CHAPTER V_Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and Art

MAGDALENIAN TIMES--CLIMATE AND MAMMALIAN LIFE OF EUROPE--CUSTOMS AND

LIFE OF THE CRÔ-MAGNONS; THEIR INDUSTRY IN FLINT AND BONE; THEIR

DISTRIBUTION--DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR ART, ENGRAVING, PAINTING,

SCULPTURE--ART IN THE CAVERNS--CLIMAX OF THE MAGDALENIAN ART AND

INDUSTRY OF THE CRÔ-MAGNONS--APPARENT DECLINE OF THE RACE.

The art and industrial epoch of Magdalenian times is by far the best known

and most fascinating of the Old Stone Age. This period forms the

culmination of Palæolithic civilization; it marks the highest development

of the Crô-Magnon race preceding their sudden decline and disappearance as

the dominant type of western Europe. The men of this time are commonly

known as the Magdalenians, taking their name from the type station of La

Madeleine, as the Greeks in their highest stage took their name from

Athens and were known as the Athenians.

We would assign the minimum prehistoric date of 16,000 B. C. for the

beginning of the Magdalenian culture, and since we have assigned to the

beginning of the Aurignacian culture the date of 25,000 B. C., we should

allow 9,000 years for the development of the Aurignacian and Solutrean

industries in western Europe.

INTRODUCTION. INDUSTRIAL AND ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT

Well as this culture is known, its origin is obscured by the fact that it

shows little or no connection with the preceding Solutrean industry,

which, as we have noted (p. 331), seems like a technical invasion in the

history of western Europe and not an inherent part of the main line of

cultural development. Thus Breuil(1) observes that it appears as if the

fundamental elements of the superior Aurignacian culture had contributed

by some unknown route to constitute the kernel of the Magdalenian

civilization while the Solutrean episode was going on elsewhere. Again,

early Magdalenian art bears striking resemblances to the superior

Aurignacian art of the Pyrenees, especially the parietal art, as shown by

comparing the Aurignacian engravings of Gargas with the early Magdalenian

of Combarelles. Moreover, the same author observes that, if there is one

certain prehistoric fact, it is that the first Magdalenian culture was not

evolved from the Solutrean--that these Magdalenians were newcomers in

western France, as unskilful in the art of shaping and retouching flints

as their predecessors were skilled. Ancient Magdalenian hearths are found

in many localities close to the levels of the upper Solutrean industries

with their shouldered spear points (_pointes à cran_) and highly perfected

flint work. Yet the Magdalenians show a radical departure from the

Solutrean type of flint working; both in Dordogne (Laugerie Haute and

Laussel) and in Charente (Placard) the splinters of flint are massive,

heavy, badly selected, often of poor quality, and poorly retouched,

sometimes almost in an Eolithic manner; at the same time, the chance

flints, that is, the piercers and graving-tools made from splinters of any

accidental shape, are abundant. To these people flint implements appear to

be altogether of secondary importance; although the flints are very

numerous, they are not finished with any of the perfection of the

Solutrean technique; the laurel-leaf spear head and shouldered dart head

have disappeared entirely, but a great variety of smaller graving and

chasing forms are employed for fashioning the implements of bone and horn.

What a contrast to the beautiful flints so finely retouched and of such

carefully selected materials, found in the very same stations in middle

and upper Solutrean layers!

Thus Breuil, always predisposed to believe in an invasion of culture

rather than in an autochthonous development, favors the theory of eastern

origin for the Magdalenian industry, because this is not wanting either in

Austria or in Poland; two sites of ancient Magdalenian industry have been

found by Obermaier in the 'loess' stations of Austria, while in Russian

Poland the grotto of Mas̆zycka, near Ojcow, exhibits workings in bone

resembling those found at the grotto of Placard, Charente, in the layers

directly succeeding the base of the Magdalenian. The fact that near the

Ural Mountains there has also been found a peculiar Magdalenian culture,

the origin of which is not western, inclines us to believe that the

Magdalenian culture extended from the east toward the west, and then,

later, toward the Baltic.

[Illustration: FIG. 174. One of the large bison drawings in the cavern of

Niaux, on the Ariège, showing the supposed spear or arrow heads with

shafts on its side. The artist's technique consists of an outline incised

with flint followed by a painted outline in black manganese giving high

relief. After Cartailhac and Breuil. Greatly reduced.]

This theory of the eastern origin of the Magdalenian industry has,

however, to face, first, the very strong counter-evidence of the close

affinity between Aurignacian and Magdalenian art, which Breuil himself has

done the most to demonstrate; second, the physical, mental, and especially

the artistic unity of the Crô-Magnon race in Aurignacian and Magdalenian

times. The recent discovery of two Crô-Magnon skeletons together with two

carved bone implements of Magdalenian type, at Obercassel, on the Rhine,

links the art with this race and with no other, because, as we remarked

above, an artistic instinct and ability cannot be passed from one race to

another like the technique of a handicraft. Breuil(2) himself has

positively stated that the whole Upper Palæolithic art development of

Europe was the work of one race: if so, this race can be no other than the

Crô-Magnon.

We must, therefore, revert to the explanation offered in a preceding

chapter, that the Solutrean technique was an intrusion or an invasion

either brought in by another race or acquired from the craftsmen of some

easterly race, perhaps that of Brünn, Brüx, and Předmost. Why the art of

fashioning these perfect Solutrean spear, dart, and arrow heads was lost

is very difficult to explain, because they appear to be the most effective

implements of war and of the chase which were ever developed by

Palæolithic workmen.

[Illustration: FIG. 175. Decorated _sagaies_, or javelin points, of bone;

pointed at one end and bevelled at the other for the attachment of a

shaft. After Breuil.]

It is possible, although not probable, that the bow was introduced at this

time and that a less perfect flint point, fastened to a shaft like an

arrow-head and projected with great velocity and accuracy, proved to be

far more effective than the spear. The bison in the cavern of Niaux show

several barbed points adhering to the sides, and the symbol of the

_flèche_ appears on the sides of many of the bison, cattle, and other

animals of the chase in Magdalenian drawings. From these drawings and

symbols it would appear that barbed weapons of some kind were used in the

chase, but no _barbed_ flints occur at any time in the Palæolithic, nor

has any trace been found of bone barbed arrow-heads or any direct evidence

of the existence of the bow.

In compensation for the decline of flint is the rapid development of bone

implements, the most distinctive feature of Magdalenian industry. In the

late Solutrean we have noted the occasional appearance of the bone javelin

points (_sagaies_) with their decorative _motifs_; these become much more

frequent in Magdalenian times. They occur in the most ancient Magdalenian

levels of the grotto of Placard, Charente, which are prior even to the

appearance of prototypes of the harpoon, the evolution of which clearly

marks off the early, middle, and late divisions of Magdalenian times.

These primitive javelins, decorated in a characteristic fashion, are found

in Poland, at the grotto of Kesslerloch and other places in Switzerland,

at many stations in Dordogne and the region of the Pyrenees in southern

France, and in the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain.

[Illustration: FIG. 176. Head of the forest or of the steppe horse

engraved on a fragment of bone, from the Grotte du Pape, Brassempouy.

After Piette.]

It is only above the levels where early types of these javelin points

occur that the rudimentary harpoons of the typical early Magdalenian are

found. The discovery of the bone harpoon as a means of catching fish marks

an important addition to the food supply, which was apparently followed by

a decline in the chase. Later, to the javelin, lance, and harpoon is added

the dart-thrower (_propulseur_), which gradually spreads all over western

Europe, where also the evolution of these bone implements and of the

decoration with which they are richly adorned enables the trained

archæologist to establish corresponding subdivisions of Magdalenian time.

[Illustration: FIG. 177. Polychrome wall-painting of a wolf from the

cavern of Font-de-Gaume. After Breuil.]

From the uniform character of Palæolithic art in its highest forms of

engraving, painting, and animal sculpture we may infer the probable unity

of the Crô-Magnon race, especially throughout western Europe. During

Magdalenian times various branches of art reached their highest point and

were the culmination of a movement begun in the early Aurignacian. The

artist, whose life brought him into close touch with nature and who

evidently followed the movements both of the individual animals and of the

herds for hours at a time, has rendered his observations in the most

realistic manner. Among the animals represented are the bison, mammoth,

wild horse, reindeer, wild cattle, deer, and rhinoceros; less frequent are

representations of the ibex, wolf, and wild boar, and there are

comparatively few representations of fishes or of any form of plant life;

the nobler beasts of prey, such as the lion and the bear, are often

represented, but there are no figures of the skulking hyæna, which at that

time was a rare if not almost extinct animal. While many figures are of

real artistic worth and reach a high level, others are more or less crude

attempts; the composition of figures or of groups of animals is rarely

undertaken.

