Page:Annualreportofbo1906smitfo.djvu/497

Rh

In 1830 H. de Mayer announced the discovery of ancient human bones at Moosbach, near Wiesbaden, without giving any information as to their age.

The two skulls of Mannheim were found, according to Schaffhausen, at the depth of 6 meters in the quaternary gravels of Neckar, near the place where this stream joins the Rhine. Schaffhausen considered the specimens as quarternary, for the reason that they were separated only a few feet from teeth of a mammoth and presented the same aspect. One of the skulls could not be preserved; the other shows small size, the capacity being 1,320 cubic centimeters.

The skull of Seligenstadt, in Hesse, belonged to a skeleton which lay 2 meters deep under modern alluvium and on quaternary gravel.

The two last-named specimens were certainly deposited in the gravel by the flooded rivers. Positive conclusions as to their age are impossible.

The stratigraphy of this find, made by Ami Boué in 1823 (though possibly at a later period), is uncertain, and there are other serious doubts as to antiquity of the bones.

If it is almost arbitrary to qualify the Cannstatt skull as quaternary, it is quite possible to apply the same conclusion to that of Egisheim. Its history is as follows:

In 1865, according to Faudel, a fragmentary human skull was found in the "normal" loess of a vineyard at the depth of 2$1⁄2$ meters below the surface. Animal bones dispersed through the same geological layer belonged to the horse, ox, deer, and mammoth. The state of preservation of the human and the animal bones was the same.

All the above indications are without absolute value. Schumacher, who occupied himself more recently with the question of the age of the skull, declares that according to Faudel it was found between recent and ancient loess. Schumacher does not combat the opinion that the specimen may be quaternary.

In 1893 Gutmann discovered in a field in the vicinity of the same hill from which came the skull of Egisheim, another cranium, which is very similar to the former. In the same locality were also found four neolithic tombs. An arm bone exhumed with the