Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/258

198 both in space and time, is fairly well determined. As the fabricators of the coup-de-poing they roamed along the river valleys and primeval forests of central and western Europe, which then teemed with subtropical animals and fruits sufficient to supply them with sustenance, with little manual labour. It was not, however, till the climatic change which culminated in the recrudescence of another mer de glace that a few of their actual bones were discovered.

Their physical characters were originally deduced from the skeletons of Neanderthal and Spy, being the earliest discovered ; but since then numerous other skeletons have been found which confirm the correctness of these characters as typical features of the race. They are as follows (see Figs. 8, 9, 29, 30) :—-

Cranium dolichocephalic (cephalic index 70-75) ; forehead low and retreating (platycephalic) ; superciliary ridges very prominent ; chin undeveloped, sloping backwards ; alveolar prognathism strongly marked ; stature small, about 5 feet 3 inches.

Distribution.— Neanderthal, Spy, Naulette, Malarnaud, Chapelle-aux Saints, Moustier, Ferassie, Marcilly-sur-Eure, Brechamps, Quina, Petit-Puymoyen, Sipka, Krapina, etc.

The most ancient remains of the race are thus, so far as actually known, not older than the Moustérien epoch ; but that their ancestors were in Europe for a very long time previously is sufficiently proved by the large numbers of stone tools and weapons which have been gathered along their haunts and byways. Possibly the Heidelberg jaw may have been owned by a stalwart individual of this early race an idea suggested by the fauna associated with it, and the fact that it has not yet been conclusively proved that the gravels of Mauer are as old as the Pliocene Age, as was formerly supposed.

(3) Magdalénien Race.

The next people of whom we have sufficient information to fix their chronological horizon, by associating their skeletons with a remarkably well-defined group of industrial remains, are the reindeer-hunters of France, whose works of art have so greatly astonished the civilised world of modern times. They