[Illustration: FIG. 178. Crude sculpture of the ibex, from the Magdalenian

deposit at Mas d'Azil on the right bank of the Arize. After Piette. A

little less than actual size.]

The artistic sense of these people is also manifest in the decoration of

their household utensils and weapons of the chase. Here the smaller

animals of the chase, the saiga, the ibex, and the chamois, are executed

with a sure hand. Sculpture of animal forms in the large, which begins in

Solutrean times, is continued and reaches its highest point in the early

Magdalenian. At this period the use of sculpture as a means of decoration

arises and extends into the middle and late Magdalenian. These latter

divisions are also distinguished by the reappearance of human figurines,

nude, like the Aurignacian, and occasionally somewhat more slender. Thus

it would appear that the artistic spirit, more or less dormant in

Solutrean times, was revived.

In the variety of industries we find evidences of a race endowed with

closely observant and creative minds, in which the two chief motives of

life seem to have been the chase and the pursuit of art. The Magdalenian

flints are fashioned in a somewhat different manner from the Solutrean:

long, slender flakes or 'blades' with little or no retouch are frequent,

and in other implements the work is apparently carried only to a point

where the flint will serve its purpose. No attempt is made to attain

perfect symmetry. Thus the old technical impulse of the flint industry

seems to be far less than that among the makers of the Solutrean flints,

while a new technical impulse manifests itself in several branches of art:

arms and utensils are carved in ivory, reindeer horn and bone, and

sculpture and engraving on bone and ivory are greatly developed. We find

that these people are beginning to utilize the walls of dark, mysterious

caverns for their drawings and paintings, which show deep appreciation for

the perfection of the animal form, depicted by them in most lifelike

attitudes.

We may infer that there was a tribal organization, and it has been

suggested that certain unexplained implements of reindeer horn, often

beautifully carved and known as 'bâtons de commandement,' were insignia of

authority borne by the chieftains.

There can be little doubt that such diversities of temperament, of talent,

and of predisposition as obtain to-day also prevailed then, and that they

tended to differentiate society into chieftains, priests, and

medicine-men, hunters of large game and fishermen, fashioners of flints

and dressers of hides, makers of clothing and footwear, makers of

ornaments, engravers, sculptors in wood, bone, ivory, and stone, and

artists with color and brush. In their artistic work, at least, these

people were animated with a compelling sense of truth, and we cannot deny

them a strong appreciation of beauty.

[Illustration: PL. VII. Crô-Magnon man in the cavern of Font-de-Gaume,

Dordogne, restored in the act of drawing the outlines of one of the bisons

on the wall of the _Galerie des Fresques_. Drawn under the direction of

the author by Charles R. Knight.]

It is probable that a sense of wonder in the face of the powers of nature

was connected with the development of a religious sentiment. How far their

artistic work in the caverns was an expression of such sentiment and how

far it was the outcome of a purely artistic impulse are matters for

very careful study. Undoubtedly the inquisitive sense which led them into

the deep and dangerous recesses of the caverns was accompanied by an

increased sense of awe and possibly by a sentiment which we may regard as

more or less religious. We may dwell for a moment on this very interesting

problem of the origin of religion during the Old Stone Age, so that the

reader may judge for himself in connection with the ensuing accounts of

Magdalenian art.

[Illustration: FIG. 179. Decorated _bâtons de commandement_ carved from

reindeer horn with a large perforation opposite the brow tine. After

Lartet and Christy.]

"The religious phenomenon," observes James,(3) "has shown itself to

consist everywhere, and in all its stages, in the consciousness which

individuals have of an intercourse between themselves and higher powers

with which they feel themselves to be related. This intercourse is

realized at the time as being both active and mutual.... The gods believed

in--whether by crude savages or by men disciplined intellectually--agree

with each other in recognizing personal calls.... To coerce the spiritual

powers, or to square them and get them on our side, was, during enormous

tracts of time, the one great object in our dealings with the natural

world."

The study of this race, in our opinion, would suggest a still earlier

phase in the development of religious thought than that considered by

James, namely, a phase in which the wonders of nature in their various

manifestations begin to arouse in the primitive mind a desire for an

explanation of these phenomena, and in which it is attempted to seek such

cause in some vague supernatural power underlying these otherwise

unaccountable occurrences, a cause to which the primitive human spirit

commences to make its appeal. According to certain anthropologists,[AU]

this wonder-working force may either be personal, like the gods of Homer,

or impersonal, like the _Mana_ of the Melanesian, or the _Manitou_ of the

North American Indian. It may impress an individual when he is in a proper

frame of mind, and through magic or propitiation may be brought into

relation with his individual ends. Magic and religion jointly belong to

the supernatural as opposed to the every-day world of the savage.

We have already seen evidence from the burials that these people

apparently believed in the preparation of the bodies of the dead for a

future existence. How far these beliefs and the votive sense of

propitiation for protection and success in the chase are indicated by the

art of the caverns is to be judged in connection with their entire life

and productive effort, with their burials associated with offerings of

implements and articles of food, and with their art.

THE THREE CLIMATIC CYCLES OF MAGDALENIAN TIMES

The culture of the Crô-Magnons was doubtless influenced by the changing

climatic conditions of Magdalenian times, which were quite varied, so that

we may trace three parallel lines of development: that of environment, as

indicated by the climate and the forms of animal life, that of industry,

and that of art.

The entire climatic, life, and industrial cycle of which the Magdalenian

marks the conclusion has been presented in Chapter IV (p. 281). After a

very long period of cold and somewhat arid climate following the fourth

glaciation, it would appear that western Europe in early Magdalenian times

again experienced a stage of increasing cold and moisture accompanied by

the renewed advance of the glaciers in the Alpine region, in Scandinavia,

and in Great Britain. This is known as the _Bühl_ stage in the Alps, in

which the snow-line descended 2,700 feet below its present level and the

great glaciers thrust down along the southerly borders of Lake Lucerne a

series of new moraines distinctly overlying those of the fourth

glaciation. Another indication of the lowered temperature and increased

moisture in the same geographic region is found in the return of the

arctic lemmings from the northern tundras; these migrants have left their

remains in several of the large grottos north of the Alps, especially in

Schweizersbild and Kesslerloch, composing what is known as the _Upper

Rodent Layer_, with which are associated the implements and art objects of

the early Magdalenian culture stage.

We have adopted the minimum estimate of 25,000 years since the fourth

glaciation, but Heim(4) has estimated that the much more recent

prehistoric event of the advance of this minor _Bühl_ glaciation began at

least 24,000 years ago, that it extended over a very long period of time,

and that the _Bühl_ moraines in Lake Lucerne are at least 16,000 years of

age.

The three climatic changes of Magdalenian times are therefore as follows:

First, the _Bühl_ Postglacial Stage in the Alps, which corresponds with

what Geikie has named the Fifth Glacial Epoch, or _Lower Turbarian_, in

Scotland; for he believes that a relapse to cold conditions in northern

Britain was accompanied by a partial subsidence of the coast lands, that

snow-fields again appeared, that considerable glaciers descended the

mountain valleys, and even reached the sea. At this time the arctic alpine

flora of Scotland also descended to within 150 feet of the sea-level. The

result of this renewed or fifth glaciation in western Europe was the

advent of the great wave of tundra life and the descent to the plains of

all the forms of Alpine life.

[Illustration: FIG. 180. Correlation of the Postglacial climatic changes

with the four stages of Upper Palæolithic culture: the Aurignacian

coincident with the final retreat of the fourth glaciation; the Solutrean

coincident with the interval preceding the _Bühl_ advance; the Magdalenian

coincident with the _Bühl_ and _Gschnitz_ Postglacial advances; and the

Azilian coincident with the _Daun_ or third Postglacial advance. (Compare

Fig. 14.)]

Second, it would appear that in middle Magdalenian times, after the _Bühl_

advance, there occurred a temporary retreat of the ice-fields, and that

during this period the full tide of life from the steppes of western Asia

and eastern Europe for the first time spread over western Europe,

including especially such animals as the jerboa and the saiga antelope,

the dwarf pika and steppe hamster. Correlation is very hazardous, but this

ice retreat may correspond with the _Upper Forestian_, or Fifth

Interglacial Stage in Scotland, described by Geikie, the stage which he

mentions as marked by the elevation of the Scottish coast with the retreat

of the sea beyond the present coast-lines; geographic changes which were

accompanied by the disappearance of perennial snow and ice, and the return

of more genial conditions. The tundra fauna still prevailed; such a

typical arctic animal as the musk-ox wandered as far south as Dordogne and

the Pyrenees, and became one of the objects of the chase. During what is

known as the middle or 'full Magdalenian' the tundra, steppe, alpine,

forest, and meadow faunæ spread over the plains and valleys throughout

western Europe.

