MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
wild animals.. But in either case they afford pretty clear 
evidence that so advanced a people as the Magdalenians 
were quite intelligent enough to erect buildings of some 
sort. For that matter, they very likely knew how to con- 
struct both huts and animal traps. 
The great artistic ability of the Cro-Magnon race which 
achieved such remarkable results during the Aurignacian 
epoch underwent a partial eclipse during the Solutrean. 
But in the Magdalenian it again shone forth more bril- 
liantly than.ever and reached a degree of excellence un- 
equaled before, although sometimes foreshadowed during 
the Late Aurignacian. It culminated in the Middle 
Magdalenian. After that there came a sudden decline and 
eventual disappearance, for which various explanations 
have been offered. 
Like the Aurigna- 
cian, the Magdalenian 
art falls into two dis- 
tinct but nearly re- 
lated divisions. The 
more impressive of the 
two is that found on 
the walls, ceilings, and 
floors of caverns. The 
other appears often as 
elaborate decorations 
on various objects, 
fcneitaet ate, Reomithe carcbe Gack, 1 Sun as Cools analy se 
lugues, southwestern France. After Piette ons, particularly of 
bone and antler (Fig. 
54). Nor can we doubt that carving in wood must also 
have been highly developed. It is quite possible, too, 
that the Magdalenians painted designs on animal skins, 
just as the Plains Indians did on buffalo robes. 
The beginning of this great artistic development co- 
incided, as we have seen, with a climatic phase in which 
life conditions were again very severe, driving people to 
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