604 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 192 8 



rock shelter was even more instructive. The section from top to 

 base was: (6) Lower Aurignacian; (5) Transitional (Audi); (4) 

 Typical Mousterian; (3) Mousterian with Audi forms and few cowps- 

 de-poing; (2) Mousterian with some Audi forms and many coups-de- 

 poing ; (1) some Audi forms, no coups-de-poing (Burkitt, 1921, p. 

 03). But perhaps the best comprehensive statement on this subject 

 is that of MacCurd}^, one of the oldest and most cautious students of 

 prehistory. In his Human Origins, 1924, Vol. I, pp. 161-62, we read : 



In certain French stations, a transition from tlie Mousterian to tlie Lower 

 Aurignacian occurs, as for example, at Le Moustier (Dordogne), La Verriero 

 (Gironde), and especially at the rock shelter of Audi in the village of Les 

 Eyzies. In comparison with Mousterian points, those of Audi are more slender 

 and are slightly I'ecurved. The convex margin is rendered lilunt l)y retouching 

 so as not to injure the hand while using the opposite margin for cutting or 

 other purposes. Such a tool, as much a knife, or scraper, as a point, bridges 

 the gap between the Mousterian point or double scraper and the Lower Aurigna- 

 cian blades of the Chatelperron type. At Audi it is associated with small 

 cleavers and disks, scrapers, spoke shaves, asymmetric points, and scratchers. 

 The Grotte des F^es at Chatelperron, though distinctly Aurignacian, is so closely 

 related to the transition stage that the chronologic difference must be small. 

 An intermediate stage is recognizable at La Ferrassie (Dordogne). 



The Audi culture is still somewhat controversial. Abbe Breuil 

 (recent letter) regarding it as " degenerate Mousterian." Notwith- 

 standing this, the impression is growing that the more the initial 

 and the terminal stages of the Mousterian industry are becoming 

 known, together with the late Acheulean and the earliest Aurigna- 

 cian, the less abrupt and striking appear their differences and the 

 greater grows the feeling that they are not absolutely separated. 

 Some interesting things in this connection have been seen at Spy, 

 and others are now appearing to Absolon in Moravia. 



SEQUENCE OF CULTURES 



The sponsors of the view that Aurignacian man was a man of 

 different and suj^erior species to the man of the Mousterian period, 

 conceive him for the most part, apparently, as an invader who came 

 from somewhere outside the Neanderthal area, overwhelmed com- 

 pletely the established less capable species, and annihilated or at least 

 wholly replaced it, over all the great domain over which it once 

 extended. These ideas, however, are never expressed very clearly, 

 and little thought is given to the incongruities they involve. 



They would imply, first of all, the invasion of Europe during the 

 height of the last glaciation. This is not in harmony with the main 

 laws of human and biological spread — namely, movement in the di- 

 rection of least resistance, and movement in the direction of better 

 material prospects, which are, first of all, climate and food. In the 