Third, the second Postglacial advance, known as the _Gschnitz_ stage in

the Alpine region, appears to have been contemporaneous with the closing

period of Magdalenian culture. This was the last great effort of the

ice-fields to conquer western Europe, and in the Alpine region the

snow-line descended 1,800 feet below the present levels; it marked the

closing stage of the long cold climatic period that had favored the

presence of the reindeer, the woolly mammoth, and the woolly rhinoceros in

western Europe, as well as the close of the 'Reindeer Epoch' of Lartet.

Again, in the north of Britain Geikie observes an _Upper Turbarian_ or

Sixth Glacial Epoch, accompanied by a partial subsidence of the Scottish

coast, and the return of a cold and wet climate; there is evidence of the

existence of snow glaciers upon the high mountains only. The _Gschnitz_

stage marks the end of glacial conditions in Europe, the retreat of the

tundra and steppe faunæ, and the predominance of the forest and meadow

environment and life.

In the Alps there was, however, still a final effort of the glaciers,

known as the _Daun_ stage, which, it is believed, broadly corresponds with

the period of the Azilian-Tardenoisian industry, and a climatic condition

in Europe favorable to the spread of the Eurasiatic forest and meadow

life.

The key to this great prehistoric chronology is found in palæontology. The

arctic tundra rodents especially are the most invaluable timekeepers;

according to Schmidt(5) there is no doubt whatever that the _Upper Rodent

Layer_, composed of the animals of the second invasion from the arctic

tundras, corresponds, on the one hand, with the beginning of the

Magdalenian industry and, on the other, with the renewed glacial advance

in the Alpine region, known as the _Bühl_ stage, and probably also with

that in the north. The _Upper Rodent Layer_ of Magdalenian times is found

in the remarkably complete succession of deposits at the stations of

Schweizersbild and Kesslerloch, which are more recent in time than the

'low terraces' bordering the neighboring River Rhine. The fossil animals

prove that after the extreme cold of early Magdalenian times the tundra

fauna gradually gave way to a wide-spread steppe fauna. Along the Rhine

and the Danube the banded lemmings become less frequent; the jerboas,

hamsters, and susliks of the steppes become more abundant. Exactly similar

changes are observed in Dordogne. In Longueroche, on the Vézère, there

occur for the first time in western Europe great numbers of rabbits

(_Lepus cuniculus_); numerous hares (_Lepus timidus_) are also observed at

the type station of La Madeleine, especially in the uppermost and

lowermost culture layers. These small rabbits probably came from the

Mediterranean region and denote a slight elevation of temperature. But it

is only in the very highest Magdalenian layers that the animal life of

western Europe begins to approach that of recent times, namely, that of

the prehistoric forest and meadow faunæ.

MAMMALIAN LIFE OF MAGDALENIAN TIMES

Thus it is very important to keep in mind that during Magdalenian times

there were both cold and moist periods favorable to tundra life and cold

and arid periods favorable to steppe life. In the latter were deposited

the sheets of 'upper loess.'

The mammalian life of Magdalenian times is of interest not only in

connection with the climate and environment of the Crô-Magnon race, but

with the development of their industry and especially of their art. It is

noteworthy that the imposing forms of animal life, the mammoth among the

tundra fauna and the bison among the meadow fauna, made a very strong

impression and were the favorite subjects of the draftsmen and colorists;

but the eye was also susceptible to the beauty of the reindeer, the stag,

and the horse and to the grace of the chamois. The artists and sculptors

have preserved the external appearance of more than thirty forms of this

wonderful mammalian assemblage, which accord exactly with the fossil

records preserved in the fire-hearths of the grottos and shelters, and

with the deposits assembled by beasts and birds of prey in the uninhabited

caverns.

[Illustration: FIG. 181. Reindeer with outlines first engraved and then

retraced with heavy lines of black manganese finely finished with a wash

of gray tone, from the _Galerie des Fresques_ at Font-de-Gaume. After

Breuil.]

No artists have ever had before them at the same time and in the same

country such a wonderful panorama of animal life as that observed by the

Crô-Magnons. Their representations in drawing, engraving, painting, and

sculpture afford us a view of a great part of the life of the period,

including its contingent of forms from the tundras, steppes, Alpine

summits, and Eurasiatic forests and meadows, and the one surviving member

of the Asiatic fauna, the lion.

The paintings and drawings of Dordogne chiefly represent the mammoth,

reindeer, rhinoceros, bison, horses, wild cattle, red deer, ibex, lion,

and bear. The caverns of the Pyrenees of southern France present chiefly

bison, horses, deer, wild cattle, ibex, and chamois; the reindeer and

mammoth are relatively rare, and in some cases entirely wanting in the

parietal art; this is singular because in the Pyrenees the reindeer

constituted the principal food of the authors of the drawings and frescos.

In the caves of the Cantabrian Mountains representations of the reindeer

are entirely absent, while the doe and stag of the red deer are frequently

pictured; there are only a few representations of the mammoth and one of

the cave-bear. In the drawings of eastern Spain deer and wild cattle are

abundantly represented, and there is undoubtedly a representation of the

moose at Alpera.

_Favorite Art Subjects_

TUNDRA LIFE.

Mammoth.

Woolly rhinoceros.

Reindeer.

Musk-ox.

STEPPE LIFE.

Steppe horse.

Saiga antelope.

Wild ass, kiang.

ASIATIC LIFE.

Lion.

Desert horse.

ALPINE LIFE.

Ibex.

Chamois.

MEADOW LIFE.

Bison.

Wild cattle.

FOREST LIFE.

Red deer, stag.

Forest horse.

Cave-bear.

Wolf.

Fox.

Wild boar.

Moose.

Fallow deer.

SEA LIFE.

Seal.

REPTILES, BIRDS, FISHES.

(Rarely depicted.)

As regards the sources of this great fauna, we have observed that in late

Aurignacian and Solutrean times, at Předmost, Moravia, and elsewhere, the

steppe fauna was not richly represented in western Europe, for it included

only the steppe horse and the wild Asiatic ass or kiang; that the

contemporary tundra fauna lacked two of the smaller but most

characteristic forms, the banded and the Obi lemmings, although all of the

large tundra forms were still wide-spread and freely intermingled with the

forest and meadow life; and that preying upon these herbivorous mammals

were the surviving Asiatic lions and hyænas.

[Illustration: FIG. 182. Modern descendants of the four principal types of

the horse family which roamed over western Europe in Upper Palæolithic

times: (_A_) the plateau, desert, or Celtic horse, (_B_) the steppe or

Przewalski horse, (_C_) the forest or Nordic horse, and (_D_) the kiang or

wild ass of the Asiatic steppes.]

The successive faunal phases of Magdalenian times, beginning with the

early cold and moist or tundra period, have been determined with wonderful

precision by Schmidt from the animal remains found associated with the

lower, middle, and upper Magdalenian cultures in the grotto and cavern

deposits of northern Switzerland, of the upper Rhine, and of the upper

Danube. This region was lacking in some of the characteristic animals

seen in Dordogne, yet these invaluable records show that throughout the

entire period of Magdalenian times, probably extending over some thousands

of years, the forests, meadows, and river borders of western Europe

maintained the entire existing, or rather prehistoric, forest and meadow

faunæ. The royal stag, or red deer (_Cervus elaphus_), was no longer

accompanied by the giant deer (_Megaceros_), which apparently left this

region of Europe in Aurignacian times, but the maral or Persian deer

(_Cervus maral_) occasionally appears; both the stag and the roe-deer

(_Capreolus_) were especially abundant in southwestern Europe and the

Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain, where the stag became the favorite

subject of the Magdalenian artists at the same time that the reindeer was

the favorite subject in the region of Dordogne. In the forests were also

the brown bear, the lynx, the badger, the marten, and in the streams the

beaver; tree squirrels (_Sciurus vulgaris_) appear for the first time;

and in Dordogne rabbits and hares become numerous. Among birds we observe

the grouse and the raven. The wild boar (_Sus scrofa ferus_) was

occasionally found in the region of the Danube and the Rhine, but abounded

in southwestern Europe and the Pyrenees. The two dominant forms of meadow

life surviving from the earliest Pleistocene times, and widely distributed

throughout the Magdalenian are the bison (_B. priscus_) and the wild

cattle (_Bos primigenius_); of these animals the bison appears to have

been the more hardy, and seeking a more northerly range, while the urus

was extremely abundant in southwestern France and the Pyrenees.

