Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric PeoplesNadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
History
Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples
Nadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
Archaeology; Prehistoric peoples
We have also seen some fragments of earthenware from the caves of
Chiampo and Laglio, near Lake Como, and from that known as the Cave dei
Colombi, in tire island of Palmaria, which was occupied shortly before
the Neolithic period. But it is Belgium which yields the most decisive
proof on this subject, and a visit to the Brussels Museum is enough to
convince the most incredulous. The excavations made under M. Dupont in
the caves of the Meuse and the Lesse have again and again brought to
light fragments of pottery, associated with the bones of Palæolithic
animals. Schmerling, too, had already found similar fragments in the
Engis Cave, mixed with flint weapons of the rudest description; and his
discoveries have been strikingly confirmed by those recently made at
Spy, near Namur,14 and by others made by M. Fraipont.15 In portions of
this same Engis Cave not previously explored the learned professor of
Liège found, in 1887, fragments of a vase of ovoid form, some flints of
the Moustérien type, and some bones of extinct mammals. Most of the
pottery in the Brussels Museum is black and of primitive make; some few
fragments, however, are of finished workmanship. We may mention
especially an ovoid vase, remarkable for its size and for its lateral
projections. This vase, which is hand-modelled, came from the Frontal
Cave; the clay is of blackish hue mixed with little bits of calcareous
spar. M. Ordinaire, Vice-Consul for France at Callao, speaks of the
_cayanes_ or _macahuas_, which are earthenware basins of great symmetry
of form, made by the Combos women, without turning wheels or mills of
any kind. Though the elegant shape of the Frontal and other vases at
first surprises us, reflection convinces us that men who could cut
stones with such rare skill would certainly be able to produce equally
good pottery.
[Illustration: 26.]
Pottery of a so far unclassified type found in the Argent Cave
(France).
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