H.— ANTHROPOLOGY 161 



no Palaeolithic remains of any kind, but it is difficult to believe that none 

 exist. If and when they are found, they will almost certainly prove to 

 be related to the cultures of Central and Eastern Europe. 



If we now turn to the latter region, we find that in the last ten years 

 nothing has been found to modify the general sequence already established 

 for Upper Palaeolithic times, though some supplementary evidence has 

 been gained. In Moravia, Absolon's excavations at Vistonice have 

 brought to light an astonishing collection of works of art associated with 

 an Upper Aurignacian of the type of Willendorf, characterised by tanged 

 and shouldered points and Gravette points. The excavator apparently 

 considers this industry to be older than that of Predmost, but an unfor- 

 tunate delay in the scientific publication of his results makes it very 

 difficult for other workers to appreciate the evidence on which this con- 

 clusion is based. It would not appear, however, that the difference in 

 time can be very great, since Predmost also yielded an industry of 

 Willendorf type. The works of art from Vistonice include seven female 

 statuettes and a number of animal figures modelled in a material which 

 has been found on analysis to consist of bones ground to powder and 

 baked or burnt, mixed with loess and worked into a plastic mass with 

 water or fat — a new and rather surprising technique, unknown in any 

 other age. 



In Rumania Breuil had noted in 1925 the presence of a rough laurel- 

 leaf tool of Hungarian type in a collection from the neighbourhood of 

 Brasov, in Transylvania — -an isolated find in a region which had otherwise 

 yielded only an impoverished Middle Aurignacian. N. Morosan has 

 now proved the existence, in stratified deposits in Moldavia and Bessarabia, 

 of a Solutrean industry containing laurel-leaf tools of Hungarian type 

 associated, as in western Europe, with Upper Aurignacian forms — a 

 discovery which extends notably the area of distribution of the Solutrean. 



The Swiderian of Poland is now established as of early Mesolithic 

 date, and as forming one of a group of tanged-point cultures which 

 spread across northern Europe from Belgium to the Ukraine at the be- 

 ginning of the pre-boreal period. These cultures, however, undoubtedly 

 have their origin in the Palaeolithic, perhaps even in the final stage of the 

 Aurignacian with its tanged and shouldered points. Schwantes and 

 Rust have recently discovered near Hamburg an industry with tanged 

 and shouldered points and reindeer antler harpoons which can be dated 

 to the close of the Ice Age, and must therefore be in part contemporary 

 with the final Magdalenian. In view of this discovery it is interesting 

 to recall the reappearance of tanged and shouldered points in the 

 Magdalenian VI of Perigord. The presence in Poland of a similar 

 Palaeolithic precursor for the Swiderian has not been definitely estab- 

 lished, but it is considered possible that the three stations of Mielnik 

 represent an early stage of this culture. 



In Russia the last twelve years have been marked by discoveries of 

 first-rate importance, associated with the names of Zamiatnin, Efimenko, 

 Bontch-Osmolovski, Gerassimov and others. Up to the present, however, 

 publication has admittedly not kept pace with discovery. The sites 

 explored fall into four geographical groups ; the open-air stations of the 



