MAN THE CAVE DWELLER 
THe MaGpDALENIAN Epocu 
Excellent authorities are inclined to put the beginning 
of the Magdalenian epoch at from 15,000 to 18,000 years 
ago, and it appears to have lasted at least 3,000 or 4,000 
years. Researches indicate that it occurred during the 
first two of the three minor advances of the ice fields which 
took place in Postglacial time, together with the drier 
interval between. During the greater part of this long 
period one race of men dominated western Europe, almost 
though not quite to the exclusion of all others. This race 
is named after the little hamlet of Cro-Magnon in south- 
western France, where, in 1868, five typical skeletons 
came to light in a grotto. 
The men of the Cro-Magnon race, when it first appears, 
were of almost gigantic height, although its women were 
much shorter, a disproportion which seems to have been 
a special characteristic of the race. But by the Magdale- 
nian epoch, with which we are now dealing, it had for some 
reason degenerated considerably in this respect, although 
still of high mental type and strong bodily development. 
In fact, with this one exception of stature, it presents 
much the same traits during the entire Upper Paleolithic, 
from the beginning of the Aurignacian down to the very 
end of the Magdalenian. Some of its characteristics seem 
to have survived into much later times and perhaps even 
to the present day. 
The shape of the Cro-Magnon skull is quite unmistak- 
able, and in itself serves to identify skeletons of this 
race wherever found. Anthropologists call it “dishar- 
monic,” because the shape of the face does not harmonize 
with that of the brain-case, as it normally does in most 
races. When looked at from above, the Cro-Magnon 
skull is seen to be long and narrow; but the face, instead 
of having a somewhat similar outline, is short and broad. 
Even the women of the Cro-Magnon race actually had 
larger brains than the average modern American or 
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