228 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



the art development of that period. 

 Nearly all the figures are of favorite 

 game animals. Many of these are 

 represented as hunted or wounded. 

 These and perhaps many more are 

 evidently votive offerings for success in 

 the chase. Other scenes depicted are 

 obviously intended to have a bearing 

 on the multiplication of game. Art 

 and magic therefore were thus early 

 taught in the same school of necessity. 



The thickness of the Aurignacian 

 deposits from caves and rock-shelters 

 and the evolution of the culture there 

 portrayed prove the epoch to have been 

 a long one. Many Aurignacian loess 

 stations have recently come to light 



making it possible to determine approxi- 

 mately at least the relation of the Aurig- 

 nacian epoch to glacial chronology. 

 Aurignacian remains occur in the middle 

 and upper part of the recent loess which 

 is assigned to the Wiirm glacial epoch. 

 Moreover in the cave deposits at Sirgen- 

 stein and elsewhere, Schmidt has found 

 immediately below the oldest Aurigna- 

 cian layers an Arctic fauna characterized 

 by Myodcs obensis, a species of lemming. 

 The Aurignacian began therefore very 

 near the maximum of the last glacial 

 epoch. Schmidt believes this to have 

 been the second and last maximum 

 advance of the Wiirm glaciation, the 

 one directly preceding the Achen retreat. 



Flint voinie* de la Gratette from rock-shelter No. 2, Roches-de-Sergeac (Dordogne) 



