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

by Henry Fairfield Osborn

Fig. 170. The type station of Solutrean culture, near the present village of Solutré, in south central France, sheltered on the north by a steep rocky ridge and with a fine sunny exposure toward the south.

The type station of the Solutrean culture is the great open-air camp of Solutré, near the Saône, sheltered on the north by a steep ridge and with a fine, sunny exposure toward the south. The traces of this great camp, which is the largest thus far discovered in western Europe, cover an area 300 feet square and are situated within a short distance of a good spring of water. As explored, in 1866, by Arcelin,[(55)] Ferry, and Ducrost, this station had already been occupied in Aurignacian times; and two sections, taken at two different points, showed the deposits of the old camp to be from 22 to 26 feet in thickness, representing superposed Aurignacian and Solutrean fire-hearths with thick layers of intermediate débris. In the Aurignacian level is found the vast accumulation of the bones of horses already described. In the middle Solutrean levels great fireplaces are found with flint utensils and the remains of abundant feasts among the charred débris. The fauna includes the wolf, the fox, the hyæna, both the cave and the brown bear, the badger, the rabbit, the stag, wild cattle, and two characteristic northern forms—the woolly mammoth and the reindeer; the remains of the last are the most abundant in the ancient hearths.

Fig. 171. Centre of the great open camp of Solutré, covering an area 300 feet square, with the village of Solutré in the distance. First occupied in Aurignacian times, and a favorite and densely inhabited camp throughout the Aurignacian and Solutrean stages. In Aurignacian times the remains of thousands of horses were accumulated around this station.

In all the Solutrean stations, beside the bone implements,[(56)] we find two distinct classes of flints. The first belongs to the entire 'Reindeer Epoch' and consists of single and double scrapers, drills, burins, retouched flakes, and plain ones of small dimensions.

The second is composed of the 'leaf' types, which are solely characteristic of the Solutrean and which degenerate and entirely disappear at its close; these latter are the arrow and lance head forms, many of which are fashioned with a rare degree of perfection and exhibit the beautiful broad Solutrean retouch across the entire surface of both sides of the flake, together with perfect symmetry, both lateral and bilateral; they are commonly known as the willow-leaf (narrow) and the laurel-leaf (broad) forms. The explorers of the type station of Solutré have discovered five principal shapes, as follows: (1) irregular lozenge; (2) oval, pointed at both ends; (3) oval, pointed at one end; (4) regular lozenge; (5) arrow-head form with peduncle, doubtless for attachment to a shaft. The perfected Solutrean laurel-leaf spear heads do not reappear in any other Upper Palæolithic period, but their resemblance to Neolithic flints is very marked.

The 'willow-leaf' spear heads (pointes de saule), chipped on only one side, characteristic of the early Solutrean, may possibly be contemporary with the closing Aurignacian culture of Font Robert. At Solutré layers have also been discovered rich in bone implements and in graving-tools, as well as small 'laurel-leaf' points worked on only one face. As regards the general tendencies of the early Solutrean culture in Dordogne, at the Grotte du Trilobite (Yonne), and in Ardèche, there is a marked decline in the work in bone and in the variety and workmanship of all the implements, excepting only that of the primitive flattened spear heads, made of flakes, retouched in Solutrean fashion, but on one side only. Typical deposits of early Solutrean culture are found at Trou Magrite, in Belgium, at Font Robert, Corrèze, and in the third level of the Grotte du Trilobite, Yonne; in the second level we find flints with the nascent Solutrean retouch.

The distinctive implement of the 'high' or middle Solutrean is the large 'laurel-leaf' point, flaked and chipped on both sides and attaining a marvellous perfection in technique and symmetry. The finest examples of these spear heads are the famous pointes de laurier, fourteen in number, discovered at Volgu, Saône-et-Loire, in 1873: they were found together in a sort of cache and, it would seem probable, were intended as a votive offering, for one at least was colored red, and all were too fragile and delicate to be of any use in the chase. They are of unusual size, the smallest measuring 9 inches, and the largest over 13½. In workmanship they are equalled only by the marvellous Neolithic specimens of Egypt and Scandinavia.

At Solutré and other stations implements of bone are also found, although by no means of such frequent occurrence as in the later divisions of the Solutrean. While the most easterly Solutrean stations of Hungary exhibit no bone implements, these are abundant at Předmost, in Moravia, where the culture altogether is of an advanced Aurignacian type, with the Solutrean retouch used in the shaping of its flint spear heads. The bone industry includes a number of awls and smoothers, as well as numerous 'bâtons de commandement.' On this level at Předmost a few works of art are found consisting of the representations of four animals sculptured on nodules of limestone, the subjects apparently being reindeer, and also of one single engraving on bone.

The chief invention of the late Solutrean is the 'shouldered point' (pointe à cran), a single notched and very slender dart. These notches are the first indication of the value of the barb in holding a weapon in the flesh. Here also is a stem for the attachment of the shaft of the dart. In earlier stages of the Solutrean one finds flints where the unsymmetrical base of the 'point' shows a small obtuse tongue or stem. The elongate peduncle at the base of such spear heads (pointes à soie) is developed into the pointe à cran, or shouldered point, made of long, fine flakes, with a short retouch on one or both sides, and found in the late Solutrean at the grotto of Lacave, at Placard, and at many of the stations in Dordogne. No example of the pointe à cran has ever been found at the type station of Solutré, but it is of frequent occurrence at the stations between the Loire and the Cantabrian Pyrenees, being found at Altamira, at Laugerie Haute, at Monthaud (Indre), in Chalosse and Charente, while the great cave of Placard has yielded no less than 5,000 specimens, whole and broken.