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Previous – Middle Paleolithic (Iraq) Stone Age 101 - Part 3

Next – Mesolithic (Denmark) Stone Age 101 - Part 5

The fourth installment of Stone Age 101 takes us to what is probably the first thing that comes to most people’s mind when they hear “stone age”. Around 40.000 BP Homo sapiens made his way out of Africa; coinciding with the last (and worst) glaciation of the northern hemisphere with glaciers as far south as modern day London (the ice maximum was at 20.000 BP). This resulted in the dominant landscape being tundra and steppes with very little trees for most of Europe and Asia. These were home to the favorite prey of our ancestors – horses, bison and reindeer, as well as some of the more intimidating animals like Mammoth and Wholly Rhino.

Our representative couple this time around comes from France because southern France and northern Spain are the hot spots for Upper Paleolithic sites. The names of many of these sites actually became eponymous for the stages of this time in Europe. Generally there are three of these: the Aurignacien, the Gravettien and the Magdalenien, with a number of different stages for other areas. And once again stone tools provided this classification (the 8-shaped tool on the right for example is characteristic for the Aurignacien) The modern humans of the Ice age also brought an innovation for the stone industry. Long blades made the production even more resourceful than the Levallois technique. However additionally to stones modern humans used a variety of materials like bone, ivory and antler to make their weapons, tools and art. The woman in the picture (whom you might recognize from the Stone Age Stereotypes drawing ) is using a technique to prepare mammoth tusks for further processing that was observed at a site in Austria.

An important invention of the upper Paleolithic was the spear thrower – like the one the man in our picture is sporting. A long wooden handle with a hook at the end made from ivory or bone often shaped like an animal. These devices could be used to throw long light spears with a lot of force.

But modern humans did not only decorate their weapons.

We know that they also had ivory beads sown to their clothing and shoes. In the Upper Paleolithic a variety of Art shows up – the two oldest known humanoid statues are from Austria (Venus vom Galgenberg) and Germany (Venus von Hohlefels) and date to around 37.000 BP. Most famous however are the cave paintings. Over 200 have been discovered in France alone, 170 in nearby Spain. The oldest were made up to 40.000 years ago, however it is suggested that these caves were regularly visited and new paintings added throughout the following millennia. We don’t really have an idea what they mean so feel free to make up your own explanation!

Join me next time when we finally venture into the less well known part of the Stone Age– the Mesolithic.

Description

Previous – Middle Paleolithic (Iraq) Stone Age 101 - Part 3

Next – Mesolithic (Denmark) Stone Age 101 - Part 5

The fourth installment of Stone Age 101 takes us to what is probably the first thing that comes to most people’s mind when they hear “stone age”. Around 40.000 BP Homo sapiens made his way out of Africa; coinciding with the last (and worst) glaciation of the northern hemisphere with glaciers as far south as modern day London (the ice maximum was at 20.000 BP). This resulted in the dominant landscape being tundra and steppes with very little trees for most of Europe and Asia. These were home to the favorite prey of our ancestors – horses, bison and reindeer, as well as some of the more intimidating animals like Mammoth and Wholly Rhino.

Our representative couple this time around comes from France because southern France and northern Spain are the hot spots for Upper Paleolithic sites. The names of many of these sites actually became eponymous for the stages of this time in Europe. Generally there are three of these: the Aurignacien, the Gravettien and the Magdalenien, with a number of different stages for other areas. And once again stone tools provided this classification (the 8-shaped tool on the right for example is characteristic for the Aurignacien) The modern humans of the Ice age also brought an innovation for the stone industry. Long blades made the production even more resourceful than the Levallois technique. However additionally to stones modern humans used a variety of materials like bone, ivory and antler to make their weapons, tools and art. The woman in the picture (whom you might recognize from the Stone Age Stereotypes drawing ) is using a technique to prepare mammoth tusks for further processing that was observed at a site in Austria.

An important invention of the upper Paleolithic was the spear thrower – like the one the man in our picture is sporting. A long wooden handle with a hook at the end made from ivory or bone often shaped like an animal. These devices could be used to throw long light spears with a lot of force.

But modern humans did not only decorate their weapons.

We know that they also had ivory beads sown to their clothing and shoes. In the Upper Paleolithic a variety of Art shows up – the two oldest known humanoid statues are from Austria (Venus vom Galgenberg) and Germany (Venus von Hohlefels) and date to around 37.000 BP. Most famous however are the cave paintings. Over 200 have been discovered in France alone, 170 in nearby Spain. The oldest were made up to 40.000 years ago, however it is suggested that these caves were regularly visited and new paintings added throughout the following millennia. We don’t really have an idea what they mean so feel free to make up your own explanation!

Join me next time when we finally venture into the less well known part of the Stone Age– the Mesolithic.