Cro-Magnon, His Tools and His Art, 1865-75
The Discovery of Cro-Magnon, 1868
Lartet, Louis (1840-1899). “Memoire sur une sepultre des anciens troglodytes de Perigord." Annales des sciences naturelles, 5th ser., Zoologie et Paleontologie, 1868, 10:133-160.
Louis Lartet was the son of Edouard Lartet, who had discovered the mammoth of La Madeleine in 1864. In a cave not too far away, named Cro-Magnon, Louis discovered five skeletons four adults and one fetal child, which seemed to have been buried in the cave along with seashell necklaces. The bones were rubbed with red ochre, just like the Red Lady of Paviland. The skull was quite different from the Neanderthal skull, with a high forehead and no brow ridges. This type of Paleolithic human came to be called Cro-Magnon. The plate shows the first specimen, an adult, who is usually called Cro-Magnon 1. This early human would be readily accepted as a human ancestor, for he looks just like us.