July 3, 1913] 



NATURE 



453 



THE DAWN OF WESTERN CIVILISATION. 1 



THE volume before us is the final contribution 

 to our knowledge of the Baousse-Rousse 

 Caves. It may be recalled that volumes dealing 

 with the history, the geology, the palasontology, 

 and the anthropology of the deposits in these caves 

 have been reviewed already in Nature. 2 To com- 

 plete the picture it was necessary that we should 

 know the archaeology, and this the volume now 

 under notice supplies. From the nature of the 

 subject with which it deals it can be well under- 

 stood that the volume is in no way inferior in 

 interest or importance to 

 those which have pre- 

 ceded it. 



The deposits in the 

 caves are, from the view- 

 point of the archaeologist, 

 assignable to the Mid- 

 Moustier, the Superior 

 Moustier, and the Mid- 

 Aurignac periods ; neither 

 the first nor the last phase 

 of the Aurignac culture is 

 represented. The caves 

 therefore afford evidence 

 of having been occupied 

 at two distinct periods, 

 with a considerable inter- 

 val of unknown length 

 during which they were 

 not occupied by man. 



As to the first or Mous- 

 tier period, it is signifi- 

 cant that the worked 

 stones are of an un- 

 doubted Moustier pat- 

 tern, but yet they are not 

 all associated with the re- 

 mains of a Moustier 

 fauna. In the Grotte du 

 Prince, for example, five 

 foyers have been distin- 

 guished, the stones from 

 which only differ in the 

 character of the material 

 which was used. Of 

 these five foyers, how- 

 ever, the two lowest are 

 associated with the re- 

 mains of animals which 

 lived during the Chelles 

 period, species which de- 

 noted a warm climate — 



the hippopotamus, the Rhinoceros Merckii, the 

 Elephas antiquus ; the third foyer was associated 

 with a mixed Chelles and Moustier fauna, whereas 

 the two upper foyers only yielded remains of the 

 latter fauna. It thus results that in this cave we 

 have a Moustier culture contemporaneous in part 

 with a Chelles fauna, a contradiction which pro- 

 vokes the question whether in such a case it is 



more justifiable to attach importance to the indus- 

 trial stage reached by man in his development or 

 to the associated fauna, suggestive as it is of 

 climatic and geographical conditions. Although 

 much might be said in favour of either view, we 

 agree with M. Cartailhac that, in this instance at 

 least, it is safer to base our conclusions on the 

 character of the implements, particularly as we 

 should expect the Chelles fauna — a fauna of a 

 warm climate — to linger longest in the south of 

 Europe, where it might well be contemporary with 

 the Moustier fauna in a more northern latitude. 

 As to the second or Aurignac period, we .ire 



1 "LesGrotles de Grimaldi (Raousse-RousseV 

 Ircheologie. By Emile Carfailhac. Pp. v+2 

 Imprimerie de Monaco, 1912.) 



2 October 10, 1907 ; July 27, 1911. 



NO. 2279, VOL. 91] 



Tome ii., Fascicule 

 5-324+plates xii-xx 





glad to find M. Cartailhac availing himself of the 

 opportunity afforded him to give in a separate 

 chapter an excellent resume of the history and of 

 our knowledge of the Aurignac phase from the 

 days of Lartet and Gabriel de Mortillet to the 

 present day when, thanks to the brilliant work of 

 Abbe Breuil, we may consider the Aurignac period 

 as firmly and permanently established. The par- 

 ticular interest in the period lies in the fact that, 

 owing to the greater variety of the tools, the 

 presence of ornament, and the first definite appear- 



