Cave Hunting: Researches on the evidence of caves respecting the early inhabitants of EuropeDawkins, William Boyd
History
Cave Hunting: Researches on the evidence of caves respecting the early inhabitants of Europe
Dawkins, William Boyd
Antiquities, Prehistoric -- Europe; Caves -- Europe; Europe -- Antiquities; Prehistoric peoples -- Europe
The most remarkable remains left behind by man in these refuse-heaps
are the sculptured reindeer antlers, and the figures engraved on
fragments of schist and on ivory. A well-defined outline of an ox
stands out boldly from one piece of antler. A second presents us with
a most elegant design: a reindeer is kneeling down in an easy attitude
with its head thrown up in the air, so that the antlers rest on the
shoulders, and the back of the animal forms an even surface for a
handle, which is too small to be grasped in an ordinary European hand
(Fig. 116). In a third a man stands close to a horse’s head, and hard
by is a fish like an eel; and on the other side of the same cylinder
are two heads of bison, drawn with sufficient clearness to ensure
recognition by anyone who had ever seen that animal (Fig. 117). On
a fourth the natural curvature of one of the tines has been taken
advantage of by the artist to engrave the head, and the characteristic
recurved horns of the ibex; and on a fifth are figures of horses (Fig.
118), in which the upright disheveled mane and shaggy ungroomed tail
are represented with admirable spirit. At first sight it would appear
that the artist had drawn the heads out of all proportion to the
bodies. A horse’s skeleton, however, from the palæolithic “station”
at Solutré, lately set up in the Museum at Lyons, proves that this is
not the case, since, as M. Lortet pointed out to me, it is remarkable
for its massive head, and small body. In Fig. 119 a group of reindeer
are seen, two on their backs, and two in the act of walking. The
Irish elk, red-deer, and probably rhinoceros, are also depicted, the
figures upon the hard schist being feebly and uncertainly drawn, as
might be expected from the character of the tools. The most clever
sculptor of modern times would, probably, not succeed very much better
if his graver was a splinter of flint, and stone and bone were the
materials to be engraved. One peculiarity runs through the figures of
animals. With but two exceptions none of the feet are represented, a
circumstance which is probably due, as Mr. Franks has suggested to me,
to the fact that the hunters merely represented what they saw of the
animal, of which the feet would be concealed by the herbage.
[Illustration: FIG. 119.--Group of Reindeer, Dordogne. (Broca.)]
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