Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/347

 Rh deep, and consisted of angular pieces of stone mixed with brown earth, the latter being separated from the stones by means of sieves. The cave proved to be very rich both in the remains of extinct animals and in the industrial remains of man (Pl. XXIX., Nos. 5, 11-13, 19). Unfortunately little attention at the time was paid to these relics, and only a small portion of them has been preserved. For descriptive details of a few of the objects found on the three stations above noticed and illustrated on Pl. XXIX., see List of Illustrations.

The archæological phenomena revealed by the excavations of the other six caves described by Dr Römer are very similar. I should have observed that besides objects indicating Palæolithic civilisation there have been also relics of the Bronze and Iron Ages found in nearly all the caves. Among the later objects is a Roman silver coin of the time of Antoninus Pius, probably of the year 140 A.D.

Altogether, it is, in my opinion, impossible to gainsay the general conclusion that the continuity of human occupancy of these caves has been demonstrated, without any interval of time which could be regarded as a hiatus.

(4) The Cave of Ofnet. M. l'Abbé Breuil, in searching for evidence in support of his opinion on the position of the Aurignacien phase of culture in the evolutionary stages of Palæolithic progress, gives several interesting accounts of the discoveries of Dr R. R. Schmidt of Tubingen in the upper Palæolithic deposits of Wurtemberg. From one of M. Breuil's articles (L'Anthropologie, vol. xx., 1909) the following notes on the cave of Ofnet are taken.

As shown in the accompanying section (Pl. XXX., A), above a depth of 0.65 metre of dolomitic sands (No. 2) containing evidence of having been the haunt of hyænas, there lies a deposit 0.20 metre thick (No. 3), at the base of which bones of the lemming were found. Above this was a stratum (No. 4), also 0.20 metre in depth, which contained evidence of human habitation in the form of typical Aurignacien flint implements, and the no less characteristic pointed bone dart split at the base. The fauna were : horse (very abundant), hyæna, lion, mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave-bear, bison, and reindeer