MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
their weapons and elsewhere, for the purpose of exerting 
over them magical influences, an explanation of why some 
of the prehistoric peoples of Europe executed wonderfully 
lifelike paintings and engravings of animals on the almost: 
inaccessible and ordinarily invisible walls of caves. They 
aches nia NE 
Fic. 13. Cave painting of a bison, with darts (or possibly 
arrows) piercing its sides; undoubtedly of magical significance. 
From the cavern of Niaux, southwestern France. After 
Breuil 
did this not to give expression to their artistic impulses 
but for magical motives. 
It may help to make clear the manner in which the 
science of archeology reveals the story of man’s ancient 
past if we consider three typical prehistoric sites where 
lived generations of men far apart in time. 
There is.a cavern near the village of Mas d’Azil, in 
southwestern France, forming a natural tunnel some 500 
yards long through which flows the Arize, a tributary of 
the Garonne. Repairs in the road along the stream in 
the year 1887 brought to the notice of M. Edouard Piette 
a section of the earth with which the cavern had become 
filled through the ages. A surface layer of black clay five 
feet thick contained many traces of the latest occupants. 
These dated from Roman times back to the Neolothic 
Period, which in this part of France merged into the 
[ez 
