MADELENIAN

This article appears in Volume V17, Page 284 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: LUP-MAL

MADELENIAN , a term derived from La Madeleine, a cave in the Vezere, about midway between Moustier and Les Eyzies, France, and given by the French anthropologist Gabriel de Mortillet to the third stage of his system of cave-chronology, synchronous with the fourth or most

recent

RECENT

division of the

Quaternary

QUATERNARY

Age. The Madelenian epoch was a long one, represented by numerous stations, whose contents show progress in the arts and general culture. It was characterized by a cold and dry climate, the existence of man in association with the reindeer, and the extinction of the mammoth. The use of bone and ivory for various implements, already begun in the preceding Solutrian epoch, was much increased, and the period is essentially a Bone age. The bone

instruments

INSTRUMENTS

are very varied: spear-points; harpoon-heads, borers, hooks and needles. Most remarkable is the evidence La Madeleine affords of prehistoric art. Numbers of bones, reindeer antlers and animals' teeth were found, with rude pictures, carved or etched on them, of seals, fishes, reindeer, mammoths and other creatures. The best of these are a mammoth engraved on a fragment of its own ivory; a dagger of reindeer antler, with handle in form of a reindeer; a cave-

bear

cut on a flat piece of schist; a seal on a

bear

's tooth; a fish well

drawn

DRAWN

on a reindeer antler; and a complete picture, also on reindeer antler, showing horses, an aurochs, trees, and a snake biting a man's leg. The man is naked, and this and the snake suggest a warm
climate, in spite of the presence of the reindeer. The fauna of the Madelenian epoch seems, indeed, to have included tigers and other tropical species side by side with reindeer, blue foxes, Arctic hares and other polar creatures. Madelenian man appears to have been of low stature, dolichocephalic, with low retreating forehead and prominent brow ridges. Besides La Madeleine the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

stations of the epoch are Les Eyzies, Laugerie Basse, and Gorge d'Enfer in Dordogne; Grotte du Placard in

Charente

CHARENTE

and others in

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

-west France.
See G. de Mortillet, Le Prehistorique (1900); Edouard Lartet and

Henry

HENRY
HENRY (1129-1195)
HENRY (c. 1108-1139)
HENRY (c. 1174–1216)
HENRY (Fr. Henri; Span. Enrique; Ger. Heinrich; Mid. H. Ger. Heinrich and Heimrich; O.H.G. Haimi- or Heimirih, i.e. " prince, or chief of the house," from O.H.G. heim, the Eng.
home
, and rih, Goth. reiks; compare Lat. rex " king "—" rich," therefore " mig
HENRY, EDWARD LAMSON (1841– )
HENRY, JAMES (1798-1876)
HENRY, JOSEPH (1797-1878)
HENRY, MATTHEW (1662-1714)
HENRY, PATRICK (1736–1799)
HENRY, PRINCE OF BATTENBERG (1858-1896)
HENRY, ROBERT (1718-1790)
HENRY, VICTOR (1850– )
HENRY, WILLIAM (1795-1836)

Christy, Religuiae A quitanicae (18651875); Edouard Dupont, Le Temps prehistorique en Belgique (1872) ; Lord Avebury, Prehistoric Times (1900).

End of Article: MADELENIAN

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/LUP_MAL/MADELENIAN.html">
MADELENIAN
</a>

(Previous)
MADELEINE BEJART (1618-1672)

(Next)
MADELEY

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email