500 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1923 



The stratigraphic and paleontological study of the " Grotte du 

 Prince " has shown us that this succession should be admitted for the 

 Cote d' Azur as well as for the Pyrenees, the banks of the Seine, or 

 those of the Thames. 



But there was an outcome even more unexpected. It is not the 

 culture known as Chellean which was found in the lower levels with 

 the warm fauna, the fauna of the lower Pleistocene, but rather the 

 Mousterian culture, commonly associated in Europe with the mam- 

 moth fauna. This fact caused surprise, I might almost say conster- 

 nation, among the prehistoric archeologists, too prone to believe in 

 the stability and the chronological infallibility of the various types 

 of Paleolithic implements. They discussed it freely and interpreted 

 it in various ways. Of the two conflicting methods — the geological 

 and the archeological — I firmly believe that here the latter should 

 give way to the former. The facts of a geological and paleontologi- 

 cal nature have a more general signification and bearing than the 

 ethnographic facts because they do not depend, as do the latter, on 

 human action. I am able, moreover, to announce to you the very 

 recent discovery by M. de Villeneuve, of a rude Chellean industry 

 in the cave of " l'Observatoire," located in Monaco itself, and in a 

 stratigraphic level situated rather above than below the level of 

 the warm fauna and the Mousterian industry of the " Grotte du 

 Prince." It is therefore not to be doubted that since the lower 

 Pleistocene there have been different archeological facies in the sev- 

 eral regions inhabited by men who might also have differed among 

 themselves. 



The " Grotte du Prince " has taught us many other things. The 

 exceptional fact of the existence, at the same place and in contact 

 with each other, of a marine fauna and a fauna of Pleistocene mam- 

 mals, has put a new light on the chronology of the changes during 

 Quaternary time in the level of the ocean and in the configuration 

 of the Mediterranean shores. I have attempted to establish the 

 relation of these variations to glacial phenomena and to the phenom- 

 ena of erosion and filling in of valleys, and in the light of all 

 these facts, to explain the exchange of faunas between Africa and 

 Europe. Moreover, the fine state of preservation of the innumer- 

 able paleontological specimens collected in this cavern has enabled 

 me to bring new facts to bear on the history and the geographical 

 distribution of the Pleistocene mammals. 



But the " Grotte du Prince " did not yield the slightest trace of 

 human remains, and this was most unfortunate, for we had counted 

 on the integrity of the deposits of this fine locality to determine 

 once for all the age of the various burials found in the neighboring 

 caves, concerning which discussion was still going on. 



