THE MOST ANCIENT MEN 



379 



a sort of kitchen-midden round a camp of Palaeolithic 

 men ! They have the art of making fire, and have a 

 wonderful artistic skill in carving and drawing on bone 

 and ivory and on stones, and 

 in painting on the walls of 

 their caves, the animals which 

 surround them and are hunted 

 by them (Fig. 71). They 

 make great numbers of carved 

 harpoons or toothed spear- 

 heads (Fig. 68) from bone, 

 and also needles for sewing 

 skins ; whilst from flint they 

 chip spear-heads, knives, hand- 

 hatchets, and saws. They 

 decorate their carvings with 

 spirals, lozenges, and circles 

 cut in low relief (Fig. 69). 

 But their truly astonishing 

 skill and mental development 

 is shown in their carvings and 

 engravings of animals and fish 

 (Fig. 70), which are executed 

 either on bones or stones, or 

 on pieces of the ivory of the 

 mammoth. Besides the rein- 

 deer, horses, goats, saiga ante- 

 lope, rhinoceros, mammoth, 

 and seal, their carvings include 

 statuettes and drawings of men 

 and women (Fig. 7). 



At the best period some 

 of these carvings show a mastery of the material, a 

 directness and a simplicity and beauty of essential line, 

 together with true observation of characteristic form, which 



FIG. 68. A. Perforated harpoon 

 of the transition period (Azilian 

 or Red Deer period), between 

 Palaeolithic and Neolithic, made 

 from antler of red deer, found 

 in quantity in the upper layers 

 of deposit in the cavern of the 

 Mas d'Azil (Arriege). B and C. 

 Imperforate harpoons or lance 

 heads made from reindeer antler 

 of the Magdalenian period (Rein- 

 deer epoch). B from Bruniquel 

 Cave (Tarn-et-Garonne). Cfrom 

 a cavern in the Hautes Pyrenees. 

 Same size as the objects. 



