Upper Paleolithic

Upper Paleolithic

Löwenmensch, a prehistoric ivory sculpture discovered in Hohlenstein-Stadel, c. 40,000–35,000 years old
Period	Stone Age
Dates	50,000 to 12,000 BP
Preceded by	Middle Paleolithic
Followed by	Mesolithic

The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the

The Upper Paleolithic has the earliest known evidence of organized

Both

, before 50,000 years ago all the stone tools are much alike and unsophisticated.

Firstly among the artefacts of Africa, archeologists found they could differentiate and classify those of less than 50,000 years into many different categories, such as projectile points, engraving tools, knife blades, and drilling and piercing tools. These new stone-tool types have been described as being distinctly differentiated from each other; each tool had a specific purpose. The early modern humans who expanded into Europe, commonly referred to as the

Venus figurines.^[4][5][1]

The Neanderthals continued to use Mousterian stone tool technology and possibly Châtelperronian technology. These tools disappeared from the archeological record at around the same time the Neanderthals themselves disappeared from the fossil record, about 40,000 cal BP.^[6]

Settlements were often located in narrow valley bottoms, possibly associated with hunting of passing

anthropological literature on hunting".^[7]

industries based on fine blades rather than simpler and shorter flakes. Burins and racloirs were used to work bone, antler and hides. Advanced darts and harpoons also appear in this period, along with the fish hook, the oil lamp, rope, and the eyed needle. Fishing of pelagic fish species and navigating the open ocean is evidenced by sites from Timor and Buka (Solomon Islands).^[8]

The changes in human behavior have been attributed to changes in climate, encompassing a number of global

timber

and forced people to look at other materials. In addition, flint becomes brittle at low temperatures and may not have functioned as a tool.

Notational signs

Some notational signs, used next to images of animals, may have appeared as early as the

Upper Palaeolithic in Europe circa 35,000 BCE, and may be the earliest proto-writing: several symbols were used in combination as a way to convey seasonal behavioural information about hunted animals.^[9] Lines (|) and dots (•) were apparently used interchangeably to denote lunar months, while the (Y) sign apparently signified "To give birth". These characters were seemingly combined to convey the breeding period of hunted animals.^[9]

Changes in climate and geography

Last glacial period from 50,000 to 10,000 before present, until the warming of the Holocene. Ice core data from Antarctica and Greenland

.

The climate of the period in Europe saw dramatic changes, and included the

ice-sheet, forcing human populations into the areas known as Last Glacial Maximum refugia, including modern Italy and the Balkans, parts of the Iberian Peninsula and areas around the Black Sea

.

This period saw cultures such as the Solutrean in France and Spain. Human life may have continued on top of the ice sheet, but we know next to nothing about it, and very little about the human life that preceded the European glaciers. In the early part of the period, up to about 30 kya, the Mousterian Pluvial made northern Africa, including the Sahara, well-watered and with lower temperatures than today; after the end of the Pluvial the Sahara became arid.

The Last Glacial Maximum was followed by the

interstadial that occurred around 13.5 to 13.8 kya. Then there was a very rapid onset, perhaps within as little as a decade, of the cold and dry Younger Dryas climate period, giving sub-arctic conditions

to much of northern Europe. The Preboreal rise in temperatures also began sharply around 10.3 kya, and by its end around 9.0 kya had brought temperatures nearly to present day levels, although the climate was wetter.^{[citation needed]} This period saw the Upper Paleolithic give way to the start of the following Mesolithic cultural period.

As the glaciers receded sea levels rose; the

marine archaeology, especially from Doggerland, the lost area beneath the North Sea.^{[citation needed}

]

Timeline

See also: Prehistoric Europe § Upper Paleolithic

50,000–40,000 BP

anatomically modern humans: directly dated, calibrated carbon dates as of 2013^[10]

• Numerous Aboriginal stone tools were found in gravel sediments in Castlereagh, Sydney, Australia. At first when these results were new they were controversial; more recently dating of the same strata has revised and corroborated these dates.^[12][13]
• Start of the Mousterian Pluvial in North Africa.
• Occupants of the Fa-Hien Lena cave, Sri Lanka had developed bow and arrow technology 48,000 BP (though the earliest known bow and arrow technology dates to about 65,000 BP from Sibudu Cave, South Africa^{[14][15][16][17]}).

