,89,. THE CAVE MEN OF MENTONE. 277 



Such skeletons as that already referred to of Final Marina, are 

 of distinctly later type, and associated with a considerable quantity 

 of pottery, grinding stones, &c. Those of Mentone have, it is true, 

 well-worked ornaments and long, narrow flints ; but no pottery has 

 been found, and the only relic suggesting a Neolithic age is an axe 

 in the Museum of St. Germain, noticed by Boyd Dawkins in his 

 " Early Man in Britain," p. 229. 



The skeleton of 1884 has been regarded by Mr. White, M. 

 Bonfils, and M. Vaucardard as Palaeolithic, and they say rightly 

 enough that it is very difficult to suppose the Neolithic men could 

 have dug graves with hands or flints even to five feet, much less to 

 twenty feet. Mr. White, who lays much stress on this point, 

 seems to suggest that the interment must have taken place from the 

 recent floor; but, although that is, of course, not the case, still 

 allowing five feet for the grave there remains an accumulation of 

 some sixteen feet as a monument to the passage of years in Neolithic 

 times. 



The cranial characters of the 1884 skull have much in common 

 with the older types of skulls elsewhere. The strong supra-orbital 

 crests, the projecting occiput, wide facial angle, and powerful 

 mandible, are all such features as occur in well-known skulls of 

 older periods. M. Mortillet passed over these characters lightly, 

 attributing the skeleton to the Neolithic time on the strength of 

 the pointed bone implement found near it ; and many English writers 

 have similarly denied the antiquity of the Mentone specimens. 



Whatever arguments were used for and against the ancient date 

 of the 1884 skeleton, rnight be used with regard to the present ones in 

 general. The mere fact that the superincumbent 25 feet consisted ot 

 soft, more or less overturned earth, so that different horizons either 

 never existed or are gone past recovery, may justify writers in 

 neglecting to attach importance to the remains. Still, we must feel 

 either that post-Neolithic deposits may be of very great thickness, or 

 that the relative value of osteological characteristics and manufactured 

 ornaments is not yet well defined. Now that new skeletons have 

 been found at a well-ascertained level (though interred), it is 

 important that their cranial and all other characters should be 

 carefully investigated. Cave-specialists who are accustomed to have 

 their stratigraphical horizons neatly marked out for them by 

 providential layers of stalagmite-flooring should not be allowed to 

 avoid giving an opinion on other characters when such data are 

 unattainable. 



The size of the 1884 skeleton might be exceptional, but the 

 present examples suggest that it may have been characteristic of the 

 race buried at a certain period. The 1884 skeleton had buried with 

 it a large number of short, wide flint flakes about i^ inches in 

 diameter, as well as the three large implements already referred to ; 

 and these smaller ones have a distinctly Palaeolithic aspect. With the 