[Illustration: FIG. 183. The desert or Celtic horse, with delicate head,

long, slender limbs, and short back, from a painting on the ceiling of

Altamira, in northern Spain. The horse is painted in red ochre with black

manganese outlines. The eye, ear, mouth, nostrils, and chin are carefully

engraved. After Breuil.]

In connection with art, the majestic form of the bison seemed to strike

the fancy of the artist more than the less-imposing outlines of the wild

cattle; there are perhaps fifty drawings of the bison to one of the _Bos_.

Among the forest and meadow life, not recognized in the fossil remains,

but clearly distinguished in the work of the artists, are two types of

horses, the forest or Nordic horse, related to the northern or draught

horse, and the diminutive plateau or desert horse (_E. caballus celticus_)

related to the Arab. With the forest life should also be numbered the cave

bear (_Ursus spelæus_) of southwestern Europe and the moose (_Alces_),

indicated by the artists of Aurignacian times as present in the Cantabrian

Pyrenees.

[Illustration: FIG. 184. Heads of four chamois engraved on a fragment of

reindeer horn, from the grotto of Gourdan, Haute-Garonne. After Piette.]

It is the above entire Eurasiatic forest and meadow fauna which survived

all the climatic vicissitudes of Pleistocene time, and which alone

remained in western Europe to the very close of the Upper Palæolithic

culture, and into the period of the arrival of the Neolithic race.

The descent of the European and Asiatic alpine types of mammals to the

lower hills and valleys is one of the most striking episodes of

Magdalenian times. The argali sheep (_Ovis argaloides_) of western Asia

had already appeared in the upper Danubian region during the Aurignacian;

it is replaced in Magdalenian times by the ibex (_Ibex priscus_), and by

the chamois, which descended along the northern slopes of the Alps and of

the Pyrenees, and became numbered among the most highly favored subjects

of the Magdalenian artists, especially in the mobile art of ivory and

bone, and in the decoration of their spear throwers and _bâtons de

commandement_. From the mountains also come the pikas or tailless hares

(_Lagomys pusillus_), the alpine marmot (_Arctomys marmotta_), the alpine

vole (_Arvicola nivalis_), and the alpine ptarmigan (_Lagopus alpinus_).

THE TUNDRA CLIMATE OF EARLY MAGDALENIAN TIMES

In the first cold moist period the full wave of arctic tundra life

appeared in the whole region between the Alpine and Scandinavian glaciers

during the renewed descent of the ice-fields; this was the tundra stage of

early Magdalenian times, accompanying the _Bühl_ advance. At the stations

of Thaingen, Schweizersbild, Kastlhäng, and Niedernau, appears the

musk-ox, together with the woolly mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and the

reindeer. The discovery of the grotto of Kastlhäng, a reindeer hunting

station in the Altmühltale of Bavaria(6) fills out what has long been a

gap in the geographic distribution of the early Magdalenian. The principal

objects of the chase here were the reindeer, the wild horse, the arctic

hare, and the ptarmigan; the royal stag is very rare, and the bison is

wanting entirely; a strong arctic character is given to the fauna by the

presence of the banded lemming, the arctic wolverene, and the arctic fox.

From this region the musk-ox migrated far to the southwest, reaching the

northern slopes of the Pyrenees. At the same time the arctic grouse, the

whistling swan, and other northern birds entered the region of the Rhine

and the Danube. But the surest indicators of a cold tundra climate

prevailing during the period of the _Bühl_ advance are the banded lemming

(_Myodes torquatus_) and the Obi lemming (_Myodes obensis_), which are

found in the same deposits with the arctic hare, the reindeer, and the

woolly mammoth mixed with the implements of the early Magdalenian industry

at the stations of Sirgenstein, Wildscheuer, and Ofnet along the upper and

middle Danube. There also appear the ermine and the arctic wolverene; in

fact, almost all the characteristic forms of tundra life except the

polar bear, which only enters the northern tundras in the summer season.

[Illustration: FIG. 185. Characteristic forms of alpine life, which

descended from the mountains or migrated from the highlands of western

Asia in Aurignacian and Magdalenian times: the ibex, the chamois, the

alpine ptarmigan, the argali sheep, and the (_A_) alpine vole, all shown

one-twenty-fifth life size; and the (_A_) alpine vole also one-fifth life

size.]

The regions of the northern Alps bordering the great glaciers of the

_Bühl_ and _Gschnitz_ advances, were barren stretches of rock, and the

valleys and plateaus now free from ice became tundras, where the swamps

alternated with patches of polar willows and stunted fir-trees, while

other areas were covered with low, scrubby birches, or reindeer moss and

lichens. The return of these hard conditions of life undoubtedly exerted a

great influence both upon the physical and mental development of the

Crô-Magnon race; it was at the very period when the life conditions in

western Europe were most severe that the artistic development of these

people began to revive. Forced to return to the shelters and grottos,

which certainly were less frequented in Solutrean times, there was time

for the development of the imagination and for its expression both in the

mobile and parietal arts. There was a less vigorous development of the

flint industry, and apparently a degeneration in physique and stature.

In Germany and northern Switzerland, on the headwaters of the Rhine and

the Danube, the entrance and departure of the northern waves of life are

recorded, especially in the grottos of Sirgenstein, Schussenquelle,

Andernach, Schmiechenfels, and Propstfels. It would appear that the woolly

mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros were not hunted in this region, for

their remains are not preserved in any of the grottos or stations mingled

with the middle or late Magdalenian cultures. On the other hand, we find

the steppe horse, the kiang, the stag, and the reindeer very abundant

indeed. The bison is absent, and wild cattle are very rare; so that this

region is not typical of the mammalian life of Magdalenian times as found

in Dordogne and in the Pyrenees.

The migration of the woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros along the

Pyrenees and westward into the Cantabrian Mountains, and the crossing of

the Pyrenees by the reindeer, have already been described. In the mural

frescos of Font-de-Gaume, Dordogne, it is noteworthy that the very latest

engravings are those of the mammoth superposed on the fine polychromes

which belong to the period of middle Magdalenian art.

THE DRY STEPPE CLIMATE OF MIDDLE MAGDALENIAN TIMES

The cold, dry period, when the full tide of steppe life reached western

Europe, is of somewhat uncertain date; it probably began during the stage

of the middle Magdalenian industry and continued into the late or high

Magdalenian. There was certainly an environment attractive to these

peculiar and very highly specialized mammals, which at the present time

are neutral in color, swift of foot, inured to existence on very sparse

vegetation, and adapted to extremes of heat and cold. Among the smaller

steppe forms were the suslik or pouched marmot of the steppes

(_Spermophilus rufescens_) and the steppe hamster (_Cricetus phæus_), also

the Siberian vole (_Arvicola gregalis_); still more characteristic was the

great jerboa (_Alactaga jaculus_), with long, springy hind legs, and the

saiga antelope (_Antilope saiga_). With these mammals appeared the steppe

grouse (_Perdix cinerea_), which is found along the Danube in late

Magdalenian strata; another bird characteristic of the northern steppes

and tundras is the 'woodcock owl' (_Brachyotus palustris_). Accompanying

these mammals was undoubtedly the steppe horse (_Equus przewalski_), now

restricted to the desert of Gobi; it is said to occur in the grottos of

northern Switzerland.

It would appear that the saiga antelope may have reached eastern Europe in

late Solutrean times, for its outline is said to be found in an engraving

at Solutré. Widely spread over Europe was the giant Elasmothere; it would

seem very unlikely that this animal was present in Magdalenian times, for

it certainly would have attracted the attention of the artists. Neither

have we any positive artistic records of the wild ass, or kiang, although

certain of the drawings in the grottos of Niaux and Marsoulas, of the

middle Magdalenian, also of Albarracin, in Spain, may be interpreted as

representing this animal. Thus the Asiatic steppe and desert fauna, which

in the region of the upper Rhine and Danube was restricted to two

species of mammals in Aurignacian and Solutrean times, rises to nine or

ten species in middle Magdalenian times, so that for the first time during

the entire 'Reindeer Epoch' the steppe and tundra faunæ are equally

balanced. There are also six or seven species of birds from the moors and

uplands of central Asia. The bird life depicted in middle Magdalenian art

includes the ptarmigan or grouse, the wild swan, geese, and ducks.

[Illustration: FIG. 186. Steppe mammals from the steppes and deserts of

Asia, which invaded western Europe in Upper Palæolithic times; the first

arrivals appearing during the cold, dry period of late Acheulean times,

becoming more numerous in the dry period of Aurignacian and Solutrean

times, and completely represented in Magdalenian times. The saiga

antelope, the (_A_) steppe hamster, the (_B_) great jerboa, and the kiang,

or Asiatic wild ass, are all shown one-twenty-fifth life size. The (_A_)

steppe hamster is also shown one-fifth life size and the (_B_) great

jerboa one-twelfth life size. Drawn by Erwin S. Christman.]

