MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
Below this layer of rock there was a marked change in the character 
of the deposits. They were here composed of a fine reddish, clayey 
earth, which was comparatively dry; the bone fragments which they 
contained were hard and heavy, reddish in colour, and gave out a 
sharp metallic sound when tapped. This layer averaged go cm. in 
thickness, and rested on another consisting of yellowish sand, con- 
taining water-rolled pebbles. Throughout the layer were blocks of 
fallen rock, but they never formed a continuous layer, as they had 
done at a depth of about 120 cm. . . . Fortunately only a small part 
of the deposits had thus become hardened, and throughout the layer 
numerous fragments of bone and many worked flints in good condi- 
tion were found. . . . No implements were found anywhere above 
the dividing layer of rock, showing conclusively that the deposits had 
undergone no serious disturbance since their deposition. 
Towards the bottom of this layer of Paleolithic occupation, at a 
depth of 2 m. below the modern floor level, were four fragments of a 
human skull. . . . They were lying in a shallow depression formed 
by irregularities in the cave floor, and were covered by two blocks of 
rock apparently fallen from the roof. The frontal bone has been 
separated from the skull to which it originally belonged along the line 
of suture, and there is nothing to indicate that the separation was 
produced by force, or least of all to suggest that the individual may 
have been killed by the fall of the rocks beneath which the fragments 
lay. Nor was there anything in the position of the bones and ar- 
rangements of the blocks of rock to suggest an intentional burial. It 
is difficult to surmise what may have become of the rest of the skull. 
Careful sieving of all the earth taken from the surrounding area and 
from numerous other parts of the layer failed to disclose any further 
human remains. The fact that the four fragments, namely, the 
frontal bone, part of the right zygomatic bone, and two fragments of 
the sphenoid, were all found together, indicating that they have be- 
come separated since reaching their final resting-place, seems to pre- 
clude the probability of their having been washed into the cave from 
outside, for in such a process the projecting sphenoid portions would 
almost inevitably have become detached; nor is it possible that they 
could have fallen through from a higher level, for if so, how did they 
come to lie beneath two large blocks of rock, themselves entirely 
covered by Paleolithic deposits? The bone itself is in a hard, highly 
mineralized state, extremely heavy and reddish in colour, in fact in 
every way similar to the other bone fragments found in the layer; 
it differs absolutely from the soft light pieces of a yellowish colour 
found in the superior layers. 
In 1926 the work in the cave was finished, without fur- 
ther discoveries of note. Sections through the water-laid 
[ 128 ] 
