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INTRODUCTION the Upper Palæolithic period, belonging perhaps to 20000 or 10000 B.C., he did it probably for purposes of "sympathetic magic" or for ritual practices, and not because of the urge to record important events or to communicate ideas. The same may perhaps be said of the numerous river
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OM FED ED E a L UD OOO
Fig. 1-Azilian signary. Coloured pebbles from Mas d'Azil, Ariège, Southern France. The signs have
not yet been explained pebbles of the Azilian culture (middle-stone age), painted with peroxide or iron, with dots and lines (Fig. 1), and of the various geometric signs or conventionalized figures of men, painted or engraved on stones, termed "petroglyphs," of megalithic tombs (neolithic age), and the like, found
