H.— ANTHROPOLOGY i 59 



our views about the possible centre or centres of dispersion of the blade 

 industries, and to envisage the possibility that they had already developed 

 their main characteristics at a surprisingly early date. 



I propose to consider one by one the regions which have yielded 

 significant evidence in this matter, beginning with Europe. I cannot 

 pretend to discuss every discovery of the last decade, but only to consider 

 in a general way those which either throw fresh light on our problems, 

 or introduce new and significant complications. 



I begin with Perigord, a classic region for prehistoric studies, which 

 might be supposed to have yielded long ago all the information which 

 it had to give. Here we have to do, not with any new and startling 

 discovery, but with patient and meticulous observations made during 

 many years by Peyrony. The result of these is to emphasise the close 

 relationship, already noted by Breuil and others, between the Lower and 

 Upper stages of the Aurignacian, in contrast with the intrusive character 

 of the Middle stage. Moreover Peyrony has found at Laugerie Haute 

 an industry of blunted-back blades, underlying the true La Gravette 

 level, which he compares with the industry of Bos del Ser in the Correze, 

 excavated by Canon Bouyssonie, and with the upper Chatelperron level of 

 La Ferrassie. This he considers to be the stage of transition between 

 the Lower and Upper Aurignacian, and he suggests that at Laugerie 

 Haute it represents an occupation of the shelter contemporary with the 

 classic Middle Aurignacian of the neighbouring site of Gorge d'Enfer. 

 He concludes that in the Chatelperron-Bos del Ser-La Gravette succession 

 we are dealing with a culture totally different from the so-called Middle 

 Aurignacian, and, in the Vezere basin at least, completely uninfluenced 

 by it, and he proposes to group all those industries characterised by the 

 blunted-back blade under the title of Perigordian, reserving the old 

 name of Aurignacian for the industry of Gorge d'Enfer, Cromagnon, 

 etc., which is marked by keeled scrapers, nose-scrapers, beaked burins, 

 and by the split-base bone point, or pointe d'Aurignac. 



This theory has been criticised by Breuil, who, while admitting the 

 reality of the contrast between the Middle Aurignacian and the Chatel- 

 perron- Gravette levels (a contrast which he himself had already 

 emphasised) considers Peyrony's view of the complete independence of 

 the two traditions in the Vezere basin as too absolute, and points out 

 that there is no stratigraphical proof of the contemporaneity of the Gorge 

 d'Enfer and the Bos del Ser level of Laugerie Haute. He emphasises, 

 however, that the notion of a double element in the Aurignacian must 

 not be lost sight of, and we shall see later that discoveries in the Near 

 East underline this view. 



Quite recent work has thrown an unexpected light on the blade 

 industries of the Iberian Peninsula. It has always been assumed that 

 Spain was a purely Capsian province (with the exception, of course, of 

 the Cantabric region, which showed the same succession as the French 

 Pyrenees), but it is now clear that this view must be greatly modified. 

 It had long been recognised that the wall paintings of the cave of La 

 Pileta, in the province of Malaga, had close affinities with Franco- 

 Cantabric art, but this isolated occurrence was regarded as a puzzling 



