202 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. vn. 



/velgpment of the manufacture of bone implements and 

 the decay of that of stone. ) 



These divisions, to'a large extent based on the im- 

 provements observable in the various sets of imple- 

 ments, are not sharply defined from each other, the first 

 one excepted, and cannot, in Mr. Evans' opinion, at pre- 

 sent be regarded as absolutely established. 1 The men 

 who used elaborately chipped lance-heads of the " Epoque 

 Solutrien" used implements identical with those of 

 Moustier, as well as articles of bone and antler like those 

 of La Madelaine, and were also acquainted with the art 

 of engraving the figures of animals. With regard to the 

 two last divisions which are represented in the valley of 

 the Vezere, the view of Professor Edward Lartet 2 that 

 they belong to the same phase of the human period, is 

 probably true, since there is but little difference between 

 the animals found in them, and since the difference in the 

 human implements may be accounted for by the unequal 

 distribution of articles in use at the same time, as well 

 as by there having been different centres of manufacture. 

 On examining the principal collections in France, it seems 

 to me that this explanation may be extended so as to 

 cover the " Epoque Mousterien " as well as those of 

 Solutre and La Madelaine, and I am able to recognise 

 merely local differences, due probably to tribal isolation, 

 or to abundance of stone or antler, between the contents 



1 Ancient Stone Implements, p. 439. 



2 Lartet, Gavernes du Perigord, Rev. Arche'ol. 1864. Lartet and Christy, 

 Reliquiae Aquitanicce, 4to. Ducrost et Lartet, Station Prehistorique de 

 Solutre'j Archiv du Mus. de Lyon, 1872, 1. i. PI. 1. The researches of Dr. 

 M. J. Parrot into the caves and rock-shelters of the Vezere prove that some 

 cannot be classified with any of these divisions, which he therefore views 

 merely as useful aids in the inquiry, but in no sense final. Bull Soc. 

 Anihrop. de Paris, 22d January 1873. 



