DISCOVERY 



143 



Some New Discoveries 

 in Prehistoric Art 



By George Frederic Lees 



It was recenth- announced in the daily press that two 

 French savants. Dr. Cuguilliere and M. Bacquie, had 

 made some striking discoveries bearing on prehistoric 

 art in the caves of the Valley of Ussat, in Southern 

 France. Specimens of rough pottery and drawings, 

 tombs with funeral urns and designs cut in the rock. 

 and certain curious red signs engraved upon the white 

 and ochre walls were reported to have been brought to 

 light. " Remarkable relics of the Stone Age, including 

 primitive sketches of animals — horses and mountain 

 goats drawn with skill," the newspaper account pro- 

 ceeded to announce in a manner apt to mislead those 

 who take a serious interest in palaeontological research. 



The above announcement, which was necessarily 

 unaccompanied by documentary evidence in the form 

 of photographs or sketches, is a case in point. Quite 

 unintentionally, the importance of the new discovery 

 in the country of the " Roches de Feu " has been 

 exaggerated. The Abbe H. Breuil, of the Institut 

 de Paleontologie Humaine, Paris, the leading French 

 authority on Prehistoric art, and one of the contributors 

 to that fine series of illustrated volumes published 

 under the general title of Peintures et gravurcs murale : 

 des Cavernes paleohthiques, visited Ussat in September 

 of last year ; but in his opinion the discoveries, though 

 certainly interesting, are very modest ones. His re- 

 port — " un petit travail " — will not be ready until next 

 summer, he writes to me, and he very much doubts 

 whether the contents merit being brought to the 

 knowledge of the general public. 



There are, however, recent discoveries in the realm 

 of prehistoric art which are well worth bringing to the 

 notice of English paleontologists. I refer to those 

 made by Dr. Lucien Mayet, of the anthropological 

 section of the University of Lyons, and M. Jean Pissot 

 in the Colombiere caves near Poncin, in the Department 

 of Ain. These diggers came across there a complete 

 workshop of an Aurignacian engraver, including nume- 

 rous specimens on limestone blocks and bones, lying 

 side by side with numerous flint tools with which the 

 artist of the Reindeer Age did his engravings. In close 

 proximity were flat-surfaced blocks, probably used as 

 seats ; and the hypothesis is that the workers were 

 obliged to abandon their atelier through a sudden rising 

 of the waters of the adjoining river Ain, since tools and 

 artistic productions were found to be covered with fine 

 sand from the river-bed. 



Some of the most interesting of the prehistoric 



drawings brought to liglit included two human figures 

 i-ngraved on a mammoth bone, a man stretched on 

 his back with one arm raised vertically, and above, 

 turned to the right, the unfinished silhouette of a 

 woman. Whereas the figure of the man, with his big 

 head, long thick nose, and hair}' chin and body, gives 

 the impression of brutality, that of the woman is ex- 

 pressive of grace — in brief, the figure of a veritable 

 \'enus of the Stone Age compared with the extra- 

 ordinarily developed women represented by the well- 

 known Aurignacian sculptures of Brassempouy, Villen- 

 dorf and Laussel. Two other drawings were on the 

 same piece of bone ; one of a bear, the other of a stag's 

 antlers. It is claimed by the authors of this dis- 

 covery that we have here an instance of the earliest 

 known engraving of the human figure on mammoth 

 bone — a contention which has given rise to a certain 

 amount of discussion, in which it seems to me MM. 

 Mayet and Pissot have the best of the argument. 

 The engravings on limestone represent a whole series 



riG. I.— THE COLOMBIERE C.WE XK.\R PONXIX (.\IXi. ONT3 OF 

 THE TYPICAL PREHISTORIC C.WES OF FRAXCE. 



iif animals. On one stone are a chamois, a stag's head, 

 a felid and other animals of doubtful nature ; on another 

 is a fine representation of the head of a galloping horse, 

 with its mane streaming in the wind — certainly the best 



