Abstract
THE ROCK SHELTER OF LA GENIÈRE.—MM. C. Gaillard,Pissot, and C. Cote describe in L'Anthropologies, Nos. 1–2 the results of an exploration of the rock-shelter at Serrières-Sur-Ain, one of a number of rock-shelters and grottoes on the Ain examined in 1903, in which the traces of occupation then discovered were attributed to the early neolithic. Beneath the level opened up in 1903 has now been found the evidence of an earlier period which the authors assign to the end of the Magdalenian. This level of occupation has produced a relatively small number of animal remains, including Bison priscus, Cervus tarandus, species of goat, ox, and pig, and Canis vulpes, a human skull—of a child—and a large number of examples of a microlithic industry in which sub-triangular forms are numerous. Of bone points, four only were discovered. An engraving of a reindeer and another of a bison present a very close analogy with the paintings of the Font du Gaume. The australoid or negroid characters of the skull suggest that this is a race of late Magdalenian date descended from the Grimaldi people and the culture a specialisation of Magdalenian rather than Azilo-Tardenoisian. It is possible that this same race was responsible for the art of the Font du Gaume, and it is suggested as probable that its culture is to be attributed to a strong infiltration of the Capsian of North Africa.
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Research Items. Nature 120, 239–241 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/120239a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/120239a0