504 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 30 



is not differentiated, the feet and arms are not represented, the legs 

 are fused, while the breasts, hips, and ceinture are overemphasized. 

 The figurine is 22.5 cm. in length. 



Petersfels. — Petersfels is the ninth prehistoric station in Germany, 

 where Paleolithic art has been found. It is named for Herr Peters, 

 the discoverer. The site is near Engen (Hegau), southern Baden, 

 only a short distance north of Kesslerloch in Switzerland, which 

 many years ago yielded the well-known figure of the browsing rein- 

 deer. The find includes stone artifacts, bone needles, perforated 

 shells, and teeth, javelin points, batons of reindeer horn, decorated 

 ivory disk, pendants representing the human female form carved 

 from lignite; also engravings on bone and reindeer horn, including 

 figures of the reindeer on a baton. The female figurines are per- 

 forated for suspension and are of the Brassempouy-Willendorf type ; 

 the head is no longer recognizable, the legs barely indicated and the 

 hips exaggerated. Petersfels belongs to a single phase of the Lower 

 Magdalenian Epoch. 



Peyrony reports the finding in the cave of La Roche, near Lalinde 

 (Dordogne), of stones with engraved figures similar in stylistic pat- 

 tern to the lignite statuettes from Petersfels. The engraved figures 

 from La Roche and the figurines from Petersfels belong to the Lower 

 Magdalenian Epoch ; so that they would be contemporaneous with 

 the so-called venus impudique, a figurine found years ago in the rock 

 shelter of Laugerie-Basse. The specimen from Laugerie-Basse, while 

 more easily recognizable as representing the human female form, 

 retains nevertheless characters which link it with the examples from 

 Petersfels and La Roche. 



The cave of La Roche has yielded something entirely new in 

 paleolithic annals: An oblong object made of reindeer horn, and 

 pointed at both ends, one of which is perforated. One face of this 

 object bears a pattern composed of parallel series of incised lines, 

 some groups being longitudinal and some transverse. This piece 

 had been entirely covered by a coating of red ochre prior to the exe- 

 cution of the incised decoration; it bears a close resemblance to the 

 " churinga " of the Arunta Tribe in Australia and must in its time 

 have served a purpose similar to that served by the esoteric and 

 sacred churinga. 



Trois-Freres. — In addition to the long series of mural figures dis- 

 covered at Trois-Freres, recent excavations have yielded remarkable 

 examples of portable art. These finds were made in floor deposits 

 not far from the Enlene entrance, by Mons. Louis Begouen. They 

 include a plaque of ivory on which are engraved figures of two cats 

 seen from the back, also a cricket in profile. Another example is a 

 baton of reindeer horn with engraved figure of a bison. Perhaps 



