Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/126

74 The bones in this stratum were better preserved than those in the upper relic bed, as the soil was always damp. The thickness of this second relic bed varied from 2$1⁄4$ to 14 inches. Below this was a deposit of yellow loam containing neither bones nor relics, except a few which become embedded on its surface, thus proving that man was the first occupant of the cave.

Judging from the number of flakes and chips collected, the flint industry must have been very considerable; but the worked objects, chiefly knives, were small, none of them exceeding 4 inches in length. The bone relics, of which about one hundred specimens were collected, are quite Magdalénien in form and ornamentation. Among the drawings of animals are one or two figures of horses, as well as the famous one of the browsing reindeer, incised on a piece of reindeer-horn. The latter is figured on Plate XI., Fig. 1. The other figures on this plate represent a horse drawn on a portion of reindeer antler, a perforated shell, and two ornaments made of coal. For comparative purposes, I have reproduced (Pl. XII.) a number of the most important relics found in the Kesslerloch, from which it will be seen that the civilisation of its inhabitants is a complete parallel to that of the reindeer period in the Dordogne district. Among the more interesting objects are portions of reindeer-horn, the so-called bâton de commandement, variously ornamented (1, 7, 23, 31, and 37); bone needles (2); flint knives (3 to 6); pendants, or as Mr Merk calls them, earrings made of coal (24 to 28); perforated teeth (8, 9, and 12); objects of stone variously ornamented, one being a perforated fossil ammonite (14 to 17); an ornamented bone plaque (20); a curiously carved head of an animal supposed to represent the musk-ox (22). This piece of sculpture is unsymmetrical, the ear and eye of one side being on a different level from those on the other side; the nose is altogether awanting. One other piece of sculpture, representing the head of a horse, was found, but it is very imperfectly preserved. The rest of the objects on the plate consist of variously shaped and ornamented chisels, lance-heads, and harpoons.

The osseous remains were assigned by Rutymeyer to twenty-eight species, as shown by the annexed tabular state-