Professor Discovers French Deposit of Flint-Age Bones

Hallam L. Movius, Jr. '30, associate professor of Anthropology, today announced his discovery of one of the largest and richest campsites of prehistoric man ever recorded in Western Europe.

Uncovered in the summer of 1953, the site has been dated in the Upper Paleolithic era, going back 18,000 to 25,000 years. Preliminary excavations, Professor Movius reported, unearthed a very large series of flint pieces and, more important, "better preserved and more complete mammalian material than as been recovered in recent years."

Movius noted that vertebrae remains dating back about 25,000 years indicated that the chief food source then was the horse. Examinations of the upper levels indicated that 7,000 years later the reindeer had become the chief meat food.

This suggests that the hunting cultures were adjusted to their environments, Movius said.

Complete study of the site should enable a team of workers to determine what climatic changes occurred that eliminated the horse from the diet. The same study will afford an opportunity to investigate changes in the living habits of the bands of hunters who occupied the area at various times, since preliminary examinations show a long record of successive occupations.

Movius pinpointed the site as a farm in the French village of Les Eyzles in "the prehistoric capital of Western Europe."