Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/135

Rh together with some specimens of the characteristic art of the reindeer-hunters, are the salient features of this relic bed. A somewhat rare piece of art is a stone tablet having the outlines of a wild ass and of a reindeer incised upon it. To show how D. Nüesch manipulates his statistics we may quote the following items:—

Fourteen thousand worked flints, 180 fragments of bone needles, 41 reindeer whistles, 42 pierced ornaments made of shells and teeth of the Arctic fox and glutton, etc. The whole collection of relics from this layer is typical of the latest phase of Palæolithic civilisation, such as have been found in the reindeer caves of the Dordogne, and the Kesslerloch Cave of the neighbourhood.

The fauna has undergone a considerable change by the disappearance of some animals, such as the banded lemming and a number of others ; while, on the other hand, new ones have taken their place, all of which changes indicate, according to the above eminent authorities, a sub-Arctic climate.

The next layer is the Breccia bed, No. 3, which contains, about its middle, the upper Rodent bed. During this period there is a gradual transition to a forest fauna, the various species of which appear to be of a somewhat mixed character. The climate has become mild and damp, and more favourable to arborescent growth. Man's presence was indicated by ashes, worked flints, split bones, but no implements of bone or horn were found in this layer. Dr Nüesch thinks that only small groups of reindeer-hunters occasionally visited the shelter during this period.

In the next layer (Grey relic bed, No. 2) we are among the remains of Neolithic civilisation, attested not only by an assortment of characteristic objects, but also by the fact that the rock-shelter now became a cemetery, and contained no less than twenty-two interments. The graves were dug into the underlying Palæolithic deposits. Ten of them contained the remains of children. The fourteen adult skeletons reported on by Professor Kollmann show that they belonged to two distinct races, one being of fair size, 1600 mm. (5 feet 3 inches) and more, and the other much smaller—in fact, a race of pygmies.