CHAP. VIL] NO INTERMENTS IN PALEOLITHIC AGE. 229 



Magnon and the other caves of the Vezere. They 

 therefore hold that in this cave there is proof of the sur- 

 vival of the Palaeolithic man of the caves into Neolithic 

 times. It seems to me that the evidence ought to be 

 read the other way, and that it tends to show that the 

 " race of Cro-Magnon," which I have already given my 

 reasons for believing to be later than the Palaeolithic, 

 really belongs to the Neolithic age (see pp. 206-7). 



JL No Interments proved to be of Palaeolithic Age. 



The fact that caves were largely used as sepulchres 

 in the Neolithic age renders it necessary to use extreme 

 caution in assigning any interments to the Palaeolithic 

 dwellers in caves without unmistakable evidence. This 

 seems to me to be wanting in most of the examples 

 generally accepted, which I have classified under the 

 head of doubtful in my work on Cave-Hunting. For 

 the reasons there given the antiquity of the Neanderthal 

 skull is doubtful, while the interments in Cro-Magnon 

 are seen in the section (Fig. 74) to be later than the 

 Palaeolithic accumulation below. The so-called " fossil 

 man of Mentone " may be referred to the same date as 

 the polished stone axe of the Neolithic age found in the 

 cave, and now preserved in the museum at St. Germain. 

 The pottery found in the caves of Engis and Trou de 

 Frontal in Belgium, and in those of Aurignac, Bruniquel, 

 and Bize, is identical with the Neolithic pottery, and 

 may therefore be taken to indicate the date of the inter- 

 ments. 



Those experienced in digging caves know how very 

 difficult it is to separate the contents of deposits of two 

 different ages lying together in the same place, and fre- 



