MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
tional gravings reminiscent of the graved bones of the 
Aurignacian layers. 
The accumulations about the skeleton contained also 
a large number of very well-worked flints of the Mous- 
terian type. Such flints were found above, about, and 
even beneath the skeleton, those beneath being mixed 
up with flints showing Acheulian industry. 
The work uncovered a whole skeleton in position, 
though numerous parts, particularly of the thorax and 
the spine, had been destroyed or damaged by the pressure 
of the superimposed deposits. The skeleton lay on its 
back, slightly inclined to the left and in a contracted 
position, with the legs bent against the thighs and the 
thighs half flexed upon the body, the left arm extended 
by the side, the right flexed. The skull lay on its left 
side, and the lower jaw was considerably separated in 
front from the upper, as if the mouth had been wide open. 
All the bones of the skeleton, though damaged,: were 
still in their proper anatomical positions; only the smaller 
bones of the feet and the right hand had been displaced, 
probably by small animals. The bones were removed 
with all possible precautions, in some cases with blocks 
of the deposits, and were thus transferred to Professor 
Boule’s laboratory in the Paris Museum of Natural His- 
tory, where eventually they were cleaned and studied 
and where they are now preserved. 
The consensus of opinion of those present was that the 
remains represented a regular intentional human burial. 
The three flat stones and the broken animal bones had 
probably been placed designedly over the skeleton. It 
was believed, however, that there had been no burial 
fossa, the body having been placed on the old (Acheulian) 
surface and covered with broken bones, débris, and per- 
haps skins and branches, to become in the course of time 
buried by kitchen refuse and newer accumulations. 
The explorations in the La Ferrassie rock-shelter con- 
tinuing, the work of M. Peyrony and his associates re- 
[ 120 ] 
