, where their carcases are still to be found. With the final amelioration of the climate the reindeer also disappeared from Central Europe; and so the Palæolithic Age and its unique civilization came to a close in Europe.