Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/348

260 (fully represented). Above the Aurignacien came a typical Solutréen deposit (No. 5) 0.20 metre in depth, containing the well-known laurel leaf lance-heads worked on both sides, together with a variety of flint implements— scrapers, piercers, burins, etc. Next in ascending order came the Magdalénien stratum (No. 6) with its characteristic flint knives and chisels of reindeer-horn. Its depth was 0.20 metre, and in it were embedded remains of comparatively late fauna, viz., stag, roebuck, beaver, capercailzie, reindeer, blue fox, mountain hare, goat, and grouse.

The deposits immediately above the Magdalénien contained only remains of stag, elk, and wild boar, those of Arctic origin having apparently disappeared. Its thickness was only 0.05 metre, except in two places where it amounted to 0.20 metre, and filled two hollows dug in the Magdalénien débris and only 1 metre apart. Dr Schmidt was greatly astonished to find in these a number of skulls, ranged concentrically like eggs in a nest. The larger pit measured 30 inches in diameter, and contained twenty-seven skulls. The other was 17¾ inches in diameter, with only six skulls (Pl. XXX., B). The skulls in both these artificially prepared pits had their faces turned to the west, and were thickly covered with powdered ochre. There was no trace of any of the other bones of the skeleton. The skulls represented men, women, and children ; and all, except those of the first named, were ornamented with necklets made of perforated deer-teeth and shells. The richest necklet had sixty-nine teeth of the red-deer and one hundred shells. About two hundred canine teeth were collected, being part of fifteen necklets, representing, according to l'Abbé Breuil, one hundred stags. The shells could be counted in thousands. A few flints were mixed with the ochre.

Particular notice is taken of the fact that the skulls had been placed in their position before the flesh disappeared, as one or two mandibles as well as a few cervical vertebrae still retained their anatomical position ; nor was there any evidence of their having been subjected to fire. Excluding anthropophagy and human sacrifice as a feasible explanation of this remarkable craniological collection, we fall back on the hypothesis that it was a ritual burial—the ochre and the direction of the faces to