[Illustration: FIG. 187. Ptarmigan, or grouse, carved in reindeer horn,

from Mas d'Azil. After Piette. The restored portions (head and feet) are

indicated by dotted lines.]

The present flora of the subarctic steppes in southeastern Russia and

southwestern Siberia includes forests of pine, larch, birch, oak, alder,

and willow, extending along the banks of the rivers and streams and

interspersed with broad, low, grassy plains. There are many gradations

between the low and high steppes;(7) the climate in summer is relatively

warm, the temperature rising to 70°, while the average temperature in

mid-winter hardly exceeds 30°; in general there is a strong contrast

between the summer and winter seasons, the steppe lands in summer are

practically rainless, so that the sand and dust rise with every wind.

Thus, both in summer and winter sand and dust storms play an important

rôle. The great snow-storms of the subarctic steppes are as destructive as

those of the more northerly tundras and often result in great loss of

life. Numerous discoveries tend to prove that similar conditions prevailed

in western Europe during Magdalenian times. Thus at

Châteauneuf-sur-Charente, a mingled tundra and steppe fauna is found

containing the bones of many young animals which must have perished during

a blizzard. It will be recalled that in this region is the station of Le

Placard of late Solutrean and Magdalenian age. Near Würzburg, Bavaria,

there is a fauna buried in the 'loess' containing twenty species of

mammals of the tundras and steppes, together with the bison and the

urus.(8)

Perhaps the strongest proof of the extension of cold, dry steppe

conditions of climate is the migration of the saiga antelope (_Saiga

tartarica_) into the Dordogne region, where it is represented both in

carvings and engravings, and into other parts of southwestern France,

where its fossil remains have been found in thirteen localities in

association with a cold steppe fauna. In the same region have been found

the remains of the musk-ox (_Ovibos_), one of the most distinctive members

of the arctic fauna.

HUMAN RACES OF MAGDALENIAN TIMES

It appears that the Crô-Magnon race continued to prevail, yet

anthropologists have long been divided in opinion as to the racial

affinity of the men found in the Magdalenian industrial stage. The most

famous burials are those of Laugerie Basse and Chancelade in Dordogne,

each consisting of skeletons of inferior stature, not improbably belonging

to women. They certainly represent a race somewhat different from the

typical Crô-Magnons of Aurignacian times, as found at Crô-Magnon and in

Grimaldi. The archæologist de Mortillet referred both these skeletons to a

new race, the _race de Laugerie_. Schliz, who has most recently reviewed

this subject, has, however, rightly treated all these people as

Crô-Magnons of a modified type.

The Magdalenian skeleton of Laugerie Basse, found by Massénat in 1872, was

resting on the back, with the limbs flexed, and with it was a necklace of

pierced shells from the Mediterranean: the body apparently had been

covered with a layer of Magdalenian implements. According to the length of

the femur, the individual was 1.65 m., or 5 feet 1 inch in height; the

bones were strong and compact; the skull was well arched, with a straight

forehead and a cephalic index of 73.2 per cent.

[Illustration: FIG. 188. The _abri_ of Laugerie Basse, Dordogne, a famous

Magdalenian station and burial site of the skeleton of Laugerie Basse.

This ancient rock shelter, like that of Crô-Magnon and many others, shows

at the present day a cluster of peasants' dwellings around its base.

Photograph by Belvès.]

The so-called Chancelade skeleton was found in the shelter of Raymonden in

1888, at a depth of 5 feet, and was also in a folded position, resting

directly on the rock and covered with several layers of artifacts of the

later Magdalenian culture; the limbs were so tightly flexed as to prove

that they had been enveloped in bandages. This skeleton shows a

well-arched skull, a high, wide forehead, and a dolichocephalic head form,

but the limbs are comparatively small, the height not exceeding 1.50 m.,

or about 4 feet 7 inches; the upper arm and thigh are short, compact, and

clumsy, and the femur is crooked with comparatively thick ends; this

skeleton is generally classed with the Crô-Magnon race, but Klaatsch

considers that it may belong to a distinct type. We cannot disregard, says

Breuil,(9) the anatomical characters attributed by Testut to the man of

Chancelade and its resemblances to the actual Eskimo type; this indication

is in favor of a new element, arriving perhaps from Asiatic Siberia, but

acquiring in western Europe the artistic culture realized and conserved

in certain districts by the Aurignacian tribes and their derivatives. All

of the Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian races, however, recall very

forcibly the race of Crô-Magnon, which tends to prove that these

transformations in culture were not made without a notable element of

human continuity.

DISCOVERIES OF MAGDALENIAN AGE CHIEFLY ATTRIBUTED TO THE CRÔ-MAGNON

RACE[AV]

+===================================================================+

| Date of | | |

|Discovery | Locality | Nature of Remains |

|----------|---------------------------------|----------------------|

|1863. |Bruniquel (Tarn-et-Garonne, |Skeletal fragments. |

| | France). | Burial. |

|1864. |La Madeleine (Dordogne, France). |Skeletal fragments. |

|1869. |Laugerie Basse I (Dordogne, |Skeletal fragments. |

| | France). | |

|1871. |Gourdan (Haute-Garonne, France). |Skeletal fragments. |

|1872. |Laugerie Basse II (Dordogne, |1 skeleton. Burial. |

| | France). | |

|1872-1873.|Sorde (Duruthy) (Landes, France).|1 skeleton. Burial. |

|1874. |Freudenthal (near Schaffhausen, |Fragments of skulls |

| | Switzerland). | and of pelvis. |

|1874. |Kesslerloch (near Thaingen, | |

| | Switzerland). |Collar-bone. |

|1883. |Le Placard (Charente, France). |8 skulls, chiefly |

| | | fragmentary. |

|1888. |Chancelade (Raymonden) (Dordogne,|1 skeleton, almost |

| | France). | complete. Burial. |

|1894. |Les Hôteaux (Ain, France). |1 skeleton, almost |

| | | complete. Burial. |

|1914. |Obercassel (near Bonn, Germany). |2 skeletons, male and |

| | | female, almost |

| | | complete. Burial. |

| | | Early Magdalenian. |

| |Les Eyzies (Dordogne, France). |Skeletal fragments. |

| |La Mouthe (Dordogne, France). |1 tooth, 1 vertebra. |

| |Limeuil (Dordogne, France). |Skull fragments. |

| |Grotte des Hommes (Yonne, |3 skulls and other |

| | France). | skeletal fragments. |

| |Brassempouy (Landes, France). |2 teeth. |

| |Grotte des Fées (Gironde, |Fragments of upper |

| | France). | and lower jaw. |

| |Lussac (Vienne, France). |Fragment of lower jaw.|

| |Mas d'Azil (Ariège, France). |1 skull top. Early |

| | | Magdalenian. |

| |Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées, |Skull fragments. |

| | France). | |

| |Castillo (Santander, Spain). |Skull fragment. Early |

| | | Magdalenian. |

| |Gudenushöhle (Austria). |1 infant's tooth. |

| |Andernach (north of Koblenz, |2 child's incisors and|

| | Germany). | 7 rib fragments. |

+===================================================================+

Another Magdalenian burial is that at Sorde, Landes, in the grotto of

Duruthy; this skeleton was discovered in 1872, buried at a depth of 7

feet, the body being ornamented with a necklace and a girdle of the teeth

of the lion and of the bear, pierced and engraved. Seven skulls found in

1883 in the grotto of Placard, Charente, also belong to the Magdalenian.

The skeleton discovered in 1894 in the grotto of Les Hôteaux, Ain, was

buried at a depth of 6 feet beneath Magdalenian implements; the body,

resting on the back, was covered with red ochre; the thigh-bones were

inverted, indicating that the limbs had been dismembered before burial--a

custom observed among certain savages.

[Illustration: FIG. 189. Human skull-tops cut into ceremonial or drinking

bowls, from the Magdalenian layer of Placard, Charente. After Breuil and

Obermaier.]

These are the best preserved Magdalenian remains which have been

discovered in France up to the present time. The matter of chief

significance is the survival of modes of burial characteristic of the

Crô-Magnons in Aurignacian times, with the use of color and of ornaments

and with the body in some instances folded and bandaged.

