384 QUATEENAEY HUMAN REMAINS IN CENTRAL EUROPE. 



quaternary sand. According to mine warden R. Pfeifer, the ax lay 

 underneath 2 feet of surface loam and 1^ feet of the quaternarj' sand, 

 whereas the skeleton to Avhich the Most skull belonged was 2 feet 

 lower. The explorations of the locality by Woodfich have shown the 

 sand to be modern. If greater antiquity were assigned to the bones, 

 then it would have to be accejjted that they were carried from the 

 quaternary loess into the sand. Luschan, who studied the question, 

 arrived at no conclusion. The subject of the antiquity of the skull 

 remains undecided. 



THE PODBABA SKULL. 



Podbaba is a well-known locality near Pralia (Prague). From 

 time to time excavations in this place for commercial purposes re- 

 vealed recent or prehistoric burials. During the Avinter of 1888 the 

 brick makers of Pobdaba brought several times to Prof. A. Fric, in 

 Praha, bones of the reindeer, mammoth, and rhinoceros, and one 

 day a piece of human skull. Immediately steps were taken to ascer- 

 tain exactly where this came from, but Professor Fric could simply 

 establish the fact that the specimen was found in a layer of undis- 

 turbed brick earth, at the depth of 2 meters below the surface loam. 



Granting that the information given by the workmen was correct, 

 it is, in the writer's oi^inion, not yet proved that the skull belongs to 

 the loess formation, for posterior dislocations and cavings-in are very 

 frequent in this deposit. 



THE LIBEN SKULL, 



According to personal information by Dr. J. Babor, the calvarium 

 in question came from the loess deposits in Libeii, the eighth ward 

 of Praha, and was found in the loess immediately above the under- 

 lying Silurian formation. In the brickyards of this ward discoveries 

 of quaternary animal bones {Raugifer tarandus^ Arctomys marmotta^ 

 Hywna sjyeUed^ etc.) are quite frequent. In the immediate vicinity 

 of the Libeii skull, but at a higher level, were, it is said, pieces of 

 other skulls and fragments of pottery. No specialist examined these 

 finds, and their stratigraphic conditions were never thoroughly 

 inquired into. The fragment Avas taken by a physician Avho Avas in 

 no Avay a geologist. From him it Avas several years afterAvarcls 

 secured by Doctor Babor, but by that time a thorough examination 

 into the subject had become impossible. 



THE SKULL OF STREBOCHOVICE. 



The news of the discovery of a human skull at Podbaba recalled to 

 a certain proprietor of Jemnik an analogous find made fiA^e years 

 before in a separate locality. As far as could be learned, this other 



