Part 7 (1/2)

In order to explain the presence of so many foreign objects by the side of the human skeletons--such as animals' bones--implements of flint and reindeers' horn--necklaces or bracelets--we must admit as probable that a funeral custom existed among the men of the great bear and mammoth epoch, which has been preserved in subsequent ages. They used to place in the tomb, close to the body, the weapons, hunting trophies, and ornaments of all sorts, belonging to the defunct. This custom still exists among many tribes in a more or less savage state.

In front of the cave, there was, as we have already said, a kind of flat spot which had afterwards become covered with earth which had fallen down from the top of the hill. When the earth which covered this flat spot was cleared away, they met with another deposit containing bones.

This deposit was situated on a prolongation of the ground on which the skeletons were placed in the interior of the cavern. Under this deposit, was a bed of ashes and charcoal, 5 to 7 inches thick. This was, therefore, the site of an ancient fire-hearth.

In other words, in front of the sepulchral cave there was a kind of terrace upon which, after the interment of the body in the cavern, a feast called the _funeral banquet_ was held.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 27.--Upper Molar of a Bison, found in the Ashes of the Fire-hearth of the Sepulchral Cave at Aurignac.]

In this bed, situated in front of the cavern an immense number of the most interesting relics were discovered--a large number of the teeth and broken bones of herbivorous animals (fig. 27); a hundred flint knives; two chipped flints, which archaeologists believe to be sling projectiles; a rounded pebble with a depression in the middle, which, according to Mr. Steinhauer, keeper of the Ethnographical Museum at Copenhagen, was used to flake off flint-knives; lastly, a large quant.i.ty of implements made of reindeers' horn, which exhibit the most varied shapes. We may mention, for instance, the arrow-heads fas.h.i.+oned very simply, without wings or barbs (fig. 28); some of these heads appear to have been subjected to the action of fire, as if they had been left in the body of the animal during the process of cooking; a bodkin made of roebuck's horn (fig. 29) very carefully pointed, and in such a good state of preservation that it might still be used, says M. Lartet, to perforate the skins of animals before sewing them; and this must, in fact, have been its use; a second instrument, similar to the preceding, but less finely pointed, which M. Lartet is inclined to consider as an instrument for tatooing; some thin blades of various sizes, which, according to Steinhauer, much resemble the reindeer-horn polishers still used by the Laplanders to flatten down the seams of their coa.r.s.e skin-garments; another blade, accidentally broken at both ends, one of the sides of which is perfectly polished and shows two series of transversal lines at equal distances apart; the lateral edges of this blade are marked with deeper notches at almost regular intervals (fig. 30). M. Lartet considers that these lines and notches are signs of numeration, and Mr.

Steinhauer has propounded the idea that they are hunting-marks. Both hypotheses are possible, and the more so as they do not contradict each other.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 28.--Arrow-head made of Reindeer's Horn, found in the Sepulchral Cave of Aurignac.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 29.--Bodkin made of Roebuck's Horn, found in the Sepulchral Cave of Aurignac].

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 30.--Truncated Blade in Reindeer's Horn, bearing two Series of transversal Lines and Notches, probably used for numeration.]

Among the bones, some were partly carbonised, others, only scorched, but the greater number had not been subjected at all to the action of fire.

All the bones having medullary hollows, and commonly called marrow-bones, were broken lengthwise, a certain indication that this operation had been effected to extract the marrow, and that these bones had been used at a feast carried on according to the manners and customs of that epoch, when the marrow out of animal bones was regarded as the most delicious viand--many men of our own days being also of this opinion.

A certain number of these bones exhibited shallow cuts, showing that a sharp instrument had been used to detach the flesh from them. Nearly all those which had not been subjected to the action of fire bore the mark of the teeth of some carnivorous animal. This animal, doubtless, came to gnaw them after man had taken his departure from the spot. This carnivorous animal could have been none other than the hyaena, as is shown by the excrements left in the place.

The ossiferous mound situated immediately above the fire-hearth contained, like the subjacent ashes, a large number of the bones of certain herbivorous animals.

