358 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



slabs to the surface or light many specimens are necessarily broken 

 and lost and many others in the interior of the block or slab are never 

 discovered. It is, of course, not known what luimber are lost in this, 

 or, indeed, in any way, but tlie specimens being scattered throughout 

 the mass with nothing to indicate their whereabouts, it would be 

 strange if such was not the case. Specimens of these slabs or layers 

 can be shown which would not only exi^laiu but demonstrate the truth 

 of these assertions. 



Plate 1 is a representation of a portion of the indurated floor of the 

 cavern of Les Eyzies, and is taken from a specimen in the United States 

 National Museum (Oat. No. OlOG). 



A few specimens of the art work of the Paleolithic period are purely 

 decorative and without attempt to make representation of anything, 

 but for the most part the objects were the animals of the i^eriod and 

 locality. Many animals now extinct were represented, and in this way 

 knowledge of their appearance has been preserved. The animals most 

 frequently engraved were the mammoth, cave bear, Irish elk, musk ox, 

 reindeer, chamois, mountain goat, urns or aurochs, horse, deer, and 

 similar animals, and finally man. The marine animals were well 

 represented — the seal,, sea lion, tortoise, turtle, fishes, and serpents. 

 Some of the objects thus treated were iiurely ornamental, while others 

 were utilitarian; batons de commandemeut, Domard. or dagger handles, 

 and simjlar specimens were for utility, while other specimens were 

 apparently intended as playthings. Many of them are so broken as to 

 afford no clue to their purpose. This was the art of the Paleolithic 

 period. That of the succeeding periods, the Neolithic and Bronze 

 ages, was of a diftereut style. It was almost entirely decorative and 

 was etched or cut on pottery and bronze objects of utility. During 

 this period there was only the slightest attempt on the part of the art- 

 ists to represent living or material objects. The decorative art of that 

 period consisted mostly of designs in geometric forms, as squares, 

 circles, lozenges, chevrons, herringbones, zigzags, and Crosshatch. Dr. 

 Schliemann thought he found, upon some of the objects found in the 

 Third City of Troy, representations of burning altars and occasional 

 rude representations of animals like the hare. The Swastika seems to 

 have been used throughout the latter period, and is believed to have 

 been a symbol representing good luck, good fortune, long life, much 

 happiness, etc., and to have been the first and earliest symbol in use 

 among men. 



These periods (Neolithic and Bronze) brought an entire change in the 

 culture of man as well as in his art. He became sedentary, having a 

 local habitation and place of residence. He became an agriculturist 

 as well as a hunter and fisher; had a religion — at least he buried his 

 dead as though in recognition of a future state. He built houses, con- 

 structed forts and fortresses; he built tunuili, mounds, and dolmens, 

 and erected great stone obelisks, sometimes in groups and lines, which, 



