122 HUMAN HISTORY 



which we have a detailed knowledge of the physical type and in 

 which we have some indication of the stage of psychical develop- 

 ment as shown by the employment of ceremonial burial. 



This stage is sharply divided from that which follows it. So 

 far as is known, Neanderthal man disappears at the end of the 

 Middle Palaeolithic, and Mousterian industry is replaced by the 

 Aurignacian, a wholly new type of culture, presumably intro- 

 duced by some new racial element. As we have seen, there are 

 several racial types in the Upper Palaeohthic, and the Cro-Magnon 

 type, which occurs from the beginning of this period, may have 

 brought the new culture into Europe. The art of stone imple- 

 ment making reached a height during the Aurignacian never 

 previously approached ; knives and scrapers were especially 

 finely shaped. In the Solutrian, or middle period of the Upper 

 Palaeohthic, stone implement making reached the highest point 

 to which it attained in the Palaeolithic period. The workmanship 

 exhibited in the well-known willow and laurel leaf lance-heads is 

 very fine. Bone tools are first found in the Upper Palaeolithic. 

 It is clear from the disposition of the skeletons that burials were 

 again employed, and indicate, if not a belief in a future life in 

 our meaning of the phrase, at least the presence of a body of 

 tradition regarding the state of the deceased. It is not certain 

 whether man at this stage possessed the bow and arrow. Nothing 

 can, of course, be known with certainty regarding the degree to 

 which perishable substances were manufactured ; it can only be 

 said that in all probabihty skins and furs were used as clothing, 

 that basketwork was understood, and nets constructed. The 

 most remarkable remains which have been preserved from this 

 period are the drawings and paintings on the walls of caverns. 

 They are found throughout the Upper Palaeolithic period, and 

 indicate a high degree of skill and taste.^ 



That the Solutrian Age shows an improvement upon the Aurig- 

 nacian from the point of view of stone implement making has 

 been indicated. It also shows a similar improvement as regards 

 bone implements ; bone needles with perforated eyes, for instance, 

 occur for the first time. There is a distinct improvement in the 

 drawings and paintings. In the next or Magdalenian period of 



' The admiration, justly enough aroused, for these works of art has undoubtedly 

 led to an exaggeration of the level of social and intellectual development reached 

 by Upper Palaeolithic man, whose times are sometimes referred to as though they 

 were a kind of Golden Age. 



