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Fig. 172. Typical Solutrean implements of the chase, of fishing, and of industry. After de Mortillet. 131, 132. A laurel-leaf point retouched on both sides. 133-138. Various forms of the pointe à cran, or 'shouldered point,' a type distinctive of the late Solutrean. It has an elongated peduncle or stem at one side adapted for the attachment of a wooden shaft, and was probably an implement of the chase, being suitable for fishing or for hunting small game. The examples figured show a great variety of finish and retouch. 137 is from Placard and 138 from the Grottes de Grimaldi. 139. Poinçon, or awl, beautifully shaped. 140. Perçoir, drill or borer. 141. Flake retouched on one border, recalling the style of the Aurignacian points. 142, 143. Finely retouched points, suitable for engraving or etching. All the flints are shown one-half actual size.

At Monthaud there are also found bone implements including a number of poinçons (awls) and a series of sagaies (javelin points). Solutrean sagaies, however, are very rare and very primitive as compared with the Magdalenian.

The successive phases of Solutrean industry are all shown in southern France. As to its stratigraphic relations, the type station of Solutré exhibits lower and middle Solutrean above Aurignacian hearths and deposits; that of Placard, Charente, shows the middle and upper Solutrean overlaid by a Magdalenian layer. In the Grotte du Trilobite the Solutrean layer lies between one of Aurignacian and one of primitive Magdalenian; it is here that we find the clearest transition from the Aurignacian culture in the appearance of prototypes of the laurel and willow-leaf points, made of flakes, retouched on only one side. At Brassempouy the Solutrean lies immediately beneath a Magdalenian layer, with engraved bones and Magdalenian flints. Needles, which are particularly abundant in the Magdalenian epoch, are also found in a number of the Solutrean stations. In the grotto of Lacave, Lot, in an upper Solutrean layer, Viré has found beautiful bone needles, pierced at one end and of fine workmanship, and engraved utensils of reindeer horn; here also was found the head of an antelope engraved on a fragment of reindeer horn. The local fauna of this period included the horse, the ibex, and the reindeer.

Solutrean Engraving and Animal Sculpture

The artistic work of Solutrean times is not so rich as that of the Aurignacian. This, as we have suggested, may be partly attributable to the less wide-spread distribution of the Solutrean culture, as well as to the great importance which was attached to the careful fashioning of the stone weapons. None the less we can trace indications of the development of both phases of art, the linear and the plastic, and especially the beginnings of animal sculpture. From the full, round sculpture of Aurignacian times there follows in Solutrean times a development of carving in bone of the Rundstabfiguren (bâton, or ceremonial staff), and of high relief. The lion[(57)] and the head of a horse at Isturitz, in the Pyrenees, which Breuil attributes to a late Solutrean period, are typical examples of this work.

Relatively rare are the parietal and mobile engravings as well as the schematic representations, such as are found at Placard and Champs Blancs. According to Alcalde del Rio, there are found at Altamira, in northern Spain, very simple, finely engraved figures of the doe on the bone of the shoulder-blade; the head and neck are covered with lines, and both the eye and the nostril as well as the form of the ear are very characteristic of the animal. Breuil, however, considers these as belonging rather to earlier Magdalenian times.

Decorative art certainly makes some advances over the Aurignacian work, because the arrangement of the geometric figures is quite clear, and the execution shows marked progress in the technique of engraving.

At Předmost, near the site of the human burial described above, there has been discovered a statuette of the mammoth sculptured in the round, in ivory, which proves that animal sculpture was well advanced in Solutrean times. The statuette was found six to nine feet beneath the surface of the 'loess,' in an undoubted Solutrean layer. The accompanying fauna is of a truly arctic character: the mammoth being extraordinarily abundant; the tundra forms including the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, musk-ox, reindeer, arctic fox, arctic hare, glutton, and banded lemming; the Asiatic forms including the lion and leopard; the forest and meadow fauna embracing the wolf, fox, beaver, brown bear, bison, and wild cattle, moose, and horse, also the ibex. Among the remnants of 30,000 flints there are a dozen points (feuilles de laurier) and other pieces with the Solutrean 'retouch.' The industry in ivory, bone, and reindeer horn is also varied, including numerous poniards, polishers, piercers, dart-throwers, and bâtons de commandement.