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
There is no doubt whatever that the new and entirely distinct Brünn race
penetrated the Danubian region at this time, but there is no evidence
from skeletal remains that it reached France. It is quite possible that
some of the flint workers adept in the Solutrean 'retouch' migrated into
the far western stations of Dordogne, bringing with them their beautiful
technique, but without leaving traces of their skeletal remains through
ceremonial burial. This unsettled problem affords one of the many reasons
why the anatomy of all the Upper Palæolithic men of western Europe should
be most carefully studied and compared.
Another mystery of Solutrean times is the arrest of the artistic impulse
which had animated the Crô-Magnons throughout the entire Aurignacian.
Evidences of artistic work in Solutrean times are very rare, and some
drawings which have been attributed to the Solutrean, as at Altamira, have
now been referred to the Magdalenian. Is it possible that the Crô-Magnon
race for a time suspended its artistic endeavor only to renew it under the
different conditions of environment of Magdalenian times? Unfortunately,
the Solutrean burials afford very little evidence on this point. One
interpretation which may be offered is that the Solutrean was evidently a
period of open-air life, and that the new implements of the chase of
Solutrean type absorbed the industrial energies of these people, for the
weapons were fashioned in enormous numbers. Consistent with this theory of
climatic influence is the fact that the return of the severe climate of
Magdalenian times, which crowded the men again into the shelters and
grottos, was accompanied by a renewal of the artistic development
continuing from the point where it had been interrupted in closing
Aurignacian times. That Aurignacian and Magdalenian art is the work of one
race there can be no question whatever; that this race was the Crô-Magnon
is now absolutely demonstrated.
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