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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1134 



burial showing the coexistence at that spot 

 of brachycephalic and dolichocephalic 

 types, both of a new character. In Britain, 

 as we know, this Azilian, or a closely allied 

 phase, is traceable as far north as the Oban 

 Caves. 



What, however, is of special interest is 

 the existence of a northern parallel to this 

 cultural phase, first ascertained by the 

 Danish investigator, Dr. Sarauw, in the 

 lake station of Maglemose, near the west 

 coast of Zealand. Here bone harpoons of 

 the Azilian type occur, with bone and horn 

 implements showing geometrical and rude 

 animal engravings of a character divergent 

 from the Magdalenian tradition. The set- 

 tlement took place when what is now the 

 Baltic was still the great ' ' Ancylus Lake, ' ' 

 and the waters of the North Sea had not 

 yet burst into it. It belongs to the period 

 of the Danish pine and birch woods, and is 

 shown to be anterior to the earliest shell 

 mounds of the Kitchenmidden people, 

 when the pine and the birch had given 

 place to the oak. Similar deposits extend 

 to Sweden and Norway, and to the Baltic 

 provinces as far as the Gulf of Finland. 

 The parallel relationship of this culture is 

 clear, and its remains are often accom- 

 panied with the characteristic "pygmy" 

 flints. Breuil, however, 8 while admitting 

 the late Palaeolithic character of this north- 

 ern branch, would bring it into relation 

 with a vast Siberian and Altaic province, 

 distinguished by the widespread existence 

 of rock-carvings of animals. It is interest- 

 ing to note that a rock-engraving of a rein- 

 deer, very well stylized, from the Trondh- 

 jem Fjord, which has been referred to the 

 Maglemosian phase, preserves the simple 

 profile rendering — two legs only being 

 visible — of Early Aurignacian tradition. 



s ' ' Les subdivisions du paleolithique superieur 

 et leur signification." Congres intern. d'Anthrop. 

 et d'Archeol. pr^hist., XIV me Sess., Geneve, 1912, 

 pp. 165, 238. 



It is worth noting that an art affiliated 

 to that of the petroglyphs of the old Altaic 

 region long survived in the figures of the 

 Lapp trolldrums, and still occasionally 

 lingers, as I have myself had occasion to 

 observe, on the reindeer-horn spoons of the 

 Finnish and Russian Lapps, whose ethnic 

 relationship, moreover, points east of the 

 Urals. The existence of a Late Palaeolithic 

 Province on the Russian side is in any case 

 now well recognized and itself supports the 

 idea of a later shifting north and north- 

 east, just as at a former period it had os- 

 cillated in a southwestern direction. All 

 this must be regarded as corroborating the 

 view long ago expressed by Boyd Daw- 

 kins 3 that some part of the old cave race 

 may still be represented by the modern 

 Eskimos. Testut's comparison of the short- 

 statured Magdalenian skeleton from the 

 rock shelter of Chancelade in the Dordogne 

 with that of an Eskimo certainly confirms 

 this conclusion. 



On the other hand, the evidence, already 

 referred to, of an extension of the Late 

 Palaeolithic culture to a North African 

 zone, including rock-sculptures depicting a 

 series of animals extinct there in the later 

 age, may be taken to favor the idea of a 

 partial continuation on that side. Some of 

 the early rock-sculptures in the south of 

 the continent, such as the figure of a walk- 

 ing elephant reproduced by Dr. Peringuey, 

 afford the clearest existing parallels to the 

 best Magdalenian examples. There is 

 much, indeed, to be said for the view, of 

 which Sollas is an exponent, that the bush- 

 men, who at a more recent date entered 

 that region from the north, and whose rock- 

 painting attained such a high level of nat- 

 uralistic art, may themselves be taken as 

 later representatives of the same tradition. 

 In their human figures the resemblances 

 descend even to conventional details, such 

 as we meet with at Cogul and Alpera. 



9 ' ' Early Man in Britain, ' ' 1880, p. 233 seqq. 



