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MADELENIAN

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 284 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MADELENIAN , a See also:

term derived from La Madeleine, a See also:cave in the Vezere, about midway between Moustier and See also:Les Eyzies, See also:France, and given by the See also:French anthropologist See also:Gabriel de See also:Mortillet to the third See also:stage of his See also:system of cave-See also:chronology, synchronous with the See also:fourth or most See also:recent See also:division of the See also:Quaternary See also:Age. The Madelenian See also:epoch was a See also:long one, represented by numerous stations, whose contents show progress in the arts and See also:general culture. It was characterized by a See also:cold and dry See also:climate, the existence of See also:man in association with the See also:reindeer, and the extinction of the See also:mammoth. The use of See also:bone and See also:ivory for various implements, already begun in the preceding Solutrian epoch, was much increased, and the See also:period is essentially a Bone age. The bone See also:instruments are very varied: See also:spear-points; See also:harpoon-heads, borers, hooks and needles. Most remarkable is the See also:evidence La Madeleine affords of prehistoric See also:art. See also:Numbers of bones, reindeer antlers and animals' See also:teeth were found, with See also:rude pictures, carved or etched on them, of See also:seals, fishes, reindeer, mammoths and other creatures. The best of these are a mammoth engraved on a fragment of its own ivory; a See also:dagger of reindeer antler, with handle in See also:form of a reindeer; a cave-See also:bear cut on a See also:flat piece of schist; a See also:seal on a bear's tooth; a See also:fish well See also:drawn on a reindeer antler; and a See also:complete picture, also on reindeer antler, showing horses, an See also:aurochs, trees, and a snake biting a man's See also:leg. The man is naked, and this and the snake suggest a warm climate, in spite of the presence of the reindeer. The See also:fauna of the Madelenian epoch seems, indeed, to have included tigers and other tropical See also:species See also:side by side with reindeer, See also:blue foxes, See also:Arctic See also:hares and other polar creatures. Madelenian man appears to have been of See also:low stature, See also:dolichocephalic, with low retreating forehead and prominent brow ridges. Besides La Madeleine the See also:chief stations of the epoch are Les Eyzies, Laugerie Basse, and See also:Gorge d'Enfer in See also:Dordogne; Grotte du See also:Placard in See also:Charente and others in See also:south-See also:west France.

See G. de Mortillet, Le Prehistorique (1900); Edouard Lartet and See also:

Henry See also:Christy, Religuiae A quitanicae (1865–1875); Edouard See also:Dupont, Le Temps prehistorique en Belgique (1872) ; See also:Lord See also:Avebury, Prehistoric Times (1900).

End of Article: MADELENIAN

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