THE RAGES OF EUROPE

Palestinian specimens. One skull in particular bears a striking resemblance to Chancelade.

The statures of these people were low: 159 cm* for the men, 151 cm. for the women; the long bones not very heavy. The distal extremities were relatively long; not as much so as in some earlier skeletons, but more so than among most living Europeans.

Our interpretation of these late Mesolithic remains from the western corner of France is that they represent a group of marginal Epipalaeolithic survivors from beyond the Pyrenees, pushed northward, partly by climatic changes and partly by the arrival of new people from North Africa. We have, after all, no other evidence to show us what kind of people inhabited the Iberian Peninsula during the Late Pleistocene; a conglomerate of first wave Grimaldi-Combe Capelle-like Aurignacians plus some Magdalenians, plus some bringers of microliths from the south and east, would presum­ably look very much like this Teviec type, especially since the overgrown Middle and Late Aurignacians did not hunt south of the Pyrenees.

Aside from this T6viec series, the Azilian culture proper is represented by the remains of four individuals removed from the Trou Violet at Montardit,¹⁹ Arri&ge, in the northern Pyrenees, near the type station of the Azilian at Mas d’Azil, and one mandible and several long bones, from Mas d’Azil itself.²⁰ Only one specimen, the so-called Montardit I, includes a complete skeleton, or even a complete brain case. Without elaboration, one may say that in every respect they belong to the same type as that of T6viec.

2. The ofnet head burials

The third reasonably large series of Mesolithic crania in Europe comes from the Ofnet cave near Hohlheim in Bavaria,²¹ where thirty-three skulls were found neatly arranged in a solid circle, like eggs in a nest. Nineteen of them belonged to children, ten to women, and only four to men. Along with the skulls were, in most cases, the two topmost neck vertebrae, the axis and atlas. The bodies were missing. A few miles away, at Kauferts- berg, a single adult male skull has been discovered which was buried under identical circumstances.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to detect the murderers in this Mesolithic mystery. The peculiar sex ratio, the fact that all the heads were buried at once and while still fresh, and the further fact that all had been fractured by sharp blows with a lens-shaped implement similar in form to a round- poled celt,²² make it unlikely that this was a normal, peaceful form of

16. Sawtelle, R. O. (Mrs. Wallis), PMP, vol. 11, #4, 1931.

17. Piette, E., BSAP, ser. 4, vol. 6, 1895, pp. 485-486.

18. Scheldt, W., Die eiszeitlichen Schddelfunde aus der grossen Ofnet-ho hie, etc.

19. Mollison, T., AAnz, vol. 13, 1936, pp. 79-88.

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burial. The skulls were daubed with red ochre, and a few flint implements were left with them. From these clues we may deduce that the killers, their victims, or both, were culturally either Tardenoisians,²³ or Azilians, and that the date is probably Period II of the Mesolithic.²⁴ These skulls do not form a homogeneous group, but differ greatly in head form, as well as in other characters. Of the two dolichocephals, the male #K1818 is obviously an Upper Palaeolithic survivor, without visible change. This skull exceeds the rest of the series in general size. It is extremely massive, with projecting browridges, a retreating forehead, a very broad face, ex­tremely low orbits, and a ponderous mandible. Its cubic capacity is well over 1600 cc. Its companion, a male of lesser dimensions, is less extremely developed and falls closer to the general type of the series.

The mesocephals, which include Kaufertsberg, are smaller, and rela­tively higher vaulted; as Boule and Vallois have pointed out,²⁵ they verge on the type of Teviec, which these authors consider to be Magdalenian survivals. At any rate, they do not seem to be intermediate between the dolichocephals just described, which resemble rather a full Aurignacian prototype, and the brachycephals.

The last present the real Ofnet problem. Two of the brachycephalic crania are masculine,²⁶ two feminine, with the highest index, that of a female, 87. These skulls are long, wide, and of moderate vault height; the faces are without exception wide. In one of the male specimens (K1809) the greatest length of the skull lies in the forward segment, as with modern planoccipitals, such as Armenoids. The forehead of this skull is very wide, and the face extremely broad and low. The face is, furthermore, com­pletely orthognathous, and the lower jaw is very massive, with flaring gonial angles and a square, bilateral chin. This jaw is also very high, and reduces the impression of shortness in the total facial plane. The other male specimen, on the borderline of brachycephaly (K1800) is the only one in the whole group which is hypsiconch, and one of two that are lep- torrhine.

The female skulls show a considerable sex difference in head form, and likewise in browridges and other manifestations of bony relief. As with their Upper Palaeolithic prototypes, they are notably smaller, in most cases, than the males. On the whole, they vary much less than do the masculine crania, and fall closest to the brachycephalic male, K1809, in type.

16. Clark, J. G. D., The Mesolithic Settlement of Northern Europe, p. 218.

17. Mollison, in view of the cross-section of the implement with which they were killed, suggests that the date may have been Late Magdalenian, since no such implement re­appears until the Late Neolithic. Mollison, T., op. cit.

28. Boule, M., and Vallois, H., AIPH, Mem. 18, pp. 170-177.

^M Including #K1800, the C. I. of which is 79.85.