188 WORKS OF ART FOUND IN THE GROTTO. CHAP. x. 



moved by Bonnemaison, were eighteen small, round, and flat 

 plates of a white shelly substance, made of some species of 

 cockle (Cardium), pierced through the middle as if for being 

 strung into a bracelet. In the substratum also in the interior 

 examined by M. Lartet was found the tusk of a young Ursus 

 spelceus, the crown of which had been stripped of its enamel, 

 and which had been carved perhaps in imitation of the head 

 of a bird. It was perforated lengthwise as if for suspension 

 as an ornament or amulet. A flint knife also was found in 

 the interior which had evidently never been used; in this 

 respect, unlike the numerous worn specimens found outside, 

 so that it is conjectured that it may, like other associated 

 works of art, have been placed there as part of the funeral 

 ceremonies. 



A few teeth of the cave-lion, Felis spelcea, and two tusks of 

 the wild boar, also found in the interior, were memorials 

 perhaps of the chase. No remains of the same animals were 

 met with among the external relics. 



On the whole, the bones of animals inside the vault offer a 

 remarkable contrast to those of the exterior, being all entire 

 and uninjured, none of them broken, gnawed, half-eaten, 

 scraped or burnt like those lying among the ashes on the 

 other side of the great slab which formed the portal. The 

 bones of the interior seem to have been clothed with their 

 flesh, when buried in the layer of loose soil strewed over the 

 floor. In confirmation of this idea, many bones of the 

 skeleton were often observed to be in juxta-position, and in 

 one spot nearly all the bones of an Ursus spelceus were lying 

 together uninjured. Add to this, the entire absence in the 

 interior of cinders and charcoal, and we can scarcely doubt that 

 we have here an example of an ancient place of sepulture, 

 closed at the opening so effectually against the hysenas or 

 other carnivora that no marks of their teeth appear on any of 

 the bones, whether human or brute. 





