MOUSTERIAN PERIOD 119 
nacian — men of the modern type took their place. At 
least, men of the modern type have never been found in 
a stratum of Mousterian age in this region ; only remains 
of Neanderthal man have been so found. Such an infer- 
ence has the further support of discoveries made by Dr 
Henri Martin in the department of Charente, adjoining 
the department of the Dordogne on the north-west. 
For several years, Dr Martin has explored a deposit of 
the Mousterian age, situated at the foot of an old rock- 
shelter at La Quina and buried under debris which had 
fallen from the cliff. In the valley near the cliff flows 
a small stream — the Voultron — on its way to join the 
Dronne (fig. 38), another of the northern tributaries of 
the Dordogne. The deposit at La Quina showed three 
strata, belonging to different phases of the Mousterian 
period. Dr Martin found not only the typical imple- 
ments of the middle and later stages of the period, with 
remains of the reindeer, the horse, and primitive ox {Bos 
p-iimigenius)^ but also rude implements worked in bone. 
In 1 9 10 he found a human astragalus or ankle-bone 
which was recognised by its peculiar form to be that of 
a man of the Neanderthal type — so distinctive is the 
structure of this race. In September 19 11, two years 
after the famous discoveries in the region of the Dordogne, 
Dr Martin found in the lowest part of the deeper of 
the two Mousterian strata, a human skeleton, again of 
the Neanderthal type. The bones were embedded in a 
greenish sandy clay, a silt deposited in the bed of the 
Voultron when that stream flowed nearer to the foot of 
the rock-shelter than it does now. The discoverer formed 
the opinion that the body had fallen in the stream and 
had thus become naturally entombed. When we remem- 
ber the instances already cited, where men of both the 
Mousterian and Aurignacian periods have buried their 
dead near or under the sites of habitation, we are inclined 
to regard La Quina as a similar case — one of burial. 
The skeleton found at La Quina is probably that of 
a woman — the first of her race to be discovered in France. 
Neanderthal women, we shall see, have also been found 
