Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/91

Rh Similar bone tubes have been frequently found on later stations than the Grotte des Cottés, but they were generally looked upon as étui for carrying needles, pins, etc. But the use now suggested for them does not prove that painting was common in the Aurignacien epoch, as the colouring matter might have been intended for toilet purposes.

Solutréen.

The station of Solutré (Saône-et-Loire) was an open-air encampment, having a fine exposure to the south, and sheltered on the north by a steep ridge. The climate was mild and dry, the glaciers were already on the retreat, and the rivers less torrential. The remains of the settlement, covering an area of about 10,000 sq. metres, are situated just beyond the limits of the cultivated land, and within a short distance of a good spring of water. The site has been partially excavated by MM. Ferry, Arcelin, Ducrost, and others, the results of which are published in a number of memoirs, the most accessible being that in the Norwich volume of the International Congress of Prehistoric Archaeology (1868). The stage of civilisation here disclosed was characterised by great perfection in the art of manufacturing flint implements, especially spearheads in the form of a laurel leaf (Pl. VI., No. 16), and by the abundance of horses and reindeer which inhabited the surrounding country. According to G. de Mortillet (Formation de la Nation Française, p. 237), the chipping of flints, which hitherto had been effected by percussion blows with a stone hammer, was now also performed by pressure, a method which permitted of the execution of more delicate work. Human occupancy was indicated by a number of hearths, around which characteristic implements of flint and reindeer-horn were found. The surrounding debris consisted almost entirely of broken bones, chiefly those of the horse and reindeer, evidently the remains of animals that had been used as food by the occupants. Encircling the south side, the bones of horses were amassed to such an extent as to form a kind of protective wall to the settlement. According to MM. Ferry and Arcelin, a cubic metre of this osseous magma contained forty entire cannon-bones of the horse; and on this basis they calculated the number of individuals represented in the