THE ART OF PREHISTORIC MEN 



45 



of the Pleistocene strata, 

 it is not an unreasonable 

 supposition that the period 

 required for the formation 

 of the fossiliferous rocks 

 which precede them in 

 time, is not less and 

 probably more than 

 five hundred million 

 years. 



The pictures and carv- 

 ings with which we are 

 for the moment concerned 

 all belong to the later 

 Pleistocene or Reindeer 

 epoch. None have been 

 found in the middle and 

 earlier Pleistocene, though finely-chipped flints of several 

 successive types are found in those earlier beds. So that 



it is clear that many 

 successive ages of 

 man had elapsed 

 in Western Europe 

 before these pictures 

 — immensely ancient 

 as they are — were 

 executed. The men 

 who made these 

 works of art had 

 ages of humanity, 

 tradition, and culture 

 (of a kind) behind 

 them. Yet they 

 were themselves 



& 



Fig. 14. — Drawing (of the actual size 

 of the original) of a flat carving in 

 shoulder-bone of a horse's head, 

 showing twisted rope - bridle and 

 trappings, a appears to represent 

 a flat ornamented band of wood or 

 skin connecting the muzzling rope 

 b with other pieces c and d. This 

 specimen is from the cave of St. 

 Michel d'Arudy, and is of the Reindeer 

 period. This, and others like it are 

 in the same museum of St. Germain. 



Fig. 15. — Drawing (of the actual size of the 

 original) of a fully rounded carving in reindeer's 

 antler of the head of a neighing horse. The 

 head resembles that of the Mongolian horse. 

 This is one of the most artistic of the cave-men's 

 carvings yet discovered. It is of the Palaeo- 

 lithic age (early Reindeer period), probably 

 not less than 50,000 years old. It was found 

 in the cavern of Mas d'Azil, Ariege, France, 

 and is now in the museum of St. Germain. 



