Solutrean

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Solutrean
Geographical rangeWestern Europe
PeriodUpper Paleolithic
Datesc. 22,000 – c. 17,000 BP
Type siteParc archéologique et botanique de Solutré
Preceded byGravettian
Followed byMagdalenian in France, and Iberia; in the latter after a transition through the Badegoulien [fr]
class=notpageimage|
Map of Europe showing important sites of the Solutrean (clickable map).
The Paleolithic
↑ Pliocene (before Homo)
Lower Paleolithic
 (c. 3.3 Ma – 300 ka)
Middle Paleolithic
 (c. 300–50 ka)
Upper Paleolithic
 (c. 50–12 ka)

Fertile Crescent:

Europe:

Africa:

Siberia:

↓ Mesolithic

The Solutrean

industry is a relatively advanced flint tool-making style of the Upper Paleolithic of the Final Gravettian, from around 22,000 to 17,000 BP
. Solutrean sites have been found in modern-day France, Spain and Portugal.

Details

The term Solutrean comes from the

paleontologist Henry Testot-Ferry. It is now preserved as the Parc archéologique et botanique de Solutré
.

The industry was named by

Gabriel de Mortillet to describe the second stage of his system of cave chronology, following the Mousterian, and he considered it synchronous with the third division of the Quaternary period.[1] The era's finds include tools, ornamental beads, and bone pins as well as prehistoric art
.

Solutrean tool-making employed techniques not seen before and not rediscovered for millennia. The Solutrean has relatively finely worked, bifacial points made with

flintknapping. Knapping was done using antler batons, hardwood batons and soft stone hammers. This method permitted the working of delicate slivers of flint to make light projectiles and even elaborate barbed and tanged arrowheads. Large thin spearheads; scrapers with edge not on the side but on the end; flint knives and saws, but all still chipped, not ground or polished; long spear-points, with tang and shoulder on one side only, are also characteristic implements of this industry. Bone and antler were used as well.[1]

The Solutrean may be seen as a transitional stage between the flint implements of the Mousterian and the bone implements of the

Derbyshire, England[1] (Proto-Solutrean). The industry first appeared in what is now Spain[citation needed
], and disappears from the archaeological record around 17,000 BP.

Solutrean hypothesis in North American archaeology

Main article: Solutrean hypothesis

The Solutrean hypothesis argues that people from Europe may have been among the earliest settlers of the Americas.

Bering land bridge (i.e. Beringia) at least 13,500 years ago,[6] or by maritime travel along the Pacific coast, or by both. The idea of a Clovis-Solutrean link remains controversial and does not enjoy wide acceptance. The hypothesis is challenged by large gaps in time between the Clovis culture and Solutrean eras, a lack of evidence of Solutrean seafaring, lack of specific Solutrean features and tools in Clovis technology, the difficulties of the route, and other issues.[7][8]

In 2014, the

Mal'ta population.[10]

Physical characteristics

Examination of physical remains from the Solutrean period has determined that they were of a slightly more

gracile type than the preceding Gravettian culture. Males were rather tall, with some skeletons being up to 179 cm tall.[11][12][13] Volume 4 of the Portuguese Magazine of Archaeology from 2001 examined a Solutrean female individual whose physical remains are described as "having postcranial elements that derive from a relatively small and gracile individual".[14] The teeth of Solutrean individuals are described as being similar in appearance to those belonging to the people of the Gravettian.[15]

Gallery

See also

Preceded by Solutrean
22,000–17,000 BP 		Succeeded by

References

  1. ^ a b c  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Solutrian Epoch". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 377.
  2. ISSN 0277-3791
    . Retrieved 3 March 2024 – via Elsevier Science Direct.
  3. S2CID 161534521. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 20 March 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  4. ^ Carey, Bjorn (19 February 2006). "First Americans may have been European". Live Science. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  5. ^ Vastag, Brian (1 March 2012). "Theory jolts familiar view of first Americans". The Washington Post. pp. A1, A9. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  6. ^ Mann, Charles C. (Nov 2013), "The Clovis Point and the Discovery of America's First Culture," Smithsonian Magazine, [1]
  7. S2CID 162349551
    .
  8. S2CID 130294767
    .
  9. PMID 24522598
    .
  10. ^ "Ancient American's genome mapped". BBC News. 14 February 2014.
  11. doi:10.1525/aa.2001.103.1.228
    – via researchgate.
  12. ISBN 978-0-306-46258-0
    .
  13. S2CID 210020037. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help
    )
  14. ^ Trinkaus, Erik (July 2001). "Upper Paleolithic human remains from the Gruta do Caldeirão, Tomar, Portugal" (PDF). Portuguese Magazine of Archaeology. 4: 1 – via bristol.ac.uk.
  15. S2CID 129842509
    .

External links

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