.100 PE. A. SMITH WOODWAED OX AN APPARENTLY [April 1914, 



4. On an apparently Paljeolttiiic Engraving on a Boxvfrom 

 Sheeeoexe (Dorset). By Aetiiee Smith Woodwaed, 

 LL.D., F.K.S., Pres. Q.S. (Read March 11th, 1914.) 



Thirty-seven years ago Prof. Boyd Dawkins 1 described to the 

 Society the incised figure of a horse on a piece of bone found with 

 Palaeolithic implements and remains of Pleistocene mammals in 

 the Robin Hood Cave, Creswell Crags. Until the present time, 

 this has remained the sole example of the pictorial art of Paleo- 

 lithic Man met with in Britain. It is, therefore, of interest to 

 record the discovery of a second specimen, which appears to date 

 back to the same period, and is especially remarkable as being 

 almost identical with the first, both in subject and in style. 



The new specimen was found by two boj's of Sherborne School, 

 A. S. Cortesi and P. C. Grove, and was submitted to me by 

 Mr. K. Elliot Steel, to whom I am indebted for the opportunity of 



Incised drawing of the head and foreqaarters of a horse on a 

 fragment of rib, natural size; from a dry valley north of 

 Sherborne (Dorset). In the JSIuseum of Sherborne School. 



SW^ ■ :' -:■. " "■'.'..^* r; ..-- • ■■'WUi'f" ■ '■ v 



making this communication. It was picked up, with fragments 

 of calcspar and miscellaneous Inferior Oolite fossils, in an old heap 

 of quarry-debris near the Bristol road, on the outskirts of Sherborne 

 (Dorset) ; and there can be no doubt that it was originally obtained 

 from one of the small dry valleys with steep sides which furrow 

 the dip-slope of the Inferior Oolite north of the town. A careful 

 consideration of all the circumstances suggests that it may have 

 occurred in a rock-shelter, which was destroyed by quarrying : for 

 the heap of debris which yielded the specimen was most probably 

 derived from a sheltered spot with a south-western aspect, which 

 would serve admirably for human habitation. Unfortunately, the 

 only noteworthy associated specimens are a few flints, which are 

 not clearly chipped by man, although they must have been brought 

 from a distance of several miles. It may, however, be added that 

 at a spot a quarter of a mile farther down the dry valley, where 

 it joins the next valley, Mr. Steel has recognized a Pleistocene 



1 Q. J. G. S. vol. xxxiii (1877) p. 592. fig-. 1. 



