THE OLD STONE AGE 
ocher and accompanied by various implements. Some- 
times the head is entirely separated from the body and 
buried by itself. In not a few cases, the leg bones have 
been found doubled up so tightly that they must have 
been held in this position by bandages of some kind, 
doubtless of skin thongs or strips. In the great cave of 
La Placard, in southwestern France, there came to light 
in a Lower Magdalenian layer several human skull-tops 
which had been cut off with some sharp implement. As 
these when found were carefully arranged in order, with 
the concavities turned upward, the inference is that they 
had been fashioned from the heads either of enemies or of 
loved ones, to serve as ceremonial cups or bowls (Fig. 61). 
Evidently the Magdalenians had a well-established cult 
of the dead, perhaps even an actual ancestor worship, 
which undoubtedly exerted a profound influence on the 
life and thought of the time. Some modern investigators, 
indeed, believe that all religion may be traced back ulti- 
mately to beliefs and practices connected with the dead. 
What caused the rapid decline of culture in the Late 
Magdalenian has not yet been fully explained. Perhaps, 
as Osborn suggests, the Cro-Magnon race had reached the 
end of a long cycle of psychic development—had, in other 
words, arrived at a point beyond which it could progress 
no further, and decline was therefore inevitable. Some- 
thing of this sort has occurred repeatedly in the history of 
various civilized races, for no reason as yet apparent. 
On the other hand, we know that, coincident with the 
close of Magdalenian times, great changes came over 
Europe. The ice fields once more retreated far up the 
sides of the mountains. Tundra conditions gradually dis- 
appeared, save in the far north. Although the climate was 
still somewhat colder and damper than now, forests once 
again won back the tundra land. Cold-loving species of 
animals, on which the Magdalenians had depended so 
largely for a living, withdrew as the conditions favoring 
their existence slowly changed. And the forms which did 
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