In the great grotto of Placard, near Rochebertier, Charente, a new feature

in the mode of interment has been discovered--the separation of the head

from the body.[AW] The previous ceremonial burials, which began certainly

among the Neanderthals in Mousterian times, always show the custom of

burying the entire body; in the Upper Palæolithic there commences the new

custom of imbedding the body in ochre or red coloring matter, and this

obtains from the Aurignacian burials of Grimaldi to the Azilian burial of

Mas d'Azil. The flexing of the limbs is probably also an Upper Palæolithic

custom. It would appear as if the new ceremonial of Placard had been

introduced in the earliest Magdalenian times, for in the lowest

Magdalenian layers four skulls were found closely crowded together, with

the top of the cranium turned downward; of other portions of the skeleton

only a humerus and a femur were found. In an upper layer of the same

industrial stage a woman's skull and jaw were found, surrounded by snail

shells, many of them perforated. Still more singular is the occurrence in

Magdalenian strata of this grotto of two separate skull-tops, fashioned by

some sharp flint implement into bowls (Fig. 189).

Again, at Arcy-sur-Cure three skulls have been discovered placed closely

together, and with them a flint knife in a layer superposed upon an

Aurignacian industry. The Placard type of burial of the head only is shown

again in the Azilian stage at Ofnet, Bavaria.

The uncertainty regarding the racial affinity of the men of Magdalenian

culture has now been entirely removed by the discovery, in February, 1914,

of two skeletons at Obercassel, near Bonn, the first instance of complete

human skeletons of Quaternary age being found in Germany.(12) As reported

by Verworn,(13) the skeletons lay little more than a yard apart; they were

covered by great slabs of basalt, and lay in a deposit of loam deeply

tinged with red. This red coloring matter, which extended completely over

the skeletons and surrounding stones, indicates that it was a ceremonial

burial similar to that practised by the Aurignacian Crô-Magnons. Along

with the skeletons were found bones of animals and several specimens of

finely carved bone, but no flint implements of any kind. The bone

implements include a finely polished 'lissoir' of beautiful workmanship,

placed beneath the head of one of the skeletons; the handle is carved into

a small head of some animal resembling a marten; the sides show the

notched decoration so typical of the French Magdalenian. The second

specimen of carved bone is one of the small, flat, narrow horse-heads,

engraved on both sides, such as are found at Laugerie Basse and in the

Pyrenees. One of the skeletons is of a woman about twenty years of age,

and, as is usual in young female skeletons, it exhibits the racial

characters in a much less marked degree than the male skeleton, which

belongs to a man of between forty and fifty years; the cephalic index is

70 per cent; the supraorbital ridges are well developed, and the orbits

are distinctly rectangular; the limb bones indicate a body about 155 cm.,

or 5 feet 1 inch, in height.

[Illustration: FIG. 190. The skulls of two skeletons of the Crô-Magnon

race, one male (right) the other female (left), recently discovered at

Obercassel near Bonn, associated with Magdalenian implements. After

Bonnet.]

In contrast to this more refined skull, the extremely broad and low face

of the man is entirely disproportionate to the moderately broad forehead

and well rounded skullcap; the breadth of the face is 153 mm. and exceeds

the greatest width of the skull, which is only 144 mm. This is a markedly

_disharmonic_ type, the width of the face being due not only to the broad

upper jaw but to the exceptional size and breadth of the cheek-bones. The

skull is decidedly dolichocephalic, the cephalic index being 74 per cent;

the brain capacity is about 1,500 c.cm.; the orbits are rectangular, and

above them extends an unbroken supraorbital ridge, with a slight median

frontal eminence; the nasal opening is relatively small; the lower jaw has

a strongly marked chin; the crowns of the teeth have been worn down until

the enamel has almost disappeared. While the muscular attachments

indicate great bodily strength, the height does not exceed 5 feet 3

inches. As pronounced Crô-Magnon features, both of the Obercassel skulls

show an unusually wide face; in both the profiles are straight and the

root of the nose depressed, the nose is narrow, and the orbits are

rectangular. But, observes Bonnet, the greatest width of these skulls is

not found across the parietals, as in the typical Crô-Magnons, but just

above the ear region, a much lower position; in this respect the

Obercassel skulls resemble the skull of the Chancelade skeleton.

This very important discovery of two undoubted descendants of the

Crô-Magnon race associated with bone implements of lower Magdalenian

workmanship appears to prove conclusively that the Crô-Magnons were the

art-loving race. The Obercassel skeletons confirm the evidence afforded by

the burials in France that these people were of low stature; perhaps

because of the severe climatic conditions of Magdalenian times they had

lost the splendid physical proportions of the Crô-Magnons living along the

Riviera in Aurignacian times. The skull also, while retaining all the

pronounced Crô-Magnon characters, had undergone a modification in the

point of greatest width.

In the reduction of the stature of the woman to 5 feet 1 inch and of the

man to 5 feet 3 inches, and in the reduction of the brain capacity to

1,500 c.cm., we may be witnessing the result of exposure to very severe

climatic conditions in a race which retained its fine physical and mental

characteristics only under the more genial climatic conditions of the

south.

THE FOUR INDUSTRIAL PHASES OF MAGDALENIAN CULTURE

The industrial development belongs throughout to central and western

Europe rather than to the Mediterranean. It is remarkable that it does not

extend along the African coast, or even into Italy or southern Spain. It

has been found to present four great steps or phases as follows:

[Illustration: FIG. 191. The great _abri_, or rock shelter, of La

Madeleine, type station of the Magdalenian industry. Ruins of the abbey

beyond. Photograph by Belvès.]

The earliest types(14) of the incipient Magdalenian culture, or

PROTO-MAGDALENIAN, are nowhere better represented than under the great

shelter of Placard, in Charente, where the deep successive deposits compel

a realization of the long period of time required for the evolution of the

Magdalenian with its wonderful artistic culmination. Even prior to any

discovery of the harpoon or of any example of the art of engraving

comparable to the classic series of higher levels we find three levels of

incipient Magdalenian industry at Placard. Similar local horizons,

recognizable from the type of their javelin points (_sagaies_) and from

their decorative _motifs_, are also found at Kesslerloch, Switzerland, and

as far east as Poland. From Dordogne they extend into the Pyrenees and

into the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain, but not farther south.

There is thus a very primitive Magdalenian industry wide-spread over

central and western Europe, either autochthonous or influenced from the

east, but certainly not from the Mediterranean. It is only above these

primitive horizons that layers are discovered with the rudimentary

harpoons, and then with the perfected harpoons with single and double rows

of barbs. It would appear as if the basins drained by the Dordogne and the

Garonne were at once the most densely populated and also the centres from

which industry, culture, and art spread to the east and to the west.

In the heart of the Dordogne region is the great rock shelter of La

Madeleine, the type station of Magdalenian culture, and around it are no

less than fifteen stations. This station, in which the lowest industrial

layer (_niveau inférieur_) is subsequent to the Proto-Magdalenian phase

and belongs to the _early_ Magdalenian, was extensively excavated by

Lartet and Christy(15) during the decade following its discovery, in 1865,

and more recently by Peyrony and others. The industrial deposit is

situated at the base of an overhanging limestone escarpment on the right

bank of the Vézère River; it extends for a distance of 50 feet with an

average thickness of 9 feet, the lowest or early Magdalenian levels

reaching down below the present level of the Vézère. It is a significant

fact that the river floods which from time to time occur here also

occasionally drove out the flint workers in Magdalenian times. It

indicates an unchanged topography and similar conditions of rainfall. We

must picture this cliff fringed with a northern flora, these river banks

as the haunt of bison and reindeer, and the site of a long, narrow camp of

skin-covered shelters.

Among the numerous specimens of typical Magdalenian industry and art which

have been found here may be mentioned a geode of quartzite, apparently

used to contain water, and stone crucibles, usually of rounded form,

adapted to the grinding up of mineral colors for tattooing or artistic

purposes; one of these crucibles, showing traces of color, still remains.

The finest among the art objects is the spirited engraving, on a section

of ivory tusk, of the woolly mammoth charging; this is one of the most

realistic pieces of Palæolithic engraving which has ever been found; there

are indications that the artist used this relatively small piece of ivory

for the representation of three mammoths; but in the reproduction (Fig.

199) all the lines are eliminated except those belonging to the single

charging mammoth; we observe especially the elevation of the head and the

tail, also the remarkably lifelike action of the limbs and body.

Very numerous industrial levels are discovered in eight or ten overlying

hearths, which are, however, divided into three main levels, as follows:

_Niveau supérieur_ (late Magdalenian culture).

Harpoons with a double row of barbs. Indications that the climate was

colder and drier, resembling that of the steppes. Bison, horses, and

reindeer abundant.

_Niveau moyen_ (middle Magdalenian culture).

Harpoons with barbs on one side only; also bâtons de commandement.

