Prehistoric manDuckworth, W. L. H. (Wynfrid Laurence Henry)
History
Prehistoric man
Duckworth, W. L. H. (Wynfrid Laurence Henry)
Prehistoric peoples
[Illustration: Fig. 22. Plan of the cave at La Chapelle-aux-Saints
(Corrèze). (From Boule.)]
The latter lay on the back, the right arm bent, the left extended; both
legs were contracted and to the right. In general, this attitude recalls
that of the skeletons of La Ferrassie and the Grotte des Enfants
(Grimaldi). At Le Moustier too, the skeleton was found in a somewhat
similar position.
At La Chapelle-aux-Saints, the associated fauna includes the Reindeer,
Horse, a large bovine form (? Bison), _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_, the Ibex,
Wolf, Marmot, Badger and Boar.
It would seem that this particular cave had served only as a tomb. For
other purposes its vertical extent is too small. The stone artefacts are
all perfect tools: no flakes or splinters being found as in habitations.
The animal remains are supposed to be relics of a funeral feast (or
feasts). But the presence of the Rhinoceros is perhaps antagonistic to
such an explanation.
_Le Moustier_ (_Dordogne_). The skeleton lay on its right side, the right
arm bent and supporting the head; the left arm was extended. The stratum
upon which the body rested consisted largely of worked flint implements.
These are assigned to the later Acheulean and earlier Mousterian epochs.
Two features in contrast with the conditions at La Chapelle are to be
noticed. It is doubtful whether the skeleton at Le Moustier had been
literally interred. It seems rather to have been placed on what was at
the time the floor of the grotto, and then covered partly with earth on
which implements were scattered. Indications of a definite grave were
found at La Chapelle. Again at Le Moustier, other parts of the same
grotto had been occupied as habitations of the living. At La Chapelle
this seems not to have been the case.
The evidence of the accompanying animal remains also differs in the two
cases. At Le Moustier, only small and very fragmentary animal bones with
the tooth of an ox were found in the immediate vicinity of the human
skeleton. An extended search revealed bones of _Bos primigenius_ in the
cave. No bones of the Reindeer were found and their absence is specially
remarked by Professor Klaatsch, as evidence that the skeleton at Le
Moustier is of greater antiquity than the skeleton accompanied by
reindeer bones at La Chapelle. In any case, it would seem that no great
lapse of time separates the two strata.
_La Ferrassie._ The skeleton was found in the same attitude as those of
La Chapelle and Le Moustier, viz. in the dorsal position, the right arm
bent, the left extended, both legs being strongly flexed at the knee and
turned to the right side. The bones were covered by some 3·5 m. of
_débris_: stone implements were yielded by strata above and below the
body respectively. Beneath the skeleton, the implements are of Acheulean
type, while above and around it the type of Le Moustier was encountered.
Aurignacian implements occurred still nearer the surface.
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