100 THE SAELYN BTTEIAliS. 



hill, under a lofty rock, the soil is full of the bones of the lion, 

 hysena, horse, reindeer, and elephant, and at this place the bones 

 of at least 100,000 horses have been discovered, many of which 

 have been broken by man to extract the marrow. Genuine 

 Palseolithic implements are found all through the deposit, save 

 at the top, and human skeletons are buried at all depths. Some 

 are enclosed in graves of stone slabs covered also with stones, 

 like chests. Some are simply surrounded by a ring of stones 

 and others lie stretched on ancient hearths. The skulls are 

 large and show that a very high mental capacity belonged to 

 these ancient men who feasted on the lion, hyaena, and elephant. 

 The age of these Palseolithic burials is proved, also, from the 

 fact, that when a skeleton lies on the hearth, the hearth is 

 always the same size as the skeleton.^ Strange to say, and 

 deeply to be deplored it is, that English scientific works persist 

 in ignoring this most wonderful burial place at Solutre, and talk 

 about burial being unknown in the Palseolithic period! One 

 would think that the authors of these works knew nothing of 

 any discoveries save those made in England, twenty years ago !® 



Another form of burial practised in the Palseolithic age 

 was to place the body in a cavern in a contracted position, with 

 the knees drawn up to the chin and the hands before the face. 

 This is the way in which two Palseolithic skeletons were found 

 buried in a cave at Bruniquel in France, where they lay in 

 undisturbed cave-earth under a sheet of stalagmite, alongside of 

 the bones of the horse, Irish elk, reindeer, and rhinoceros. 

 Another Palseolithic skeleton in the same contracted position was 

 found with the extinct mammalia, in the cave of Laugerie Basse, 

 and similar Palseolithic skeletons in the same contracted positions 

 were discovered in the cave's of Spy and Chancelade. All the 

 heads of these skeletons were dolichocephalic (like those at 

 Harlyn). Indeed I do not know a single skeleton of the 

 Palseolithic age, buried in the contracted position, which does 

 not possess a dolichocephalic skull. Burial in the contracted 

 position is therefore a survival from the Palseolithic period. 



4. Ferry— L'Aj^e du Retme en Maconnais. 



5. There is a good account of Solutre in Joly's Man before Metals. (International 

 Scientific Series). Edd. See also The Age of the Mammoth, by J. Southall, chap. vii. 



