PREHISTOKIC ART. 467 



groove. To go into the subject of cup stoues us a bniucli of sculpture 

 would lead us too far afield.^ 



Otlier dolmens Lave been found witli marks made thereon, but no 

 meaning is ascribed to them beyond possibly that of a stone hatchet 

 handled, or some similar implement. Fig. 119 is a representation of one 

 of these stone hatchets handled, engraved on the sixth support of the 

 dolmen of Gavr'Inis. Various iietroglyphs have been found on the dol- 

 mens in the immediate neighborhood — Tables-des-Marchands, Mane- 

 H'roeck, Kercado, Petit-Mont, Mein-Dreiu, Be-er-Groahj also on the dol- 

 mens of Grosse Per- ,_ .-,.-.. 



rotte (Charente), and /^'7^'^'S: • ., ,? • 



Trou- aux- Anglais ^;.; • ', 



(Seine-et-Oise). =--|,/ ' ; 



M. L. Davy de Cusse ^/: I ]:■ - ^--w '■ 



made an extensive in- // > ' ? . ; 



vestigation and report 

 upon all marks and 



signs engraved or cut ||;,;'« ■ '.'''■'•' . ilj Ij 



on the megalithic mon- 

 uments, whether dol- '^i-" -'~->^<!^ >^" rigs. 120, 121. 

 mens or menhirs, in kude sculptuees of the human foem on suppouts of 

 the department of Mor- Height 4 ftet ( ?). 



bihan.^ Mame, France. 



In none of these Canailhac, La France Pvehistorique, figs. 105, 106, pp. S-I2, 243. 



sculptures has there ever "been an attemj)ted representation of living 

 things, except in the few cases mentioned. This statement would have 

 been true for all France until within a few years past, but because of 

 recent discoveries it requires modification. There have been found on 

 some of the stone supports or tables of the dolmens, rude and apparently 

 inchoate or malformed figures which, by assembly and comparison, are 

 decided by investigating archaeologists to have been representations 

 of the human form. Baron Josej)h de Baye and M. Adrien de Mortillet 

 have been the most ardent and successful investigators in this regard, 

 though MM. Cartailhac and Eeinach should not be forgotten. Fig. 120 

 represents one of these supports of a dolmen in the department of 

 Marne. Fig. 121 is another from the same department.^ 



These are believed to have been the earliest prehistoric sculptures in 

 stone or on stone monuments in France. They were bas-reliefs on the 



'Reference is made to the " Contributions to North American Ethnology," V, (U. S. 

 Geog. and Geol. Survey), entitled "Observations on cup-shaped and other Lapida- 

 rian Sculptures in the Old World and in America," by Pr. Charles Ran. 



-Recuell des Signes Sculptcs sur les Monuments Mc'galithiques du Morbihan, 

 A'aunes, 1865-66. 



"Cartailhac, La France Prc'historlqne, pp. 242, 243, figs. 105, 106; Baron Joseph de 

 Eaye, Archc'^ologio Prehistorique, 1880, plate 1; Solomon Reinach, I'Anthropologie, 

 V, p. 22, figs. 14, 15. 



