1 8 PREHISTORIC E UR OPE. 



forthcoming that they were acquainted with the potter's art. 

 M. Dupont has indeed recorded the occurrence in certain Belgian 

 caves of coarse unbaked pottery associated with Palaeolithic 

 implements, while M. Fraas has described a similar occurrence 

 in a cave near Blaubeuern in Wiirtemberg, and M. de Ferry 

 has noted the like in the cave of Yergisson (Saone-et-Loire). 

 The caves of Chiampo and Laglio in the north of Italy are also 

 said to have yielded Palaeolithic pottery. It is probable, how- 

 ever, that in all these cases the potsherds are accidentally pre- 

 sent, and really belong to a later date than the Palaeolithic 

 implements. Certain it is that no trace of pottery occurs in 

 the Palaeolithic cave-deposits of England or of Perigord — and 

 those of the latter have yielded the relics of the artistic 

 people in greater abundance than elsewhere. In the caves of 

 the south of Prance the carved and worked implements are not 

 only very numerous, but they attain a considerably higher 

 degree of finish than the similar relics which occur in the Belgian 

 caves. It would be strange, therefore, if the occupants of the 

 latter should have been familiar with an art which was totally 

 unknown to the more advanced tribes in the south of Prance. 

 Moreover, if it be true (as I will by and by endeavour to prove 

 was the case) that the last occupation of the Belgian caves dates 

 back to earlier times than that of the caves of Perigord — that, 

 in fact, the artistic folk migrated southwards from England 

 and Belgium to Prance, carrying their simple arts with them, it 

 would be more than strange if they had left that of the potter 

 behind. So useful an art once acquired was certain never to 

 be lost again. For the present, then, it seems most reasonable 

 to conclude with Sir John Lubbock and others that Palaeolithic 

 man appears to have been unacquainted with the art in question. 

 Whether the tribes of the Old Stone Period had any polity 

 or social organisation we cannot tell. Some writers have indeed 

 supposed that the more richly engraved and carved implements 

 were state arms, and these, it has been conjectured, might belong 

 to chiefs. But all this is mere guess-work. Again, it has been 

 inferred from the fact that ornaments, implements, and arms 



