When is the upper paleolithic period




















Moreover, for US 02, two phalanges first phalange and one vestigial exhibit transversal cut-marks, confirming that circular incisions were alos made on autopodial bones. For this layer, a longitudinal incision let also its mark on the lateral side of a metapodial. Incompatible with the will to recover the skin in its larger dimension 22 , it could be interpreted as 1 either the absence of interest for the skin of the legs or 2 a multiple step process, beginning with the removal of the skin related to the defleshing and followed by a distinct processing of the lower limb skin.

The identification, on one faunal remain, of a circular incision in the mid-shaft associated with short longitudinal incisions below supports the second hypothesis.

In US 08, defleshing is notably identified on one of the only two humerus fragments, which bares numerous longitudinal cut marks that might suggest the recovery of fillets for the confection of dried meat 34 , but other evidences are needed to sustain this hypothesis and to go any further.

Finally, one of the most interesting results comes from the analysis of metacarpal anterior grooves. Thus, it seems that this specific faunal resource was systematically looked for during the Early Aurignacian occupation.

US 04 upper and US 02 present a large quantity of antler remains. In at least two cases in US 04 upper , the connections of antlers to the frontal bone attest that part of their acquisition at least was directly integrated to the hunting activities rather than resulting from the collect of shed antlers.

Beside reindeer resources, the Early Aurignacian deposit US 04 upper shows also the exploitation of new categories of faunal raw materials for symbolic purposes. Since it is commonly accepted that such beads are made with fossil dentin 37 and since no other mammoth elements were found in the same layer, it is reasonable to assume that their accumulation did not result from hunting activities. Finally, carnivore exploitation is evidenced in post Middle Paleolithic deposits.

In US 06, a hyena first phalange W shows an incision on its plantar side coherent with skinning. In layer 04 upper , two fox remains—a tibia distal extremity S and a calcaneus W —bear cut-marks that can be considered as evidence of skin recovery In addition, a recent study of the personal ornaments has identified two drilled fox canines at different stages of production confirming the in situ production of beads Associated with the cut-marked fox remains, this sustains the hypothesis of an integrate acquisition of these canines to the subsistence activities.

US 08 is dominated by large ungulates. The assemblage has mostly a human origin but carnivore also contributed to its formation. As for all the others units, there is a selective introduction of the elements rich in marrow.

US reindeer became the main prey; even if carnivores are quite frequent less remains show damages than can be related to them. Some of their remains even indicate that humans exploited them. US 04lower: reindeer frequency increased drastically in the faunal spectrum.

The importance of carnivore damages almost disappeared from the assemblages. US 04lower and US the faunal spectrum is specialized on reindeer. Carnivores were used for food and personal ornaments. Antlers seem to have been selectively introduced to the site for the preparation of spear points and bone tool industry. Some specific raw material tendons were systematically retrieved.

The faunal spectra highlight an evolution in the hunted preys, with a steady increase of the reindeer in the human diet. It is always difficult to establish to what extent faunal spectra reflect the environmental availability of resources rather than hunters selection strategies 23 , Comparison to contemporaneous data can at least identify if we are confronted to a local or a regional pattern.

This specificity could be linked to the larger diversity of environments in the core of the Aquitaine Basin, often presented as a refuge-zone US06 faunal spectrum on the right part of the graph compared to other Chatelperronien assemblages from the same region.

EJ See also US04 lower faunal spectrum on the right part of the graph compared to other Proto-aurignacian assemblages from the same region. Abei2: Les Abeilles l. US04 upper and US02 faunal spectra on the right part of the graph compared to other Early Aurignacian assemblages from the same region.

Abei1: Les Abeilles l. Shannon diversity index distribution for the different techno-complexes see SI2 for details. Large ungulates are progressively replaced by the reindeer during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition However, it is now accepted that this change resulted mostly from a global cooling during the second part of MIS3 when groups of AMH settled into Europe 19 , Banks and colleagues 20 proposed—based on a synthesis of radiometric dates using Bayesian modelling—that Early Aurignacian deposits in Southwestern France should be attributed to the cold Heinrich 4 event.

Temperate species red and roe deer, wild boar , that are present from the Middle Paleolithic to the Proto-Aurignacian deposits, were replaced by mountainous species ibex, chamois in US 04 upper and US The presence of the latter in a region of low altitude would have been linked to the development of altitude ice sheets and an important decrease of temperature in low altitude areas.

Thus, these elements are coherent with a major cooling of the environment. The stratigraphy here offers one of the rare examples of a detailed continuous record of major pejorative climatic conditions occurring during late MIS3. Consequently, it implies that during the whole sequence the different human populations applied the same hunting strategy by selecting the most common taxa in their territory, which appear to be also the highest ranked resources available in the environment.

Some of the predation behaviors show some diachronic consistency at the site, suggesting that they were not directly dependent of cultural factors. The selective transport of the carcasses follows all along the deposits the same criteria: the relative richness in marrow.

