File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17974337959).jpg

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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Upper Aurignacian horse from rock-shelter No. 2 des Roches-de-Sergeac (Dordogne). This fig- ure engraved on limestone is one of tlie principal specimens in the American Museum collection. The flgm-e is about two feet in length and the lines are cut rather deeply. The gravers used must have been larger and heavier than those ordinarily found and in fact flint gravers strong enough for the work have been discovered. The general shape of the horse is typical of the stockily built Quaternary horse whose nearest living relatives are the species from the desert of Gobi, Equus przewalskii, and that native to the lie d'Yeu off the west coast of France It is rightly the policy of the French Government to set aside all caverns containing palaeolothic drawings and paintings as national galleries of prehistoric art. Each discovery is reported at once to the Pans Academy of Sciences. Thus museums in America are never likely to display the originals and must depend on copies such as have been recently transferred to the walls of the hall of European pre- historic archaeology in the American Museum mals that chiefly figure in this hst are the reindeer, horse, bison, and wild goat. The most beautiful of all is the reindeer represented as browsing. For artistic merit it ranks with the celebrated rein- deer of Thaingen. Figures of the horse are no less inter- esting. They seem to comprise three fairly distinct types according to Capi- tan: first, a horse of slender build, small head and erect mane, corresponding to the modern ass; second, a true horse with short but large head, but rather slender body; third, a stocky, hairy horse with heavy mane. 236 In addition to the engravings on stone slabs some rare examples on bone were also found at Limeuil, one of which was obtained by us for the New York mu- seum. The figure in question is incised on a fragment of the metatarsal of a reindeer and is evidently one of at least two figures, probably a procession. The one most complete lacks the nose, upper part of the head including eyes and left ear, and the fore legs. The hind legs were never indicated. The line of the neck, back and tail forms a graceful sweeping curve. The ear is well drawn, the ear opening being

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