PALAEOLITHIC ART IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 



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epoch and call it the Aurignacian. He 

 at first followed the lead of Lartet, the 

 explorer of Aurignac, and placed the 

 Aurignacian where it rightly2 belongs, 

 but later placed it between the Solu- 

 trean and Magdalenian, and finally 

 dropped it altogether from his classifica- 

 tion. Forty years ago Edouard Dupont 

 of Brussels felt the need of an epoch not 

 at that time provided for, which would 

 include the culture stages represented in 

 the caves of Montaigle and La Hastiere 

 (Belgium) — namely, stages that are now 

 known to be Aurignacian. It was 

 however reserved for the Abbe H. 

 Breuil, ably seconded b}^ Cartailhac and 

 Rutot, to differentiate and firmly estab- 

 lish this culture. The name Aurigna- 

 cian was well chosen because it was from 

 the cave of Aurignac (Haute-Garonne), 

 that industrial remains of the type in 

 question were first reported [by Lartet 

 in 1863]. 



Now one scarcely opens a cave in 

 Europe without encountering Aurigna- 

 cian deposits. Much of the palaeolithic 

 mural art is likewise of Aurignacian age, 

 proving the latter to have been the first 

 great Quaternary art epoch. Then 

 sculpture in the round and high relief 

 flourished as they perhaps never did 

 again, and the arts of engraving and of 

 drawing in colors had their birth. A 

 new race, the immediate ancestry of 

 which has not yet been definitely traced, 

 supplanted completely the archaic 

 Neanderthal race of Mousterian times. 



Physically and mentally the Aurigna- 

 cians, of which Cro-Magnon and Combe- 

 Capelle are examples, were more nearly 

 akin to modern European races than to 

 the old Mousterians. Like the latter 

 however, they were still hunters. Cave 

 regions such as the Vezere valley favored 

 the increase of population and a more 

 sedentary mode of life. In time this 

 brought in its train a scarcity of game 



and fish, the chief food supply. These 

 conditions evidentlv had much to do in 



Lateral gravers from the Abri Blanchard of 

 the Middle Aurignacian Epoch. The Aurigna- 

 cian artists used gravers made by beveling vari- 

 ously shaped flints 



