58 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 
fourth or Azilian stratum is only half a metre thick 
(19-6 inches), intensely red in colour, due to the 
abundance of oxide of iron which it contains. Beneath 
the Azilian stratum lie five others, forming collectively 
a deposit over 17 feet in thickness, all of them marked 
by the culture of the last great PalaeoUthic period — the 
Magdalenian. The deepest Magdalenian stratum, made 
of gravel, lies on the bed-rock, 23 feet above the present 
bed of the Arize. The men of the Magdalenian period 
settled on the ancient gravel bed of the Arize. In the 
bottom stratum occur the remains of their hearths. 
The period during which these Palaeolithic deposits were 
LATE NEOLITHIC, BRONZE.CELTJC-- ' 
NEOLITHIC ■.--•'■2 P^ 
AZILIAIN----- l/x ft-7 
MAGDALENIAN- 
-17/2 fti ^-^.hf-r^J^ 
Fig. 24. — M. Piette's section across the strata at Mas d'Azil. 
being formed was marked by two great intervals of flood 
or submergence, for the various strata, showing periods 
of human occupation, are separated by two thick deposits 
of yellow loam — the products of great and continuous 
floods. In all the Magdalenian strata, remains of the 
reindeer occur abundantly. In the Azilian stratum, 
which follows the Magdalenian strata in orderly sequence, 
the reindeer disappears ; its place is taken by the stag, 
the remains of extinct mammals no longer occurring in 
the Azilian layer. The human culture, however, did not 
change much. The Azilians worked their flints in the 
Magdalenian manner ; they fashioned the same carved 
and barbed harpoons and arrow-heads from bone and 
from antlers. They were partial to the use of red ochre 
