In the valley of the Meuse, near Maestricht, Mr. Ubaghs (B. 413)
describes a sort of artificial island composed of trunks of trees
brushwood, leaves, etc., which came to light in 1883 in the course of
railway excavations. This curious structure lies close to the canal
from Maestricht to Bois-le-Duc; and it appears that when this canal,
many years ago, was being constructed, it is recorded that the workmen
had come upon much wood and bones, which were thrown away as of no
importance. The portion now exposed by the railway excavations was
about 16 feet below the surface and extended parallel to the canal for
about 50 yards, with a breadth of 11 yards, and Mr. Ubaghs estimates
that 4 or 5 yards more were destroyed by the canal operations. The
trunks were from 6 to 13 feet long and, in some instances, 1 foot in
diameter. The larger ones were underneath and reposed on a bed of
gravel, in which they were partially embedded. Above the beams were
decayed branches and leaves, forming a bed of vegetable _débris_
some eight or nine inches in thickness, but no upright piles were
anywhere observed. Mr. Ubaghs considers this was in former times an
island constructed partly, at least, artificially, like the Irish
crannogs or the Pfahlbauten at Schussenried, and that it served as a
dwelling-place for hunters, who left the remains of feasts and broken
weapons behind them.
Among the objects of archæological value collected were the
following:--Portion of a human skull, and various bones of the horse,
urus, ox, stag, goat, dog, pig, beaver, and the humerus of a bird. The
industrial relics consisted of various kinds of implements and weapons
of bone and staghorn, as harpoons, perforated clubs, daggers, etc., of
which a few are here represented (=Fig. 94=). As these illustrations
are merely copied from Ubaghs' work, and are not drawn to scale, I
give the respective lengths of the objects, viz. (1) 15½, (2) 10, (3)
6½, (4) 13½, (5) 4¾, (6) 3, and (7) 3½ inches.
No complete skeleton of any animal was found, because, as Mr. Ubaghs
remarks, these hunters only carried certain portions of the dead
animals to their abodes. It was also observed that the spongy portions
of the bones had been gnawed away, probably by dogs.
To the portion of the human skull (_dolichocephalic_) there is now
more than ordinary interest attached, as it was near the same spot
that Professor Crahay discovered the celebrated human jaw known as the
"Smeermaas mâchoire," and subsequently described by Sir Charles Lyell
in his "Antiquity of Man" as coeval with a mammoth tusk found in the
vicinity. The present skull was found 11 to 13 feet below the surface,
lying upon the gravel bed on which the wooden structures reposed. From
a careful comparison of it with the "Crahay jaw," now in the cabinet
of anatomy in the University of Leyden, Mr. Ubaghs found that the
two relics were identical as to patina, consistency of bone, and the
composition of the material in which they were embedded (traces of
which still adhered to them), and he comes to the prosaic conclusion
that the two belonged to the Maestricht crannog: "Cette mâchoire,
ainsi que les autres ossements de la même provenance, ont appartenu à
notre station lacustre près de Maestricht."
[Illustration: =Fig. 94.=--MAESTRICHT.]
M. Kerkhoffs[51] attacks Sir Charles Lyell for some palpable mistakes
he has made regarding the relative positions of the Crahay jaw and
the mammoth tusk. According to Sir Charles, the tusk was found "six
yards removed from the human jaw, in horizontal distance."[52] M.
Kerkhoffs gives the following quotation from Crahay's original notice
of the discovery:--"Dans une pointe que forme le plateau de Kaberg, en
s'avançant dans la plaine, près de Smeermaas, on a rencontré dans la
terre argileuse à 6m50 au-dessous du sol, la mâchoire inférieure d'un
homme garnie de ses dents, sans être accompagnée d'aucun autre reste;
elle ne semblait pas avoir roulé; les ouvriers assurent que la terre
n'y avait pas été remuée. L'os est très fragile, mais n'a pas été dans
cet état de mollesse des ossements d'éléphants; aussi n'est-ce pas
la même couche de terre; car au-dessous de cette mâchoire s'étendait
une couche irregulière de gravier et de cailloux de 2 à 3 mètres
d'épaisseur, au-dessous de laquelle était placée une nouvelle couche
argileuse dans laquelle on a trouvé des restes d'éléphants à 14 mètres
au-dessous du sol."
From these remarks it would appear that Sir Charles Lyell's account
of the position of the _mâchoire_ is neither a fact nor in accordance
with Professor Crahay's description of the conditions in which it
was found, as the tusk is here described as having been over 24 feet
deeper.[53]