372 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



Engraving, Sculpture, and Painting. 



MADELAINIEN EPOCH. 



i^l/. 



«v 



M. Lartet named this the Keindeer epoch because of the great num- 

 ber ot" remains of this animal found during his explorations in southern 

 France. Plate 11 is a perspective view of the station of La Madelaine. 

 It is a rock shelter, not being of sufficient depth to be 

 called a cave or cavern. The rock overhangs, as is 

 shown in the plate and as is still better shown in 

 plate 12, of Laugerie Basse. The base of the cliff 

 was eroded by the stream and the projection af- 

 forded shelter for its human occupant. The author 

 spent some time in this station, and found it, con- 

 trary to the condition of the other stations, far from 

 being exhausted. Its owner pro- 

 hibits further excavation by the 

 public, and requires everything to 

 be done under his own supervision 

 and with his special permission. 

 The station extends many yayds 

 along the foot of the cliff. We were 

 much surprised, on digging through 

 the earth, which appears to have 

 washed in and filled up the mouth 

 of the shelter, to find a deposit 8 or 

 10 feet deep of flint flakes or blades, 

 more or less broken. Their principal 

 value was in showing the extent of 

 human occupation, either by a great 

 number of x^eople or for a long 

 period of time, or perhaps both. 

 After all the excavations made by 

 Lartet in 1862-63 and by his follow- 

 ers in the twenty succeeding years, 

 these flint pieces were found by us 

 in such numbers that they rattled under the stroke of 

 the pick or mattock as though we had been digging 

 in a dump heap of broken pottery. 



Cro-Magnon. — Cro-Magnon is on the west side of 

 the Eiver Vezere, at the railway station of Les Eyzies, 

 16 miles south of Perigueux. The prehistoric station 

 occupied very nearly the site of the present house. 

 The station has been entirely excavated and destroyed. 

 Here was found the celebrated human skull which 

 has given its name to the prehistoric race of Cro-Magnon. These 

 caves and shelters having been the habitations of prehistoric man, they 



Fig. 17. 



FLINT SCRAPER WITH 

 ROUNDED END (PA- 

 LEOLITHIC). 



La Madelaine (Dor- 

 dogne), France. 



Lartet and Christy. ^ nat- 

 ural size. 



Fig. 18. 



FLINT FLAKE (PALEO- 

 LITHIC), PROBABLY A 

 SAW OR KNIFE. 



La Madelaine (Dor- 

 dogne), France. 



Lartet and Cliristy. f^ nat- 

 ural size. 



