Chapter XXI: Introduction: Industrial and Artistic Development (1)

Well as this culture is known, its origin is obscured by the fact that it shows little or no connection with the preceding Solutrean industry, which, as we have noted (p. 331), seems like a technical invasion in the history of western Europe and not an inherent part of the main line of cultural development. Thus Breuil(1) observes that it appears as if the fundamental elements of the superior Aurignacian culture had contributed by some unknown route to constitute the kernel of the Magdalenian civilization while the Solutrean episode was going on elsewhere. Again, early Magdalenian art bears striking resemblances to the superior Aurignacian art of the Pyrenees, especially the parietal art, as shown by comparing the Aurignacian engravings of Gargas with the early Magdalenian of Combarelles. Moreover, the same author observes that, if there is one certain prehistoric fact, it is that the first Magdalenian culture was not evolved from the Solutrean--that these Magdalenians were newcomers in western France, as unskilful in the art of shaping and retouching flints as their predecessors were skilled. Ancient Magdalenian hearths are found in many localities close to the levels of the upper Solutrean industries with their shouldered spear points (_pointes à cran_) and highly perfected flint work. Yet the Magdalenians show a radical departure from the Solutrean type of flint working; both in Dordogne (Laugerie Haute and Laussel) and in Charente (Placard) the splinters of flint are massive, heavy, badly selected, often of poor quality, and poorly retouched, sometimes almost in an Eolithic manner; at the same time, the chance flints, that is, the piercers and graving-tools made from splinters of any accidental shape, are abundant. To these people flint implements appear to be altogether of secondary importance; although the flints are very numerous, they are not finished with any of the perfection of the Solutrean technique; the laurel-leaf spear head and shouldered dart head have disappeared entirely, but a great variety of smaller graving and chasing forms are employed for fashioning the implements of bone and horn. What a contrast to the beautiful flints so finely retouched and of such carefully selected materials, found in the very same stations in middle and upper Solutrean layers!

Thus Breuil, always predisposed to believe in an invasion of culture rather than in an autochthonous development, favors the theory of eastern origin for the Magdalenian industry, because this is not wanting either in Austria or in Poland; two sites of ancient Magdalenian industry have been found by Obermaier in the 'loess' stations of Austria, while in Russian Poland the grotto of Mas̆zycka, near Ojcow, exhibits workings in bone resembling those found at the grotto of Placard, Charente, in the layers directly succeeding the base of the Magdalenian. The fact that near the Ural Mountains there has also been found a peculiar Magdalenian culture, the origin of which is not western, inclines us to believe that the Magdalenian culture extended from the east toward the west, and then, later, toward the Baltic.

This theory of the eastern origin of the Magdalenian industry has, however, to face, first, the very strong counter-evidence of the close affinity between Aurignacian and Magdalenian art, which Breuil himself has done the most to demonstrate; second, the physical, mental, and especially the artistic unity of the Crô-Magnon race in Aurignacian and Magdalenian times. The recent discovery of two Crô-Magnon skeletons together with two carved bone implements of Magdalenian type, at Obercassel, on the Rhine, links the art with this race and with no other, because, as we remarked above, an artistic instinct and ability cannot be passed from one race to another like the technique of a handicraft. Breuil(2) himself has positively stated that the whole Upper Palæolithic art development of Europe was the work of one race: if so, this race can be no other than the Crô-Magnon.

We must, therefore, revert to the explanation offered in a preceding chapter, that the Solutrean technique was an intrusion or an invasion either brought in by another race or acquired from the craftsmen of some easterly race, perhaps that of Brünn, Brüx, and Předmost. Why the art of fashioning these perfect Solutrean spear, dart, and arrow heads was lost is very difficult to explain, because they appear to be the most effective implements of war and of the chase which were ever developed by Palæolithic workmen.

It is possible, although not probable, that the bow was introduced at this time and that a less perfect flint point, fastened to a shaft like an arrow-head and projected with great velocity and accuracy, proved to be far more effective than the spear. The bison in the cavern of Niaux show several barbed points adhering to the sides, and the symbol of the _flèche_ appears on the sides of many of the bison, cattle, and other animals of the chase in Magdalenian drawings. From these drawings and symbols it would appear that barbed weapons of some kind were used in the chase, but no _barbed_ flints occur at any time in the Palæolithic, nor has any trace been found of bone barbed arrow-heads or any direct evidence of the existence of the bow.

In compensation for the decline of flint is the rapid development of bone implements, the most distinctive feature of Magdalenian industry. In the late Solutrean we have noted the occasional appearance of the bone javelin points (_sagaies_) with their decorative _motifs_; these become much more frequent in Magdalenian times. They occur in the most ancient Magdalenian levels of the grotto of Placard, Charente, which are prior even to the appearance of prototypes of the harpoon, the evolution of which clearly marks off the early, middle, and late divisions of Magdalenian times. These primitive javelins, decorated in a characteristic fashion, are found in Poland, at the grotto of Kesslerloch and other places in Switzerland, at many stations in Dordogne and the region of the Pyrenees in southern France, and in the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain.

It is only above the levels where early types of these javelin points occur that the rudimentary harpoons of the typical early Magdalenian are found. The discovery of the bone harpoon as a means of catching fish marks an important addition to the food supply, which was apparently followed by a decline in the chase. Later, to the javelin, lance, and harpoon is added the dart-thrower (_propulseur_), which gradually spreads all over western Europe, where also the evolution of these bone implements and of the decoration with which they are richly adorned enables the trained archæologist to establish corresponding subdivisions of Magdalenian time.

