Stone Age

A

3

Upper Paleolithic

The Upper Paleolithic extends from approximately 40,000 years ago until the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago. This era is known as the Paleo-Indian period in the Americas, and as the Later Stone Age in sub-Saharan Africa, where it extended much longer, even to historical times in parts of the continent. In the Upper Paleolithic, standardized blade industries appear and become much more widespread than in previous times. The first of these industries to appear in the Near East and Europe is known as Aurignacian. Later Upper Paleolithic industries include the Perigordian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian. The Upper Paleolithic is usually characterized by specially prepared cores from which blades (flakes at least twice as long as they are wide) were struck off with a bone or antler punch. Upper Paleolithic humans also developed new forms of scrapers, backed knives, burins, and points. Beautifully made, two-sided, leaf-shaped points are also common in some Upper Paleolithic industries. Toward the end of the Upper Paleolithic, microliths (small, geometric-shaped blade segments) became increasingly common in many areas.

By the end of the Upper Paleolithic period and the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago, human populations had spread to every continent except Antarctica. Humans had effectively adapted to the northern latitudes of Eurasia and had dispersed into the American continents. The earliest well-documented occupation of the Americas appears to have been during the late ice age, about 12,000 to 10,000 years ago. The first recognized Paleo-Indian industry is known as Clovis, which was followed by Folsom. These industries produced delicately crafted, bifacial points that are fluted, meaning that the base of the point is thinned by removing a large flake from one or both sides. Fluted Clovis points have been found at mammoth kill sites, while Folsom points are associated with bison kills, mammoths being extinct by that time.

Famous Upper Paleolithic occupation sites include Laugerie Haute, La Madeleine, Abri Pataud, and Pincevent, in France; Castillo, Altamira, and El Juyo, in Spain; Dolní Věstonice, in the Czech Republic; Mezhirich, in Ukraine; Sungir and Kostenki, in Russia; Ksār Akil, in Lebanon; Kebara, in Israel; Zhoukoudian Upper Cave, in China; Haua Fteah, in Libya; and Taforalt, in Morocco. Well-known Later Stone Age sites in sub-Saharan Africa include Lukenya Hill, in Kenya; Kalemba, in Zambia; and Rose Cottage Cave, Wilton Cave, Nelson Bay Cave, and Boomplaas in South Africa. The most famous Paleo-Indian sites are those located in the United States near the eastern New Mexico towns of Clovis and Folsom, which gave the industries their names.

Human fossils associated with the Upper Paleolithic, Paleo-Indian, and Later Stone Age are almost always those of anatomically modern humans, or Homo sapiens sapiens. In the 19th century, Homo sapiens sapiens skeletal remains were found associated with early Upper Paleolithic artifacts at the rock shelter of Cro-Magnon in southern France. The term Cro-Magnon Man has thus sometimes been used to refer to anatomically modern humans in the context of the Upper Paleolithic. Not all humans were anatomically modern in this period, however. In the early stages of the Upper Paleolithic, the sites that make up the Chatelperronian industry appear to be associated with late Neandertals, possibly influenced by modern humans arriving with Aurignacian technology.

---

---

A3

a

Innovations of the Upper Paleolithic

During the Upper Paleolithic, tools of bone, antler, and ivory become common for the first time. These tools include points, barbed harpoons, spear throwers, awls, needles, and tools that have been interpreted as spear-shaft straighteners. The presence of eyed needles indicates the use of sewn clothing (presumably of hide and possibly early textiles) or hide coverings for tents or shelters. In some carvings from this period, human figures are depicted wearing hooded parkas or other vestments. Other technological innovations include lamps (in the form of hollowed out stones filled with flammable substances such as oil or animal fat) and probably the bow and arrow (small projectile points have been interpreted as arrowheads). Many Upper Paleolithic artifacts appear to be evidence of composite technology, in which multiple components were combined together to form one tool or process. For example, spear tips were attached with binding material to spear shafts, which were flung using spear throwers (sometimes called atlatls). A spear thrower usually took the form of a length of wood or bone with a handle on one end and a peg or socket at the other to hold the butt of a spear or dart. When swung overhand together, the spear thrower provided greater thrust on the spear.

