The Caverne de l’Homme Mort[124] is situated in a lonely ravine that penetrates the wild limestone plateau, in the south-west of the department of Lozère, near the hamlet of Vialle, in the commune of St. Pierre des Tripiés. It was discovered by the peasants, and its contents were partially disturbed by their search after hidden treasure before it was explored by Dr. Prunières. In front of the cave was a platform, composed of earth mingled with fragments of charcoal, forming a layer about forty centimetres thick, in which were the stones of seven hearths, flint-flakes and scrapers, lance-heads, broken bones of the hare, fallow-deer, roe, pig (or wild-boar). All the flints were worked, and one lance-head had been chipped out of the stump of a celt and presented portions of the polished surface, thus fixing the neolithic age of the accumulation. Coarse pottery was also met with.
The bones of the hare were very abundant, and proved that there was no prejudice against the use of its flesh. In the caves of Perthi-Chwareu we have also seen that this was the case.
The refuse-heaps ceased abruptly at the entrance of the cave, at a point where the traces of a wall, composed of large stones, was visible. Immediately behind this were human bones, in a thick layer of dry sand, scattered about in the wildest confusion, which was probably the result of successive interments, as well as of subsequent disturbance by burrowing animals and treasure-seekers. Two bone-points and a flint arrow-head were the only implements discovered within the sepulchral chamber.
Two small human bones, bearing undoubted marks of having been burnt, were discovered in the refuse-heap; but they do not, as M. Broca justly observes, imply the practice of cannibalism, since they may have fallen out of the burial-place, and subsequently have come into contact with the fire on one of the hearths.
It is impossible to estimate the number of interments in this cave. Exclusive of the many skulls which have been destroyed or lost, M. Prunières obtained nineteen very nearly perfect, which are described by M. Broca as seven male, six female, three of uncertain sex, and three children. They are remarkable for the softness of their contours, the delicacy of their features, and the orthognathism of their faces. The forehead is wide and high, and the vertex and the occipital region of the skull well rounded. The cephalic index varies between ·680 and ·78, the mean of the whole series being ·732.
M. Broca remarks, that these crania contrast strongly with those of the present broad-headed inhabitants of the district, and that they differ from those found in the dolmens by M. Prunières in their greater length, in the smallness of their features, and the weakness of their muscular impressions. The study of the bones of the skeleton confirms these differences. The men who buried their dead in the Caverne de l’Homme Mort were smaller than the dolmen builders, their bones were more slender, and they were altogether a less muscular race. They are considered by M. Broca to represent the neolithic aborigines; and if his description and measurements be compared with those of the dolicho-cephali of Britain, given by Dr. Thurnam (p. 191 et seq.), it will be seen that they are identical with the latter, which is the oldest race yet known to have occupied Great Britain since the close of the pleistocene period.
At a little distance from the sepulchral cave, and in the same ravine, M. Broca explored a large cavern, which had been occupied, probably by the same people, since the same kind of instruments were discovered as in the refuse-heap. So that we have here, side by side, the abode and the sepulchre of the same ancient tribe.
The Sepulchral Cave of Orrouy.
The sepulchral cave of Orrouy (Oise) described by M. Broca, in which the remains of about fifty individuals were interred, furnished both types of skull, united, according to Dr. Thurnam and M. Broca,[125] by a series of intermediate forms, that prove a fusion of blood between the broad- and the long-headed peoples. On referring to the preceding Table (p. 199) it will be seen that the cephalic index varies from ·75 to ·88. Eight out of the series of twenty-one skulls united the characteristic dolicho-cephalous fore-head with the brachy-cephalous middle and hind-head. “We have here,” writes Dr. Thurnam, “a veritable hybrid form of cranium, resulting from the mixture or crossing, under certain circumstances unknown to us, of a dolicho-cephalous with a brachy-cephalous race.”
“... In the Orrouy skulls of hybrid form, two encephalic growth-tendencies appear to me distinguishable; one, the longitudinal or fronto-occipital; the other a transverse, or bi-parietal and temporal one. Now the remarkable supramastoid depressions, visible in the hindhead of these skulls, seem to be well explained by the idea of an intersection or crossing of these two tendencies in the brain-growth; corresponding, as they must have done, to the angles formed by the posterior surfaces of the middle, the lower surfaces of the posterior and temporal lobes of the cerebrum, and the upper surface of the cerebellum.”[126]