THE OLD STONE AGE 
Hand in hand with this great art of the caverns went 
that of engraving and carving, in limestone, soapstone, 
ivory, bone, reindeer antler, and doubtless in wood. 
Among the works thus executed occur those statuettes of 
z 
Se, 
Wyn rN 
Fic. 46. Grazing reindeer engraved on a baton de commandement. The 
lines in the foreground have been doubtfully interpreted as signifying a pool 
with vegetation. After Merck 
very corpulent naked women, already mentioned in 
Chapter VI, which, in some of the physical peculiarities 
represented, recall the very ancient Bushman race of South 
Africa. These statuettes seem certainly to have had a 
religious significance. Perhaps they represent the first 
faint beginnings of the belief in a Great Mother Goddess of 
fertility and life and death which we find so widespread in 
much later times. 
Generally speaking, in his attempts at delineating the 
human form the Aurignacian artist fell far short of the 
brilliant success which he achieved in the realm of animal 
portrayal. 
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