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
It is probable that our savage ancestors tatooed themselves, or painted
their bodies, as did the Britons in the time of Cæsar, and as do modern
savages, or, not to go so far afield, as do English sailors and some of
the workingmen of France.20 At Montastruc have been picked up some
fragments of red chalk, and in Mayenne of red iron ore, whilst in the
cave of Spy was found a bone filled with a very fine red powder, and in
that of Saltpêtrière some powder of the same kind was discovered
preserved from destruction in a shell. Lartet and Christy have made
similar discoveries in the caves of the Dordogne; M. Dupont in a
shelter at Chaleux, and M. Rivière at Baoussé-Roussé. The Abbé
Bourgeois found at Villehonneur not only a piece of red chalk as big as
a nut, but also an oval-shaped pebble, which had been used for grinding
it, the interstices of the surface still retaining traces of coloring
matter.
Red chalk was not the only substance employed. At Chatelperron, were
picked up fragments of manganese; at Cueva de Rocca, near Valentia,
pieces of cinnabar; in the Placard Cave, bits of black lead; and in the
different stations in the Pyrenees, especially in that of Aurensan,
ochre has been found which was doubtless used for the same purpose. At
Solutré, ochre, manganese, and graphite were found; the last named had
been scraped with a flint, and the scratches made by it are still
distinctly visible. From a Westphalian cave, Schaafhausen took some
dark yellow ochre; at Castern (Staffordshire), a bit of this same
calcareous substance, worn with long service, was picked tip; in
Cantire (Argyleshire), a piece of red hematite, which had evidently
been brought from Westmoreland or Lancashire; and lastly, in Kent’s
Hole was found some peroxide of manganese.
All these fragments of ochre or manganese, red chalk or black lead,
were reduced to powder with the help of pebbles, artificially hollowed
out. Everywhere we meet with these primitive mortars, and side by side
with them other pebbles in their native condition, which had evidently
been used for crushing the coloring matter.
A recent discovery tends to confirm the hypothesis that these colors
were used for the decoration of the human body. A curious engraving on
a bone represents the head and arm of a man, and on the lower part of
the forearm it is easy to make out a four-sided design which evidently
indicated tatooing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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