Abstract
Two notes, pregnant with suggestion for the field archaeologist engaged in palolithic research, appear among the communications presented to the Institut fran§ais d'Anthropologie last session (L'Anthropologie, T. 42, Nos. 5–6, pp. 679–682). As they indicated lines of search in connexion with matters which, it is suggested, may hitherto have escaped the attention of excavators, it was important that their publication, in however brief a form, should have been as speedy as possible. In one note, the Abbé Breuil described a spear-point of bone of Mousterian age from the cave of Castillo (Santander). No object in bone of this type of Mousterian age was previously known, except an example found by Dr. H. Martin at La Quina in 1913. M. Breuil suggested a resemblance to the wooden spear found by Mr. Hazzledine Warren, associated with a Clactonian industry, at Clacton-on-Sea, and pointed out that such finds as this indicated that the Mousterians were in fact acquainted with the working and polishing of bone. This note was followed by a second, by Dr. Martin, in which he described the bone point of Mousterian age found at La Quina and also a point, or rather poignard, made from the canon bone of a horse, which had been found in 1905. Before the discovery of this latter, bone work by the Mousterians was not known. He suggested that the rarity of Mousterian bone work was due to the fact that the deposits, in which Mousterian remains were found, were not favourable to the preservation of objects of bone, or these were not recognised by excavators. In view of the importance of these announcements, it is most unfortunate that although they were presented to the Institut at a meeting held in February last year, the report has only just been published.
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Early Publication in Anthropology. Nature 131, 53 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131053b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131053b0