e. Talus of rubbish washed down from the hill above.
f, g. Slab of rock which closed the vault.
i, f. Rabbit-burrow.
h, k. Original terrace.
N. Nummulitic limestone.
In the cavern of Maccagnone, in Sicily, there were found ashes and rude flint implements in a breccia containing the bones of the elephant (E. antiquus), hyena, a large bear, lion, (probably F. spelæa), and large numbers of bones belonging to the hippopotamus. The concrete of ashes had once filled the cavern, and a large piece of bone breccia was still cemented to the roof.
The vast number of hippopotamuses implies that the physical condition of the country was different from what it is at present. The bone breccia cemented to the roof, and coated with stalagmite, testifies that the cave, at some time since the formation of the breccia, has been washed out. The exact time of the formation of this breccia cannot be given, but, in all probability, not long after the extinction of the cave-bear, if not before.
The cave or grotto of Aurignac, in which the seventeen human skeletons were found, was carefully examined by Lartet eight years after its discovery. The recess was formed in nummulitic limestone. In front of the grotto, and next to the limestone (c, Fig. 12) was a layer of ashes and charcoal, eight inches thick, containing hearth-stones, works of art, and broken, burned, and gnawed bones of extinct and recent mammalia. Immediately above this layer (d) was another, of made ground, two feet thick, extending into the grotto; and its contents similar to the other, save that within the grotto were found a few human bones. The grotto was closed by a slab, and the made earth without was covered by a talus of rubbish (e), washed down from the hill above.
In these layers were found not less than one hundred flint instruments, consisting of knives, projectiles, sling-stones, chips, and a stone made for the purpose of modelling the flints. The bone implements were barbless arrows, a well-shaped and sharply pointed bodkin made of the horn of the roe-deer, and other tools made of reindeer horn. Besides these there were found eighteen small round and flat plates, of a white shelly substance, made of some species of cockle (cardium), pierced through the middle; also the tusk of a young cave-bear, the crown of which had been carved in imitation of the head of a bird.