Abstract
CLAY FIGURES OF PALAEOLITHIC AGE.—In La Nature for March 8, M. P. Barrau de Lorde records the discovery by M. Norbert Casteret of some remarkable examples of palaeolithic art from the neighbourhood of Saint-Martory (Haute Garonne). In the hitherto unexplored parts of a cavern through which a subterranean stream runs for a distance of 1200 metres, M. Casteret found in a side gallery, not only rock carvings of bison, deer, horses, and a human head, but also clay models in the round and in bas-relief. A number were nearly destroyed by the action of the water, but some fine figures of horses were fairly well preserved. A natural head had evidently been employed to complete the figure of a crouching bear, as the skull lay between its fore-paws. Three lions, or tigers, which were attached to the wall, measured 1-70 metres in height and i metre in length. The bear and the tigers were covered with holes representing javelin thrusts. Geological evidence indicates that these figures and carvings date from a cold and very dry period, when the subterranean stream was dry or very low, and permitted ingress to the parts of the cave now inaccessible except by diving. The find is notable in that the only previous discovery of clay figures of palaeolithic age is that made by M. le Comte Begouen at the Tuc d'Audoubert in 1912.
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Research Items. Nature 113, 506–508 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/113506a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/113506a0