Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 137 



the Cro-Magnon type, and that all the bodies had been 

 definitely interred. The discovery of cowries and the 

 relation of these to the body, forms an interesting parallel 

 to the Langerie-Basse burial referred to above. 



The association of perforated cowry shells with men 

 belonging to the Cro-Magnon group is not without interest 

 when it is remembered that these people were members 

 of our own species Homo sapiens, and quite distinct from 

 the earlier Neanderthal people. That they were men 

 capable of formulating ideas and endowed with an artistic 

 sense is unquestionable. The skeletons of this race all 

 seem to have been ceremonially interred, which certain 

 writers regard as implying that they were not without 

 some idea of religion. The fact that they used perforated 

 shells, teeth, and pendants, as amulets, also supports this 

 conclusion. But, of course, the validity of the inference 

 depends upon what is meant by the term " religion." 



How this race came into the south of Europe and 

 where it came from is not easy to determine ; but the 

 slender evidence at present available disposes us to look to 

 North Africa as its immediate source. It seems possible 

 that these people may have been an early sporadic 

 invasion from, or at least have been in direct or indirect 

 contact with, the region where civilisation first developed 

 the valley of the Nile and Western Asia. 



The skull of the Cro-Magnon man has so many points 

 of similarity to that of Neolithic man in England, that, 

 in defiance of the archaeological evidence, the former race 

 was judged at one time to belong to the Neolithic period. 

 Leading authorities now agree in relegating it to an 

 earlier time, which includes the Magdalenian period. 41 



43 The culture of the Cro-Magnon race is certainly quite distinct from 

 that of the Lower Palaeolithic people Neanderthal man, and on this account 

 Dr. Elliot Smith has suggested the term " Xeoanthrophic phase of culture," 

 in order to give specific emphasis to the profound break in human history 



