At the time of its discovery in 1868, in the course of making an embankment for the railway close by, and of obtaining material for mending the roads, it was completely blocked up. On the removal of this (b), by the contractors MM. Bertoú-Meyroú and Delmarés, the entrance was exposed, and human remains and worked flints revealed, which were carefully exhumed in the presence of MM. Laganne, Galy, and Simon. At this stage of the exploration M. Louis Lartet was deputed, by the Minister of Public Instruction, to superintend the work, and from his report the following account is taken (Lartet and Christy, “Rel. Aq.,” p. 66) by the courtesy of the editors.
“The cave of Cro-Magnon is formed by a projecting ledge of cretaceous limestone (rich with fossil corals and polyzoans), having a thickness of 8 metres and a length of 17 metres ([Fig. 72], P). The bed which it overlies, and the destruction of which has given rise to the cave, abounds with Rhynchonella vespertilio, which is a type fossil, fixing the geological horizon. The débris of this marly and micaceous limestone had accumulated on the original floor of the cavern to a great thickness, at least for 0·70 metres (see [Fig. 72], A), when the hunters of the reindeer stopped here for the first time, leaving as a trace of their short stay a blackish layer ([Fig. 72], B), from 0·05 to 0·15 metre thick, containing worked flints, bits of charcoal, broken or calcined bones, and in its upper portion the elephant tusk before alluded to ([Fig. 72], a).
Fig. 72.—Detailed Section of the Cave of Cro-Magnon, near Les Eyzies.
Scale = 1/100 (1 centimetre to 1 metre).
| A | Débris of soft limestone. |
| B | First layer of ashes, &c. |
| C | Calcareous débris. |
| D | Second layer of ashes, &c. |
| E | Calcareous débris, reddened by fire under the next layer of ashes, &c. |
| F | Third layer of ashes, &c. |
| G | Red earth, with bones, &c. |
| H | Thickest layer of ashes, bones, &c. |
| I | Yellowish earth, with bones, flints, &c. |
| J | Thin bed of hearth-stuff. |
| K | Calcareous débris. |
| L | Rubbish of the Talus. |
| N | Crack in the projecting ledge of rock. |
| P | Projecting shelf of hard limestone. |
| Y | Place of the pillar made to support the roof. |
| a | Tusk of an elephant. |
| b | Bones of an old man. |
| c | Block of gneiss. |
| d | Human bones. |
| e | Slabs of stone fallen from the roof at different times. |
“This first hearth is covered by a layer (C), 0·25 metre thick, of calcareous débris, detached bit by bit from the roof, during the temporary disuse of the shelter. Then follows another thin layer of hearth-stuff (D), 0·10 metre thick, also containing pieces of charcoal, bones, and worked flints. This bed is in its turn overlain by a layer of fallen limestone rubbish (E), 0·50 metre thick. Lastly, there is over these a series of more important layers, all of them containing, in different proportions, charcoal, bones (broken, burnt, and worked), worked flints (of different types, but chiefly scrapers), flint cores, and pebbles of quartz, granites, &c. from the bed of the Vezère, and bearing numerous marks of hammering. Altogether these layers seem to have reference to a period during which the cave was inhabited, if not continuously, at least at intervals so short as not to admit of intercalations of débris falling from the roof between the different hearth-layers which correspond with the successive phases of this (the third) period of habitation. The first (lowest) of these layers (F) is full of charcoal, and has a thickness of 0·20 metre; it does not touch the back of the cave, but extends a little further than the earlier layers. At its line of contact with the calcareous débris beneath, the latter is strongly reddened with the action of fire.
“On the last-mentioned hearth-layer is a bed of unctuous reddish earth (G), 0·30 metre thick, containing similar objects, though in less quantities. Last in succession is a carbonaceous bed (H), the widest and thickest of all, having an average thickness of 0·30 metre; at the edges it is only 0·10 metre thick; but in the centre, where it cuts into the subjacent deposits, which were excavated by the inhabitants in making the principal hearth, it attains a depth of 1·60 metre. This bed, being by far the richest in pieces of charcoal, in bones, pebbles of quartz, worked flints, flint cores, and bone implements, such as points or dart-heads, arrowheads, &c., may be regarded as indicative of a far more prolonged habitation than the previous.
“Above this thick hearth-layer is a bed of yellowish earth (I), rather argillaceous, also containing bones, flints, and implements of bone, as well as amulets or pendants. This appears to be limited upwards by a carbonaceous bed (J), very thin, and of little extent, 0·05 metre thick, which M. Laganne observed before my arrival, but of which only slight traces remained afterwards.
“It was on the upper part of this yellow band (I), and at the back of the cave, that the human skeletons and the accessories of the sepulture were met with; and all of them were found in the calcareous débris (K), except in a small space in the furthest hollow at the back of the cave. This last deposit also contains some worked flints, mixed up with broken bones, and with some uninjured bones referable to small rodents and to a peculiar kind of fox.
“Lastly, above these different layers, and all over the shelter itself, lay the rubbish of the talus (four to six metres thick), sufficient in itself, according to what we have said above about its mode of formation, to carry back the date of the sepulture to a very distant period in the prehistoric age.