Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/268

208 adopted by me after being defended by E. Cartailhac. Since two years the stations of the Roc de Combe-Capelle, of Rut, of Laussel (Dordogne), of Planchetarte (Corrèze), of Roc de Sers (Charente), of Sirgenstein et de Ofnet (Germany) have furnished evidence in support of the same view. Several stations in Spain appear to have given similar results. We may therefore conclude that to place the stratigraphical position of the Aurignacien between Moustérien and the Solutréen is one of the most certain chronological facts of the upper Palæolithic Age, and that few sequences rest on such a body of precise observations."

When the term Solutréen was first adopted it applied to the superficial hearths and débris of the reindeer age, containing objects made of flint and bone ; and also included burials placed over the hearths, which, however, turned out to belong to different ages, some being even as late as Gallo-Roman times (see p. 52). But the results of the more recent excavations have disclosed, below the magma of horse-bones, characteristic remains of both the upper and the lower Aurignacien culture.

The special features of the Solutréen stage of culture, after being shorn of its Aurignacien deposits, are first of all, a marked advance in the manufacture of flint implements, as disclosed by the beautiful workmanship on the so-called laurel-leaf and willow-leaf lance-heads, which show flaking almost as fine and delicate as that on the sacrificial knives of Egypt (PI. VI.). The fine chipping on these weapons could not be produced by the ordinary method of hammering, however great the workman's skill may have been, so that the artists of the period had already experience in doing this work by pressure. An equally characteristic object is the willow-leaf point (pointe à cran) (PI. VII., Nos. 10, u), which has one side of the hilt cut away, leaving a tang-like appendage. Another distinguishing feature in the culture of the inhabitants of Solutré was their predilection for horse-flesh, as shown by the extraordinary quantity of the bones of this animal found among the débris of the habitation. Although the reindeer was largely represented it was not in point of numbers anything like the former a peculiarity which was reversed in the succeeding Magdalénien epoch.

Sculpture on stone was practised, as shown by the finding of four quadrupeds carved out of limestone pebbles, one of which is here reproduced (PI. VI., No. 15) after Musée Préhistorique,