Indications that the climate was more moist, with frequent inundations

from the river. Bison, reindeer, and horses less abundant.

_Niveau inférieur_ (early Magdalenian culture).

Harpoons with a single row of barbs. Indications of animal sculpture.

Remains of bison and of reindeer, but those of horses especially

numerous.

In the EARLY MAGDALENIAN we note the invention of the _harpoon_; its first

crude form is that of a short, straight point of bone, deeply grooved on

one face, the ridges and notches along one edge being the only indications

of what later develop into the recurved barbed points of the typical

harpoon. As noted above, this invention was destined to exert a very

strong influence on the habits of these people. Large fish undoubtedly

were very abundant in all the rivers at that time, and this new means of

obtaining an abundant food supply probably diverted the Crô-Magnons in

part from the more ardent and dangerous pursuit of the larger kinds of

game. The discovery soon spread, and among a number of localities where

prototypes of the harpoon are found may be mentioned Placard, in Charente;

Laugerie Basse, in Dordogne; Mas d'Azil, on the Arize; and Altamira, in

northern Spain. In the early Magdalenian also a great variety of flint

drills or borers are developed in connection with the fashioning of bone,

including the 'parrot-beak' type, or recurved flint. The microlithic

flints, exclusively designed for fine and delicate artistic work, are more

abundant than in any previous stage, and were used to shape and finish the

bone implements which chiefly distinguish the Magdalenian culture. Other

implements which enable us to recognize the early Magdalenian culture

layers are javelin points of bone or reindeer-horn with oblique bases,

small staves of reindeer-horn or ivory, oval plates of bone frequently

decorated with engraved designs, and slender, finely finished needles.

[Illustration: FIG. 192. Industrial and art implements of Magdalenian

times, chiefly elongate flakes retouched at one or at both ends for

various uses. After de Mortillet. 160. Long, narrow flint blade from the

type station of La Madeleine. 161. A similar implement from the grotto of

Mursens, Lot. 162. A 'knife' flake from Laugerie Basse, Dordogne. 163. A

flint blade, very characteristic of the period, from La Madeleine. 164. A

minute flake with cutting border and short, curved point. 165. An elongate

flake shaped into a _grattoir_, or planing tool, at one end, from La

Madeleine. 166. An elongate, pointed graving-tool, retouched at the end

and at one side. 167. A pointed tool of chalcedony. 168. A minute pointed

flake. 169. A 'parrot-beak' graving-tool of flint. 170. A straight flint

graver, from Les Eyzies, Dordogne. 171. A similar graver, from Laugerie

Basse. 172. A similar graver, from La Madeleine. 173. Flint graver with

base retouched, from the Gorge d'Enfer. 174. A double-ended implement,

_burin_ and _grattoir_, from Laugerie Basse. 175. Flint _burin_, or

graver, approaching the 'parrot-beak' type of 169, from Les Eyzies. 176.

Double _burin_, or graver, of flint, from the Grotte du Chaffaud, Vienne.

All figures are one-third actual size.]

[Illustration: FIG. 193. Typical forms of Magdalenian bone harpoons. After

Breuil. (_A_) 1 to 9, single-rowed harpoons, characteristic of the early

and middle Magdalenian; 1, 4, 8, from Bruniquel; 2, 5, from Laugerie

Basse; 6, from Mas d'Azil; 7, from La Mairie; 3 and 9, from Valle and

Castillo. About one-quarter actual size. (_B_) 10 to 15, double-rowed

harpoons, characteristic of the late Magdalenian; 10, 12, from Bruniquel;

11, from Massat; 13, from Mouthier; 14, from La Madeleine; 15, from

Kesslerloch, Switzerland. About one-third actual size.]

The MIDDLE MAGDALENIAN implements were more widely distributed than the

early types, the most characteristic weapon being the harpoon with a

well-defined single row of barbs (Breuil,(16) Schmidt(17)). According to

Breuil, this single-rowed harpoon is rare in the lower layers but abundant

in the upper layers of middle Magdalenian times; with it occur examples of

the single-rowed harpoon with swallow-tail base. Other implements of this

stage are the bone javelin points with cleft base, small bone staves

richly decorated, also numerous needles, finer and more slender than those

of the early Magdalenian. It is very interesting to note that there are no

distinctive inventions in the flint industry, which shows no important

advances, although microlithic flints are still more abundant than before.

For industrial purposes scrapers continue to be very abundant, as well as

borers for the perforation of bone implements. The middle Magdalenian

industry is best represented in the deposits of central and southern

France, at Raymonden, Bruniquel, Laugerie Basse, Gourdan, Mas d'Azil, and

Teyjat.

The chief weapon of LATE MAGDALENIAN times is the harpoon with the double

row of barbs, which is found at all the principal discovery sites

extending from stations in southwestern and southern France far to the

east. Besides the double-rowed harpoon, the cylindrical chisel of

reindeer-horn frequently occurs, often pointed at the end and with a small

curve at the side; this, like other bone implements, was richly decorated

with engraving. This late Magdalenian level is distinguished everywhere by

the rich decoration of all the bone implements and weapons, as well as of

the 'bâtons de commandement.' The quantity of bone needles, more numerous

in this stage than ever before, attests the greater refinement of finish

in the preparation of clothing.

This was the culminating point both in Magdalenian industry and art, and

probably also in the morale and modes of living. Characteristic types of

this late Magdalenian culture are found at La Madeleine, Les Eyzies, and

Teyjat, and extend into the northern Pyrenees, at Lourdes, Gourdan, and

Mas d'Azil. Their easterly geographical distribution will be described on

a later page. The microlithic flints now reach their culminating point; to

the small bladed flakes with blunted backs are added little feather-shaped

flint blades, and still others with oblique ends, which begin to suggest

the geometric forms of the succeeding Tardenoisian industry. Among the

flint borers we notice a prevalent type with a stout central point, also

the so-called 'parrot-beak' borer; for the preparation of skins, scrapers

are made, as before, of thin flakes, slightly retouched at both ends to

give a rounded or rectangular form.

Following the late or high Magdalenian stage is a period of decline in

industry. In southern France(18) both flint and bone implements show

unmistakable indications of the approach either of the succeeding

Tardenoisian or Azilian stage. In the Pyrenees both the flints and the

great polishers of deer-horn begin to resemble those which occur in the

post-Magdalenian levels. This industrial stage corresponds broadly with

the period of decline in art, and with the change both in the industrial

habits and in the artistic spirit of the Crô-Magnons.

The divisions of the Magdalenian are, therefore, as follows:

5. Decline of the Magdalenian art and industry.

4. Late Magdalenian typified at La Madeleine, Dordogne.

3. Middle Magdalenian typified at La Madeleine, Dordogne.

2. Early Magdalenian typified at La Madeleine, Dordogne.

1. Proto-Magdalenian typified at Placard, Charente.

FLINT AND BONE INDUSTRY

Through the four successive stages of development which we have already

traced (p. 382) there are perceived certain general tendencies and

characteristics which clearly separate the Magdalenian from the preceding

Solutrean culture.

Compared with Solutrean times, when the art of flint working reached its

high-water mark, the Magdalenian palæoliths show a marked degeneracy in

technique, having neither the symmetry of form nor the finely chipped

surfaces which distinguish the Solutrean types; indeed, they do not even

equal the grooved marginal retouch of the best Aurignacian work. The

Magdalenian retouch shows no influence of the Solutrean; it is even more

blunt and marginal than the late Aurignacian. In compensation for this

decadence in the art of retouch, the Crô-Magnons now show extraordinary

skill in producing long, narrow, thin flakes of flint, struck off the

nucleus with a single blow; these 'blades,' which are very numerous, are

often not retouched at all; occasionally a few hasty touches are used to

attain a rounded or oblique end; in other cases a very limited marginal

chipping along the sides or the development of an elongated pedicle

(_soie_) produces very effective implements for graving and sculptural

work.

For the art of engraving perfect _burins_, _burin-grattoirs_, and _burins

doubles_ were rapidly made from these thin flakes; also _burins_ with

oblique terminal edge and with the 'parrot-beak' end. For industrial

purposes some of the flints were denticulated around the border, doubtless

for the preparation of fibres and of thin strips of leather for the

attachment of clothing to the body and for binding of the flint and bone

lance-heads to wooden shafts. Extremely fine perçoirs have been found

adapted to perforating the bone needles; the _grattoir_, single or double,

was also fashioned out of these flakes, and the nucleus of the flint was

used as a hammer. Hammers of simple rounded stones are also found.