48,000 BP

The first direct evidence for Neanderthals hunting cave lions. This is based on a cave lion skeleton found in Seigsdorf, Germany which has hunting lesions.^[18]

45,000–43,000 BP

• Earliest evidence of modern humans found in Europe, in Southern Italy.^[19] These are indirectly dated.^[20]
• Earliest mathematical artifact, the notched
  Eswatini (Swaziland), southern Africa.^[21]
• Oldest-known mining in archaeological record, the Ngwenya Mine in Swaziland, at about 43,000 years ago, where humans mined hematite to make the red pigment ochre.^[22][23]
• Earliest directly dated figurative cave art of mankind at Leang Bulu' Sipong in Sulawesi, Indonesia.^[24]

43,000–41,000 BP

• Microlithic artefacts have been excavated from Kana, West Bengal, India.
• Ornaments and skeletal remains of modern humans, at Ksar Akil in Lebanon. These are directly dated.^[20]
• Denisova hominins live in the Altai Mountains
  (Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan).

• First human inhabitants in Perth, Australia, as evidenced by archaeological findings on the Upper Swan River.^[25]
• During this time period, Melbourne, Australia was occupied by hunter-gatherers.^[26][27]
• Early cultural centre in the
  Swabian Alps, oldest depiction of a human being (Venus of Hohle Fels), beginning of the Aurignacian
  .
• Löwenmensch figure created in Hohlenstein-Stadel, one of the earliest figurative art. It is now in Ulmer Museum, Ulm
  , Germany.
• The first
  flutes
  appear in Germany.
• Notational signs in caves, apparently conveying calendaric meaning about the behaviour of animal species drawn next to them, are the first known (proto-)writing in history (see above).^[28][9]
• Most of the giant vertebrates and megafauna in Australia became extinct.
• Fishing of pelagic fish species at Jerimalai shelter, Timor.

  

• Examples of
  Neanderthals, rather than by modern humans.^[29][30]
• Wall painting with horses, rhinoceroses and aurochs is made at Chauvet Cave, Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, Ardéche gorge, France. Discovered in December 1994.
• Evidence for continued Neanderthal presence in the Iberian Peninsula at 37,000 years ago was published in 2017.^[31]
• Archaeological studies support human presence in the Chek Lap Kok area (now Hong Kong International Airport) from 35,000 to 39,000 years ago.^[32]
• Taghlar caves in Azerbaijan
  .
• First evidence of people inhabiting Japan.^[33]

35,000 BP

• Kostenki XVII, a layer of the
  Don River, was occupied by the early upper paleolithic Spitsyn culture
  .

• First ground stone tools appear in Japan.^[34]
• End of the Mousterian Pluvial in North Africa.
• The area of Sydney was occupied by Aboriginal Australians (specifically, the Eora and Dharug people) during this time period, as evidenced by radiocarbon dating.^[35] In an archaeological dig in Parramatta, Western Sydney, it was found that the Aboriginals used charcoal, stone tools and possible ancient campfires.^[36]
• First human settlement in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.^[37]
• oceanic island
  and for navigating the open ocean.

30,000–20,000 BP

29,000–25,000 BP

• Eruption of the
  Carpathians
  .
• Venus of Dolní Věstonice (Czech Republic). It is the oldest known ceramic in the world.
• Venus of Willendorf, Austria, created. It is now at the Natural History Museum, Vienna.
• The Red Lady of Paviland lived around 29,000–26,000 years ago. Recent evidence has come to light that he was a tribal chief.^{[citation needed]}
• Human settlement in Beijing, China dates from about 27,000 to 10,000 years ago.^[38]

24,000 BP

• Start of the second Mousterian Pluvial in North Africa.

23,000 BP

• Venus of Petřkovice is created at Petřkovice in Ostrava, Czech Republic. It is now in Archeological Institute, Brno.

22,000 BP

• Last Glacial Maximum: Venus of Brassempouy, Grotte du Pape, Brassempouy, Landes, France, created. It is now at Musée des Antiquités Nationales, Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

21,000 BP

• Artifacts suggests early human activity occurred at some point in Canberra, Australia.^[39] Archaeological evidence of settlement in the region includes inhabited rock shelters, rock art, burial places, camps and quarry sites, and stone tools and arrangements.^[40]
• End of the second Mousterian Pluvial in North Africa.

20,000–10,000 BP

• Last Glacial Maximum. Mean sea levels are believed to be 110 to 120 metres (360 to 390 ft) lower than present,^[41] with the direct implication that many coastal and lower riverine valley archaeological sites of interest are today under water.

18,000 BP

• Spotted Horses, Pech Merle cave, Dordogne, France are painted. Discovered in December, 1994.
• Ibex-headed spear-thrower, from Le Mas-d'Azil, Ariège, France, is made. It is now at Musée de la Préhistoire, Le Mas d'Azil.
• Mammoth-bone village in Mezhyrich, Ukraine is inhabited.

