Tour the Castle's Top Floor After its First Fifty Years

The prehistoric caverns and rock shelters of France, under the persevering investigation of Professor E. Lartet, have vielded such a harvest of precious relics, and of ingenious and interesting deductions, as to have conferred on him a world-wide renown. He has with much liberality presented to the Institution several cases filled with objects, of which it will suffice to enumerate a few prominent specimens. Of the animals contemporaneous with man in those obscure times, there are bones of the Horse, some of them gnawed by Wolves; of the Aurochs, Rhinoceros, Wild Goat, Chamois, Hyena, Reindeer, including a very perfect jaw and teeth of the Cave Bear. Associated with these are two small bones of the human skeleton, apparently belonging to the phalanges of the hand. Among the implements of war, of domestic use, and articles of ornament, are casts of bone implements, chiefly for making perforations, stone knives, sculptured horn of reindeer, and bone needles, probably for fastening skin or fur dresses; also a mortar for grinding grain or fruits, and casts of arrow-heads, in forms very similar to those of American specimens; and many flakes of flint struck from the core while making knives, arrowpoints, or other articles. The European flint is better adapted to this manufacture than any stone found in America, except obsidian. These flint chips were gathered from fourteen different localities in France, indicating the prevalence of the art of forming cutting implements of stone and the density of the population. Professor Lartet has also contributed several large masses of the breccia which occupies the floor of the caves, consisting of bones and teeth of animals, flint flakes, pebbles, and other objects cemented together into a solid pavement. The composition of these masses apparently indicates the great antiquity of man, since they present the stone implements of his construction imbedded in the same materials with the bones of the rhinoceros and other extinct animals. The most remarkable portion of this collection may, however, be said to consist of the illustrations of the art of sculpture as it existed among the prehistoric races.. The materials employed were the broad portion of the horns of the reindeer or the ivory tusks of the elephant. These carvingss exhibit a remarkable appreciation of form and composition, undoubtedly derived from constant observation of the wild animals depicted. They chiefly represent the more remarkable quadrupeds such as the elephant, reindeer, bear, aurochs, &c. These are all exhibited in motion or in striking attitudes, such as leaping, fighting, or flying from pursuit.

Return to start of the Top Floor of the Castle's Main Hall in 1886