Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and Art

by Henry Fairfield Osborn

Fig. 148. Brain outline of the man of the so-called Aurignacian race discovered at Combe-Capelle in 1909 (after Klaatsch), as compared with the brain outlines of a chimpanzee and of Homo sapiens.

Burial Customs

Similar customs of burial prevailed widely in Aurignacian times, as we have observed from the use of color in the Paviland interment of western Wales and in the Brünn interment of Moravia. This is a feature seldom found in the Neanderthal burials, although the latter are accompanied by signs of great reverence and by an abundance of ornaments and finely finished flints. Up to the present time the races of the Upper Palæolithic have been studied with far less anatomical precision than those of the Lower, and the attribution of many of the burials to the Crô-Magnon race awaits verification.

We have little record of the Paviland burial except that the skeleton was that of a man of the Crô-Magnon race and colored red. Of the burial of Aurignac we have no record other than that seventeen skeletons were placed close together; it would appear that this compound burial may have been the sequel of a battle or, less probably, that of an epidemic. The type skeletons of the Crô-Magnon race were simply lying on the surface of a deep shelter; thus there has always been some doubt as to their exact archæological age; a large number of perforated shells was found among the bones, as well as pendants of ivory.

The most remarkable Crô-Magnon burials of undoubted Aurignacian age are those of the Grottes de Grimaldi; the infant skeletons found here are neither colored nor decorated, but occurred with a vast number of small perforated shells (Nassa), evidently forming a sort of burial mantle. Similarly, the female skeleton was enveloped in a bed of shells not perforated; the legs were extended, while the arms were stretched beside the body; there were a few pierced shells and a few bits of silex. One of the large male skeletons of the same grotto had the lower limbs extended, the upper limbs folded, and was decorated with a gorget and crown of perforated shells; the head rested on a block of red stone. In the 'man of Mentone,' found in 1872, the body rested on its left side, the limbs were slightly flexed, and the forearm was folded; heavy stones protected the body from disturbance; the head was decorated with a circle of perforated shells colored in red, and implements of various types were carefully placed on the forehead and chest. Similarly in the burial of Barma Grande three skeletons were found placed side by side in a layer of red earth containing a large quantity of peroxide of iron; two of the skeletons rested on the left side, the limbs extended or slightly flexed; the forehead and chest and one of the limbs were encircled with shells.

In the burial of the so-called Aurignac man of Combe-Capelle, described above, the limbs were outstretched and the body was decorated with a necklace of perforated shells and surrounded with a great number of fine Aurignacian flints. It appears that in all the numerous burials of these grottos of Aurignacian age and industry of the Crô-Magnon race we have the burial standards which prevailed in western Europe at this time.

We must infer that the conception of survival after death was among the primitive beliefs, attested by the placing with the dead of ornaments and of weapons and in many instances of objects of food. It is interesting to note that the grottos and shelters were so frequently sought as places of burial, also that the flexed limbs or extended position of the body prevailed throughout western Europe into Neolithic times, as well as the use of color through the Solutrean into Magdalenian times. It is probable from their love of color in parietal decorations, and from the appearance of coloring matter in so many of the burials, that decoration of the living body with color was widely practised, and that color was freshly applied, either as pigment or in the form of powder, to the bodies of the dead in order to prepare them for a renewal of life.

Aurignacian Flint and Bone Industry

As pointed out in the introduction of this chapter, the geographical distribution of the early Aurignacian industry is especially interesting in its bearing upon the routes by which the Crô-Magnon race entered Europe. "We can hardly contemplate an origin directly from the east," says Breuil,[(27)] "because these earlier phases of the Aurignacian industry have not as yet been met with in central or eastern Europe." A southerly origin seems more probable, because the Aurignacian colonies appear to surround the entire periphery of the Mediterranean, being found in northern Africa, Sicily, and the Italian and Iberian peninsulas, from which they extended over the larger part of southern France. In Tunis we find a very primitive Aurignacian like that of the Abri Audit of Dordogne, with implements undoubtedly similar to those of Chatelperron, in France. Even far to the east, in the cave of Antelias, in Syria, as well as in certain stations of Phœnicia,[(28)] culture deposits are found which are characteristically Aurignacian. Again, in southern Italy implements of typical Aurignacian form, tending toward the superior stage, are found in the grotto of Romanelli, Otranto.

On the other hand, in favor of the theory of local or autochthonous evolution of this culture is the direct succession described below of Aurignacian prototypes and early Aurignacian implements above the older Mousterian layers in the various stations of Dordogne. In fact, the relation of the Aurignacian industry to the preceding Mousterian is one of the most important in the history of Palæolithic archæology, because of the change of race which occurred at this time. How far is it derivative and autochthonous, how far is it new and influenced by invasion and the handicraft of a new and superior race?