From the uniform character of Palæolithic art in its highest forms of engraving, painting, and animal sculpture we may infer the probable unity of the Crô-Magnon race, especially throughout western Europe. During Magdalenian times various branches of art reached their highest point and were the culmination of a movement begun in the early Aurignacian. The artist, whose life brought him into close touch with nature and who evidently followed the movements both of the individual animals and of the herds for hours at a time, has rendered his observations in the most realistic manner. Among the animals represented are the bison, mammoth, wild horse, reindeer, wild cattle, deer, and rhinoceros; less frequent are representations of the ibex, wolf, and wild boar, and there are comparatively few representations of fishes or of any form of plant life; the nobler beasts of prey, such as the lion and the bear, are often represented, but there are no figures of the skulking hyæna, which at that time was a rare if not almost extinct animal. While many figures are of real artistic worth and reach a high level, others are more or less crude attempts; the composition of figures or of groups of animals is rarely undertaken.

The artistic sense of these people is also manifest in the decoration of their household utensils and weapons of the chase. Here the smaller animals of the chase, the saiga, the ibex, and the chamois, are executed with a sure hand. Sculpture of animal forms in the large, which begins in Solutrean times, is continued and reaches its highest point in the early Magdalenian. At this period the use of sculpture as a means of decoration arises and extends into the middle and late Magdalenian. These latter divisions are also distinguished by the reappearance of human figurines, nude, like the Aurignacian, and occasionally somewhat more slender. Thus it would appear that the artistic spirit, more or less dormant in Solutrean times, was revived.

In the variety of industries we find evidences of a race endowed with closely observant and creative minds, in which the two chief motives of life seem to have been the chase and the pursuit of art. The Magdalenian flints are fashioned in a somewhat different manner from the Solutrean: long, slender flakes or 'blades' with little or no retouch are frequent, and in other implements the work is apparently carried only to a point where the flint will serve its purpose. No attempt is made to attain perfect symmetry. Thus the old technical impulse of the flint industry seems to be far less than that among the makers of the Solutrean flints, while a new technical impulse manifests itself in several branches of art: arms and utensils are carved in ivory, reindeer horn and bone, and sculpture and engraving on bone and ivory are greatly developed. We find that these people are beginning to utilize the walls of dark, mysterious caverns for their drawings and paintings, which show deep appreciation for the perfection of the animal form, depicted by them in most lifelike attitudes.

We may infer that there was a tribal organization, and it has been suggested that certain unexplained implements of reindeer horn, often beautifully carved and known as 'bâtons de commandement,' were insignia of authority borne by the chieftains.

There can be little doubt that such diversities of temperament, of talent, and of predisposition as obtain to-day also prevailed then, and that they tended to differentiate society into chieftains, priests, and medicine-men, hunters of large game and fishermen, fashioners of flints and dressers of hides, makers of clothing and footwear, makers of ornaments, engravers, sculptors in wood, bone, ivory, and stone, and artists with color and brush. In their artistic work, at least, these people were animated with a compelling sense of truth, and we cannot deny them a strong appreciation of beauty.

It is probable that a sense of wonder in the face of the powers of nature was connected with the development of a religious sentiment. How far their artistic work in the caverns was an expression of such sentiment and how far it was the outcome of a purely artistic impulse are matters for very careful study. Undoubtedly the inquisitive sense which led them into the deep and dangerous recesses of the caverns was accompanied by an increased sense of awe and possibly by a sentiment which we may regard as more or less religious. We may dwell for a moment on this very interesting problem of the origin of religion during the Old Stone Age, so that the reader may judge for himself in connection with the ensuing accounts of Magdalenian art.

"The religious phenomenon," observes James,(3) "has shown itself to consist everywhere, and in all its stages, in the consciousness which individuals have of an intercourse between themselves and higher powers with which they feel themselves to be related. This intercourse is realized at the time as being both active and mutual.... The gods believed in--whether by crude savages or by men disciplined intellectually--agree with each other in recognizing personal calls.... To coerce the spiritual powers, or to square them and get them on our side, was, during enormous tracts of time, the one great object in our dealings with the natural world."

The study of this race, in our opinion, would suggest a still earlier phase in the development of religious thought than that considered by James, namely, a phase in which the wonders of nature in their various manifestations begin to arouse in the primitive mind a desire for an explanation of these phenomena, and in which it is attempted to seek such cause in some vague supernatural power underlying these otherwise unaccountable occurrences, a cause to which the primitive human spirit commences to make its appeal. According to certain anthropologists,[AU] this wonder-working force may either be personal, like the gods of Homer, or impersonal, like the _Mana_ of the Melanesian, or the _Manitou_ of the North American Indian. It may impress an individual when he is in a proper frame of mind, and through magic or propitiation may be brought into relation with his individual ends. Magic and religion jointly belong to the supernatural as opposed to the every-day world of the savage.

We have already seen evidence from the burials that these people apparently believed in the preparation of the bodies of the dead for a future existence. How far these beliefs and the votive sense of propitiation for protection and success in the chase are indicated by the art of the caverns is to be judged in connection with their entire life and productive effort, with their burials associated with offerings of implements and articles of food, and with their art.

THE THREE CLIMATIC CYCLES OF MAGDALENIAN TIMES

The culture of the Crô-Magnons was doubtless influenced by the changing climatic conditions of Magdalenian times, which were quite varied, so that we may trace three parallel lines of development: that of environment, as indicated by the climate and the forms of animal life, that of industry, and that of art.

The entire climatic, life, and industrial cycle of which the Magdalenian marks the conclusion has been presented in Chapter IV (p. 281). After a very long period of cold and somewhat arid climate following the fourth glaciation, it would appear that western Europe in early Magdalenian times again experienced a stage of increasing cold and moisture accompanied by the renewed advance of the glaciers in the Alpine region, in Scandinavia, and in Great Britain. This is known as the _Bühl_ stage in the Alps, in which the snow-line descended 2,700 feet below its present level and the great glaciers thrust down along the southerly borders of Lake Lucerne a series of new moraines distinctly overlying those of the fourth glaciation. Another indication of the lowered temperature and increased moisture in the same geographic region is found in the return of the arctic lemmings from the northern tundras; these migrants have left their remains in several of the large grottos north of the Alps, especially in Schweizersbild and Kesslerloch, composing what is known as the _Upper Rodent Layer_, with which are associated the implements and art objects of the early Magdalenian culture stage.

