September 22, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



405 



southeastern region, including the Prov- 

 inces of Albacete, Murcia and Almeria, and 

 even to within the borders of Granada. 



One after another, features that had 

 been reckoned as the exclusive property of 

 Neolithic or later Ages are thus seen to 

 have been shared by Palaeolithic Man in the 

 final stage of his evolution. For the first 

 time, moreover, we find the productions of 

 his art rich in human subjects. At Cogul 

 the sacral dance is performed by women 

 clad from the waist downwards in well-cut 

 gowns, while in a rock-shelter of Alpera, 6 

 where we meet with the same skirted ladies, 

 their dress is supplemented by flying sashes. 

 On the rock painting of the Cueva de la 

 Vieja, near the same place, women are seen 

 with still longer gowns rising to their 

 bosoms. We are already a long way from 

 Eve! 



It is this great Alpera fresco which, 

 among all those discovered, has afforded 

 most new elements. Here are depicted 

 whole scenes of the chase in which bow- 

 men — up to the time of these last discover- 

 ies unknown among Palaeolithic representa- 

 tions — take a leading part, though they 

 had not as yet the use of quivers. Some 

 are dancing in the attitude of the Austral- 

 ian Corroborees. Several wear plumed 

 headdresses, and the attitudes at times are 

 extraordinarily animated. What is spe- 

 cially remarkable is that some of the 

 groups of these Spanish-rock paintings 

 show dogs or jackals accompanying the 

 hunters, so that the process of domesticat- 

 ing animals had already begun. Hafted 

 axes are depicted as well as cunningly 

 shaped throwing sticks. In one case at 

 least we see two opposed bands of archers 

 — marking at any rate a stage in social de- 

 velopment in which organized warfare was 

 possible — the beginnings, it is to be feared, 

 of ' ' Kultur ' ' as well as of culture ! 



« That of Carasoles del Bosque; Breuil, Anthro- 

 pologic, XXVI., 1915, p. 329 seqq. 



Nor can there be any question as to the 

 age of these scenes and figures, by them- 

 selves so suggestive of a much later phase 

 of human history. They are inseparable 

 from other elements of the same group, the 

 animal and symbolic representations of 

 which are shared by the contemporary 

 school of rock-painting north of the Pyre- 

 nees. Some are overlaid by palimpsests, 

 themselves of Palaeolithic character. 

 Among the animals actually depicted, 

 moreover, the elk and bison distinctly be- 

 long to the Late Quaternary fauna of both 

 regions, and are unknown there to the 

 Neolithic deposits. 



In its broader aspects this field of hu- 

 man culture, to which, on the European 

 side, the name of Reindeer Age may still, 

 on the whole, be applied, is now seen to 

 have been very widespread. In Europe 

 itself it permeates a large area — defined by 

 the boundaries of glaciation — from Poland, 

 and even a large Russian tract, to Bo- 

 hemia, the upper course of the Danube and 

 of the Rhine, to southwestern Britain and 

 southeastern Spain. Beyond the Mediter- 

 ranean, moreover, it fits on under varying 

 conditions to a parallel form of culture, the 

 remains of which are by no means confined 

 to the Cis-Saharan zone, where incised fig- 

 ures occur of animals like the long-horned 

 buffalo (Bulbalus antiquus) and others 

 long extinct in that region. This southern 

 branch may eventually be found to have a 

 large extension. The nearest parallels to 

 the finer class of rock-carvings as seen in 

 the Dordogne are, in fact, to be found 

 among the more ancient specimens of simi- 

 lar work in South Africa, while the rock- 

 paintings of Spain find their best analogies 

 among the Bushmen. 



Glancing at this Late Quaternary cul- 

 ture, as a whole, in view of the materials 

 supplied on the European side, it will not 

 be superfluous for me to call attention to 



