Prehistoric Britain / by Robert Munro.

  • Munro, Robert, 1835-1920.
Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Prehistoric Britain / by Robert Munro. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    not the earliest in Europe which has yielded remains of human industry. In his classifica- tion (Lc Prehistorique dans L’Europe Centrale) he tabulates below the Chelleen, deposits called Strepyien, Mesvinien, Reutelo-Mesvinien ou Mafflien, and Reutelien. The Elephas anti- quus is made to be contemporary with the last three deposits, and the mammoth appears on the scene with the Strepyien. Besides, M. Rutot has altered de Mortillet’s well-known classification by changing the nomenclature without almost any change in the substance, thus bringing unnecessary confusion into the subject. He founds his theory upon the stratigraphical position of the objects and the degree of rudeness in their manufacture. Among the human remains found in the Belgian caverns are two finds of capital importance, viz. the Naulette mandible and two skeletons known as Les Homines de Spy. The former (Fig. 7) was found at a depth of 4‘50 metres in the debris of the Trou de la Naulette, near Dinant, and though only a fragment, it presents certain characters which differentiate it from the corresponding bone in modern races, notably in the absence of the chin and the size of the socket for the third molar tooth. The latter will be discussed in the next chapter. France.—On entering the Dordogne district we are on classic ground as regards the home of Palaeolithic man in France. Here, on the rocky banks of the Vezere, are some thirty caves and rock-shelters, which have vielded