114 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 
of figs. 39 and 40, the La Ferrassie record is the older. 
Men began to live at the rock-shelter of Combe Capelle 
in the Mousterian period ; their records cease at the 
Solutrean. At La Ferrassie, the records begin in pre- 
Mousterian times — it was inhabited when the characteristic 
hand-axes of the Acheulean culture were fashioned ; the 
records at Ferrassie close with the Aurignacian period. 
It was not the discovery at La Ferrassie, however, 
which drew the attention of Europe to the unexpected 
fact that the Neanderthal type of man was immediately 
succeeded by men of the modern type. The credit of 
having first demonstrated that Neanderthal man was not 
converted into modern man, during the middle part of 
the Pleistocene period, must be assigned to Herr O. 
Hauser and his colleague. Professor Klaatsch of Breslau. 
In 1908, the year before the exploration at Combe 
Capelle, Herr Hauser was excavating on the west bank 
of the Vezere, fifteen miles above La Ferrassie, in a cave 
on the lower terraces behind the little town of Le 
Moustier (fig. 38). 
The site he had chosen was situated at a lower level 
than the famous cave investigated by Lartet and Christy 
in 1863, where they found the types of flint workman- 
ship which are now regarded as characteristic of the 
Mousterian period. Early in 1908, Herr Hauser's 
workmen began to expose, at a depth of 5 feet below the 
floor of the cave, and accompanied by objects of the 
Mousterian period, a human skeleton. Further excava- 
tion was stopped until the autumn, when, surrounded by 
a company of German anthropologists, in the heart of 
France, the skeleton was finally extracted from its ancient 
bed, with expert eyes looking on to bear witness to its 
authenticity and antiquity. The skeleton was that of a 
lad of perhaps sixteen years of age ; his canine teeth and 
third molars were not fully erupted ; the growth lines of 
the long bones were unclosed. There could be no 
question : he had been deliberately buried. Near his right 
hand was a hand-axe of the Acheulean culture, but typical 
implements of the Mousterian period were near by. 
