PREHISTORIC ART. 



377 



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Fig. 21. 



HARPOONS OF REINDEER HORN. 



La Madelaine (Dordogne), France. 



Lartet and Christy. % natural size. 



B 



cave bear was engraved on a pebble of schist, a poniard was made of 

 reindeer liorn, the handle being in the form of the reindeer himself. 

 These all came from southern France, and are evidence of the existence 

 of these animals in that locality, for the artist must have seen them 

 before he could depict 

 them. They are the first 

 known drawings from life. 



Gravers. — Fig. 20, a, h, 

 c, d, represents gravers of 

 flint. These gravers are 

 not dressed to a sharp 

 point from all sides, but 

 have a V-shaped point, as 

 does the graver's tool of 

 to-day. We have many of 

 the originals in the Na- 

 tional Museum, of which 

 some are quite worn, while 

 others are sharp and could 

 be now used to engrave 

 the bones as in prehistoric 

 times. 



The implements and 

 utensils of everyday use 

 were decorated with an 

 art by no means contempt- 

 ible. The ornamentation 

 of harpoons, daggers, and 

 similar objects shows an 

 appreciation of decorative 

 art as applied to house- 

 hold or domestic uses not 

 nn worthy of the niue- 

 ■»8nth century. These 



ustitute the first or ele- 



jntary series. The de- 

 signs are geometric, and made by dots or lines arranged with greater 

 or less regularity, straight, curved, or broken. The figures are formed 

 in festoons, zigzags, hatched work, but more frequently in chevrons. 

 With the employment of almost every kind of geometric design, forming 

 elaborate combinations, we have to remark that the more simple — nota- 

 bly circles, crosses, or triangles — were not employed. (Plates 13, 14, 15.) 



Harpoons. — The art work on harpoons exhibits considerable artistic 

 ability as well as manual dexterity (fig. 21, a, b, c, d). The art work 

 of these is displayed in the purity of the drawing, in the straightness 

 of the lines, in the symmetry of the design, and in the general accu- 

 racy and truth with which it has all been executed. The main shaft of 



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