But the notable feature of Magdalenian industry is the extensive and

unprecedented use of bone, horn, and ivory. From the antlers of the

reindeer are early developed the _sagaies_ or javelin points of varying

size, usually ornamented along the sides and with several forms of

attachment to the wooden shaft, either forked, bevelled, or rounded. The

ornamentation consists of engraved elongate lines or beaded lines, and of

deep grooves perhaps intended for the insertion of poisonous fluids or the

outlet of blood.

[Illustration: FIG. 194. Types of the flint blade with denticulated edge,

a characteristic industrial tool of Magdalenian times, from Bruniquel, Les

Eyzies, and Laugerie Basse. After Déchelette, by permission of M. A.

Picard, Librairie Alphonse Picard et Fils.]

Of all the Magdalenian weapons the most characteristic is the harpoon, the

chief fishing implement, which now appears for the first time marked by

the invention of the _barb_ or point retroverted in such a manner as to

hold its place in the flesh. The barb does not suddenly appear like an

inventive mutation, but it very slowly evolves as its usefulness is

demonstrated in practice. The shaft is very rarely perforated at the base

for the attachment of a line; it is cylindrical in form, adapted to the

capture of the large fish of the streams. That a barbed weapon was also

used in the chase seems to be indicated by drawings in the grotto of Niaux

and lines engraved on the teeth of the bear, but these drawings indicate

the form of an arrow rather than of a harpoon. The length varies from two

to fifteen inches. The harpoons may have been projected by means of the

so-called _propulseurs_ or dart-throwers, which resemble implements so

employed by the Eskimo and Australians of to-day. These dart-throwers are

often beautifully carved, as in the case of one found at Mas d'Azil,

ornamented with a fine relief of the ibex.

[Illustration: FIG. 195. Bone needles from the grotto of Lacave, Lot.

After Viré.]

Then there were _bâtons de commandement_, carved with scenes of the chase

and with spirited heads of the horse and other animals, which quite

probably were insignia of office. Reinach has suggested that bâtons were

trophies of the chase, and according to Schoetensack they may have been

used as ornaments to fasten the clothing. The discovery of mural painting

and engraving suggests the possibility that these bâtons were believed to

have some magical influence, and were connected with mysterious rites in

the caverns, for a great variety of such ceremonial staffs is found among

primitive peoples. Geographically, the bâtons spread from the Pyrenees

into Belgium and eastward into Moravia and Russia.

Slender bone needles brought to a fine point on stone polishers indicate

great care in the preparation of clothing. Associated with the borers are

many other bone implements: awls, hammers, chisels, stilettos, pins with

and without a head, spatulas, and polishers; the latter may have been

employed in the preparation of leather. The borers, pins, and polishers

appear from the very beginning of the period of sculpture. The name of

poniard (_poignard_) is given to long points of reindeer-horn; one of

these was found at Laugerie Basse.

HISTORY OF UPPER PALÆOLITHIC ART

Following the pioneer studies of Lartet, the history of the art of the

Reindeer Period, as manifested in bone, ivory, and the engraved and

sculptured horns of the deer, occupied the last thirty-five years of the

life of Edouard Piette,(19) a magistrate of Craonne who pursued this

delightful subject as an avocation. He was a pioneer in the interpretation

of _l'art mobilier_, the mobile art. It must be remembered that in

Piette's time the fourfold divisions of Upper Palæolithic culture so

familiar to us were only partly perceived; his studies, in fact, related

chiefly to the mobile art of Magdalenian times, and he undertook to follow

its modifications in every successive grotto, beginning with his brochure

_La Grotte de Gourdan_, in 1873, in which he first announced the idea

which underlay all his later conclusions, that sculpture preceded line

engraving and etching. He divided the art into a series of phases; that of

the red deer (_Cervus elaphus_) he termed _Elaphienne_, that of the

reindeer _Tarandienne_, that of the horse _Hippiquienne_, and that of the

wild cattle _Bovidienne_. In concluding this early work of 1873, he

remarked: "To write the history of Magdalenian art is to give the history

of primitive art itself." He observed that in sculpturing the horn of the

reindeer the artist was obliged to work in the hard exterior bone and to

avoid the spongy interior; this defect in material suggested the

invention of the bas-relief. The statuette he regarded as the assemblage

of two bas-reliefs, one on either side of the bone. Thus he described the

ivory head of the woman of Brassempouy, the only human face of Upper

Palæolithic times which is even fairly well represented; also the two

imperfect feminine torsos in ivory. In 1897, at the age of seventy, Piette

undertook his last excavations, and the sum of his labors is preserved for

us in the magnificent volume entitled _l'Art pendant l'âge du Renne_,

published in 1907.

The pupil and biographer of Piette, l'Abbé Henri Breuil, observes that his

scheme of art evolution is exact along its main lines.(20) It is true that

human sculpture appears for the first time in the lower Aurignacian, that

it survives the Solutrean, and even extends into middle Magdalenian times,

but this enormous period cannot be placed in one archæological division as

Piette supposed; in truth, he did not suspect the prolonged gestation of

Quaternary art, but contracted into one small division the documents of

numerous phases. At the same time, Piette was right in attributing the

flower of the art of engraving accompanied by contours of animal forms in

relief to the second and third levels of the Magdalenian industry, but he

had no idea that this development had been preceded by a long period in

which engraving had been practised in a timid and more or less sporadic

manner as a parietal art on the walls of the caverns as well as on bone

and stone. It is also true that a considerable facility in sculpture

preceded the art of engraving, but it was arrested in its progress while

engraving slowly developed; in the early choice of subjects the sculptors

of middle and late Aurignacian times showed a preference for the human

form, while later, in Solutrean and early Magdalenian times, they inclined

principally toward animal figures, so that sculpture was not suddenly

eclipsed. The first engravings made with fine points of flint on stone are

hardly less ancient than the first sculptures, and modestly co-exist

beside them up to the moment where engraving, greatly multiplied, largely

supplants sculpture. Finally, observes Breuil, it is one of the glories of

Edouard Piette to have understood that the painted pebbles of Mas d'Azil

represented the last prolongation of the dying Quaternary art.

It is fortunate that the mantle of Piette fell upon a man of the artistic

genius and appreciation of Breuil, to whom chiefly we owe our clear

understanding of the chronological development of Upper Palæolithic art.

In the accompanying table (p. 395) are assembled the results of the

observations of Piette, Sautuola, Rivière, Cartailhac, Capitan, Breuil,

and many others, largely in the order of sequence determined through the

labors of Breuil.

[Illustration: FIG. 196. Geographic distribution of the more important

Palæolithic art stations of Dordogne, the Pyrenees, and the Cantabrian

Mountains. After Breuil and Obermaier.]

We are far from 1880, observes Cartailhac,(21) when the discovery by

Sautuola of the paintings on the roof of the cavern of Altamira was met

with such scepticism and indifference. Knowing the artistic instincts of

the Upper Palæolithic people from their engraving and carving in bone and

ivory, we should have been prepared for the discovery of a parietal art.

The publication of the engravings in the grotto of La Mouthe by

Rivière(22) in April, 1895, was the first warning of our oversight, and

immediately Edouard Piette recalled Altamira to the memory of the workers

on prehistoric art. The discovery of Sautuola ceased to be isolated. Led

by the engravings found in La Mouthe, Daleau discovered the engravings

in the grotto of Pair-non-Pair, Gironde. In 1902 there was the double

discovery of the engravings in the grotto of Combarelles, and of the

paintings in the grotto of Font-de-Gaume, communicated by Capitan and

Breuil. Discoveries at Marsoulas, Mas d'Azil, La Grèze, Bernifal, and

Teyjat soon followed.[AX]

STAGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF UPPER PALÆOLITHIC ART

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In 1908 Déchelette listed eight caverns in Dordogne, six in the Pyrenees,

and seven along the Cantabrian Pyrenees of northern Spain, but there are

now upward of thirty caverns in which traces of parietal art have been

found, and doubtless the number will be greatly enlarged by future

exploration, because the entrances of many of the grottos have been

closed, and the remote recesses in which drawings are placed, as in the

recent discovery of Tuc d'Audoubert, are very difficult to explore.

The chief divisions of Upper Palæolithic art are as follows:

1. Drawing, engraving, and etching with fine flint points on surfaces

of stone, bone, ivory, and the limestone walls of the caverns.

2. Sculpture in low or high relief, chiefly in stone, bone, and clay.

3. Sculpture in the round in stone, ivory, reindeer and stag horn.

4. Painting in line, in monochrome tone, and in polychromes of three

or four colors, usually accompanied or preceded by line engraving,

with flint points or low contour reliefs.

5. Conventional ornaments drawn from the repetition of animal or plant

forms or the repetition of geometric lines.

DRAWINGS AND ENGRAVINGS OF THE EARLY MAGDALENIAN