The caves of the Dordogne Valley in south-western France have supplied
us with some very good relics of a very remote period. They are
situated in rocks of Cretaceous age, and form shelters in which
ancient huntsmen used to find dwelling-places, leaving behind them
refuse-heaps and instruments of various kinds. In the Vezère Caves,
which are included in the Dordogne series, there is one of very
ancient date, Le Moustier, in which is a bed of sand having both above
and below floors of a similar character, containing charcoal, flint
instruments, and other remains. The depth of this sandy bed is about 10
inches, having the appearance of a river deposit; and, although many
flint instruments have been found in it of a more ancient date than
those unearthed in the other caves, yet no worked bone instruments have
been discovered. In another cave, the Langerie, bronze and polished
stone objects have been found, together with various kinds of pottery,
below which, and under masses of fallen rock, covered with Palæolithic
flints and sculptured bones and antlers of reindeer, a human skeleton
was discovered lying under a block of stone. In another cave, La
Madeleine, was found a mammoth tusk, on which was rudely carved a
picture of the animal itself, proving incontestably that cave-men
lived here in mammoth times. In the Mentone cave Dr. Rivière, in 1872,
suddenly came upon the bones of a human foot, which caused him to make
a very careful examination of the deposit, the result being that he
unearthed an entire human skeleton at a depth of 20 feet, surrounded by
a large number of unpolished flint flakes and scrapers, and a fragment
of a skewer, about six inches long. No metal, pottery, or polished
flint was found; but bones of extinct mammals were scattered about,
thus suggesting a remote Palæolithic antiquity. The skeleton is 5 feet
9 inches high, the skull dolichocephalic, forehead narrow, temple
flattened, and facial angle measuring 80 to 85 degrees; the teeth
were worn flat by eating hard food, and the long bones are strong and
flattened.
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