Page:Annualreportofbo1906smitfo.djvu/491

Rh

However precious may be other discoveries in this cave, located in the environs of Kiritin, there is no value to be attached to those of human bones. Such bones have been recovered from different parts of the cave, and a radius with a tibia was found lodged in a layer which contained quaternary remains of archeological nature, while in the neighborhood of other remains were found bones of the cave bear. Notwithstanding this, the antiquity of these skeletal fragments of man is by no means established, which fact was recognized by the explorer of the cave. Doctor Wankel. himself.

This cave consists of three portions or stories. In the middle portion, in a travertin breccia, were found in 1876, according to Doctor Wankel, numerous remains of quaternary industry, such as chisels, pointed teeth, etc. In the superior portion were discovered, with others, bones of reindeer, horse, and brown bear, with some flint knives and shards of pottery, as well as ashes and remains of man himself. The records of these finds can no longer be verified, and I have searched in vain for the collection.

Four and a half kilometers west of the city of Litovel, in north-western Moravia and near the village of Louč, is encountered a vast complex of caves. The largest of these is called Bočkova Dira, though the name has been changed to that of "the cave of Prince Jan." Some explorations were made in this cave as early as 1826. Methodical examinations of the contents were undertaken in 1886 by Hochstetter and Szombathy and resulted in finding bones of quaternary animals, particularly Felis spelæa, Ursus spelæus, Equus caballus, Rangifer tarandus and Elephas primigenius. With these were recovered a few archeological specimens belonging to the Reindeer epoch culture.

Besides the above, the explorers unearthed the skeletal remains of at least five human individuals, but it appears that these had no relation with the quaternary relics. One of the skulls was well preserved, dolichocephalic in type, belonging to a male of about 20 years of age. Szombathy believes the human bones to be quaternary for the reason that they were found with the bones of extinct species of animals and showed the same state of preservation. But if we take into account the fact that the human bones, a quantity of which had been discovered already in 1826, came from only 30 centimeters below the surface, that a piece of rotton cord was encountered in the same place, and that the debris of a human skull lay irregularly