Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo14amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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226 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL especial importance because of their bearing on the technology and art of the upper palaeolithic period, and were selected with the especial object of filling
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Bone points from the Abri Blanchard, Middle Aurignacian Epocli. The flint industry was at a Ugh stage in the Aurignacian Epoch and later de- clined as the making of implements and ornaments of bone increased serious gaps in the Museum series. Of the three great art epochs, Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian, we were fortunate in securing an original engrav- ing from two — the first and the last. Objects of personal adornment and industrial remains, especially type speci- mens, were also collected. The chief interest however centers in the two engravings, because of the policy of the French Government to reserve for itself everj^thing in the line of palseo- Hthic art; and in this respect the Govern- ment has the support of public senti- ment. This spirit is not only easily understood, but also highly commenda- ble in view of the world-wide interest that attaches to the subject of Quater- nary art. Old masters come high; why not also the oldest masters? Each new find is reported immediately to the Paris Academy of Sciences. Some half- dozen Aurignacian engravings on mam- moth bone and on pebbles found on October 3, 1913, in the rock-shelter of La Colombiere, valley of the Ain, about thirty miles southwest of Geneva, were presented before the Paris Academy on October 20, and early in November full details of the find with illustrations were republished in New York City. The discovery at La Colombiere created unusual interest because in two instances the human form was represented. The names of the palteolithic culture stages are now almost as familiar to the general reader as are those of the geologic epochs. Gabriel de Mortillet had more to do than any other one man with building up and popularizing this system of classification. To him however, does not belong the credit for introducing into the system the term " Aurignacian" and for placing it where it belongs, viz., between the Mousterian and Solutrean epochs; although at one time he was inclined to differentiate an additional

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