In addition, the implantation of the occupations was not only selected for hunting purposes but probably also for other reasons like maybe the quality of the lithic raw materials available in the area 45 and the characteristics of the shelter. The exploitation of animal raw material both alimentary and technical was systematically conducted on the site attesting of its used as a processing and consumption site throughout time. On the opposite, several differences in the most recent deposits suggest some cultural shift in the subsistence activities undertaken at the site, which are more easily understood in the light of the analyses of the other cultural materials.

Little information is available for US 08 and 06 due to the relative scarcity of material US06 and the contamination of the human accumulations by carnivores US Only can we advance that the high quantity of carnivore marks on the faunal remains, even on the one bearing cut-marks, attest of their repetitive frequentation of the site and thus that the human occupations were probably relatively short and repetitive.

In US 04 lower , preys with different behaviors were hunted, certainly during different hunting events instead of a mass killing. The study of the lithic industry has demonstrated that domestic and cynegetic personal gears were produced on-site The exploitation was conducted in situ and parts of the bone wastes were then burned in hearts that were not discovered during the excavation.

These zooarchaeological proxies, the small impact of carnivores and the thickness and richness of the layer point toward numerous occupations and the use of the site as a residential base camp. Carnivores had continued to come sporadically at the site between the passages of the men. US 04 upper faunal spectrum is characterized by the reindeer dominance. Like in the previous layers, carcasses were introduced incompletes within the site, with a strong selection of the elements reach in marrow.

They were intensively butchered and all usable products were looked for. Even sinews and antlers were intensively collected. Some of the beads were produced in situ AMH appear to have invested a great amount of time and efforts in processing the non-nutritional faunal raw material reindeer antler, skin, sinew, fox tooth, mammoth ivory.

Blanks for personal ornaments and bone tools might have been introduced following two different processes. Only found in fragments of small dimensions, mammoth ivory blanks were probably imported already pre-shaped within the site.

On the opposite, fox canines and deer antlers might have been acquired directly through hunting. Compared to the previous occupations, not only numerous activities were undertaken, but some of the activities would have necessitated a certain amount of time to be performed properly. At that point, carnivore had stopped to visit the site. Finally, subsistence strategies conducted on the latter Aurignacian deposit—US 02—do not significantly differ from the one of US04 upper.

The progressive decrease of their impact on the assemblages is observed. In US 08, 7 remains show modifications caused by the two taphonomic agents, including the tibia bone used as retoucher. Our results suggest that the time separating the occupations by the two accumulators was short enough so that the bones, discarded by the men, conserve nutritive value for the hyenas when they came for scavenging.

On the opposite, during the US 06 deposit, carnivores continued to come at the site when humans were away but the mark on the hyena first phalange W suggest that carnivores had begun to be incorporated to the subsistence economy. During US 04 upper deposits, the exploitation of fox fur and meat shows a certain consistency with what is known on the Early Aurignacian small carnivore exploitation Here, after hyena disappeared from the region, a new carnivore was incorporate to the economy.

Simultaneously, intrusion of carnivores in the material culture of the Early Aurignacian—i. Thus, the frequency of the interactions between human and carnivores and their nature seem to have evolved at the site following the need for new raw materials and equipment.

Like for the demise of large carnivores, the increase of small carnivore use for technical purpose is a common trait for most of the Early Aurignacian site of the region 26 , Discamps 47 underlined the decreasing of carnivore activities in assemblages from southwestern Europe all along MIS 3, resulting in the nearly disappearance of Hyena from the whole region at the end of the Aurignacian era, a phenomenon that might be related to the increasing predatory pressure of human societies on their environment leaving nearly no place for competitors see Stiner and Khun 48 for a discussion of the same phenomena in the Mediterranean basin.

The development of brand-new sets of weapons lithic bladelet production and antler spear point 14 , 16 would have allowed the production of lighter spears and potentially longer-range weapons, increasing the hunting calorie return At the same time, based notably on the augmentation of the number of sites through time, an increase of human population at the dawn of the Upper Paleolithic is also frequently suggested 49 , 50 contra 51 which also might have conducted to an increase of the human pressure on their biotope.

The development and generalization of personal ornamentation 10 , 38 related to group identity materialization may also be related to population density increase. Simultaneously, developments of the acquisition raw material networks lithic, personal ornament etc: i. These changes in the subsistence activities evolved in straight correlation with the needs for new raw materials, a constraint resulting from the innovation of the Upper Paleolithic in term of lithic technology, bone industry and symbols.

As it has been demonstrated with the economy of mammal hard tissues 16 , taxa were incorporated at different levels in the economic life of human societies. Species remains were not used for the same purposes: Mammoth ivory was shaped as figurine or flutes 7 such as bird bones; mammoth and carnivore teeth were used for personal ornaments 10 , 38 ; ungulate bones for bone industry and use for domestic work and only deer antlers were transformed for weaponry Some taxa were only used for symbolic means and specific skills were developed to transform this large diversity of materials In the same way the evolution of the human-carnivore relation during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition, where carnivore status changed from competitor into preys and symbols, attests of the new perception that human had for their animal environment, which begun to be thought and symbolized.

