ROCK-SHELTER OF LA COLOMBIERE—MOVIUS 365 
25 inches (6.6 cm.) long, is broken at both sides of a well-made hole, 
and it is the only example of Magdalenian art ever found at La 
Colombiére. 
In the actual Upper Aurignacian occupation layer a typical assem- 
blage of flint tools, including several Gravette points, was found at the 
extreme eastern end of the site. Furthermore, a large quantity of 
broken flints and animal bones was unearthed in the vicinity of a 
fairly extensive series of hearths that came to light in the east-central 
portion of the site. In definite and direct association with this hearth 
complex an outstandingly fine art object—a very beautifully engraved 
pebble—was discovered (pl. 5, fig. 2). 
Of the five or six superimposed animals on each surface, the ex- 
tremely naturalistic horse, shown in the upper photo in plate 6, is the 
most easily recognizable. But there are also a second horse, a very 
finely drawn reindeer (with shed antlers), an ibex, a woolly rhinoceros, 
two carnivores (possibly bear), as well as several as yet unidentified 
animals (pls.6 and 7). It is considered to be one of the finest examples 
of an Aurignacian engraved object that has ever been found, and 
constitutes a find of great importance from the point of view of Upper 
Paleolithic art. Unfortunately it has been broken at one end. It 
has been made a national antiquity by the French Government. For 
study purposes the Ministry of National Education of the Republic 
of France has graciously permitted the expedition to bring this singu- 
larly fine object to the Peabody Museum of Harvard University. 
TENTATIVE CONCLUSIONS 
On the basis of the results achieved to date, it is possible to state 
that the earliest occupation of the rock-shelter of La Colombiére 
was effected immediately following the deposition of the 20- to 23- 
meter terrace in the Ain Valley, an event that occurred during Late 
Glacial times, when a tongue of the main Rhéne Valley glacier was 
stationary at a line clearly marked by a series of end-moraines across 
the Nantua Basin. The first inhabitants of this site were people 
who possessed a very typical Upper Aurignacian (Gravettian) culture. 
At this time the river, which was incising itself into a flood plain on 
the present +20- to -+23-meter level, still occasionally flooded the 
site during seasons of high water. Jn terms of glacial chronology, 
this was during the beginning of the retreat of the late Wiirm ice from 
the Nantua moraines. On this basis, La Colombiére is the first Upper 
Paleolithic occupation site in France to be geologically dated. 
At the time these Upper Aurignacian hunters moved into the 
Jurassic limestone uplands of the Southern Jura, cold grassy steppe 
conditions prevailed in the Ain Valley. The region supported a rich 
grazing fauna which thrived in a climate characterized by fairly 
