Édouard Lartet

“ The Aurochs and the Reindeer, then, are the species which have figured the most often in the feasts of whose relics we find only what was spared by the Hyænas. The situation of the hearth, on a plattorm overlooking the valley and stream of the Rode, allow also of the supposition that a great part of the bones might have been thrown to the bottom of the valley, whence they would afterwards be removed by the current of water, or decomposed by atmospheric agencies.
The long bones of these ruminants, so rich in marrow, have all been broken for its extraction. Not one has been forgotten ”

“ While, however, admitting these two possible objections, it is still, I think, felt by most Palæontologists, that though the presence of one Arctic species would scarcely perhaps justify any very decided inference as to climate, still that the co-existence of such a group as this; the musk ox, the reindeer, the lemming, the Myodes torquatus, the Siberian mammoth, and its faithful companion the woolly haired rhinoceros, decidedly indicates, even though it may not prove, the existence of a climate unlike that now prevailing in Western Europe. ”

“ The maker, or, as one might say, the artist, who certainly had at his disposal large canines of the same species of Bear, chose that of a young individual, no doubt because the still existing pulp cavity enabled him to complete the perforation with less trouble. The tooth, in fact, is perforated from end to end, so as to admit of its being suspended by some means. It was found very near the entrance of the cave, and exactly at the spot where Bonnemaison, after the removal of the stone slab, had subsequently collected the rubbish from the interior. ”

“ Up to the present time no bones of men have been found in the strata containing the flint implements. This, though it has appeared to some so inexplicable as to throw a doubt on the whole question, is, on consideration, less extraordinary than it might at first sight appear to be. If, for instance, we turn to other remains of human settlements, we shall find a repetition of the same phenomenon. Thus in the Danish refuse-heaps, where worked flints are a thousand times more plentiful than in the St. Acheul gravel, human bones are of the greatest rarity. ”

“ The rarity of the common Deer and of the Irish Elk, represented at Aurignac, each by the remains of a single individual, might be explained perhaps by the great abundance of those of the Reindeer. We know that in a wild state, antipathies exist between certain closely allied species, or sometimes between species belonging to the same genus, which lead them to inhabit perfectly distinct districts. ”

“ Even, indeed, as the remains of extinct animals were at first supposed to be few and far between, whereas, in fact, the surface of the earth is made up of the dust and skeletons of our predecessors, so the relics of man, long looked upon as rare and exertional in their occurrence, are gradually presenting themselves in unexpected profusion. Loth, however, to distrust the existing chronology, our antiquaries long referred all the most beautiful and well-made weapons to the Romans, just as all fossils were attributed to the action of the Deluge. ”

“ It is obvious, in fact, that nothing has been disturbed, and that, not only have a simple slab of stone a few centimetres in thickness, and a thin covering of loose earth, sufficed to preserve intact the sepulchre itself, but also that outside the cave, the relics of the funeral repasts and the various implements and arms left by the human inhabitants have not been disturbed. ”

“ At length the excavation of the valley was completed; the climate must have approached what it is now, and whether from this change, or whether perhaps yielding to the irresistible power of man, the great Pachydermata had become extinct. Under new conditions, the river, unable to carry out to sea the finer particles brought down from the higher levels, deposited them in the valley, and thus raised somewhat its general level, checking the velocity of the stream, and producing extensive marshes, in which a thick deposit of peat was gradually formed. ”

“ The majority of the fragments were those of long bones having medullary cavities, and of these, almost all appeared to have been broken in a uniform manner. A great many of those which had not been exposed to fire bore the marked impress of the teeth of a carnivorous beast, which had left only the thick and compact shafts of the great bones of the Aurochs and Rhinoceros. The discovery, among the very ashes of the fire, of the coprolites of the Hyæna showed that it was that powerful carnivore which had doubtless taken advantage of the absence of man to devour the remains of his repasts. ”

“ Acheul is concerned, the difficulty will altogether disappear if we remember that no trace has ever yet been found of any animal as small as a man. The larger and more solid bones of the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, ox and stag [8] remain, but every vestige of the smaller bones has perished. Till we find the remains of the dog, boar, roedeer, badger, and other animals which existed dining the drift period, we cannot much wonder at the entire absence of human skeletons. ”

