Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic Flashcards
Basic chronology of Upper Palaeolithic & Mesolithic
- Last Mousterian & Early Upper Palaeolithic (c. 45 – 42 kya). Homo neanderthalis & Homo sapiens sapiens – Neanderthals and modern humans inhabiting Europe at same time (but not necessarily Britain);
- Châtelperronian (c. 45,000 – 40,000 BP). Neanderthals or modern humans;
- Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ, c. 45,000 – c. 43,000 BP). Neanderthals or modern humans;
- Aurignacian (c. 41,000 – 35,000 BP). Modern humans.
- Gravettian (c. 35,000 – 22,000 BP).
- Solutrean (c. 22,000 – 17,000 BP).
- Magdalenian – Late Upper Palaeolithic (c. 17,000 – c.13,000 BC).
- Creswellian (c. 13,000 – 11,800 BP).
- Early Mesolithic (c. 9600 – c. 6000 BC).
- Later Mesolithic (c. 6000 – c. 4000 BC).
Europe’s last Neanderthals, & first H. sapiens
-c. 45,000 – 42,000 BP – Neanderthals & modern humans together in Europe
What happened?
1) Modern humans out-competed Neanderthals who were too slow/specialised to adapt to change;
2) Climate change – see above;
3) Genocide;
4) Disease;
5) Neanderthals & humans interbred;
6) Combinations of the above…..
Hybridisation?
-Lagar Velho, Portugal c. 24.5 kya
• 4 year old boy;
• Debate over Neanderthal influence on skeleton…
-Peștera cu Oase, Romania c. 40 kya
• ‘Modern human’ features like projecting chin, no brow ridge, high & rounded brain case;
• Some Neanderthal characteristics e.g. large crest of bone behind ear, robust jaw & big teeth that get even larger toward the back.
The Châtelperronian – a late Neanderthal adaptive culture?
- At sites such as La Grotte des Fées in Châtelperron, & Grotte-du-Renne, Arcy-sur-Cure 1960s excavations recovered assemblages with backed blades & burins but also worked bone awls & needles, & ivory & pierced shells & teeth . c. 45,000 – 40,000 BP.
- Châtelperronian stone tools seem to be continuation of Mousterian (Neanderthal) manufacture techniques, but bone & ivory objects similar to those of earliest H. sapiens Aurignacian culture. BUT stratigraphy Grotte-du-Renne was disturbed, & excav. techniques & recording not great.
- Delporte, Bordes & Zilhão argue this a hybrid culture, Neanderthals learning from modern humans. Hublin with AMS 14C dates has shown that bone ornaments, awls, pierced teeth & ivory pendants do date to this early period.
- Recent palaeoproteomic & aDNA analyses of hominin bones associated with tools indicate Neanderthal ancestry. Others, incl. Gamble, Mellars & Stringer, still assert that stratigraphy is too disturbed, & that these are comingled assemblages of objects.
Other late Mousterian/‘transitional’ evidence
- Perforated shells from Mousterian deposits c. 50,000 BP, Cueva de los Aviones, Cartagena, Spain •
- Incised bone, & cup-mark decorated grave slab, from Neanderthal burials c. 75,000 – 50,000 BP at La Ferrassie (Les Eyzies, France)
Who were the leaf-point makers?
- Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ, c. 45,000 – c. 43,000 BP) technology in NW Europe. Characterised by thick blade blanks, often from opposed platform cores, & long, ‘leaf-shaped’ blade-points
- These bladepoints probably used as spear tips – some have impact fractures e.g. from Beedings Hill in West Sussex
- Who were the leaf-point makers? Made by Neanderthals, or earliest H. sapiens?
The earliest modern human remains in Europe?
- Infant molar from Grotta del Cavallo, Italy recently 14C dated to 45,000 – 43,000 BP.
- The earliest modern human remains in Europe? Tibia from adult male, Ust’-Ishim, Siberia, dated to c. 45,000 BP
- Jawbone fragment from Kent’s Cavern, Devon, recently 14C dated to 44,200 – 41,500 BP.
It’s culture, innit?
