Fig. 115.—Bone Awl, Gorge d’Enfer (1/1). (Broca.)
The heads of arrows and lances are made principally out of reindeer antler, and are barbed, the barbs generally being grooved, and carved on both sides of the axis ([Figs. 111, 112, 113]); but in some cases, as in [Fig. 114], the barbs are only on one side. Many bones and antlers are variously carved into shapes for which it is impossible to assign a definite use. [Fig. 115] is a bone awl.
Fig. 116.—Carved Handle of Reindeer Antler (1/2). (Lartet and Christy.)
Fig. 117.—Two sides of Reindeer Antler, La Madelaine (1/1). (Lartet and Christy.)
Fig. 118.—Horses engraved on Antler, La Madelaine (1/1). (Lartet and Christy.)
The most remarkable remains left behind by man in these refuse-heaps are the sculptured reindeer antlers, and the figures engraved on fragments of schist and on ivory. A well-defined outline of an ox stands out boldly from one piece of antler. A second presents us with a most elegant design: a reindeer is kneeling down in an easy attitude with its head thrown up in the air, so that the antlers rest on the shoulders, and the back of the animal forms an even surface for a handle, which is too small to be grasped in an ordinary European hand ([Fig. 116]). In a third a man stands close to a horse’s head, and hard by is a fish like an eel; and on the other side of the same cylinder are two heads of bison, drawn with sufficient clearness to ensure recognition by anyone who had ever seen that animal ([Fig. 117]). On a fourth the natural curvature of one of the tines has been taken advantage of by the artist to engrave the head, and the characteristic recurved horns of the ibex; and on a fifth are figures of horses ([Fig. 118]), in which the upright disheveled mane and shaggy ungroomed tail are represented with admirable spirit. At first sight it would appear that the artist had drawn the heads out of all proportion to the bodies. A horse’s skeleton, however, from the palæolithic “station” at Solutré, lately set up in the Museum at Lyons, proves that this is not the case, since, as M. Lortet pointed out to me, it is remarkable for its massive head, and small body. In [Fig. 119] a group of reindeer are seen, two on their backs, and two in the act of walking. The Irish elk, red-deer, and probably rhinoceros, are also depicted, the figures upon the hard schist being feebly and uncertainly drawn, as might be expected from the character of the tools. The most clever sculptor of modern times would, probably, not succeed very much better if his graver was a splinter of flint, and stone and bone were the materials to be engraved. One peculiarity runs through the figures of animals. With but two exceptions none of the feet are represented, a circumstance which is probably due, as Mr. Franks has suggested to me, to the fact that the hunters merely represented what they saw of the animal, of which the feet would be concealed by the herbage.