“ Measurements taken from the bones of so many individuals, would have afforded, to some extent, the means of deducing the average stature and proportions of this unknown race; and from the fragments of the face and skull, indications of some value, respecting the general form of the head, might also have been obtained. But unfortunately no one at Aurignac, not even the sexton, after an interval of eight years, retained any recollection of the precise spot at which these human remains had been deposited in a oommon trench. ”

“ The number of stone implements which have been already found is quite astonishing; at Wangen, in Lake Constance, many hundred weapons of various sorts have been discovered, and a great number also at Moosseedorf, Wauwyl and Robenhausen, in none of which places has a single piece of metal been as yet met with, a fact which, taken in connexion with the great number of bronze implements which have been collected from other Pileworks, clearly indicates that the settlements above mentioned, belonged to the age of Stone. ”

“ These phenomena, however stupendous they may appear to us, as manifested within the limits of our sensible horizon, are reduced to very little when brought down by actual calculation to their relative importance as regards the whole surface of the globe. Everything moreover, indicates that the successive production of these partial accidents forms part of the normal conditions of the course of nature, and that the great harmony seen in the physical and organic evolutions on the surface of the earth, has in no case been affected by them. ”

“ The first traces of living creatures met with in the loose and, speaking geologically, comparatively recent deposits, are those of man, proving that he had made a fireplace on the platform outside the little cave, whilst the thickness of the layer of ashes upon this site shows that it was inhabited for a long time, or, at any rate, that it was frequently visited. ”

“ Ramsay, "I have daily handled stones, whether fashioned by nature or art, and the flint hatchets of Amiens and Abbeville seem to me as clearly works of art as any Sheffield whittle." [4] It will be better however to quote from the candid sceptic in Blackwood. "They bear," he admits (p. 438) , "unmistakeably the indications of having been shaped by the skill of man." But best of all, an hour or two spent in a pit, examining the forms of ordinary flint gravel would, we are sure, convince any man that these stones, rude though they be, are undeniably fashioned by the hand of man. ”

“ If, therefore, we are justified in assuming a colder climate than that now existing, we should much increase the erosive action of the river, not only because the rains would fall on a frozen surface, but because the rainfall of the winter months would accumulate on the high grounds in the form of ice and snow, and would every spring produce floods much greater than any which now occur. ”

“ From this it may be presumed that the body of the animal was never conveyed to the spot, and that the teeth had been brought with a special intention, and the rather so because both were collected within the sepulchre, and one of them (the canine sent to M. Leymerie) beyond (à travers) the human bones at the first discovery of the place by Bonnemaison.
As the two molars of the Elephant are also the only relics of that species, their being brought by man to the place where they were found, may also be referred to some customary purpose. ”

“ Negative evidence in Palæontology must indeed always be regarded with suspicion, but I may at least be permitted to repeat the opinion that it is not in a northern country and in a cold climate that we shall find the first traces of man. No nation would choose such an abode; civilised man, indeed, may prefer a temperate region, favourable to the exercise both of mind and body; but the savage will go where he can most readily satisfy savage wants; he will not therefore betake himself to temperate, still less to Arctic regions, until driven there by increasing density of population. ”

“ The Horse is wanting in the Stone age in Switzerland and in Denmark. Nevertheless, in Switzerland, in the 10th century of our era, horse-flesh was served at the table of the monks of St. Gall, at a period, when amongst other European nations its use as food was forbidden under pain of excommunication.
The Rhinoceros appears also to have been eaten by the Pyrenean aborigines. Some molar teeth, and a certain number of bones belonging to a young individnal, were found at Aurignac in the layer of earth above the ashes. ”

“ When this slab was removed, he noticed a certain quantity of bones and skulls, which he at once recognized as human. The bones, which belonged to several skeletons, were found partly imbedded in a loose soil, which might have been introduced into the sepulchre at the time of interment.
This discovery of Bonnemaison's was quickly noised abroad; the curious in such matters flocked to the place, and various conjectures were formed to explain the occurrence of such an abundance of human remains in a situation so remote from any actual habitation. ”

“ Changes so important as these are not effected in a day; the progress of the human mind is but slow; and the gradual additions to human knowledge and power, like the rings in trees, enable us to form some idea how distant must be the date of their commencement. So varied however are the conditions of the human mind, so much are all nations affected by the influence of others, that when we attempt to express our impressions, so to say, in terms of years, we are baffled by the complexity of the problem, and can but confess our ignorance. ”