Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/303

Rh of the rest of the cavern, with its chambers, stalagmite, etc. As MM. Cartailhac and Breuil restrict themselves to a description of the mural art of the cavern, it may be mentioned that in 1906 M. Alcade del Rio explored the hearths and kitchen débris in the vestibule, and discovered that they consisted of two distinct deposits the upper Magdalénien and the lower Solutréen. In the former a ###o portion of a bone was found with the figure of a hind engraved on it, precisely similar in style to the figures on the walls of the cave. It may also be noted that the reindeer was not represented by its bones in the debris. (Dechelette, vol. i., p. 256.)

Before these underground chambers were converted by Palæolithic man into an art gallery they appear to have been frequented by cave-bears, as shown by their claw-marks and polished rock-surface in places where the path was obstructed and necessitated some scrambling to get along.

With these remarks we now proceed to inspect the works of art. At the outset we are reminded that the figures were not all made in the same way, some being lightly engraved with a sharp-pointed instrument, while others were deeply incised. Some of them, however, were executed with the aid of various colouring materials, some in black and some in red ; but the most perfect of all were the polychrome frescoes on the ceiling of chamber C. These the investigators have carefully copied in outline in all their intricate details, the result of which is represented in miniature on PI. XXIII., which by their kind permission I am now able to lay before you. No wonder that,. in directing attention to this great work of art, they exclaim :— "Là surtout, la beauté, la dimension, la bonne conversation des peintures sont bien propres à faire naître un sentiment d'admiration et de stupeur ; et certes il y a quelque chose d'émouvant a se glisser sous cette couche rocheuse abri des générations disparues témoin de leurs cérémonies et de leur vie domestique, gardien fidèle de leur art déconcertant" (loc. cit., p. 629).

Passing over a series of graffiti so fantastic as to be unintelligible, we produce on Fig. 79 a number of complicated designs reminding one of the tectiform, scalariform, and