TRACES OF A RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF PRIMEVAL MAN. 



135 



surface are burials of recent date, and of Gallo-Roman antiquity. 

 Deeper down are beds of ashes and the remains of ancient 

 hearths and fires. Mingled with these are flint implements of 

 Palaeolithic type, many of which are beautifully fashioned. All 

 through the deposit are the bones of the bear, horse, reindeer, 

 lion, wolf, hyaena, and elephant, many of which have been split- 

 to extract the marrow, and also burnt, showing that these 

 animals were eaten by the primitive hunters. Most remarkable 

 of all were the remains of the horse. These form an enormous 

 deposit by themselves, and it has been estimated that at this spot 

 there are at least the remains of 40,000 horses! Human 

 skeletons were buried all through this deposit, and the age of 

 these skeletons has given rise to endless controversy. 



At the top of these deposits were skeletons buried in stone 

 cists, or " box-tombs." These are admitted to be of Neolithic or 

 of Gallo-Eoman antiquity. But the skeletons which lie deeper 

 down, and are extended on the hearths and fire-places 

 are of greater antiquity. These latter skeletons are found close 

 to the bones of the lion, hyaena, horse, and elephant, and 

 Palaeolithic weapons and carvings surround them. In fact 

 there can be no doubt that at Solutre we have the remains of a 

 Palaeolithic village, and also burials of the earliest Stone Age. 

 This is certain. Here then we have a crucial case of primeval 

 habits and religious rites. 



o 



Such a complete and startling revelation of the advanced 

 social and religious state of Palaeolithic Man has of course been 

 vehemently opposed by the advocates of the primitive barbarity 

 of Man. But the evidence in favour of the view I have stated 

 is unanswerable. So far as the lower skeletons are concerned 

 the fauna associated with them is Palaeolithic, the implements 

 with them are Palaeolithic, and the very carvings which are laid 

 by these skeletons are Palaeolithic also. It is strange also that 

 very little is said in England about Solutre, and it is very 

 difficult to get a thoroughly good account of this wonderful 

 discovery in English. The best account I know is that given 

 by Dr. Southall,* who is an American. But no one ought to 

 enter into the discussion about Solutre who has not read the 

 account given by the first discoverer*, MM. Arcelin and Ferry. f 

 Short summaries are of no use, and too frequently abstract 

 theories prevent the facts from being properly understood. In 



* The Epoch of the Mammoth, Chap. VII. 



t International Congress of Prehistoric Archaeology, 1868, pp. 319-351. 



