368 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1949 
Colombiére in direct association with an extensive hearth (diameter: 2 m.; thick- 
ness: 40 em.), on the surface of which the meter scale is resting, as shown in the 
photograph. 
PLATE 6 
The beautifully engraved pebble discovered during the 1948 season in the 
Upper Aurignacian occupation layer at La Colombiére, near Poncin (Ain). 
Upper: The obverse surface of the pebble showing a very realistic horse, which 
is by far the most easily recognizable of any of the engravings on either face. 
In addition, there is an extremely finely drawn male reindeer (with shed antlers), 
an ibex, and two carnivores (possibly bear). The heads of the two former animals 
appear upside down on the right of the photograph. At least two other as yet 
unidentified ungulates may also be distinguished. 
Lower: The reverse surface of the pebble on which a second horse and an out- 
standingly fine woolly rhinoceros are depicted. There are also the heads of two 
other partially completed rhinoceroses, and the outline of the body and legs of 
what appears to be a cervid of some type. 
PLATE 7 
Outline drawings of some of the most easily distinguished animals engraved 
on the interesting pebble found at the La Colombiére rock-shelter in an Upper 
Aurignacian context. Nos. 1-4, upper surface; Nos. 5 and 6, lower surface. 
On the basis of the exceedingly skillful and very realistic portrayal of the forms 
represented, it is at once apparent that the drawings reproduced come from the 
hands of men who knew their models intimately at first hand. In particular, the 
engravings of the horse (No. 1) and the woolly rhinoceros (No. 6) are so remarkably 
alive that there is no mistaking the subjects. Note that all four legs are shown 
in the case of Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 6, and that the hair on the neck, forelegs, and 
shoulders of the rhinoceros has been cleverly arranged so as to suggest shading. 
Figure 1 
Prehistoric archeology deals with the immense span of time between the first 
appearance of man and the beginnings of written record—a period of perhaps some 
1,000,000 years’ duration. As indicated on this chart, which shows the relative 
duration of prehistoric time, during approximately 49/50ths of this period man 
was in the Old Stone Age, or Paleolithic and Mesolithic stages, of cultural 
development. These stages cover the entire Pleistocene or Glacial Epoch, as well 
as much of Early Post-Glacial or Recent times. During the Pleistocene the 
northern regions and mountainous areas of the globe were subjected four times 
to the advances and retreats of the ice sheets (those of the Alps are known as 
Giinz, Mindel, Riss, and Wiirm), river valleys and terraces were being formed, 
and profound changes were being induced in the fauna and flora of the Earth. 
Throughout the entire span of the Old Stone Age (including both the Paleo- 
lithic and the Mesolithic periods) man was a food-gatherer depending for his sub- 
sistence on hunting wild animals and birds, fishing, and collecting wild fruits, 
nuts, and berries. On the basis of the levidence obtained: to. date, particularly 
that from western Europe, it is possible to recognize three main groups of funda- 
mental traditions employed by our Stone Age ancestors in manufacturing their 
stone implements. These subdivisions are as follows: (a) core tool traditions, 
(b) flake tool traditions, and (c) blade tool traditions. The industry found in 
1948 at the rock-shelter of La Colombiére by the Peabody Museum of Harvard 
University’s expedition to eastern France belongs in the blade tool category; typo- 
logically it appears to have close affinities with what is known as the Gravettian 
stage in the Upper Paleolithic sequence of western Europe. 
