THE EARLIEST PICTURE IN THE WORLD 7 



in Europe. The mammoth survived, but was fast dying 

 out in the south and centre of France, and we find its 

 outline scratched on ivory and on bone by the early post- 

 Glacial men. The lion still survived in Europe, also the 

 hyena, the bear and the rhinoceros. The reindeer seems 

 to have been especially abundant, and to have been 

 associated with the men of this period. The horse was 

 very abundant, and was largely eaten by the earlier 

 post- Glacial peopie. From the first these men show 

 extraordinary artistic skill, and have left in their caves 

 many carvings on ivory, bone and stone. In the 

 oldest deposits of the post-Glacial age the carvings are 

 complete all-round sculptures of small size or carvings in 

 low relief, all of rough primitive workmanship. Larger life- 

 size sculptures in rock are also found. In later deposits 

 we find better sculpture and also engraving on flat pieces 

 of bone and ivory, and also on stone. This art persisted, 

 and attained its greatest perfection in the latest deposits 

 of all in which the work of Palaeolithic man is found. The 

 reindeer persisted through this post-Glacial period (hence 

 often called "the reindeer period") until the gradual 

 increase of temperature and change of herbage and forest 

 led to'~'its migration northwards and to the relative 

 abundance of the red deer. It is to this latest period 

 — the Elapho-Tarandian of Piette — that the engraved 

 antler figured here (Figs, i and 2) belongs. 



At an earlier stage of the post-Glacial period men 

 hunted the bison and other large game in the north of 

 Spain and made coloured drawings of them on the roofs 

 and walls of their caves, drawings which have been copied 

 and preserved : whilst the mammoth, the rhinoceros, the 

 cave lion and bear still inhabited south central France 

 and are pictured on the walls of caves in that region — 

 as described in Chapter II. Later we lose all trace of 

 Palaeolithic man and his wonderful artistic skill. He 



