Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/200

144 The Jaw of Malarnaud.

The cave of Malarnaud lies near the village of Montseron (Ariège), in face of the south side of the steep valley in which flows the Arize. The entrance, which is described by M. Henri Filhol (Bull. de la Soc. Philomath. de Paris, 1889) as 35 to 40 metres above the stream, is large, and opens into a spacious gallery which, after extending for 15 metres bifurcates, each branch leading into a gallery. That on the left slopes downwards into the mountain for some 60 metres, at the end of which there is an abrupt fall of 12 metres, necessitating the use of a ladder for a descent. At the bottom are two galleries, one right and one left. It was in a small chamber opening from the former that the jaw in question was found in the year 1889. It lay 2 metres beneath a layer of stalagmite, in the middle of an enormous quantity of bones of rhinoceros, cave-bear, cave-lion, panther, wolf, etc., in a matrix of fine reddish clay. The alveolar canal and the sockets of the teeth were filled with the cave-earth, which proves that it was imported along with the latter material. The jaw is minus the teeth except the first right molar, but otherwise it is almost entire. The third molars or wisdom teeth were still within their sockets. It has a thick, low body, but no chin, and bears a striking resemblance to the Naulette and Spy jaws already described. The lower edge is such that when placed on a table it touches it along nearly its whole extent. There is only one pair of incisors, which, however, may be an anomaly, as this peculiarity occurs occasionally in modern jaws. Fig. 19 shows the outlines of this jaw, and as a contrast, I have placed beside it the outline of the famous Moulin-Quignon jaw, which was said to have been found in the lower Quaternary gravels at Abbeville, but is now generally admitted to have been put into the pits by the workmen. (C.A.P., 1889, p. 417.)

Skulls of Marcilly-sur-Eure and Bréchamps.

In 1883 a human skull was found in a railway cutting at Marcilly-sur-Eure, between Dreux and Evreux (Eure), at a depth of 7 metres from the surface, in brick-clay deposits, which