306 On the Human Bonesy ^c.Jhund 



(iasian race, the original stock of the inhabitants of Europe ; de- 

 ductions which confirm the testimony of Florus, even for the 

 neighbouring provinces of Aquitania ; for the present territory 

 of Languedoc formed part of the Provmcia Romana, whose in- 

 habitants, the ** Voices, tectosages et arckomanes," had not en- 

 tirely lost their Celtic usages under the government of the Ro- 

 mans. 



As to the other objects found in, -the various caverns of the 

 departtoents of Aude, Gard, Lot, Dordogne, &c. and in that of 

 the cave of Paviland in England, such namely, as the frag- 

 ments of imperfectly baked and kneaded black pottery, battle- 

 axes, and the siliceous heads of arrows; long-shaped bones, such 

 as are employed by savages in the manufacture of arrows and 

 lances; bones cut in the form of combs and forks; shells and 

 teeth of animals, pierced so as to serve as amulets, &c. All these 

 objects are frequently met with in the examinations of tumuli^ 

 dolmen, and oppida, monuments which were the places of sepul- 

 ture, the altars, and the last strongholds of the primitive inhabi- 

 tants of Gaul, of Great Britain, and Germany. They announce 

 the same degree of civilization which raised these external monu- 

 ments, and have no connexion with antediluvian manufactures. 



In fact, notwithstanding the exaggerated views of the support- 

 ers of the opinion of the advanced state of our early civilization, 

 an opinion adopted by many learned men of great merit, it is 

 nevertheless proved by a host of historical proofs, that, even 

 at the period of the conquest of Caesar, the greater number of 

 the tribes of Gaul, which had, up to that time, continued to be 

 independent, were still in the habit of tatooing themselves ; of 

 painting their bodies ; of sacrificing human victims in their sanc- 

 tuaries of rude stones ; of living in dome-like huts, resembling 

 those of savages, and which were placed in the midst of vast 

 forests, and' on the banks of rivers,; of making use of arms of 

 stone, &c. There are many of the other usages of these tribes 

 which shew that civilization was but in its infancy, and which 

 correspond ' with the ride monuments left on their territories, 

 and with the objects of manufacture of which imperfect remains 

 have been found in the caverns. 



Further, on examining Gallic monuments, there have often 

 been found associated with those objects of manufacture dis- 