We have adopted the minimum estimate of 25,000 years since the fourth glaciation, but Heim(4) has estimated that the much more recent prehistoric event of the advance of this minor _Bühl_ glaciation began at least 24,000 years ago, that it extended over a very long period of time, and that the _Bühl_ moraines in Lake Lucerne are at least 16,000 years of age.

The three climatic changes of Magdalenian times are therefore as follows:

First, the _Bühl_ Postglacial Stage in the Alps, which corresponds with what Geikie has named the Fifth Glacial Epoch, or _Lower Turbarian_, in Scotland; for he believes that a relapse to cold conditions in northern Britain was accompanied by a partial subsidence of the coast lands, that snow-fields again appeared, that considerable glaciers descended the mountain valleys, and even reached the sea. At this time the arctic alpine flora of Scotland also descended to within 150 feet of the sea-level. The result of this renewed or fifth glaciation in western Europe was the advent of the great wave of tundra life and the descent to the plains of all the forms of Alpine life.

Second, it would appear that in middle Magdalenian times, after the _Bühl_ advance, there occurred a temporary retreat of the ice-fields, and that during this period the full tide of life from the steppes of western Asia and eastern Europe for the first time spread over western Europe, including especially such animals as the jerboa and the saiga antelope, the dwarf pika and steppe hamster. Correlation is very hazardous, but this ice retreat may correspond with the _Upper Forestian_, or Fifth Interglacial Stage in Scotland, described by Geikie, the stage which he mentions as marked by the elevation of the Scottish coast with the retreat of the sea beyond the present coast-lines; geographic changes which were accompanied by the disappearance of perennial snow and ice, and the return of more genial conditions. The tundra fauna still prevailed; such a typical arctic animal as the musk-ox wandered as far south as Dordogne and the Pyrenees, and became one of the objects of the chase. During what is known as the middle or 'full Magdalenian' the tundra, steppe, alpine, forest, and meadow faunæ spread over the plains and valleys throughout western Europe.

Third, the second Postglacial advance, known as the _Gschnitz_ stage in the Alpine region, appears to have been contemporaneous with the closing period of Magdalenian culture. This was the last great effort of the ice-fields to conquer western Europe, and in the Alpine region the snow-line descended 1,800 feet below the present levels; it marked the closing stage of the long cold climatic period that had favored the presence of the reindeer, the woolly mammoth, and the woolly rhinoceros in western Europe, as well as the close of the 'Reindeer Epoch' of Lartet. Again, in the north of Britain Geikie observes an _Upper Turbarian_ or Sixth Glacial Epoch, accompanied by a partial subsidence of the Scottish coast, and the return of a cold and wet climate; there is evidence of the existence of snow glaciers upon the high mountains only. The _Gschnitz_ stage marks the end of glacial conditions in Europe, the retreat of the tundra and steppe faunæ, and the predominance of the forest and meadow environment and life.

In the Alps there was, however, still a final effort of the glaciers, known as the _Daun_ stage, which, it is believed, broadly corresponds with the period of the Azilian-Tardenoisian industry, and a climatic condition in Europe favorable to the spread of the Eurasiatic forest and meadow life.

The key to this great prehistoric chronology is found in palæontology. The arctic tundra rodents especially are the most invaluable timekeepers; according to Schmidt(5) there is no doubt whatever that the _Upper Rodent Layer_, composed of the animals of the second invasion from the arctic tundras, corresponds, on the one hand, with the beginning of the Magdalenian industry and, on the other, with the renewed glacial advance in the Alpine region, known as the _Bühl_ stage, and probably also with that in the north. The _Upper Rodent Layer_ of Magdalenian times is found in the remarkably complete succession of deposits at the stations of Schweizersbild and Kesslerloch, which are more recent in time than the 'low terraces' bordering the neighboring River Rhine. The fossil animals prove that after the extreme cold of early Magdalenian times the tundra fauna gradually gave way to a wide-spread steppe fauna. Along the Rhine and the Danube the banded lemmings become less frequent; the jerboas, hamsters, and susliks of the steppes become more abundant. Exactly similar changes are observed in Dordogne. In Longueroche, on the Vézère, there occur for the first time in western Europe great numbers of rabbits (_Lepus cuniculus_); numerous hares (_Lepus timidus_) are also observed at the type station of La Madeleine, especially in the uppermost and lowermost culture layers. These small rabbits probably came from the Mediterranean region and denote a slight elevation of temperature. But it is only in the very highest Magdalenian layers that the animal life of western Europe begins to approach that of recent times, namely, that of the prehistoric forest and meadow faunæ.

MAMMALIAN LIFE OF MAGDALENIAN TIMES

Thus it is very important to keep in mind that during Magdalenian times there were both cold and moist periods favorable to tundra life and cold and arid periods favorable to steppe life. In the latter were deposited the sheets of 'upper loess.'

The mammalian life of Magdalenian times is of interest not only in connection with the climate and environment of the Crô-Magnon race, but with the development of their industry and especially of their art. It is noteworthy that the imposing forms of animal life, the mammoth among the tundra fauna and the bison among the meadow fauna, made a very strong impression and were the favorite subjects of the draftsmen and colorists; but the eye was also susceptible to the beauty of the reindeer, the stag, and the horse and to the grace of the chamois. The artists and sculptors have preserved the external appearance of more than thirty forms of this wonderful mammalian assemblage, which accord exactly with the fossil records preserved in the fire-hearths of the grottos and shelters, and with the deposits assembled by beasts and birds of prey in the uninhabited caverns.