Upper Paleolithic populations appear to have been competent hunter-gatherers. The use of mechanical devices such as spear throwers and, probably, bow and arrows allowed them to increase the velocity, penetrating force, and distance of projectiles. Many Upper Paleolithic sites contain large quantities of mammal bones, often with one species predominating, such as red deer, reindeer, or horse. It is believed that many of these Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers could effectively predict the timing and location of seasonal resources, such as reindeer migrations or salmon runs.

A3

b

Upper Paleolithic Culture

Many Upper Paleolithic sites feature elements that have been interpreted as evidence of housing. These are commonly patterns of bone or stone concentrations that seem to delineate hut or tent structures. At the sites of Étiolles and Pincevent, in France, the distribution of stone artifacts, animal bones, hearths, and postholes has been interpreted as evidence of clearly defined huts. At Mezhirich, in the Ukraine, and Kostenki, in Russia, hut structures were found made of stacked or aligned mammoth bones. Distinctive hearths, often lined or ringed with rocks, are much more common in the Upper Paleolithic than in earlier times.

Stone for tools was often obtained from more distant sources, sometimes in larger quantities than seen previously in the Stone Age. Occasionally, stone was traded or carried over several hundred kilometers. It seems likely, therefore, that trade and transport routes were more formalized than they had been in earlier times. The Upper Paleolithic also documents the trade of exotic materials—such as marine shells or semiprecious stones—for personal ornamentation as beads or on necklaces.

In the Upper Paleolithic, evidence of human burial is much more common. In addition, burials tend to be more elaborate than in Neandertal times, often associated with rich grave goods. For example, at Sungir, in Russia, three individuals were buried with ivory spears, pendants and necklaces of shells and animal teeth, and thousands of ivory beads that had apparently been sewn into their clothing.

A3

c

Upper Paleolithic Art

The earliest representational art—in the form of painting, sculpture, and engraving—dates back to approximately 32,000 years ago. Sites in Europe are famous for their artwork, but prehistoric Stone Age art has also been richly documented in Africa, Australia, and other parts of the world. Animals are common subjects of Upper Paleolithic art, and human figures and abstract elements such as lines, dots, chevrons, and other geometric designs are also found.

Early humans around the world used natural materials such as red and yellow ochre, manganese, and charcoal to create cave art. Among the hundreds of European sites with Upper Paleolithic cave paintings, some of the best known are Altamira, in Spain, and Lascaux and the more recently discovered (and archaeologically oldest) Chauvet, in France. Animals such as bison, wild cattle, horses, deer, mammoths, and woolly rhinoceroses are represented in European Upper Paleolithic cave art, with human figures relatively uncommon. Later Stone Age paintings of animals have been found at sites such as in Apollo 11 Cave, in Namibia; and stylized engravings and paintings of circles, animal tracks, and meandering patterns have been found in Australia’s Koonalda Cave and Early Man Shelter.

A number of small sculptures of human female forms (often called Venus figurines) have been found in numerous sites in Europe and Asia. Small, stylized ivory animal figures made more than 30,000 years ago were discovered in Vogelherd, Germany, and clay sculptures of bison were found in Le Tuc d’Audoubert, in the French Pyrenees. In addition, many utilitarian objects—such as spear throwers and batons—were superbly decorated with engravings, sculptures of animals, and other motifs.

The earliest known musical instruments also come from the Upper Paleolithic. Flutes made from long bones and whistles made from deer foot bones have been found at a number of sites. Some experts believe that Upper Paleolithic people may have used large bones or drums with skin heads as percussion instruments.

