Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/260

200 date back to the end of the Palæolithic period is almost certain, from the great thickness of the talus that covered the entrance to where the skeletons were found.

(5) Race de Grimaldi.

Of this race only two skeletons have hitherto come to light (Figs. 50,51), viz., the two already described as having been found in the Grotte des Enfants, one of which was that of a young man, and the other that of an aged female (probably members of the same family). They lay close to each other and evidently belonged to the same race, with a type of skull which Dr Verneau describes as negroid, and disclosing anatomical characters intermediate between those of the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon skeletons. Their physical characters may be thus stated :—

Cranium elliptic and dolichocephalic cephalic index (male) 69.72, (female) 68.58 ; forehead fairly well developed ; face strongly prognathic ; chin slightly receding ; stature small, 5 feet to 5 feet 2 inches in height.

The position of these negroid skeletons in the cave was nearly 1 feet lower than another skeleton, which measured 6 feet 3^ inches from head to foot a veritable giant, described by Dr Verneau as belonging to the Cro-Magnon race. All the skeletons of the Cro-Magnon type found in the Grimaldi caves were ceremonial interments, with the exception of one body which had been carbonised ; but as ornaments, precisely similar to those found with the inhumed bones, were associated with the carbonised bones there can be little doubt that the latter also belonged to the Cro-Magnon race.

As few of the Palæolithic races can be associated with precise cultural elements we shall not attempt to classify them as belonging exclusively to one or more of the special epochs into which anthropologists have divided the Quaternary period. At the outset I gave a brief description of these epochs as marking convenient divisional stages in the general march to the goal of civilised life, and hence some repetition of what was then said is unavoidable in a consecutive sketch of the rise