SHANIDAR CAVE — SOLECKI 415 



comparison with the evidence of human occupation toward the bottom 

 of this layer. 



Hearths were found to range in size from about a foot (30.48 cm.) 

 in diameter and a few inches thick, to over 10 feet (3.05 m.) in di- 

 ameter and nearly 6 inches (15.24 cm.) thick. 



The artifacts inventory from Layer C, w^iile comparatively poor 

 in proportion, is singular, since apparently it has no counterpart 

 known thus far in the Xear East. Included among the flints are sev- 

 eral types of gi'avers (including one of special form that is described 

 below), perforators, fabricators, scrapers of several types including 

 circular scrapers, points, notched blades, and use-retouched blades and 

 flakes. It was essentially a blade-tool industry. A couple of ferru- 

 ginous pebbles were found. There were only a few worked bones 

 (fig. 10, /). The majority of the latter were from the upper part of 

 the layer. It appears that blades and blade cores were more abundant 

 near the upper part of Layer C. Also more numerous in the top part 

 of Layer C were the notched blades. Several backed blades found in 

 the top part of the layer were evidently intrusive from Layer B. 

 Points on long, narrow flakes, like the Mousterian type, occurred near 

 the bottom of Layer C. 



Upon examination and consultation with Garrod, who viewed the 

 collection in Bagdad in December 1953, the assemblage from Layer 

 G was thought to deserve a new distinguishing identity. Certainly 

 the forms represented in this layer at Shanidar are not characteristic 

 of a western Aurignacian industry. Nor has another assemblage like 

 this one been described from anywhere in the Near East, exclusive of 

 Iraq. It was decided to call the industry of Layer C the "Baradost" in- 

 dustry, after the name of the mountain which looms so prominejitly 

 above Shanidar. At best, measured in terms of stone industries, the 

 Baradost industry is a relatively poor one. 



Layer C is characterized by its high proportion of well-made 

 gravers, among which are a small number of a distinctive form. The 

 latter are a variant of a polyhedric graver.^ The departure from the 

 ordinary type of polyhedric graver, as described by Burkitt (1949, 

 p. 62), are two opposed angular notches on the cutting edge. These 

 notches were intentionally formed by blows directed on the end of the 

 blade producing a chisel-like projection or nose that is flanked by a 



* J. Bouyssonie, of Brive, France, in a personal communication dated January 

 15, 1955, writes that this type of graver is known from the Aurignacian in France. 

 The first type described here he would call "burins-car^n^s-museau" (nosed keel- 

 shaped gravers). The second type, with the single shoulder, he would call 

 "burins caren^s k ^paulment" (shouldered keel-shaped gravers). M. Bouyssonie 

 prefers to reserve the term "polyhedric," on typological grounds, for another 

 variant of keeled graver. 