17,000 BP

• Spotted human hands are painted at Pech Merle cave, Dordogne, France. Discovered in December 1994.
• Oldest Dryas stadial.
• Hall of Bulls at Lascaux in France is painted. Discovered in 1940. Closed to the public in 1963.
• Bird-Headed man with bison and Rhinoceros, Lascaux, is painted.
• Lamp with ibex design, from La Mouthe cave, Dordogne, France, is made. It is now at Musée des Antiquités Nationales, Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
• Paintings in Cosquer Cave are made, where the cave mouth is now under water at Cap Margiou, France.

15,000 BP

• Bølling interstadial.
• Bison, Le Tuc d'Audoubert, Ariège, France.
• Paleo-Indians move across North America, then southward through Central America.
• Pregnant woman and deer (?), from Laugerie-Basse, France was made. It is now at Musée des Antiquités Nationales,
  St.-Germain-en-Laye
  .

14,000 BP

• Older Dryas stadial, Allerød interstadial.
• Paleo-Indians searched for big game near what is now the Hovenweep National Monument.
• Bison, on the ceiling of a cave at Altamira, Spain, is painted. Discovered in 1879. Accepted as authentic in 1902.^{[clarification needed]}
• Younger Dryas stadial.
• Beginning of the Holocene extinction.

12,000 BP

• Wooden buildings in South America (Chile).
• First pottery vessels in Japan.

11,000 BP

• First evidence of human settlement in Argentina.
• The Arlington Springs Man dies on the island of Santa Rosa, off the coast of California, United States.
• Human remains deposited in caves which are now located off the coast of Yucatán, Mexico.^[42]
• Creswellian culture settlement on Hengistbury Head, England, dates from around this year.

10,000 BP

• Evidence of a massacre near
  upper paleolithic warfare.^[43]

The Upper Paleolithic in the Franco-Cantabrian region:

• The Châtelperronian culture was located around central and south western France, and northern Spain. It appears to be derived from the Mousterian culture, and represents the period of overlap between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. This culture lasted from approximately 45,000 BP to 40,000 BP.^[6]
• The Aurignacian culture was located in Europe and south west Asia, and flourished between 43,000 and 26,000 BP. It may have been contemporary with the Périgordian (a contested grouping of the earlier Châtelperronian and later Gravettian cultures).
• The Gravettian culture was located across Europe. Gravettian sites generally date between 33,000 and 20,000 BP.
• The Solutrean culture was located in eastern France, Spain, and England. Solutrean artifacts have been dated c. 22,000 to 17,000 BP.
• The Magdalenian culture left evidence from Portugal to Poland during the period from 17,000 to 12,000 BP.
• Central and east Europe:
  • 33,000 BP, Gravettian culture in southern Ukraine^[44]
  • 30,000 BP, Szeletian culture
  • 22,000 BP, Pavlovian, Aurignacian cultures
  • 13,000 BP, Ahrensburg culture (Western Germany, Netherlands, England)
  • 12,000 BP, Epigravettian
• North and west Africa, and Sahara:
  • 32,000 BP, Aterian culture (Algeria, Libya)
  • 12,000 BP,
    Ibero-Maurusian
    (a.k.a. Oranian, Ouchtatian), and Sebilian cultures
  • 10,000 BP,
    Capsian
    culture (Tunisia, Algeria)
• Central, south, and east Africa:
  • 50,000 BP, Fauresmith culture
  • 30,000 BP, Stillbayan culture
  • 12,000 BP, Lupembian culture
  • 11,000 BP, Magosian culture (Zambia, Tanzania)
  • 9,000 BP, Wiltonian culture
• West Asia (including Middle East):
  • 50,000 BP, Jabroudian culture (Levant)
  • 40,000 BP, Amoudian culture
  • 30,000 BP,
    Emireh culture
  • 20,000 BP, Aurignacian culture
  • 12,000 BP,
    Kebarian
    , Athlitian cultures
• South, central and northern Asia:
  • 30,000 BP, Angara culture
  • 11,000 BP, Khandivili culture
• East and southeast Asia:
  • 30,000 BP, Sen-Doki culture
  • 16,000 BP,
    Ancient Japan
  • 12,000 BP, pre-Jōmon ceramic culture (Japan)
  • 10,000 BP, Hoabinhian culture (Northern Vietnam)
  • 9,000 BP,
    Jōmon
    culture (Japan)

• Oceania:
  • 40,000 BP, Whadjuk and Noongar culture (Perth, Australia)^[45]
  • 35,000 BP,
    Wathaurong culture (Melbourne, Australia)^[46]
  • 30,000 BP,
    Darug^[47] culture (Sydney, Australia)^[48]
  • 30,000 BP,
    Arrernte culture (Alice Springs, Central Australia)^[49]

References

• Gilman, Antonio (1996). "Explaining the Upper Palaeolithic Revolution". Pp. 220–239 (Chap. 8) in Contemporary Archaeology in Theory: A Reader. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.