Evolution (Biology); Glacial epoch; Human beings -- Origin; Human evolution
M. Lartet having been shown, in 1860, the remains of some extinct
animals and works of art, found in digging the original trench made by
Bonnemaison through the bed d under the talus, and some others
brought out from the interior of the grotto, determined to investigate
systematically what remained intact of the deposits outside and inside
the vault, those inside, underlying the human skeletons, being supposed
to consist entirely of made ground. Having obtained the assistance of
some intelligent workmen, he personally superintended their labours, and
found outside the grotto, resting on the sloping terrace h k, the layer
of ashes and charcoal c, about 6 inches thick, extending over an area of
6 or 7 square yards, and going as far as the entrance of the grotto and
no farther, there being no cinders or charcoal in the interior. Among
the cinders outside the vault were fragments of fissile sandstone,
reddened by heat, which were observed to rest on a levelled surface of
Nummulitic limestone and to have formed a hearth. The nearest place from
whence such slabs of sandstone could have been brought was the opposite
side of the valley.
Among the ashes, and in some overlying earthy layers, d, separating the
ashes from the talus e, were a great variety of bones and implements;
amongst the latter not fewer than a hundred flint articles--knives,
projectiles, sling stones, and chips, and among them one of those
siliceous cores or nuclei with numerous facets, from which flint flakes
or knives had been struck off, seeming to prove that some instruments
were occasionally manufactured on the very spot.
Among other articles outside the entrance was found a stone of a
circular form, and flattened on two sides, with a central depression,
composed of a tough rock which does not belong to that region of the
Pyrenees. This instrument is supposed by the Danish antiquaries to have
been used for removing by skilful blows the edges of flint knives, the
fingers and thumb being placed in the two opposite depressions during
the operation. Among the bone instruments were arrows without barbs, and
other tools made of reindeer horn, and a bodkin formed out of the
more compact horn of the roedeer. This instrument was well shaped, and
sharply pointed, and in so good a state of preservation that it might
still be used for piercing the tough skins of animals.
Scattered through the same ashes and earth were the bones of the various
species of animals enumerated in the subjoined lists, with the exception
of two, marked with an asterisk, which only occurred in the interior of
the grotto:--
TABLE 10/1. NUMBERS OF INDIVIDUALS, BONES OF WHICH WERE FOUND IN THE
AURIGNAC CAVE.
COLUMN 1: NAME OF SPECIES.
COLUMN 2: NUMBER OF INDIVIDUALS.
1. CARNIVORA
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