50 THE DATING OF EARLY HUMAN REMAINS.
Cro-Magnon. It was unfortunate that the original types
of the race, found by Lartet and Christy in the rock-shelter of
Cro-Magnon in 1868l8 could not be reliably dated. The pro-
longed attitude of scepticism was therefore fully justified.
The human remains from Cro-Magnon were interments in
the topmost layer of the palaeolithic deposit, and unlike the
interments of La Chapelle, Le Moustier or Grimaldi, they were
covered only with a sterile accumulation of talus fallen from
the cliff above. This talus is not only unstratified, so that
evidences of subsequent disturbance would not be obvious,
but it is also in itself quite undatable.
Duruthy. The comparative evidences obtained in the
Duruthy rock-shelter, explored by MM. L. Lartet and Chaplain-
Duparc in 1874,19 are very interesting. On the floor of the
shelter was a crashed human skull, undoubtedly Palaeolithic,
and covered by a Palaeolithic relic bed. On the top of this there
was a group of interments covered by a talus fallen from the
cliff above, just as at Cro-Magnon. But in this case the upper
interments were associated with pottery and implements of
Neolithic types—thus showing their late date.
It thus seems not improbable that, as held by Professor Boyd-
Dawkins, the Cro-Magnon interments may be Neolithic, like
those found in the Aurignac and many other caves. On the
other hand—although it must be admitted that the race type
of Cro-Magnon belongs to Modern Man and does not present
such unmistakable characters as the Neanderthal type—yet
the Cro-Magnon remains seem to show a certain combination
of characters which are fairly distinctive, and these are repeated
n a remarkable manner in the case of other interments whose
Palaeolithic date can no longer be questioned. This is a line
of evidence to which I think some weight should be given, al-
though it may not amount to actual proof.
Laugeric-Basse. This skeleton was found in 1872, and
furnishes good evidence of the Late Palaeolithic date of the
Cro-Magnon race.20 It was found lying on the rock floor of
the cave, with the back bone crushed by a block of limestone
18 Reliquiae Aquilanicae, p. 66, etc.
19 Materiaux pour 1'Histoire, etc., de I'Homme, 1874, p. 101. W. Boyd-Dawkins, Early
Man in Britain, 1880, p. 226.
20 G. and A. de Mortillet Le Prehistorique Origine ei Antiquite de l'Homme, 3rd ed.,
1900, p. 315. Professor Sollas (Ancient Hunters, 2nd ed., p. 509) considers that the remains
were interred artificially in the contracted position.