• Perforated animal bone & ivory beads Geißenklösterle Cave, SW Germany, c. 42 – 40, 000 BP.
• Venus of Hohle Fels, Germany, c. 40 – 35,000 BP.
• Löwenmensch figurine or Lionman of the Hohlenstein-Stadel, SW Germany, c. 40, 000 BP.
• Cueva de El Castillo cave art, Puente Viesgo, Cantabria, Spain, c. 40,800 BP. Neanderthals or
modern humans?
New technologies, ways of being & scales of movement
- Long distance movements & exchanges of material taking place – sea shells >1000km; amber from Black Sea >700 km; & Polish flint >400km.
- Biomechanical analyses of pedal phalanges of W. Europe MP & UP humans suggests footwear much more common in UP.
Aurignacian
- 41,000 – 36,000 BP
- The Upper Danube Valley region in SW Germany is a possible ‘homeland’ for the Aurignacian. As a lithics industry it is characterised by:
- End scrapers (carinated, nosed & shouldered), burins busqués (chisel-like implements), multi-component tools & weapons, & bone/antler points
Goat’s Hole Cave, Paviland, South Wales
- Goat’s Hole Cave at Paviland on the Gower peninsula in S Wales has lithics from c. 40,000 BP to c. 13,000 BP (incl. Mousterian, leaf point, & later Aurignacian).
- The earliest Aurignacian material consists of c. 50 lithics – small-scale, intermittent occupation.
- The first excavator at Paviland in 1823 was William Buckland the Oxford don, Dean of Westminster & Curate of Christchurch. He kept a pet hyaena at home, sometimes bringing it into college
- At Paviland, he found bones of ‘antediluvial’ animals incl. a mammoth skull (now lost), but also partial human skeleton. Initially thought to be a recent, male Customs Officer.
- In his Reliquiae Diluvianae of 1823, he suggested it was a female Romano-British prostitute, a ‘painted lady’. Later recognised as male.
- Bones stained red by ochre, & accompanied by deliberately broken rods of ivory, rings & a bead, bone blades/knives, & perforated shells & animal teeth
- Later excavs found the ‘Sollas Egg’ – a pathological fragment of mammoth tusk pierced for suspension . Initial 14C date of 26,350 – 25,840 BP, suggesting it was firmly later Gravettian.
- More recent dating & isotope work by Higham & Jacobi, now young man had 20% marine diet, & died 29,490 – 28, 400 BP – the oldest formal burial in NW Europe. Evolved Aurignacian/ earliest Gravettian.
“Neolithic farmers had social relationships with each other while Mesolithic
hunter-gatherers had ecological relationships with hazelnuts”.
- Richard Bradley
- He made this semi-flippant remark about the lack of theoretical approaches to Mesolithic archaeology (in 1980s), which was still dominated by ecological determinism & optimal foraging theory – maximum yield for minimum effort.
- This has changed dramatically since the early 1990s…
Last Glacial Maximum c. 20,000 – 18, 000 BP
- Britain was probably largely abandoned during 33,000 – 15,000 BP as climate deteriorated, or possibly saw only very occasional intermittent, seasonal visits by small groups.
- Most human occupation in western & central Europe at this time.
- The Last Glacial Maximum occurred at c. 20, 000 BP, when ocean levels were 60m below their current level – ice sheet over 2km thick in places
Gravettian (c. 35,000 – 22,000 BP)
- Named after type site of La Gravette in France. •
- Gravettian stone industries characterised by points & small blades used for big-game hunting (bison, horse, reindeer & mammoth), & burins used for working hides. • People also used nets to hunt small game. Small, semi-permanent camps.
Dolní Věstonice, Moravia, Czech Republic
- Extensive area repeatedly visited (seasonally?) & occupied c. 30,000 – 25,000 BP. Many excavations since 1920s. Huts or tents surrounded by mammoth bones, with hearths.
- Evidence for cloth & plaited basketry. One hut had a clay-walled kiln or oven – for baking clay?
- At Dolní Věstonice, fired-clay female figure c. 30,0000 BP, similar to others in stone, ivory & bone found on
- Gravettian sites across central & southern Europe. Were ‘Venus figurines’ a male obsession with breasts & bums, or women depicting themselves?
