It appears that the Crô-Magnon race continued to prevail, yet anthropologists have long been divided in opinion as to the racial affinity of the men found in the Magdalenian industrial stage. The most famous burials are those of Laugerie Basse and Chancelade in Dordogne, each consisting of skeletons of inferior stature, not improbably belonging to women. They certainly represent a race somewhat different from the typical Crô-Magnons of Aurignacian times, as found at Crô-Magnon and in Grimaldi. The archæologist de Mortillet referred both these skeletons to a new race, the race de Laugerie. Schliz, who has most recently reviewed this subject, has, however, rightly treated all these people as Crô-Magnons of a modified type.

The Magdalenian skeleton of Laugerie Basse, found by Massénat in 1872, was resting on the back, with the limbs flexed, and with it was a necklace of pierced shells from the Mediterranean: the body apparently had been covered with a layer of Magdalenian implements. According to the length of the femur, the individual was 1.65 m., or 5 feet 1 inch in height; the bones were strong and compact; the skull was well arched, with a straight forehead and a cephalic index of 73.2 per cent.

Fig. 188. The abri of Laugerie Basse, Dordogne, a famous Magdalenian station and burial site of the skeleton of Laugerie Basse. This ancient rock shelter, like that of Crô-Magnon and many others, shows at the present day a cluster of peasants' dwellings around its base. Photograph by Belvès.

The so-called Chancelade skeleton was found in the shelter of Raymonden in 1888, at a depth of 5 feet, and was also in a folded position, resting directly on the rock and covered with several layers of artifacts of the later Magdalenian culture; the limbs were so tightly flexed as to prove that they had been enveloped in bandages. This skeleton shows a well-arched skull, a high, wide forehead, and a dolichocephalic head form, but the limbs are comparatively small, the height not exceeding 1.50 m., or about 4 feet 7 inches; the upper arm and thigh are short, compact, and clumsy, and the femur is crooked with comparatively thick ends; this skeleton is generally classed with the Crô-Magnon race, but Klaatsch considers that it may belong to a distinct type. We cannot disregard, says Breuil,[(9)] the anatomical characters attributed by Testut to the man of Chancelade and its resemblances to the actual Eskimo type; this indication is in favor of a new element, arriving perhaps from Asiatic Siberia, but acquiring in western Europe the artistic culture realized and conserved in certain districts by the Aurignacian tribes and their derivatives. All of the Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian races, however, recall very forcibly the race of Crô-Magnon, which tends to prove that these transformations in culture were not made without a notable element of human continuity.

DISCOVERIES OF MAGDALENIAN AGE CHIEFLY ATTRIBUTED TO THE CRÔ-MAGNON RACE[AV]

Date of
Discovery		LocalityNature of Remains
1863.Bruniquel (Tarn-et-Garonne, France).Skeletal fragments. Burial.
1864.La Madeleine (Dordogne, France).Skeletal fragments.
1869.Laugerie Basse I (Dordogne, France).Skeletal fragments.
1871.Gourdan (Haute-Garonne, France).Skeletal fragments.
1872.Laugerie Basse II (Dordogne, France).1 skeleton. Burial.
1872-1873.Sorde (Duruthy) (Landes, France).1 skeleton. Burial.
1874.Freudenthal (near Schaffhausen, Switzerland).Fragments of skulls and of pelvis.
1874.Kesslerloch (near Thaingen, Switzerland).Collar-bone.
1883.Le Placard (Charente, France).8 skulls, chiefly fragmentary.
1888.Chancelade (Raymonden) (Dordogne, France).1 skeleton, almost complete. Burial.
1894.Les Hôteaux (Ain, France).1 skeleton, almost complete. Burial.
1914.Obercassel (near Bonn, Germany).2 skeletons, male and female, almost
complete. Burial. Early Magdalenian.
Les Eyzies (Dordogne, France).Skeletal fragments.
La Mouthe (Dordogne, France).1 tooth, 1 vertebra.
Limeuil (Dordogne, France).Skull fragments.
Grotte des Hommes (Yonne, France).3 skulls and other skeletal fragments.
Brassempouy (Landes, France).2 teeth.
Grotte des Fées (Gironde, France).Fragments of upper and lower jaw.
Lussac (Vienne, France).Fragment of lower jaw.
Mas d'Azil (Ariège, France).1 skull top. Early Magdalenian.
Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées, France).Skull fragments.
Castillo (Santander, Spain).Skull fragment. Early Magdalenian.
Gudenushöhle (Austria).1 infant's tooth.
Andernach (north of Koblenz, Germany).2 child's incisors and 7 rib fragments.

Another Magdalenian burial is that at Sorde, Landes, in the grotto of Duruthy; this skeleton was discovered in 1872, buried at a depth of 7 feet, the body being ornamented with a necklace and a girdle of the teeth of the lion and of the bear, pierced and engraved. Seven skulls found in 1883 in the grotto of Placard, Charente, also belong to the Magdalenian. The skeleton discovered in 1894 in the grotto of Les Hôteaux, Ain, was buried at a depth of 6 feet beneath Magdalenian implements; the body, resting on the back, was covered with red ochre; the thigh-bones were inverted, indicating that the limbs had been dismembered before burial—a custom observed among certain savages.