The Palaeolithic Flashcards
Raised beach, Ireland. These occur when sea levels change due to climate change- sea levels rose when the temperature last rose as ice melted into the sea. There is also Ice Static Rebound, where land is rising due to the removal of ice that used to weigh it down.
The Milankovitch Cycle theoryory (1936). The angle between Earth’s rotational axis and the normal to the plane of its orbit (obliquity) oscillates between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees on a 41,000-year cycle. This causes a flunctuation in climate, with alternating hot and cold periods. We are currently in a hot period.
Lucy. Australopithecus Afrarensis from 3.2ma. Comprises 40% of a total skeleton. Discovered in Ethiopia’s Afar Depression in 1974. Walked upright but still had the cranial capactiy of apes- around 375-500 cc.
Java Man. Homo erectus found in Indonesia in 1891, and included femurs, skullcap and teeth. Dates to around 1.6-1.8 million years old.
Peking Man. Homo erectus pekinensis found in 1923 near Beijing. May be as old as 680-780,000 years old. Found amongst several incomplete skeletons with date back to 0.5 ma. There is evidence that he was a hunter (animal bones and fire) but may have been a scavenger. The fossils went missing during WWII.
Boxgrove. Site from 480-426,000 BC, comprised of layers of sand lenses and periglacial rock. Animal remains show signs of butchery and nicely shaped lithics were found. Up to 45 specieis of animal were found, 11 of which are extinct and 12 of which were extinct in Britain. A Homo Heidelberensis tibia was found.
Neanderthals, found in Neander Valley in 1856 and Le Moustier, Dordogne. Homo neadnerthalensis. They were in Europe from 200,000 and in Britain from around 60,000 to 30,000 BP. So far they are more successful than modern humans.
Hybrid Child. Found in Portugal. This is a 24,500 year old early modern huma child burial known the the lapedo child, age 4. This may be an example of mixed ancestory or interbreeding around 30,000 BP between Neanderthals and early modern humans.
Divje Babe Flute. This is a cave bear femur pierced by spaced holes that was found in 1995 in Slovenia. It is thought the be Neanderthal, and the earliest musical instrument, dating to around 43100 BP.
El Castillo Cave, Spain. Hand stencils and disks made by blowing paint onto the wall in El Castillo cave were found to date back to at least 40,800 years, making them the oldest known cave art in Europe
Blombus Cave in South Africa is home to Middle Stone Age deposits dated to around 100,000 - 70,000 years BP. Many pierced shells were found, that may have been used for adornment, which shows complex cognition and abstract thinking.
Haematite (ochre) engraved with a geometric pattern, found in Blombus cave in South Africa, and dated to almost 100 ka.
Paviland and Red Lady Burial. This female skeleton found deep in acave was found in the 19th century by Buckland. She was covered in Red Ochre in 30,000 BC, perhaps to symbolically represent blood. He also found 50 ivory wands, bracelets and pierced teeth used as adornment.
Cathole, Gower, Wales. Rock art from the Upper Paleolithic, thought to represent a reindeer, was discovered on the back wall of Cathole Cave in September 2010, dated to 14,505 BP. According to George Nash, it is “the oldest rock art in the British Isles, if not north-western Europe”
An example of a venus figurine, associated with fertility. This was one of the oldest examples of ceramic figurines, dated to around 25-30,000 BC, and found in Dolní Věstonice, Czech Republic.
Willendorf Venus Figurine, found in Lower Austria in 1908. Represents fertility and dates to 28,000 and 25,000 BCE.
Leroi Gourhan. A famous cave art verifier and theorist who sought to classify art into certain categories. He suggested that geometric patterns could be the result of entopic visions- a trance like state with hallucinations.
Chauvet Cave, France. Contains 416 paintings and numerous engravings dating to 32 ka BC, makign this one of the world’s oldest rock art sites. The art is unique for it’s 3D aspect and for scenes of animals interacting, rather than just depictions of lone animals.
Hundred Mammoth Cave (Rouffignac cave, France). Occupants alternated between hominins and cave bears. Could be around 13000 BP but the lack of artefacts make it hard to tell. Mostly animals representations but 6 human figures have also been spotted.
Gorham’s Cave, Gibraltar. One of the last known habitations of Neanderthals. There is a symbolic criss cross engraving on the wall, possibly the first example of “abstract” art.
Clovis Culture. Takes its name from Clovis, New Mexico where bi-facial lithics were found in 1929. This is a palaeo-Indian culture that first appears 11,500 BP and is characterised by the manufacture of Clovis points nad distinctive bone/ivory tools. For many years American archaeologists considered ther to be no pre-Colvis traditiojns, and migration to have occured no earlier than 11 ka.
Kennewick Man. One of the most complete ancient skeletons ever found. Found in 1996 in Kennewick, Washington Stae. Dated to around 5650-9510 years old. There was a clash between Native Americans, who wanted to bury his bones, and scientists. In 2015 it was found to be more closely related to Native Americans than any other population living today, but actually of Polynesian ancestory.
Paisley Caves, Oregon. A series of caves that show clear evidence of pre-Clovis communities dating back to 11-13 ka, disproving American theory. DNA analysis shows clinical ties with people from Siberia.
Toca Do Boqueirao De Pedra Furada, Brazil - contains art dating to 29 ka BP and over 7000 artefacts dating to at least 60 ka BP. 20% was left unexcavated for when better technology becomes available. Evidence of fire use may come from forest fires, and quartz artefacts may just be falled shards from higher layers of quartz. Human coprolites (faeces) were found dating to 7-8.5 ka BP.
Toca da Entrada do Pajau. Cave in Brazil containing Palaeolithic art, mostly of animals running, which has been dated using the fallen veneers from around it.
Homo Nadeli, date unknown. Comprised of homo and australopithecine features. Humanesque skull, versatile hands and long legs, but with primartive shoulders and flared pelvis. May have split from early forms or be a recent cousin of us. Signs of deliberate burial. Found in South Africa in 2013.
Homo floresiensis. Only 1m tall, with a cranial capacity of 417 cc. Shared features with erectus, australopithecus and sapiens, as well as some unique attributes. Likely to be a late surviving dwarfed form of erectus. e.g Hobbit, found in Indonesia in 2003, and arm bone of which is around 74,000 years old.
• Last Glacial Maximum (22,000 – 19,000 BC)
Les Dogues, Castellon (Ripoll Perello 1963)
