Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/267

Rh which were formerly regarded as belonging to the Solutréen, were now ascertained to have been invented and used in pre-Solutréen times (PI. V.). M. Piette's Eburnean figurines found at Brassempouy and other Pyrenean caves, first started the Aurignacien controversy, as the investigator, on stratigraphical grounds, placed them earlier than the Solutréen Age. Subsequently, similar figurines were found in the Grimaldi caves and several other localities in Europe. Then came the Abbé Parat's discovery of an engraved woolly rhinoceros (Fig. 13) on a bit of stone in the Trilobite cave, as already described (see p. 48), which showed that the art of engraving must also be relegated back to the Aurignacien epoch. The date of engraving and painting on cavern walls is more difficult of determination ; but, nevertheless, evidence is not wanting on this point, for on clearing out the débris in the cave of Pair-non-Pair, it was found by M. Daleau, the discoverer and explorer of the cave (Les Gravures sur rocher de la Caverne Pair-non-Pair, Bordeaux, 1897), that the deposits had partly covered the wall figures, and that consequently these figures were at least as old as the lower strata of the debris. Subsequently, M. Breuil proved that that portion of the débris was Aurignacien ("La Question Aurignacienne," Rev. Préhistorique, 1907). Among the fourteen figures in this cave one or two had traces of red paint ; and among the upper layers M. Daleau discovered several lumps of peroxide of iron, bruisers made of quartz and granite, and a palette for mixing colours. This, of course, proves that the origin of the art of painting, like that of engraving, dates back to the Aurignacien Age. But it remained for M. Breuil to settle the business on a basis of practical research, by bringing into court evidential materials too overwhelming to leave the matter any longer in doubt.

In the concluding remarks of his Epilogue d'une Controversie, he thus writes :—

"At the end of this second memoir on the pre-Solutréen Age of the industry, or rather successive industries, of the Aurignacien, we will cast a retrospective glance on the path pursued. It is no longer only the eight stations of Ferrassie (Dordogne), Pair-non-Pair (Gironde), Brassempouy (Landes), Solutré" (Saône-et-Loire), Arcy-sur-Cure (Yonne), Spy, Pont-a-Lesse et Goyet (Belgium), in which stratigraphy confirms the theories of Lartet, Dupont, and Piette, and now