THE ENGRAVED PICTURES OF THE GROTTO OF LA 

 MOUTHE, DORDOGNE, FRANCE." 



By M. Emile Riviere. 



INTRODUCTION, BY O. T. MASON. 



The grotto of La Mouthe is in the commune of Tayac, Dordogne, 

 France. This remarkable valley has yielded some of the most won- 

 derful results in the history of paleolithic and neolithic man in France. 

 The valley of the Vezere has been especially fruitful, the following 

 well-known sites occurring- there: Gorge-d'Enfer, discovered by 

 Lartet and Christy; Cro-Magnon, explored by Massenat; les Eyzies; 

 La Mouthe, explored b} r Riviere; and Laugerie-Haute. 



In these caverns are found remains and human workmanship belong- 

 ing to the Mousterian, Solutrean, and Magdalen ian epochs. These 

 three epochs form the close of the Paleolithic period in Europe and 

 lead to the polished-stone people, especially of the Swiss Lake Dwell- 

 ings. The following tabulated form, copied from De Mortillet's Le 

 Prehistorique, will show the exact position which the discoveries 

 made Iry Riviere in the cave of La Mouthe occupied in the series of 

 epochs covering the entire history of France: 



Table of classification. 



"Translated from "Bulletins el Memoires de la Societe d? Anthropologie de Paris/' Ser. 

 5, Tome 2, p. 509, 1901. 



439 



