Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/86

48 were the broken bones of extinct animals, among which the following may be mentioned: hyæna, cave-bear, cave-lion, woolly-haired rhinoceros, reindeer, Irish elk, and mammoth.

At that time, Lartet and others thought the above fauna was contemporary with the sepulchral remains within the grotto; but the latter are now regarded by many as having belonged to the Neolithic period, and if so the bones must have been buried long subsequent to the time when the cave was a rendezvous for the Palaæolithic hunters. Lyell states that with the human bones inside the cave "were 18 small round and flat plates of a white shelly substance, made of some species of cockle (Cardium), pierced through the middle, as if for being strung into a bracelet" (ibid., p. 188). A carved and perforated tooth of Ursus spelæus, together with a few teeth of the cave-lion and wild boar, were also found in the ossuary.

To Piette belongs the merit of showing that works of art made their first appearance as Eburnean sculptures in the station of Brassempouy (Landes), which, stratigraphically, he regarded as belonging to the Aurignacien Age. These sculptures consist of figurines in ivory, mostly of nude women, but no animal forms (Pl. XXVIII.). In the Grotte du Trilobite (Yonne) the Abbé Parat discovered in the upper layer of Aurignacien deposits a characteristic bone-point split at the base, and associated with a piece of schist stone, having the fragmentary outlines of the woolly-haired rhinoceros and other animals scratched on it (Fig. 13). These archaic designs appear to have been the first of a style of decorative art which, at a later period, was much used to adorn the walls of the caverns. (R.E.A., 1906, p. 244.)

Various bone implements in the form of pins or pointers and chisels, with transverse scratchings (Marques de Chasse), as well as flint objects, have been found on the station of Les Cottés (Vienne), and are regarded by Breuil as characteristic of the Aurignacien epoch (ibid., p. 54). A number of these relics are illustrated on Plate V.

The cave of Les Cottés is situated in the commune of Saint-Pierre de Maillé, on the left bank of the Gartempe, at a distance of about 150 metres from the river, and 7 metres above its level. The interior consists of two spacious chambers, dry