PREHISTORIC ART. 415 



other traces of Imniau industry was found. In the Grotto of Placard 

 in southwestern France (Plate 17), the same superposition was found, 

 which gave satisfactory evidence of this succession of human occupa- 

 tion and of the accompanj ing changes and improvements of human 

 culture. The strata containing Neolithic and Paleolithic objects are 

 distinctly marked, and are separated by a sterile stratum made up of 

 imported clay, or earth or of broken stones from the roof of the cavern, 

 several, sometimes many, inches in thickness. The cavern of Laugerie 

 Haute gives the same evidence and is even more positive, for the sterile 

 stratum is about 4 feet 3 inches in thickness. In the Grotto de la Vache 

 the stalagmitic stratum .between the Paleolithic and Neolithic indus- 

 tries is about 18 inches. The latest indications we have was when M. 

 Boule, of Paris, visited the jjrehistoric cavern of Schweitzerbild, near 

 Schaflhausen, Switzerland, in the neighborhood of the cavern of Thay- 

 ingen which furnished the celebrated engraving on bone of the rein- 

 deer browsing- (fig. 24, p. 381). M. Boule has published a report of his 

 investigations' in which he describes the walls of the cavern with their 

 superposed and consequently successive occupations and corresponding 

 improvements in human invention and human culture. (See Plate 17 c.) 



Plate 17 (tig. a) shows a perspective of the Grotto of Placard with a 

 section on. the right side b giving the various strata from bottom to top. 

 The spaces marked A, ten in number, show the strata which were 

 barren, and were without any objects or evidences of man's industry 

 or occupation. They were formed of rock which had fallen from the 

 roof to the floor during periods when the cavern was not occupied by 

 man. The other letters represent spaces, the strata of which were the 

 opposite of this, and contained objects representing the various epochs 

 of human culture within the period of occupation. L contained Mous 

 terien points; A', Solutrcen leaf-shaped points; /, ui)per Solutreen, with 

 bone points and those of flint, shouldered (pointes a crau); H, F, E, 

 and I), contained objects clearly Madelainien, bone points, engraved 

 bones, and even a baton de commandement; C, the archiclogic stratum 

 nearest the top, contained Neolithic objects, polished stone hatchets, 

 arrow points, fragments of pottery, and bones of modern animals. 



The same difference of industry, showing a difference in culture by 

 the stratification in the caverns, occurs in the investigations by Judge 

 Piette in the large number of caverns in southern and southwestern 

 France, and referred to in this paper (p. 374). In fact, this stratification 

 of culture is the foundation of his classification. 



At the conclusion of the excavations and investigations by Lartet 

 and Christy, it was the opinion of many prehistoric archa'ologists that 

 there was a complete solution of the continuity in the human art and 

 industry, as there was in the human occupation of western Europe at 

 the close of the Paleolithic period. This opinion grew in strength until 

 nearly everyone became an adherent of it. It was evident that the 



Nouvelles Archives cles Missions, III, plate iii (plate 17, fig. c). 



