Lastly we have the type represented by Brünn I., Brüx, Lautsch, Combe Capelle, Barma Grande (one of the skulls from B.G. now in the Musée de Menton, but not the skulls generally known as B.G. 1 and 2), the woman from the upper layer in the Grotte des Enfants, the Calotte du gravier de fond at Grenelle, the Denise fragments, as well as by one or two skulls of the transition period from palæolithic to neolithic found at Ofnet (No. 21, i.) and a few of those belonging to the same period found at Mugem. The type is usually high-headed as well as narrow-headed, and tends to have the orbits horizontally lengthened, the glabella and supraciliaries strong, the fore-head retreating, the nose broad and the upper jaw projecting (alveolar prognathism). The cephalic index is usually between 68 and 72; the stature is moderate or low.[38]
Thus we find during the period of Aurignac three groups of long-headed men, the Grimaldi, Cromagnon and Combe Capelle, and, especially on the Riviera, in the Barma Grande cave and the Grotte des Enfants, skulls which show various apparent combinations of these types, while at Solutré and Laugerie Basse we find the last type showing modifications to some extent towards the characteristics of modern men. These types and intermixed types occupied west and central Europe, so far as it was habitable during the later palæolithic periods, and the combinations of Combe Capelle and Cromagnon characters in the skulls of Obercassel (Magdalenian period) is noteworthy. The earliest in point of time is the Grimaldi, which has been found only near Mentone, and there are reasons for believing that its distribution lay around the western Mediterranean, then an inland sea. This view is supported by the fact that marked alveolar prognathism has been noted among the natives of Algeria and Morocco, and I am told that it is not uncommonly met with in Spain; it is also very marked in Portugal, though here it has been attributed to a different cause. It is, however, of old standing in that country, as it has been noted among the skulls from Mugem,[39] which are believed to date from the close of the palæolithic age. A similar feature has been noted in some of the skulls from the Algerian dolmens.[40]
To the Cromagnon type, pure, it is difficult to ascribe any other skulls besides those from Cromagnon, and those from Lafaye Bruniquel, but some of the Cromagnon characters are well shown in some Barma Grande skulls. The type is said to survive in the Dordogne and perhaps near the western Pyrenees in North Spain at the present day.[41] The Combe Capelle or Brünn type, is seen to have occurred on the whole more to the north and east, and seems rather to focus in Central Europe and the southern part of the North German plain. It was probably the latest to arrive on the scene, for it is associated only with remains of late Aurignac type, and has been more frequently found in the succeeding Solutré period.
Thus we see that by the close of the period of Aurignac, about 11,000 B.C., we have three groups of long-headed men in Celtic lands, and that, though they overlap, they are tending to obtain for themselves definite areas of distribution.
During the closing years of the Aurignacian period the climate had been getting milder and perhaps drier, and steppe conditions prevailed over much of France and still more further east. Herds of horses arrived and were hunted for food and the saiga, a kind of antelope, was found as far south as the Dordogne, if not beyond, during the succeeding Solutrean period. These Steppe conditions are more characteristic of the latter period,[42] when France was invaded by a new people, not given, as far as we know, to artistic efforts, but who were able to fashion very skilfully made weapons of flint to aid them in chasing the beasts of the steppe.[43] The fact that skulls of our third group the Combe Capelle, are more common during this period and have only been found during the later phases of the previous age, when, as we have seen, steppe conditions were already approaching, leads us to suspect that it is to this type of man that we must attribute the invasion of Celtic lands which took place at this time. The Cromagnon men seem to have retreated to the south-west and to have taken refuge in the fastnesses of the Pyrenees,[44] while the invading hunters dominated the southern part, at least, of the Celtic lands.
But towards 9,500 B.C. the climate began again to deteriorate, and the steppe conditions passed gradually to those of tundra. The steppe animals retreated to the east, towards South Russia and Turkestan, and most of the men of Solutré, who hunted them for food, seem to have followed in their wake. It seems doubtful whether the Solutrean invasion reached Britain, though implements of this type are said to have been found here,[45] and Proto-Solutrean stations are reported as occurring in England.[46] It has been claimed recently that this type reached the south of Sweden,[47] but this view is not generally accepted in that country.[48]
On the departure of the Solutrean invaders the remnant of the aborigines, who had fled to the mountains in the south-west, and there developed their art to a much greater pitch of perfection, now returned to France, and once again, as the men of La Madeleine, became the dominant race in Celtic lands. It seems possible that some of their comrades had fled north to Britain on the arrival of the men of Solutré, and had survived there throughout this period, for, though no industry has been found in the British Isles which can accurately be described as that of La Madeleine,[49] in the strict French meaning of that term, we do find traces of the culture of Aurignac, persisting perhaps until still later times.
It must not be thought, however, that the Combe Capelle race never reached these isles. Whether the culture of Solutré did so or not seems uncertain, but some of the skeletons which have been found here have been classed with the Combe Capelle group.[50] But, as we have seen, this race was present in France, at any rate in some parts of that country, for some little time before the arrival of the men with the culture of Solutré.
The colder climate of the Magdalenian period has been shown to coincide with the Bühl advance of the Alpine glaciers,[51] which reached its maximum about 7,500 to 7,000 B.C. After that the climate slowly improved, though the precipitation increased, and forests sprang up on the hitherto open lands. As the tundra conditions in Celtic lands gave way to forest, the reindeer migrated to the north and north-east, while their place was taken by the red deer. As the forests developed it became increasingly difficult for men to traverse great distances or to intermingle as freely as they had done before. There was a tendency for separate groups to develop in different regions; so that, when we arrive at the next period, the Azilian, we find very different types of people in various parts of Europe.
Even before the close of the Magdalenian period a fresh type had arrived, apparently from the north, if we may judge from the skeleton found at Chancelade in the Dordogne. This skeleton bears a close resemblance to those of the modern Eskimos,[52] and since the latter have retained a type of art reminiscent of certain phases of Magdalenian culture,[53] we may suspect that Chancelade men, following the departing reindeer, passed north-eastward to the tundra of Siberia.