232 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



plored by several prehistorians, includ- 

 ing M. Reverdit (more than thirty years 

 ago) and the Abbe Landesque. Recently 

 M. L. Didon, proprietor of the Grand 

 Hotel du Commerce et des Postes at 

 Perigueux, took leases on some of the 

 more promising shelters and began exca- 

 vations. The excavations at the Abri 

 Blanchard des Roches, a station rep- 

 resenting the Middle Aurignacian Epoch, 

 had been practically completed before 

 our visit and a papsr ^ published on the 



the valley and within but little more 

 than a stone's throw is the Abri Blanch- 

 ard des Roches, from which likewise 

 the New York museum secured a col- 

 lection. 



When one comes to weigh the various 

 elements in Aurignacian culture and 

 compare them with Mousterian culture 

 the differences are at once seen to be as 

 great as the physical differences that 

 separate Homo neandertalensis from the 

 Aurignacian races. The change from 



Perforated shells used for personal adornment from the Abri Blanchard (Dordogne) of the Middle 

 Aurignacian Epoch 



results. Station No. 2 des Roches de 

 Sergeac, belonging to the upper Aurig- 

 nacian epoch had been partially explored 

 by M. Didon who found there not only the 

 large engraved figure of a horse but also 

 many industrial remains of which the 

 American Museum obtained the greater 

 part. These objects were found halfway 

 up the sloping hillside under a thick 

 coating of talus that once formed the 

 overhanging rock. Diagonally across 



1 L. Didon in Bull. Soc. Hist, et Archgologique 

 du Perigord P6rigueux, 1911. 



lower palaeolithic to upper palaeolithic 

 is so great as to mark in all probability 

 the invasion of a superior race with more 

 advanced culture standards. This new 

 race colonized practically the whole of 

 the Mediterranean coast, African as 

 well as European. The Aurignacians 

 might have come from x\frica. One can 

 scarcely think of an oriental origin, for 

 early Aurignacian culture has not as yet 

 been found in Eastern Europe, as pointed 

 out by Breuil. 



Lithically the Aurignacian was the 



