Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/92

52 entire mass at 2122. Others, however, estimated them at a much higher figure, Professor Toussaint, of the Veterinary School at Lyon, bringing the total up to 40,000 at least.

Of the fauna identified at Solutré, besides the horse and reindeer, the following may be mentioned as evidence of the Palæolithic character of the station:—Elephas primigenius (portions of tusks, teeth, and bones in considerable quantity scattered throughout the debris); Bos primigenius (fragments of bones scattered about the hearths); Cervus canadensis (formerly taken for Megaceros) was identified by M. Dupont, who had frequently found remains of this animal in the Belgian caves ; Ursus arctos (a tooth and some rib-fragments); Ursus spelæus, Canis lupus, Canis vulpes, Hyæna spelæa, etc. The mammoth continued, but the woolly-haired rhinoceros disappeared from the chronological horizon of the station. On the other hand, the reindeer and horse, which were feebly represented in the Moustérien epoch, were here met with in great abundance. Throughout a portion of the area within the settlement (and also outside of it) there were some human burials, the bodies lying sometimes immediately over the hearths, but generally at various depths in the debris. Here all the materials were greatly disturbed, pottery and Palæolithic implements being so intermingled that at first it was thought the burials were those of the primary occupants of the station; but subsequent research showed that some were of comparatively recent date, even as late Merovingian times. Although some of the graves were shown by their contents to be of greater antiquity than others, it was impossible to assign any of them to the Solutréen period. Moreover, the cephalic indices of eighteen crania, submitted to Broca for examination, varied from 68.34 to 88.26—an extent of variation which could be better accounted for by a post- than by a pre-Neolithic civilisation (Association Française, etc., 1873, p. 651).

On Plate VI. are illustrations of a few typical objects of the Solutréen Age. Nos. 1-4, 6, 7, 10, 11 are from the rock-shelter of Monthaud, situated on the bank of the Anglin, commune de Chalais (Indre), described and illustrated by the Abbé Breuil and Jean Clement (Mémoires de la Soc. des Antiq. du Centre, vol. xxix.). Nos. 5, 8, 9, 12-17 are after Ad. de Mortillet (Musée