The age assigned to this carving is that called by Piette "Elapho-Tarandian." At this period the reindeer (Tarandus), which previously abounded, is giving place to the red deer (Elaphus). The layer in which this carving was found belongs to the latest of the Palæolithic cave deposits, and was followed by a warmer period, in which the red deer and the modern fauna entirely replaced the old fauna of the Glacial period. The deposits in Pyrenean caves of the Elapho-Tarandian age are characterized by an abundance of large flat harpoons serrated on both sides. In this latest horizon of the Reindeer period the art of engraving in outline on bone and stone had attained the highest pitch of excellence which it reached in the prehistoric race of South-West Europe.
Fig. 3.–A. Perforated harpoon of the Azilian or Red-Deer period, made from antler of red deer, found in quantity in the upper layers of deposit in the cavern of the Mas d'Azil (Arriège). B and C. Imperforate harpoons or lance heads made from reindeer antler of the Magdalenian period (Reindeer epoch). B from Bruniquel Cave (Tarn-et-Garonne). C from a cavern in the Hautes Pyrénées. Same size as the objects.
A very natural tendency among those who hear from time to time something of what is being discovered about primitive man is to confuse all the periods and races of prehistoric man together, and so picture to themselves one ideal "primitive man." My friend Mr. Rudyard Kipling does this, although it would be no further from a true conception were he to blend his ancient Britons, his Phenicians, his Romans, his Saxons, his Normans, and a few Hindoos into one imaginary man and represent him as taking a coloured photograph of the Druids of Stonehenge on a piece of Egyptian papyrus. Here is Mr. Kipling's vision of primitive man:
Once on a glittering icefield, ages and ages ago,
Ung, a maker of pictures, fashioned an image of snow.
Later he pictured an aurochs, later he pictured a bear–
Pictured the sabre-tooth tiger dragging a man to his lair–
Pictured the mountainous mammoth, hairy, abhorrent, alone–