28 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



of transition. In respect to the stone art, flint flakes that are chipped only 

 on one side dominate throughout. The typical Mousterian implements 

 are the broad flake, one lateral margin of which is employed as a scraper, 

 and the pointed flake. The first traces of a bone industry also make their 

 appearance in the Mousterian. The ushering in of the Aurignacian epoch 

 is marked by important changes. The dominant flint implements include 

 bladelike flakes with one end chipped obliquely and the back worked down 

 for its entire length, also flakes chipped along both margins, producing in 

 some instances hourglass forms. Bone scrapers terminating in an oblique 

 edge and bone points with cleft base occur. By far the most important 

 contribution of the Aurignacians was in the line of sculpture, engraving 

 and painting. 



The finest palaeolithic examples of the art of chipping flint are the Solu- 

 trean lance points in the shape of a laurel leaf, and the willow-leaf points 

 with a single lateral notch at the base. Bone, ivory and reindeer horn were 

 largely employed by the Magdalenian races, who invented the barbed 

 harpoon and the spearthrower. The first harpoons had only a single row 

 of lateral barbs, short at first. These gradually lengthened producing a 

 new type. In the upper Magdalenian deposits, appear the harpoons with 

 two rows of barbs and an enlargement near the base to make secure the 

 attachment of the cord. 



The arts of engraving and fresco reached their culmination in the Magda- 

 lenian. On the other hand the flint industry of this epoch is largely confined 

 to slender bladelike flakes, some retouched at one end to form a duck-bill 

 scraper, others beveled at the end and destined for graving tools. Evidence 

 that the races of the upper palaeolithic buried their dead continues to accu- 

 mulate. During the month of August, 1912, I took part in the disinterment 

 of two Mousterian skeletons (children), at La Ferrassie (Dordogne). The 

 bodies were placed in pits that had been sunk into Acheulian deposits. 



The art of the caverns and rock-shelters consists of sculpture (in the 

 round, and high and low relief), engraving and painting. These all had 

 their beginnings in the Aurignacian epoch. The first discoveries were made 

 in the floor deposits: statuettes carved in ivory and stone; engravings on 

 stone, bone and reindeer horn; spear throwers of ivory and reindeer horn 

 artistically decorated with figures of game animals, incised as well as in the 

 round ; and engraved batons of reindeer or stag horn. 



Cave art during the closing epochs of the palaeolithic is seen at its best 

 in mural engraving and fresco, so many examples of which have come to light 

 in Spain and southern France. These escaped the notice of archaeologists 

 for many years after the art products of the floor deposits had become well 

 known. The first discovery was made at Altamira, in the province of 

 Santander, Spain. One day in 1879, Marcellino de Sautuola was digging 

 for relics in the floor of this cavern. His daughter who had accompanied 



