A section of the several strata has been published and is reproduced in Fig. 21. Human bones or artefacts were found throughout a wide series of strata, in which no variations of a cultural nature were detected. Throughout the period of human occupation, the Palaeolithic inmates of the cave remained on an unaltered and rather lowly level of culture. This is described by some authorities as Mousterian, by others as Aurignacian; in either case as of an early Palaeolithic aspect.
Fig. 21. Section of the Krapina rock-shelter. 3, 4 strata with human remains. 1 b former level of river-bed. (From Birkner, after Kramberger.)
But when the animal remains are considered, Krapina seems to present the difficulty already encountered in the case of Taubach. For there is no doubt but that the ‘southern’ fauna is to some extent represented at Krapina. This qualified form of statement is employed because one representative only, viz. Rhinoceros merckii, has been discovered, whereas its habitual companions, Elephas antiquus and Hippopotamus, have left no traces at Krapina. Other animals associated with the cave-men of Krapina are not so commonly found in the presence of the Rhinoceros merckii. Thus the Ursus spelaeus, U. arctos, Bos primigenius, and the Arctomys (Marmot) are suggestive of a more northern fauna. But the presence of even a possibly stray Rhinoceros merckii is sufficient to confer an aspect of great antiquity on this early Croatian settlement. No evidence of formal interments has come to light, and as regards the cannibalistic habits of the human cave-dwellers, no more than the merest surmise exists.
S. Brélade's Bay, Jersey. In the cave thus designated, old hearths were met with at a depth of twenty-five feet below the surface. Human beings are represented by teeth only. No evidence of interments has been recorded. The implements are of Mousterian type. Associated with the hearths and implements were many fragmentary remains of animals. Up to the present time, the following forms have been identified: Rhinoceros tichorhinus (the hairy rhinoceros), the Reindeer, and two varieties of Horse. So far as this evidence goes, the age assigned to the implements is supported, or at least not contra-indicated. It is most improbable that the period represented can be really earlier than the Mousterian, though it might be somewhat later. That the Krapina teeth (which so curiously resemble those of S. Brélade's Bay in respect of the fusion of their roots) should be assigned to the same (Mousterian) epoch is perhaps significant.
La Chapelle-aux-Saints (Corrèze). This is the best example of an interment referable to the early Palaeolithic age (Fig. 22). Two reasons for this statement may be given. In the first place, the skeleton lay in a distinctly excavated depression, beneath which no signs of an earlier settlement are recorded. Secondly, the superincumbent strata can be assigned to one period only of the archaeological series, viz. that of Le Moustier. Indications of the preceding period (S. Acheul) as well as of the subsequent one (Aurignac) are practically negligible. Moreover the surroundings had not been disturbed since the interment: this is shewn by the leg-bones of a large bovine animal (Bison or Bos) found in their natural relations just above the head of the human skeleton.
Fig. 22. Plan of the cave at La Chapelle-aux-Saints (Corrèze). (From Boule.)