EACH STRATUM AN EPOCH

Evening Star, Issue 18668, 24 June 1924, Page 6

EACH STRATUM AN EPOCH

ruinous of the stone age.

In an article describing Les Kyzms, ••the capital of pre-hisionv in the < lili'-bordered valley of the \ e'/.ere, in the Department, of Dordogne, Southern France, ,M. .lean Eourgois. a wellImov.u French avclueologist of that district writes in tho ‘ Illustrated London' News,’: "The neighborhood (,f Dos Fjyzies, twenty-live miles south of Perigueux, is one of tho centyos ol llio earliest civilisations on our soil, one of the homes of tho worlds most urimiiivo culture. Its origins take us hack, perhaps, 100,000 years, while it is lO.itA nr ]o.OOfl years since the great period of the. Stone Age, when the dever Magdalenian hunters appeared, a race ~f advanced intelligence, nearer to r, m that respect than certain primitive races of the modern world. Whatever their antiquity, it is a fact (hat man lirst established himself in the country on (Ik- plateaux; then, when the cold became too acute, on the. exposed terraces or the liases of the hills which horde red the actual valleys of the Vczcre and the Benue. These valleys, the formation of which had ended during the flood period, afforded, in the shelter of their rocks, refuges and caves well suited to human habitation. And it is, thanks to the excavations which havn revealed the tools, industry, and art of the occupiers that we can imagine what the life and social conditions in those ages were like. In order to assist imagination as well as to preserve irrefutable evidence, for science, in certain parts of the country strata of earth have, been left intact, where each stratum represents a civilisation. One of the most, curious of these is at Laugorie Basse, on the left hank ot the "Vczore. near tho station at Los Jv.z.ics. In primitive, times there existed on that spot, at tho i'oot of a cliff 800 ft high, on a. wide, terrace, considerably above the actual river level, one of the most important encampments of Iho region. Behind a mound of rubbish—several thousand cubic metros thick—which obstructed tho front of a huge overhanging cliff, can he seen otio of its shelters, that of l.es (Marseilles, ft is in this shelter of Los .Marseilles, near a streamlet which runs amid ivy and lycopodium (club moss) a few yards awa.v from a cavity in the overhanging cliff, where the troglodyte may also have taken refuge, that this stratum lias been preserved as it was I omul at tho time of the excavation. Varied natural characteristics make the strata, which are sometimes tortuous, throw out the different archaeological levels whore dliferent objects have boon left visible.; carved Hint s, the antlers of a. reindeer, hunting weapons, animals’ jaws, and miens' hones, wbiAi were probably the remains of a meal. The oldest stratum carries us back .18,000 to In.ooo years, h belongs In the beginning of the .Magdalenian period; engraved objects, verv freqncul later on, were very rare !,hc’n. A light blackish stratum obviously represents remains of hearth tires. Our ancestors knew the use of lire a very long time ago. Let us pit tnro them standing beside the cinders, cooking between two stones a fish from the Vezero, or placing on the hot slabs a slice of horse. Next comes evidence of an interruption of habitation; a ha [Ten stratum, containing no objects. Where did the inhabitants of the district go? Did they emigrate to some other part of the. country? Perhaps they merely established themselves temporarily in some neighboring part of ihe same shelter. Be that as it may, when the inhabitants came back to the same place their civilisation had advanced. A notable discovery made close by, in the first level that represents the return, was the head of a reindeer sculptured in the round, which is a real masterpiece. There were other delightful objects, which were perhaps amulets; also flint graving tools which wore used in those days to make various useful objects.’’