408 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



PAINTING. 



While the art products of Paleolithic man ran principally to sculp- 

 ture and engraving, there is evidence of his acquaintance with and 

 practice of the art of painting. Color has been used in decoration by- 

 prehistoric man. 



Judge Piette made 

 extensive excavations 

 in theGrottoMasd'Azil 

 (Ariege), France, and 

 reported interesting 

 discoveries relating to 

 prehistoric art in the 

 direction of painting. 

 He assigned this art to 

 a time near the close 

 of the reindeer epocli of 

 the Paleolithic period, 

 to which he gave the 

 name Asylieune. The 

 characteristics speci- 

 ally noticeable in the 

 present connection 

 were the hundreds of 

 warerworn pebbles-, 

 flat, oval, with rounded 

 edges, resembling in 

 size the net sinkers of 

 eastern United States, 

 which had been painted 

 or colored in different 

 figures. A series was 

 exhibited by Judge Pi- 

 ette at the Paris Expo- 

 sition, 1889, where tiie 

 author had good oppor- 

 tunity for their inspec- 

 tion. Judging from 

 their appearance and material, the pebbles had been gathered in the 

 bed of the stream Arise, which flows through the Grotto Mas d'Azil. 

 They were of quartz, quartzite, and schist, and run from white to gray. 

 They were artificially colored with iron peroxide, still found in the cav- 

 ern. It was ground and kept in shells {Pecten jacohwus) and in cup 

 stones, specimens of which were found with the paint still in them, and 

 was served Avith spatulas of bone. The color was red or reddish, rather 

 maroon, about the color of iron rust. The figures consisted of dots 



Fig. 71. 



HEADS SCULrTUKED FROM REINDEER HORN. 



Grotto Maa d'Azil (Ariege). 



Collection, Piette. 