No artists have ever had before them at the same time and in the same country such a wonderful panorama of animal life as that observed by the Crô-Magnons. Their representations in drawing, engraving, painting, and sculpture afford us a view of a great part of the life of the period, including its contingent of forms from the tundras, steppes, Alpine summits, and Eurasiatic forests and meadows, and the one surviving member of the Asiatic fauna, the lion.

The paintings and drawings of Dordogne chiefly represent the mammoth, reindeer, rhinoceros, bison, horses, wild cattle, red deer, ibex, lion, and bear. The caverns of the Pyrenees of southern France present chiefly bison, horses, deer, wild cattle, ibex, and chamois; the reindeer and mammoth are relatively rare, and in some cases entirely wanting in the parietal art; this is singular because in the Pyrenees the reindeer constituted the principal food of the authors of the drawings and frescos. In the caves of the Cantabrian Mountains representations of the reindeer are entirely absent, while the doe and stag of the red deer are frequently pictured; there are only a few representations of the mammoth and one of the cave-bear. In the drawings of eastern Spain deer and wild cattle are abundantly represented, and there is undoubtedly a representation of the moose at Alpera.

_Favorite Art Subjects_

TUNDRA LIFE.
Mammoth.
Woolly rhinoceros.
Reindeer.
Musk-ox.

STEPPE LIFE.
Steppe horse.
Saiga antelope.
Wild ass, kiang.

ASIATIC LIFE.
Lion.
Desert horse.

ALPINE LIFE.
Ibex.
Chamois.

MEADOW LIFE.
Bison.
Wild cattle.

FOREST LIFE.
Red deer, stag.
Forest horse.
Cave-bear.
Wolf.
Fox.
Wild boar.
Moose.
Fallow deer.

SEA LIFE.
Seal.

REPTILES, BIRDS, FISHES.
(Rarely depicted.)

As regards the sources of this great fauna, we have observed that in late Aurignacian and Solutrean times, at Předmost, Moravia, and elsewhere, the steppe fauna was not richly represented in western Europe, for it included only the steppe horse and the wild Asiatic ass or kiang; that the contemporary tundra fauna lacked two of the smaller but most characteristic forms, the banded and the Obi lemmings, although all of the large tundra forms were still wide-spread and freely intermingled with the forest and meadow life; and that preying upon these herbivorous mammals were the surviving Asiatic lions and hyænas.

The successive faunal phases of Magdalenian times, beginning with the early cold and moist or tundra period, have been determined with wonderful precision by Schmidt from the animal remains found associated with the lower, middle, and upper Magdalenian cultures in the grotto and cavern deposits of northern Switzerland, of the upper Rhine, and of the upper Danube. This region was lacking in some of the characteristic animals seen in Dordogne, yet these invaluable records show that throughout the entire period of Magdalenian times, probably extending over some thousands of years, the forests, meadows, and river borders of western Europe maintained the entire existing, or rather prehistoric, forest and meadow faunæ. The royal stag, or red deer (_Cervus elaphus_), was no longer accompanied by the giant deer (_Megaceros_), which apparently left this region of Europe in Aurignacian times, but the maral or Persian deer (_Cervus maral_) occasionally appears; both the stag and the roe-deer (_Capreolus_) were especially abundant in southwestern Europe and the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain, where the stag became the favorite subject of the Magdalenian artists at the same time that the reindeer was the favorite subject in the region of Dordogne. In the forests were also the brown bear, the lynx, the badger, the marten, and in the streams the beaver; tree squirrels (_Sciurus vulgaris_) appear for the first time; and in Dordogne rabbits and hares become numerous. Among birds we observe the grouse and the raven. The wild boar (_Sus scrofa ferus_) was occasionally found in the region of the Danube and the Rhine, but abounded in southwestern Europe and the Pyrenees. The two dominant forms of meadow life surviving from the earliest Pleistocene times, and widely distributed throughout the Magdalenian are the bison (_B. priscus_) and the wild cattle (_Bos primigenius_); of these animals the bison appears to have been the more hardy, and seeking a more northerly range, while the urus was extremely abundant in southwestern France and the Pyrenees.

In connection with art, the majestic form of the bison seemed to strike the fancy of the artist more than the less-imposing outlines of the wild cattle; there are perhaps fifty drawings of the bison to one of the _Bos_. Among the forest and meadow life, not recognized in the fossil remains, but clearly distinguished in the work of the artists, are two types of horses, the forest or Nordic horse, related to the northern or draught horse, and the diminutive plateau or desert horse (_E. caballus celticus_) related to the Arab. With the forest life should also be numbered the cave bear (_Ursus spelæus_) of southwestern Europe and the moose (_Alces_), indicated by the artists of Aurignacian times as present in the Cantabrian Pyrenees.

It is the above entire Eurasiatic forest and meadow fauna which survived all the climatic vicissitudes of Pleistocene time, and which alone remained in western Europe to the very close of the Upper Palæolithic culture, and into the period of the arrival of the Neolithic race.

The descent of the European and Asiatic alpine types of mammals to the lower hills and valleys is one of the most striking episodes of Magdalenian times. The argali sheep (_Ovis argaloides_) of western Asia had already appeared in the upper Danubian region during the Aurignacian; it is replaced in Magdalenian times by the ibex (_Ibex priscus_), and by the chamois, which descended along the northern slopes of the Alps and of the Pyrenees, and became numbered among the most highly favored subjects of the Magdalenian artists, especially in the mobile art of ivory and bone, and in the decoration of their spear throwers and _bâtons de commandement_. From the mountains also come the pikas or tailless hares (_Lagomys pusillus_), the alpine marmot (_Arctomys marmotta_), the alpine vole (_Arvicola nivalis_), and the alpine ptarmigan (_Lagopus alpinus_).

