OLD WORLD PitEHISTOllY — MacCURDY 603 



The proximal end of the left human femur is missing. On the re- 

 maining two-thirds, there are scrapings and cuts oblique to tlie axis 

 of the shaft on its anterior surface all the way up from the lateral 

 condyle. They were done by tlint tools and raise the question as to 

 whether cannibalism was practiced at Predmost. In all, r)4 bones 

 of the human skeleton were found, at the same level and not far 

 removed from the remarkable communal grave discovered by Maska. 

 Our knowledge of the fossil fauna associated with fossil man is 

 growing apace. One of these animals was the woolly rhinoceros 

 (Rhinoceros tichorhlniis) which sometimes served as a model for 

 Cro-Magnon artists. It was a contemporary of the woolly elephant 

 {hlrphas prim i genius). Well preserved examples of both have been 

 found in Siberian ice fields. In 1907 asphaltum deposits at Starunia, 

 l*oland, yielded a mammoth (woolly elephant) and woolly rhinoc- 

 eros, both perfectly ])rcserved. They are now in the museum at 

 Lemberg. In 1929, from the same deposit there was taken another 

 complete woolly rhinoceros, which has been removed to the museum 

 of the Polish Academy of Science in Krakau. 



Cave art. — The latest researches of Pittard tend to prove that the 

 first example of cave art to be discovered was not the engraving on 

 bone from Chaffaud, but an engraved baton of reindeer horn from 

 the cavern of Le Veyrier, near Geneva (Llaute-Savoie). This baton 

 was found by Franc^^ois Mayor in 18153 and reported the same year 

 to the Societe de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle, Geneva. The en- 

 graving is not an important work of art. It would be difiicult to 

 determine the animal intended to be represented. Mayor also found 

 that which at first glance would seem to be a harpoon. But the 

 point is at the wrong end; so that instead of being a harpoon shaft 

 with i)arbs. the piece represents a stem in bud. Thus the first en- 

 graved object and the first sculptured object dating from the cave- 

 s' rt era were both found at Le Veyrier — on Frencli soil, to be sure, 

 but by a Genevese. 



A number of outstanding discoveries in the field of Paleolithic art 

 have been made during the past few years, some of which have not 

 yet been published. I shall mention briefly six of these — one each 

 from Siberia, Italy, England, and Germany and two from France. 

 IrkutHk. — A human female figurine has been found on the Bjelala 

 River near Irkutsk, Siberia. The site is not far from the Chinese 

 frontier. In the same deposits were found fossil bones of the mam- 

 moth and woolly rhinoceros. The ligui-ine is of the Brassempouy- 

 Willendorf type. The distance from Brassempouy near the Bay of 

 Biscay to Irkutsk is about 11.200 km. (7,000 miles). 



Savignano. — A human female figurine was encountered when dig- 

 ging a cellar in 192G at Savignano-sul-Panaro (Emilia), Italy. It is 

 of the Brassempouy-Grimaldi type and made of steatite. The head 



