Fig. 174. One of the large bison drawings in the cavern of Niaux, on the Ariège, showing the supposed spear or arrow heads with shafts on its side. The artist's technique consists of an outline incised with flint followed by a painted outline in black manganese giving high relief. After Cartailhac and Breuil. Greatly reduced.

This theory of the eastern origin of the Magdalenian industry has, however, to face, first, the very strong counter-evidence of the close affinity between Aurignacian and Magdalenian art, which Breuil himself has done the most to demonstrate; second, the physical, mental, and especially the artistic unity of the Crô-Magnon race in Aurignacian and Magdalenian times. The recent discovery of two Crô-Magnon skeletons together with two carved bone implements of Magdalenian type, at Obercassel, on the Rhine, links the art with this race and with no other, because, as we remarked above, an artistic instinct and ability cannot be passed from one race to another like the technique of a handicraft. Breuil[(2)] himself has positively stated that the whole Upper Palæolithic art development of Europe was the work of one race: if so, this race can be no other than the Crô-Magnon.

We must, therefore, revert to the explanation offered in a preceding chapter, that the Solutrean technique was an intrusion or an invasion either brought in by another race or acquired from the craftsmen of some easterly race, perhaps that of Brünn, Brüx, and Předmost. Why the art of fashioning these perfect Solutrean spear, dart, and arrow heads was lost is very difficult to explain, because they appear to be the most effective implements of war and of the chase which were ever developed by Palæolithic workmen.

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Fig. 175. Decorated sagaies, or javelin points, of bone; pointed at one end and bevelled at the other for the attachment of a shaft. After Breuil.

It is possible, although not probable, that the bow was introduced at this time and that a less perfect flint point, fastened to a shaft like an arrow-head and projected with great velocity and accuracy, proved to be far more effective than the spear. The bison in the cavern of Niaux show several barbed points adhering to the sides, and the symbol of the flèche appears on the sides of many of the bison, cattle, and other animals of the chase in Magdalenian drawings. From these drawings and symbols it would appear that barbed weapons of some kind were used in the chase, but no barbed flints occur at any time in the Palæolithic, nor has any trace been found of bone barbed arrow-heads or any direct evidence of the existence of the bow.

In compensation for the decline of flint is the rapid development of bone implements, the most distinctive feature of Magdalenian industry. In the late Solutrean we have noted the occasional appearance of the bone javelin points (sagaies) with their decorative motifs; these become much more frequent in Magdalenian times. They occur in the most ancient Magdalenian levels of the grotto of Placard, Charente, which are prior even to the appearance of prototypes of the harpoon, the evolution of which clearly marks off the early, middle, and late divisions of Magdalenian times. These primitive javelins, decorated in a characteristic fashion, are found in Poland, at the grotto of Kesslerloch and other places in Switzerland, at many stations in Dordogne and the region of the Pyrenees in southern France, and in the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain.