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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



especial importance because of their 

 bearing on the technology and art of 

 the upper palaeolithic period, and were 

 selected with the especial object of filling 



Bone points from the Abri Blanchard, Middle 

 Aurignacian Epocli. The flint industry was at a 

 Ugh stage in the Aurignacian Epoch and later de- 

 clined as the making of implements and ornaments 

 of bone increased 



serious gaps in the Museum series. Of 

 the three great art epochs, Aurignacian, 

 Solutrean, and Magdalenian, we were 

 fortunate in securing an original engrav- 

 ing from two — the first and the last. 

 Objects of personal adornment and 

 industrial remains, especially type speci- 

 mens, were also collected. 



The chief interest however centers in 

 the two engravings, because of the policy 

 of the French Government to reserve 

 for itself everj^thing in the line of palseo- 

 Hthic art; and in this respect the Govern- 

 ment has the support of public senti- 

 ment. This spirit is not only easily 

 understood, but also highly commenda- 

 ble in view of the world-wide interest 

 that attaches to the subject of Quater- 

 nary art. Old masters come high; why 

 not also the oldest masters? Each new 

 find is reported immediately to the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences. Some half- 

 dozen Aurignacian engravings on mam- 

 moth bone and on pebbles found on 

 October 3, 1913, in the rock-shelter of 

 La Colombiere, valley of the Ain, about 

 thirty miles southwest of Geneva, were 

 presented before the Paris Academy on 

 October 20, and early in November full 

 details of the find with illustrations 

 were republished in New York City. 

 The discovery at La Colombiere created 

 unusual interest because in two instances 

 the human form was represented. 



The names of the palteolithic culture 

 stages are now almost as familiar to the 

 general reader as are those of the geologic 

 epochs. Gabriel de Mortillet had more 

 to do than any other one man with 

 building up and popularizing this system 

 of classification. To him however, does 

 not belong the credit for introducing 

 into the system the term " Aurignacian" 

 and for placing it where it belongs, viz., 

 between the Mousterian and Solutrean 

 epochs; although at one time he was 

 inclined to differentiate an additional 



