The later horizons of the Reindeer period or Upper Pleistocene yield some beautiful outline engravings of red deer and reindeer (Fig. 16) on antler-bone, as well as of other animals. One celebrated carving I have described in the first chapter of this book. It is now regarded as probable that whilst the art of the Aurignacians persisted and developed in the South of France and North-West of Spain until and during the time of the Magdalenian horizon, yet a distinct race, with a different style of art, spread through South-East Spain and also from Italy into that region, and affected injuriously the "naturalistic" Aurignacian art, and superseded it in Azilian and Neolithic times. We find late drawings (Azilian age?) in some of the east Spanish caves of a very much simplified character, small human figures armed with bow and arrow, and others reduced to geometric or mere symbolic lines derived from human and animal form (see Fig. 52, p. 206). The latest studies of Breuil on this subject tend to throw light by aid of these simplified inartistic and symbolic drawings on the migrations of very early races in the south and south-east of Europe, and to connect them perhaps with North African contemporary races. The subject is as difficult as it is fascinating. Those who wish to get to the original sources of information should consult the last ten years' issues of the invaluable French periodical called "L'Anthropologie," edited by Professor Marcelin Boule.
Fig. 29.—A piece of mammoth ivory carved with spirals and scrolls from the cave of Arudy (Hautes Pyrénées). Same size as the object.
FOOTNOTE:
[3] M. Reinach relates ("Repertoire de l'Art Quatermaire") that two of these statues were in 1912 deliberately stolen by the German Verworn professor of Physiology in Bonn, who repaid the hospitality of M. Lalanne by bribing his workman and secretly carrying off these valuable specimens to Germany, where (it is stated) they were sold to the museum of Berlin for a large sum.
CHAPTER IV
VESUVIUS IN ERUPTION