Research Items

Abstract

THE MAGLEMOSE CULTURE.—Some interesting observations on the genesis of the Maglemose culture were made by the Abbé Breuil in a communication to the Institut Francais d'Anthropologie, and are now published in I.'Anthropologie, T. 36, Nos. 3-4, à propos of a characteristic harpoon from Béthune, dated 1849, now in the British Museum. Similar harpoons from the Bethune marshes and from Isbergues near by are recorded. Deer's antlers, pierced and ornamented, from the Somme and Paris described by Acy afford further incontestable evidence of Maglemose influence. Several examples of Maglemosian harpoons have come from Belgium; but in the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle of Brussels are a number of unpublished harpoons found by M. Lequeux in mixed Tardenoisian - Maglemosian sites, and quite recently investigations still going on have brought to light harpoons in which the barbs are made of Tardenoisian triangular implements. A harpoon ornamented in Maglemosian style has also been found at the proto-Tardenoisian level of the Remonchamps site. The opinion already expressed, though not accepted by Scandinavian archaeologists, that while Maglemose is related to the Magdalenian, but not directly descended from it, being rather a result of a combination of Magdalenian and eastern elements coming from the direction of the Urals, has received support from the discovery at Wercholensk, near Irkutsk, of an Upper Palaeolithic site with harpoons. While the harpoon is a link between Magdalenian and Maglemose, the difference in the decorative art precludes close connexion. Even the style of the harpoons found on the peripheral Magdalenian sites of Central and Eastern Europe, like the decorative art, have distinctive characters indicating important ethnic differences. A composite origin for Maglemose is therefore suggested, including provincial Magdalenian of Central Europe, oriental (decorative motives and Campignian forms), a Southern or Mediterranean influence (Tardenoisian), and possibly a late Palaeolithic from Scandinavia when Norway was free from ice during the latest oscillations.