The faunal environment seems to have found a specific place within the cosmogony of the Upper Paleolithic as its omnipresence in the figurative arts is attested as early as the Early Aurignacian on parietal art This incorporation of animals within the social and economic life of past human society was a constant during the whole Upper Paleolithic.

Pieces were identified at the most precise level and, when it was not possible to propose a specific attribution, ungulate size classes were used Shaft fragmentation was evaluated using the Shaft length and Shaft circumference indexes Analyses of the bone surfaces were conducted on all the identified remains and part of the non-identified ones. Bone surfaces were observed under a low-angled light using a hand lens enlargement: 10x for the taphonomic and zooarchaeological observations.

Weathering, root etching, anthropogenic and carnivore modifications were systematically looked for 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , Oxide colorations of the bone cortical surfaces were also recorded.

The proportion of preserved cortical surface was estimated per quartile When unclear modifications were detected, specimens were subjected to more thorough evaluation with a 20—80x microscope.

Percentage values were calculated based on the number of analyzed remains NRa. Bones with unobservable surfaces were excluded for the calculation of the percentages of modified bones.

NRa can change depending of the analysis type. Skeletal part representations were established for the reindeer only taxa exhibiting more than identified remains and for which the human origin has been demonstrated using MAU index. Differential preservation has been tested by confronting frequencies of skeletal elements and their respective densities Possibility of a selective transport based on the nutritive value of the elements was tested using notably the SFUI 31 on the reindeer, the marrow cavity volume of bones 33 and the oleic acid index UMI Each faunal remain that could be replaced precisely on a complete bone was recorded on bone templates in Adobe Illustrator.

The cut-marks were then interpreted using a recently published cut-marks coding All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its Supplementary Information files. Fu, Q. An early modern human from Romania with a recent Neanderthal ancestor. Nature , The invisible frontier.

A multiple species model for the origin of behavioral modernity. Issues News Rev. Article Google Scholar. A rock engraving made by Neanderthals in Gibraltar.

Peresani, M. Late Neandertals and the intentional removal of feathers as evidenced from bird bone taphonomy at Fumane Cave 44 ky B. Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals. Rendu, W. Evidence supporting an intentional Neandertal burial at La Chapelle-aux-Saints. Conard, N. New flutes document the earliest musical tradition in southwestern Germany. Radiocarbon dating the appearance of modern humans and timing of cultural innovations in Europe: new results and new challenges.

J Hum Evol 44 , — PubMed Article Google Scholar. Mellars, P. The impossible coincidence. A single-species model for the origins of modern human behavior in Europe. Vanhaeren, M. Aurignacian ethno-linguistic geography of Europe revealed by personal ornaments. J Archaeol. Sci 33 , — White, R. Context and dating of Aurignacian vulvar representations from Abri Castanet, France. Roussel, M. J Hum Evol 95 , 13—32 CR Palevol 12 , — Teyssandier, N. Bon, F.

A brief overview of Aurignacian cultures in the context of the industries of the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic. Tartar, E. Soressi, M. Neandertals made the first specialized bone tools in Europe. Air—sea temperature decoupling in western Europe during the last interglacial—glacial transition. Discamps, E. Human choices and environmental constraints: deciphering the variability of large game procurement from Mousterian to Aurignacian times MIS in southwestern France.

Banks, W. Ecological constraints on the first prehistoric farmers in Europe. Morin, E. Soulier, M. Toulouse 2, Reindeer specialization in the early Upper Palaeolithic: the evidence from south west France.

Sci 31 , — Neanderthal Extinction by Competitive Exclusion. Collard, M. Faunal evidence for a difference in clothing use between Neanderthals and early modern humans in Europe. Quat Int , 99— Association des Publications Chauvinoises, Welker, F. Sci 54 , — Metcalfe, D.

Fat composition and Nunamiut decision-making: a new look at the marrow and bone grease indices. Jones, K. Bare bones archaeology: Bone marrow indices and efficiency. Let the cutmarks speak! Experimental butchery to reconstruct carcass processing. Google Scholar. Cutmark data and their implications for the planning depth of Late Pleistocene societies. J Hum Evol 97 , 37—57 Pradel, L. Rigaud, S. Mallye, J. Archaeofauna 7—25 Archaeologists have called that period of adjustment the Azilian.

See specific sites and issues for additional references. Cunliffe, Barry. Prehistoric Europe: An Illustrated History. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

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Share Flipboard Email. Kris Hirst. Archaeology Expert. Kris Hirst is an archaeologist with 30 years of field experience. Her work has appeared in scholarly publications such as Archaeology Online and Science. Twitter Twitter. Updated January 17, Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Hirst, K.



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