THE TUNDRA CLIMATE OF EARLY MAGDALENIAN TIMES

In the first cold moist period the full wave of arctic tundra life appeared in the whole region between the Alpine and Scandinavian glaciers during the renewed descent of the ice-fields; this was the tundra stage of early Magdalenian times, accompanying the _Bühl_ advance. At the stations of Thaingen, Schweizersbild, Kastlhäng, and Niedernau, appears the musk-ox, together with the woolly mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and the reindeer. The discovery of the grotto of Kastlhäng, a reindeer hunting station in the Altmühltale of Bavaria(6) fills out what has long been a gap in the geographic distribution of the early Magdalenian. The principal objects of the chase here were the reindeer, the wild horse, the arctic hare, and the ptarmigan; the royal stag is very rare, and the bison is wanting entirely; a strong arctic character is given to the fauna by the presence of the banded lemming, the arctic wolverene, and the arctic fox. From this region the musk-ox migrated far to the southwest, reaching the northern slopes of the Pyrenees. At the same time the arctic grouse, the whistling swan, and other northern birds entered the region of the Rhine and the Danube. But the surest indicators of a cold tundra climate prevailing during the period of the _Bühl_ advance are the banded lemming (_Myodes torquatus_) and the Obi lemming (_Myodes obensis_), which are found in the same deposits with the arctic hare, the reindeer, and the woolly mammoth mixed with the implements of the early Magdalenian industry at the stations of Sirgenstein, Wildscheuer, and Ofnet along the upper and middle Danube. There also appear the ermine and the arctic wolverene; in fact, almost all the characteristic forms of tundra life except the polar bear, which only enters the northern tundras in the summer season.

The regions of the northern Alps bordering the great glaciers of the _Bühl_ and _Gschnitz_ advances, were barren stretches of rock, and the valleys and plateaus now free from ice became tundras, where the swamps alternated with patches of polar willows and stunted fir-trees, while other areas were covered with low, scrubby birches, or reindeer moss and lichens. The return of these hard conditions of life undoubtedly exerted a great influence both upon the physical and mental development of the Crô-Magnon race; it was at the very period when the life conditions in western Europe were most severe that the artistic development of these people began to revive. Forced to return to the shelters and grottos, which certainly were less frequented in Solutrean times, there was time for the development of the imagination and for its expression both in the mobile and parietal arts. There was a less vigorous development of the flint industry, and apparently a degeneration in physique and stature.

In Germany and northern Switzerland, on the headwaters of the Rhine and the Danube, the entrance and departure of the northern waves of life are recorded, especially in the grottos of Sirgenstein, Schussenquelle, Andernach, Schmiechenfels, and Propstfels. It would appear that the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros were not hunted in this region, for their remains are not preserved in any of the grottos or stations mingled with the middle or late Magdalenian cultures. On the other hand, we find the steppe horse, the kiang, the stag, and the reindeer very abundant indeed. The bison is absent, and wild cattle are very rare; so that this region is not typical of the mammalian life of Magdalenian times as found in Dordogne and in the Pyrenees.

The migration of the woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros along the Pyrenees and westward into the Cantabrian Mountains, and the crossing of the Pyrenees by the reindeer, have already been described. In the mural frescos of Font-de-Gaume, Dordogne, it is noteworthy that the very latest engravings are those of the mammoth superposed on the fine polychromes which belong to the period of middle Magdalenian art.

THE DRY STEPPE CLIMATE OF MIDDLE MAGDALENIAN TIMES

The cold, dry period, when the full tide of steppe life reached western Europe, is of somewhat uncertain date; it probably began during the stage of the middle Magdalenian industry and continued into the late or high Magdalenian. There was certainly an environment attractive to these peculiar and very highly specialized mammals, which at the present time are neutral in color, swift of foot, inured to existence on very sparse vegetation, and adapted to extremes of heat and cold. Among the smaller steppe forms were the suslik or pouched marmot of the steppes (_Spermophilus rufescens_) and the steppe hamster (_Cricetus phæus_), also the Siberian vole (_Arvicola gregalis_); still more characteristic was the great jerboa (_Alactaga jaculus_), with long, springy hind legs, and the saiga antelope (_Antilope saiga_). With these mammals appeared the steppe grouse (_Perdix cinerea_), which is found along the Danube in late Magdalenian strata; another bird characteristic of the northern steppes and tundras is the 'woodcock owl' (_Brachyotus palustris_). Accompanying these mammals was undoubtedly the steppe horse (_Equus przewalski_), now restricted to the desert of Gobi; it is said to occur in the grottos of northern Switzerland.

It would appear that the saiga antelope may have reached eastern Europe in late Solutrean times, for its outline is said to be found in an engraving at Solutré. Widely spread over Europe was the giant Elasmothere; it would seem very unlikely that this animal was present in Magdalenian times, for it certainly would have attracted the attention of the artists. Neither have we any positive artistic records of the wild ass, or kiang, although certain of the drawings in the grottos of Niaux and Marsoulas, of the middle Magdalenian, also of Albarracin, in Spain, may be interpreted as representing this animal. Thus the Asiatic steppe and desert fauna, which in the region of the upper Rhine and Danube was restricted to two species of mammals in Aurignacian and Solutrean times, rises to nine or ten species in middle Magdalenian times, so that for the first time during the entire 'Reindeer Epoch' the steppe and tundra faunæ are equally balanced. There are also six or seven species of birds from the moors and uplands of central Asia. The bird life depicted in middle Magdalenian art includes the ptarmigan or grouse, the wild swan, geese, and ducks.

