1870.] Archaeology. 381 



Part X. of ' Reliquiae Aquitanieae ' * lias come to hand since 

 our last Chronicle was written. M. Lartet commences in this 

 number a very admirable article on the employment of sewing- 

 needles in ancient times, illustrated by a plate and numerous wood- 

 cuts of bone and bronze needles. 



The bone needles from the caves have nearly all rounded stems, 

 and in most cases they have been carefully polished. Narrow pieces 

 of the hard exterior of the bone or horn were carefully isolated by 

 parallel cuts with a flint flake, and when quite detached the splinter 

 was rubbed into proper shape on a sandstone rubber, and polished 

 on a skin. The eye of the needle was drilled with a pointed flint 

 drill. Some needles figured exceed three inches in length, and, in 

 finish, are as slender as a Grerman-wool-work needle or large darn- 

 ing-needle of the present day. It is very interesting to find in the 

 same cave with the finished needles, the half-made needles (partially 

 cut from, the horns of reindeer, the bones of a bird, the metatarsal 

 of the reindeer, and the metacarpal of the horse) and the " wasters," 

 also the instruments used for their manufacture, showing that the 

 cave-folk of the reindeer period were as well accustomed to make 

 and use the needle in the preparation of articles of dress as are 

 the modern Esquimaux. It is also (as M. Lartet observes) but 

 reasonable to suppose that, like the Esquimaux, they used the 

 sinews of the reindeer for their thread, as there is equal justness in 

 inferring that their dress was composed of the skin of these animals 

 so abundant throughout the region of Aquitania in pre-historic 

 times. M. Lartet thinks the long needles may have been used for 

 embroidery, as they would have been too delicate to use for ordinary 

 sewing or stitching of skins, for which the short stout needles seem 

 best adapted. 



An interesting account is given of the preparation of the skins 

 by the Esquimaux, and their methods of sewing and ornamenting 

 their dresses. 



The cave-folk of the Keindeer period were quite unacquainted 

 with the sheep, and although, like some modern aborigines, they had 

 a prejudice against the hare and rabbit, yet they seem to have killed 

 them for the sake of then: fur, to use, it is supposed, as the Lap- 

 landers do, to trim the borders of their dresses with. 



Before concluding this account, it is interesting to note that the 

 eyed needles were not found indifferently in all the stations of that 

 period. At Les Eyzies, Laugerie Basse, and at La Madelaine in 

 Dordogne, the largest quantity of needles have been collected and 

 always associated with harpoon-heads of the barbed type. It is also 



* ' Reliquiae Aquitanieae : being contributions to the Archaeology and Palaeon- 

 tology of Pe'rigord and the adjoining provinces of Southern, France.' By Edouard 

 Lartet and Henry Christy. Edited by T. Rupert Jones, F.G.S. London. 

 H. Bailliere. 



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