Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and ArtOsborn, Henry Fairfield
History
Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and Art
Osborn, Henry Fairfield
Art, Primitive; Prehistoric peoples; Stone age
When the general geographic distribution of the Aurignacian (Fig. 153) is
compared with that of the Mousterian (Fig. 125) it is surprising to find
how many of the stations are identical; it would appear as if the
Crô-Magnons had driven the Neanderthals from their principal stations over
all of western Europe for the pursuit of their own industries and of the
chase. We have already spoken of the invasion of the Mousterian stations
along the Riviera, in the Pyrenees, in the Cantabrian Alps, and along the
Dordogne and the Somme; this occupation also extends along the Meuse, the
Rhine, and the Danube; but, whereas there are only six stations in all
Germany of unquestioned Mousterian age, there are more than double that
number in Aurignacian times. The Crô-Magnons entered the grottos of
Sirgenstein and Räuberhöhle, near the headwaters of the Danube; northwest
of Sirgenstein they established the open 'loess' station of Achenheim,
west of Strasburg; in the lower layers of the 'newer loess' was also the
station of Völklinshofen, south of Achenheim; along the middle Rhine were
the 'loess' stations of Rhens and Metternich, and to the far north, close
to the borders of the Scandinavian glacier, was the somewhat doubtful
Aurignacian station of Thiede. The Crô-Magnon men entered the Sirgenstein
grotto and scattered the implements of their culture above the 'lower
rodent layer,' composed of the Obi lemming, and also left remains of the
woolly rhinoceros, the woolly mammoth, the stag, and the reindeer on the
floor of the cavern. The Upper Aurignacian also extends down the Danube
as far as Willendorf, and possibly to Brünn, Moravia, which last, however,
may be of Solutrean age. Altogether between seventeen and twenty
Aurignacian stations have been discovered in the region north of the
Danube and along the Rhine.
[Illustration: FIG. 153. Geographic distribution of the principal
Aurignacian industrial stations in western Europe.]
[Illustration: FIG. 154. Outlook over the Bay of Biscay from the entrance
of the cavern of Pindal, in the province of Asturias, northern Spain.
Photograph by N. C. Nelson.]
AURIGNACIAN ART[AQ]
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