The present flora of the subarctic steppes in southeastern Russia and southwestern Siberia includes forests of pine, larch, birch, oak, alder, and willow, extending along the banks of the rivers and streams and interspersed with broad, low, grassy plains. There are many gradations between the low and high steppes;(7) the climate in summer is relatively warm, the temperature rising to 70°, while the average temperature in mid-winter hardly exceeds 30°; in general there is a strong contrast between the summer and winter seasons, the steppe lands in summer are practically rainless, so that the sand and dust rise with every wind. Thus, both in summer and winter sand and dust storms play an important rôle. The great snow-storms of the subarctic steppes are as destructive as those of the more northerly tundras and often result in great loss of life. Numerous discoveries tend to prove that similar conditions prevailed in western Europe during Magdalenian times. Thus at Châteauneuf-sur-Charente, a mingled tundra and steppe fauna is found containing the bones of many young animals which must have perished during a blizzard. It will be recalled that in this region is the station of Le Placard of late Solutrean and Magdalenian age. Near Würzburg, Bavaria, there is a fauna buried in the 'loess' containing twenty species of mammals of the tundras and steppes, together with the bison and the urus.(8)

Perhaps the strongest proof of the extension of cold, dry steppe conditions of climate is the migration of the saiga antelope (_Saiga tartarica_) into the Dordogne region, where it is represented both in carvings and engravings, and into other parts of southwestern France, where its fossil remains have been found in thirteen localities in association with a cold steppe fauna. In the same region have been found the remains of the musk-ox (_Ovibos_), one of the most distinctive members of the arctic fauna.

HUMAN RACES OF MAGDALENIAN TIMES

It appears that the Crô-Magnon race continued to prevail, yet anthropologists have long been divided in opinion as to the racial affinity of the men found in the Magdalenian industrial stage. The most famous burials are those of Laugerie Basse and Chancelade in Dordogne, each consisting of skeletons of inferior stature, not improbably belonging to women. They certainly represent a race somewhat different from the typical Crô-Magnons of Aurignacian times, as found at Crô-Magnon and in Grimaldi. The archæologist de Mortillet referred both these skeletons to a new race, the _race de Laugerie_. Schliz, who has most recently reviewed this subject, has, however, rightly treated all these people as Crô-Magnons of a modified type.

The Magdalenian skeleton of Laugerie Basse, found by Massénat in 1872, was resting on the back, with the limbs flexed, and with it was a necklace of pierced shells from the Mediterranean: the body apparently had been covered with a layer of Magdalenian implements. According to the length of the femur, the individual was 1.65 m., or 5 feet 1 inch in height; the bones were strong and compact; the skull was well arched, with a straight forehead and a cephalic index of 73.2 per cent.

The so-called Chancelade skeleton was found in the shelter of Raymonden in 1888, at a depth of 5 feet, and was also in a folded position, resting directly on the rock and covered with several layers of artifacts of the later Magdalenian culture; the limbs were so tightly flexed as to prove that they had been enveloped in bandages. This skeleton shows a well-arched skull, a high, wide forehead, and a dolichocephalic head form, but the limbs are comparatively small, the height not exceeding 1.50 m., or about 4 feet 7 inches; the upper arm and thigh are short, compact, and clumsy, and the femur is crooked with comparatively thick ends; this skeleton is generally classed with the Crô-Magnon race, but Klaatsch considers that it may belong to a distinct type. We cannot disregard, says Breuil,(9) the anatomical characters attributed by Testut to the man of Chancelade and its resemblances to the actual Eskimo type; this indication is in favor of a new element, arriving perhaps from Asiatic Siberia, but acquiring in western Europe the artistic culture realized and conserved in certain districts by the Aurignacian tribes and their derivatives. All of the Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian races, however, recall very forcibly the race of Crô-Magnon, which tends to prove that these transformations in culture were not made without a notable element of human continuity.

DISCOVERIES OF MAGDALENIAN AGE CHIEFLY ATTRIBUTED TO THE CRÔ-MAGNON RACE[AV]

+===================================================================+
| Date of | | |
|Discovery | Locality | Nature of Remains |
|----------|---------------------------------|----------------------|
|1863. |Bruniquel (Tarn-et-Garonne, |Skeletal fragments. |
| | France). | Burial. |
|1864. |La Madeleine (Dordogne, France). |Skeletal fragments. |
|1869. |Laugerie Basse I (Dordogne, |Skeletal fragments. |
| | France). | |
|1871. |Gourdan (Haute-Garonne, France). |Skeletal fragments. |
|1872. |Laugerie Basse II (Dordogne, |1 skeleton. Burial. |
| | France). | |
|1872-1873.|Sorde (Duruthy) (Landes, France).|1 skeleton. Burial. |
|1874. |Freudenthal (near Schaffhausen, |Fragments of skulls |
| | Switzerland). | and of pelvis. |
|1874. |Kesslerloch (near Thaingen, | |
| | Switzerland). |Collar-bone. |
|1883. |Le Placard (Charente, France). |8 skulls, chiefly |
| | | fragmentary. |
|1888. |Chancelade (Raymonden) (Dordogne,|1 skeleton, almost |
| | France). | complete. Burial. |
|1894. |Les Hôteaux (Ain, France). |1 skeleton, almost |
| | | complete. Burial. |
|1914. |Obercassel (near Bonn, Germany). |2 skeletons, male and |
| | | female, almost |
| | | complete. Burial. |
| | | Early Magdalenian. |
| |Les Eyzies (Dordogne, France). |Skeletal fragments. |
| |La Mouthe (Dordogne, France). |1 tooth, 1 vertebra. |
| |Limeuil (Dordogne, France). |Skull fragments. |
| |Grotte des Hommes (Yonne, |3 skulls and other |
| | France). | skeletal fragments. |
| |Brassempouy (Landes, France). |2 teeth. |
| |Grotte des Fées (Gironde, |Fragments of upper |
| | France). | and lower jaw. |
| |Lussac (Vienne, France). |Fragment of lower jaw.|
| |Mas d'Azil (Ariège, France). |1 skull top. Early |
| | | Magdalenian. |
| |Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées, |Skull fragments. |
| | France). | |
| |Castillo (Santander, Spain). |Skull fragment. Early |
| | | Magdalenian. |
| |Gudenushöhle (Austria). |1 infant's tooth. |
| |Andernach (north of Koblenz, |2 child's incisors and|
| | Germany). | 7 rib fragments. |
+===================================================================+

Another Magdalenian burial is that at Sorde, Landes, in the grotto of Duruthy; this skeleton was discovered in 1872, buried at a depth of 7 feet, the body being ornamented with a necklace and a girdle of the teeth of the lion and of the bear, pierced and engraved. Seven skulls found in 1883 in the grotto of Placard, Charente, also belong to the Magdalenian. The skeleton discovered in 1894 in the grotto of Les Hôteaux, Ain, was buried at a depth of 6 feet beneath Magdalenian implements; the body, resting on the back, was covered with red ochre; the thigh-bones were inverted, indicating that the limbs had been dismembered before burial--a custom observed among certain savages.