The archaeological record of the Upper Paleolithic shows a creative explosion of new technological, artistic, and symbolic innovations. There is little doubt that these populations were essentially modern in their biology and cognitive abilities and had fully developed language capabilities. There is a much greater degree of stylistic variation geographically (some archaeologists have suggested that this is evidence of the emergence of ethnicity) and a more rapid developmental pace during the Upper Paleolithic than in any previous archaeological period. Anthropologists hotly debate whether these new Upper Paleolithic patterns are due to biological transition or whether they are simply the products of accumulated cultural knowledge and complexity through time.

B

Mesolithic

The Mesolithic (also known as the Epipaleolithic) extends from the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, until the period when farming became central to a peoples’ livelihood, which occurred at different times around the world. The term Mesolithic is generally applied to the period of post-Pleistocene hunting and gathering in Europe and, sometimes, parts of Africa and Asia. In the Americas, the post-glacial hunter-gatherer stage that predates the dominance of agriculture is usually called the Archaic. In the rest of the world, Mesolithic sites are usually characterized by microliths. Microlithic blade segments were commonly retouched into a range of shapes, including crescents, triangles, rectangles, trapezoids, and rhomboids, and thus the tools are often called geometric microliths. These forms often have multiple sharp edges. Many of these microliths probably served as elements of composite tools, such as barbed or blade-tipped spears or arrows, or wooden-handled knives. The microliths were likely inserted into shafts or handles of wood or antler and reinforced with some type of adhesive.

The end of the ice age brought fairly rapid environmental change in much of the world. With the warmer, post-glacial conditions of the Holocene Epoch, ice sheets retreated and sea levels rose, inundating coastal areas worldwide. Temperate forests spread in many parts of Europe and Asia. As these climatic and vegetative changes occurred, large herds of mammals, such as reindeer, were replaced by more solitary animals, such as red deer, roe deer, and wild pig. Cold-adapted animals, such as the reindeer, elk, and bison, retreated to the north, while others, such as the mammoth, giant deer, and woolly rhinoceros, went extinct. The rich artistic traditions of Upper Paleolithic Western Europe declined markedly after the end of the ice age. This may in part be because the changing environment made the availability of food and other resources less predictable, requiring populations to spend more time searching for resources, leaving less time to maintain the artistic traditions.

Well-studied Mesolithic/Archaic sites include Star Carr, in England; Mount Sandel, in Ireland; Skara Brae, in Britain’s Orkney Islands; Vedbæk, in Denmark; Lepenski Vir, in Serbia; Jericho, in the West Bank; Nittano, in Japan; Carrier Mills, in Illinois; and Gatecliff Rockshelter, in Nevada. In sub-Saharan Africa, many Later Stone Age sites of the Holocene Epoch could broadly be termed Mesolithic, due to their geometric microliths and bow and arrow technology.

During the Mesolithic, human populations in many areas began to exploit a much wider range of foodstuffs, a pattern of exploitation known as broad spectrum economy. Intensively exploited foods included wild cereals, seeds and nuts, fruits, small game, fish, shellfish, aquatic mammals and birds, tortoises, and invertebrates such as snails. Dogs were domesticated in this period, probably for use in hunting. Some Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, such as the Natufian of the Near East, appear to have lived in small settlements based on an economy involving gazelle hunting and the harvesting of wild cereals using sickles with flint blade segments inset in bone handles. In the Near East and North Africa, Mesolithic populations processed wild plant foods using grinding stones.

Other Mesolithic technological innovations include the adz and axe (woodworking tools consisting of flaked stone blades set in bored antler sleeves and fastened to wooden handles), fishing weirs and traps, fishhooks, the first preserved bows and arrows, baskets, textiles, sickles, dugout canoes and paddles, sledges, and early skis. The Jōmon culture of Japan produced pottery by 10,000 years ago, as did the Ertebølle culture of Scandinavia somewhat later.

The development of broad spectrum economies in the post-glacial Mesolithic/Archaic period laid the foundations for the domestication of plants and animals, which in turn led to the rise of farming communities in some parts of the world. This development marked the beginning of the Neolithic.