Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/372

280 settlement agreed with that of Campigny in its tranchets, with that of Fère-en-Tardenois in its diminutive flint implements, and with that of Mas-d'Azil in its harpoons. On geological grounds, as well as on the evidence of its flora and fauna, it has been placed earlier than the kjökkenmöddings. M. Sarauw, after noticing the distribution of other early remains in the north of Europe, concludes thus: "Ainsi, pour le Nord de l'Europe comme pour l'Ouest, la lacune, l'ancien hiatus, vient d'être comblé."

Various shell-heaps scattered along the sea-coasts were long known in Denmark, but, being regarded as raised beaches, they attracted little attention till they were discovered to be artificial and to contain relics of human industry. Consequently a committee, consisting of the late MM. Forchammer, Worsaae, and Steenstrup, three distinguished representatives of geology, archæology, and biology, was appointed in 1850 to examine them. They had scarcely commenced their labours when it became apparent that these deposits were the culinary debris of a population who lived in the Stone Age, and fed largely on shell-fish and such animals as could be procured by hunting. Hence they became known under the name of Kjökkenmöddings—i.e. (Anglice) kitchen-middens.

As a few archaeological problems were left undecided by the committee, owing chiefly to a difference of opinion between Professors Worsaae and Steenstrup, on the antiquity of the shell-mounds, some of the more recent Danish antiquaries thought it desirable to test the matter by further excavations. Accordingly a second committee was appointed in 1893, who conducted a series of elaborate excavations on eight different sites in Jutland and Zeeland, of which a report was issued in 1900. Among thousands of worked objects of flint, bone, horn (red-deer), wood, and coarse pottery, there were no polished stone axes. The principal stone implement was the tranchet, a peculiar form of hatchet similar to those previously found (PI. XXXII., A, Nos. 1-6). The general result was to confirm the opinion of Worsaae that the