These are the best preserved Magdalenian remains which have been discovered in France up to the present time. The matter of chief significance is the survival of modes of burial characteristic of the Crô-Magnons in Aurignacian times, with the use of color and of ornaments and with the body in some instances folded and bandaged.

In the great grotto of Placard, near Rochebertier, Charente, a new feature in the mode of interment has been discovered--the separation of the head from the body.[AW] The previous ceremonial burials, which began certainly among the Neanderthals in Mousterian times, always show the custom of burying the entire body; in the Upper Palæolithic there commences the new custom of imbedding the body in ochre or red coloring matter, and this obtains from the Aurignacian burials of Grimaldi to the Azilian burial of Mas d'Azil. The flexing of the limbs is probably also an Upper Palæolithic custom. It would appear as if the new ceremonial of Placard had been introduced in the earliest Magdalenian times, for in the lowest Magdalenian layers four skulls were found closely crowded together, with the top of the cranium turned downward; of other portions of the skeleton only a humerus and a femur were found. In an upper layer of the same industrial stage a woman's skull and jaw were found, surrounded by snail shells, many of them perforated. Still more singular is the occurrence in Magdalenian strata of this grotto of two separate skull-tops, fashioned by some sharp flint implement into bowls (Fig. 189).

Again, at Arcy-sur-Cure three skulls have been discovered placed closely together, and with them a flint knife in a layer superposed upon an Aurignacian industry. The Placard type of burial of the head only is shown again in the Azilian stage at Ofnet, Bavaria.

The uncertainty regarding the racial affinity of the men of Magdalenian culture has now been entirely removed by the discovery, in February, 1914, of two skeletons at Obercassel, near Bonn, the first instance of complete human skeletons of Quaternary age being found in Germany.(12) As reported by Verworn,(13) the skeletons lay little more than a yard apart; they were covered by great slabs of basalt, and lay in a deposit of loam deeply tinged with red. This red coloring matter, which extended completely over the skeletons and surrounding stones, indicates that it was a ceremonial burial similar to that practised by the Aurignacian Crô-Magnons. Along with the skeletons were found bones of animals and several specimens of finely carved bone, but no flint implements of any kind. The bone implements include a finely polished 'lissoir' of beautiful workmanship, placed beneath the head of one of the skeletons; the handle is carved into a small head of some animal resembling a marten; the sides show the notched decoration so typical of the French Magdalenian. The second specimen of carved bone is one of the small, flat, narrow horse-heads, engraved on both sides, such as are found at Laugerie Basse and in the Pyrenees. One of the skeletons is of a woman about twenty years of age, and, as is usual in young female skeletons, it exhibits the racial characters in a much less marked degree than the male skeleton, which belongs to a man of between forty and fifty years; the cephalic index is 70 per cent; the supraorbital ridges are well developed, and the orbits are distinctly rectangular; the limb bones indicate a body about 155 cm., or 5 feet 1 inch, in height.

In contrast to this more refined skull, the extremely broad and low face of the man is entirely disproportionate to the moderately broad forehead and well rounded skullcap; the breadth of the face is 153 mm. and exceeds the greatest width of the skull, which is only 144 mm. This is a markedly _disharmonic_ type, the width of the face being due not only to the broad upper jaw but to the exceptional size and breadth of the cheek-bones. The skull is decidedly dolichocephalic, the cephalic index being 74 per cent; the brain capacity is about 1,500 c.cm.; the orbits are rectangular, and above them extends an unbroken supraorbital ridge, with a slight median frontal eminence; the nasal opening is relatively small; the lower jaw has a strongly marked chin; the crowns of the teeth have been worn down until the enamel has almost disappeared. While the muscular attachments indicate great bodily strength, the height does not exceed 5 feet 3 inches. As pronounced Crô-Magnon features, both of the Obercassel skulls show an unusually wide face; in both the profiles are straight and the root of the nose depressed, the nose is narrow, and the orbits are rectangular. But, observes Bonnet, the greatest width of these skulls is not found across the parietals, as in the typical Crô-Magnons, but just above the ear region, a much lower position; in this respect the Obercassel skulls resemble the skull of the Chancelade skeleton.

This very important discovery of two undoubted descendants of the Crô-Magnon race associated with bone implements of lower Magdalenian workmanship appears to prove conclusively that the Crô-Magnons were the art-loving race. The Obercassel skeletons confirm the evidence afforded by the burials in France that these people were of low stature; perhaps because of the severe climatic conditions of Magdalenian times they had lost the splendid physical proportions of the Crô-Magnons living along the Riviera in Aurignacian times. The skull also, while retaining all the pronounced Crô-Magnon characters, had undergone a modification in the point of greatest width.

In the reduction of the stature of the woman to 5 feet 1 inch and of the man to 5 feet 3 inches, and in the reduction of the brain capacity to 1,500 c.cm., we may be witnessing the result of exposure to very severe climatic conditions in a race which retained its fine physical and mental characteristics only under the more genial climatic conditions of the south.

