The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1913-11-22

/ human being has just been uhcurihed
in France. II is thc rude figure of a
man engraved on prohistoris mon
ster's bone. Accordug To those who
dug 1t up ii is at least l5,ooo years
old, dating back To the so-callcd Aur-
ignacian age.
If they are right i'm their contentious
and the strange drawing was actually
made 10y an artist In his prehistoric
studio it materially surengthcns the
theory that our ancestors. instead of
possessing the ape-liNe skulls of the
type found at Ncaudcuhal. SPY, and
la Shappelle- Saints. were crea-
lures with skulls resembling that
found at Piltdown, England, last year,
declared 10y some To have a brain de-
velopment greater than that of pres
cnt day man
This remarkable discovery was
made on oct. 3 last i'm the cave of La
C~nbicre, beside the River Ain, in
tSouthern France. by Dr Lucicu MAY
ct, professor Of human palcontolcgy at
the University of Lyon, a town close
/ To the cave The official report of the
great find was read ON oct. 20 to the
/ Paris Academy of Sciences by NJ. Dou-
/ vile and summarized at length i'm
/ ILLUSTRATION of oct. -.
The cave of La Colombicre is stu
ated on the right bank of the Ain,
about twenty meters above the present
! level of the river, between POncin and
! Nuville- sur Ain. AS long ago as 1870
a scientist, NJ. Moyrct called atten-
tion to it as having been inhabited in
| prehistoric times. Ever since numer-
Gus investigators have visited it, They
conducted their Investigations SO as
siduously that the level of the cave
formed during the Neulithic age--com-
| parativcly recent, i'm the eyes of gcol-
ogists and anthropolosists- dug
away. also the contiguous level of the
earlier Magdalenian age This low
cred rhc level of the cave by seventy
| five centimeters and brought to light
rich fields of Ncolithic and Magdalcn
IAN relics.
But the richest find of all was vet to
come, Beginning last May. the latest
| investigators began To dig deeper into
the soil forming the floor of the cave,
and after they had penetrated about
one meter further down they found
stratum of fine gravel, showing un-
mistakabie signs of dating from the
still earlier Aurignacian age. This
proved To be veritable treasure
trovc.
A Prehistoric Studio.
In it were uncovered the studio
of a prehistoric artist, containing a
number of different sorts of engrtv-
or's tools, pieces of mammoth, rhinoc-
eros. and reindeer bones, pieces ot
stone ready for engraving, and stones
and bones with engravings already cut
into them
one of the latter reprcs, uts horse
Of remarkably finished type; am
other shows bison. still another a
wild sheep. But the prize OF the whole
collection, the prize which. it is conf
IDENTIFY expected. will make this an
epoch making find in the annals Of
anthropology. is the piece of man
moths bone on which is cut the figure
of human being. This, in the words
of those who have uncarthcd il. is
the first document representing, in
engraved form, the man of the middle
quarterndry age the minimum age of
which is 1000 years"
AS those who delve into the remote
history of our race are aware. pictur-
inGs OF himself 10y prehistoric man arc
extremely rare. lie dclightcd i'm draw
ing and carving the strange beasts
which he saw about him--bisons, rein
deer. mammoth, horses, and the like
but when II came to giving us an idea
Of what be looked like himself he was
strangely coy.
Especially rare are dcpictious of
man in the form of drawings or en-
cravings Rude carvings of human
beings, dating far beyond the dawn of
History, have been dug up-at Nillen-
dorf, IN Austria, at Brassempouy, the
Laussel cave, and the grottoes of Girl
maldi i'm France and other places. Ow-
ing to this paucity of first hand in
formation. reconstructions of prchis-
toris man from the various skulls and
bones found at different times have
been largely a matter of conjecture.
II has been case of every one guess
ing for himself, and the controversies
that have arisen have been legion. one
group Of savants, endeavOring To bulld
up our remote ancestors from the fa-
nous relics found in the Neanderthal,
near Dusseldorf. Germany; at Spy, in
| Belgium, and at La Chappellc-auN-
Saints, i'm France, have shown us
something materially strengthening
the Darwinian theory that man Is de-
seconded from the ape. Another group,
basing it's deductions on the man sc
constructed from the Piltdown skull,
has endeavored to prove we are de-
seconded, never become so bestial as
the possessors of the Neanderthal-
Spy-La Chappelle-auX- Saints skulls.
and that the latter belonged To Il
branch of the race which gradually
degencrated until it finally became eX-
tinct. while the other and superior
branch kept on improving until man
rs We know him was gradually
evolved
What the Finders Claim.
This latter theory. II is expected by
| Iii. % a. q