- Other Dolní Věstonice finds incl. ivory female head, & stylised ivory male & female figurines – or dildos?
- At Dolní Věstonice, & Sungir in Russia, several elaborate burials of men & women found.
From wolf to woof?
- At various Upper Pal. sites, in addition to wolf remains, it has been claimed some canid bones are early domesticated dogs, usually from changes in skull. Some of these buried with care.
- Did these possible dogs confer advantages in hunting big game?
- Předmostí poss. dog skulls, Moravia, Czech Republic c. 32,000 – 22,000 BP. Paw prints from Chauvet Cave, France now thought to be wolf. Eliseevichi-1 possible dog skulls, Bryansk, Russia 13,900 BP.
- BUT, recent computerised morphometric analyses have shown most claims fall within variables of wolves. Goyet Cave poss. dog skull Belgium, c. 36,000 BP
Solutrean
- (c. 22,000 – 17,000 BP)
- Solutrean tools – finely-worked, bifacial points made with reduction percussion & pressure flaking using antler & wooden hammers.
- Solutrean laurel-leaf spear points are aesthetic marvels.
- Also flint scrapers, knives, & saws; & bone needles & fish hooks.
- Britain does not appear to have been visited in this period.
Late Glacial Interstadial
17,000 – 12,800 BP
- Climate improved from c. 18,000 BP, & reindeer returned to Britain, followed by horses, red deer, saiga antelope, & some mammoths. Wolves now top predator.
- Some of earliest evidence for human re-occupation of Britain is small group of lithics of c. 15,000 BP from Sun Hole rock shelter, Cheddar Gorge
Magdalenian – Late Upper Palaeolithic (c. 17,000
– c. 13,000 BC)
- Re-occupation of Britain coincides with emergence of Late Upper Palaeolithic Magdalenian culture, which had some important technological changes.
- Although a 17,500 year old spear-thrower or atlatl from Combe Saunière (Dordogne, Solutrean) is oldest in Europe, most of these distinctive implements are from Magdalenian sites.
- Spear-throwers greatly improved range & power of projectiles. Smaller stone points, & antler & bone spear & harpoon points now used.
Mezhirich & Gontsy, Ukraine
- On the less sheltered steppes further east, remains of remarkable structures made of mammoth bone & skins have been found at Magdalenian sites such as Mezhirich & Gontsy in Ukraine, c. 15,000 – 13,000 BP. •
- Pits cut into permafrost, & evidence for long-distance trade
Gough’s Cave, Cheddar Gorge
- Evidence for occupation from c. 14,000 BP.
- Stone points & blades, flint from Vale of Pewsey 70km away. Amber pieces from Baltic, a mammoth ivory point, & 3 reindeer antler bâtons percé (spear straighteners?), & notched bones.
- Remains of horse, reindeer, Arctic hare, wolf, lynx, ptarmigan. Also a possible mammoth carving.
- Also at Gough’s Cave were found partial & disarticulated remains of 5 humans. These had cut-marks from dismembering & defleshing. The heads were severed, defleshed, & shaped into skull ‘cups’.
- Complex mortuary treatment?
- Social consumption of remains of close relatives? (endocannibalism);
- Cannibalism following violent encounters? (exocannibalism).
Creswell Crags, Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire
• At Creswell Crags, series of caves & rock shelters in limestone gorge occupied intermittently by Neanderthals c. 50–60,000 BP, Lincombian-Ranisian Jerzmanowician (LRJ) c. 41,000 BP,
Gravettian c. 32,000 BP, & most caves used during Magdalenian c. 14–12,800 years ago.
Creswell Crags
artefacts
• Creswellian points, blades & scrapers, Robin Hood Cave
• Bone needle from Church Hole Cave, & bone point
Creswell Crags artefacts
• Ochred engraving of a horse on a rib from Robin Hood Cave & human/ anthropomorphic figure on a woolly rhino rib from Pin Hole Cave
• In addition to the deer carving, a possible horse & a bison or aurochs have also been identified.
• This was Britain’s first confirmed Palaeolithic art.