THE FOUR INDUSTRIAL PHASES OF MAGDALENIAN CULTURE

The industrial development belongs throughout to central and western Europe rather than to the Mediterranean. It is remarkable that it does not extend along the African coast, or even into Italy or southern Spain. It has been found to present four great steps or phases as follows:

The earliest types(14) of the incipient Magdalenian culture, or PROTO-MAGDALENIAN, are nowhere better represented than under the great shelter of Placard, in Charente, where the deep successive deposits compel a realization of the long period of time required for the evolution of the Magdalenian with its wonderful artistic culmination. Even prior to any discovery of the harpoon or of any example of the art of engraving comparable to the classic series of higher levels we find three levels of incipient Magdalenian industry at Placard. Similar local horizons, recognizable from the type of their javelin points (_sagaies_) and from their decorative _motifs_, are also found at Kesslerloch, Switzerland, and as far east as Poland. From Dordogne they extend into the Pyrenees and into the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain, but not farther south. There is thus a very primitive Magdalenian industry wide-spread over central and western Europe, either autochthonous or influenced from the east, but certainly not from the Mediterranean. It is only above these primitive horizons that layers are discovered with the rudimentary harpoons, and then with the perfected harpoons with single and double rows of barbs. It would appear as if the basins drained by the Dordogne and the Garonne were at once the most densely populated and also the centres from which industry, culture, and art spread to the east and to the west.

In the heart of the Dordogne region is the great rock shelter of La Madeleine, the type station of Magdalenian culture, and around it are no less than fifteen stations. This station, in which the lowest industrial layer (_niveau inférieur_) is subsequent to the Proto-Magdalenian phase and belongs to the _early_ Magdalenian, was extensively excavated by Lartet and Christy(15) during the decade following its discovery, in 1865, and more recently by Peyrony and others. The industrial deposit is situated at the base of an overhanging limestone escarpment on the right bank of the Vézère River; it extends for a distance of 50 feet with an average thickness of 9 feet, the lowest or early Magdalenian levels reaching down below the present level of the Vézère. It is a significant fact that the river floods which from time to time occur here also occasionally drove out the flint workers in Magdalenian times. It indicates an unchanged topography and similar conditions of rainfall. We must picture this cliff fringed with a northern flora, these river banks as the haunt of bison and reindeer, and the site of a long, narrow camp of skin-covered shelters.

Among the numerous specimens of typical Magdalenian industry and art which have been found here may be mentioned a geode of quartzite, apparently used to contain water, and stone crucibles, usually of rounded form, adapted to the grinding up of mineral colors for tattooing or artistic purposes; one of these crucibles, showing traces of color, still remains. The finest among the art objects is the spirited engraving, on a section of ivory tusk, of the woolly mammoth charging; this is one of the most realistic pieces of Palæolithic engraving which has ever been found; there are indications that the artist used this relatively small piece of ivory for the representation of three mammoths; but in the reproduction (Fig. 199) all the lines are eliminated except those belonging to the single charging mammoth; we observe especially the elevation of the head and the tail, also the remarkably lifelike action of the limbs and body.

Very numerous industrial levels are discovered in eight or ten overlying hearths, which are, however, divided into three main levels, as follows:

_Niveau supérieur_ (late Magdalenian culture).

Harpoons with a double row of barbs. Indications that the climate was
colder and drier, resembling that of the steppes. Bison, horses, and
reindeer abundant.

_Niveau moyen_ (middle Magdalenian culture).

Harpoons with barbs on one side only; also bâtons de commandement.
Indications that the climate was more moist, with frequent inundations
from the river. Bison, reindeer, and horses less abundant.

_Niveau inférieur_ (early Magdalenian culture).

Harpoons with a single row of barbs. Indications of animal sculpture.
Remains of bison and of reindeer, but those of horses especially
numerous.

In the EARLY MAGDALENIAN we note the invention of the _harpoon_; its first crude form is that of a short, straight point of bone, deeply grooved on one face, the ridges and notches along one edge being the only indications of what later develop into the recurved barbed points of the typical harpoon. As noted above, this invention was destined to exert a very strong influence on the habits of these people. Large fish undoubtedly were very abundant in all the rivers at that time, and this new means of obtaining an abundant food supply probably diverted the Crô-Magnons in part from the more ardent and dangerous pursuit of the larger kinds of game. The discovery soon spread, and among a number of localities where prototypes of the harpoon are found may be mentioned Placard, in Charente; Laugerie Basse, in Dordogne; Mas d'Azil, on the Arize; and Altamira, in northern Spain. In the early Magdalenian also a great variety of flint drills or borers are developed in connection with the fashioning of bone, including the 'parrot-beak' type, or recurved flint. The microlithic flints, exclusively designed for fine and delicate artistic work, are more abundant than in any previous stage, and were used to shape and finish the bone implements which chiefly distinguish the Magdalenian culture. Other implements which enable us to recognize the early Magdalenian culture layers are javelin points of bone or reindeer-horn with oblique bases, small staves of reindeer-horn or ivory, oval plates of bone frequently decorated with engraved designs, and slender, finely finished needles.

The MIDDLE MAGDALENIAN implements were more widely distributed than the early types, the most characteristic weapon being the harpoon with a well-defined single row of barbs (Breuil,(16) Schmidt(17)). According to Breuil, this single-rowed harpoon is rare in the lower layers but abundant in the upper layers of middle Magdalenian times; with it occur examples of the single-rowed harpoon with swallow-tail base. Other implements of this stage are the bone javelin points with cleft base, small bone staves richly decorated, also numerous needles, finer and more slender than those of the early Magdalenian. It is very interesting to note that there are no distinctive inventions in the flint industry, which shows no important advances, although microlithic flints are still more abundant than before. For industrial purposes scrapers continue to be very abundant, as well as borers for the perforation of bone implements. The middle Magdalenian industry is best represented in the deposits of central and southern France, at Raymonden, Bruniquel, Laugerie Basse, Gourdan, Mas d'Azil, and Teyjat.