The discovery of the fire-hearth situated in front of the cave of Aurignac, and the various remains which were found intermingled underneath it, enable us to form some idea of the way in which funeral ceremonies took place among the men of the great bear epoch. The parents and friends of the defunct accompanied him to his last resting-place; after which, they a.s.sembled together to partake of a feast in front of the tomb soon to be closed on his remains. Then everyone took his departure, leaving the scene of their banquet free to the hyaenas, which came to devour the remains of the meal.

This custom of funeral-feasts is, doubtless, very natural, as it has been handed down to our days; though it now chiefly exists among the poorer cla.s.ses.

In accordance with the preceding data we here represent (fig. 31) a _funeral feast during the great bear and mammoth epoch_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 31.--Funeral Feast during the Great Bear and Mammoth Epoch.]

On a flat s.p.a.ce situated in front of the cave destined to receive the body of the defunct, some men covered merely with bears' skins with the hair on them are seated round a fire, taking their part in the funeral-feast. The flesh of the great bear and mammoth forms the _menu_ of these primitive love-feasts. In the distance may be seen the colossal form of the mammoth, which forms the chief dish of the banquet. The manner of eating is that which distinguishes the men of that epoch; they suck the marrow from the long bones which have previously been split lengthwise, and eat the flesh of the animals cooked on the hearth. The dead body is left at the entrance of the cavern; the primitive grave-stone will soon close on it for ever.

The relics found in the interior of the sepulchral cave of Aurignac have led to a very remarkable inference, which shows how interesting and fertile are the studies which have been made by naturalists on the subject of the antiquity of man. The weapons, the trophies, the ornaments, and the joints of meat, placed by the side of the defunct--does not all this seem to establish the fact that a belief in a future life existed at an extraordinarily remote epoch? What could have been the use of these provisions for travelling, and these instruments of war, if the man who had disappeared from this world was not to live again in another? The great and supreme truth--that the whole being of man does not die with his material body is, therefore, innate in the human heart; since it is met with in the most remote ages, and even existed in the mental consciousness of the man of the stone age.

An instinct of art also appears to have manifested itself in the human race at this extremely ancient date. Thus, one of the articles picked up in the sepulchral cave of Aurignac consisted of a canine tooth of a young cave-bear, perforated so as to allow of its being suspended in some way or other. Now this tooth is so carved that no one can help recognising in it a rough outline of some animal shape, the precise nature of which is difficult to determine, although it may, perhaps, be the head of a bird. It was, doubtless, an amulet or jewel belonging to one of the men interred in the cave, and was buried with him because he probably attached a great value to it. This object, therefore, shows us that some instincts of art existed in the men who hunted the great bear and mammoth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 32.--Carved and perforated Canine Tooth of a young Cave-Bear.]

We shall close this account of the valuable discoveries which were made in the sepulchral cave of Aurignac, by giving a list of the species of mammals the bones of which were found either in the interior or at the exterior of this cavern. The first six species are extinct; the others are still living:--

The great cave-bear (_Ursus spelaeus_); the mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_); the rhinoceros (_Rhinoceros tichorhinus_); the great cave-lion (_Felis spelaea_); the cave-hyaena (_Hyaena spelaea_); the gigantic stag (_Megaceros hibernicus_); the bison, the reindeer, the stag, the horse, the a.s.s, the roe, the wild boar, the fox, the wolf, the wild-cat, the badger, and the polecat.

We think it as well to place before the eyes of our readers the exact forms of the heads of the three great fossil animals found in the cave of Aurignac, which geologically characterise the great bear and mammoth epoch, and evidently prove that man was contemporary with these extinct species. Figs. 33, 34, and 35 represent the heads of the cave-bear, the _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_, and the _megaceros_ or gigantic stag; they are taken from the casts which adorn the great hall of the Archaeological and Pre-historic Museum at Saint-Germain, and are among the most curious ornaments of this remarkable museum.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 33.--Head of a Cave-Bear found in the Cave of Aurignac.]