Ahrensburg culture
The Ahrensburg culture or Ahrensburgian was a late Upper Paleolithic nomadic hunter culture in north-central Europe during the Younger Dryas, the last spell of cold at the end of the Weichsel glaciation resulting in deforestation and the formation of a tundra with bushy arctic white birch and rowan. The most important prey was the wild reindeer; the earliest definite finds of arrow and bow date to this culture, though these weapons might have been invented earlier. The Ahrensburgian was preceded by the Hamburg and Federmesser cultures and superseded by the Maglemosian and Swiderian cultures. Ahrensburgian finds were made in southern and western Scandinavia, the North German plain and western Poland; the Ahrensburgian area included vast stretches of land now at the bottom of the North and Baltic Sea, since during the Younger Dryas the coastline took a much more northern course than today. The culture is named after a tunnel valley near the village of Ahrensburg, 25 km northeast of Hamburg in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, where Ahrensburg find layers were excavated in Meiendorf and Borneck.
While these as well as the majority of other find sites date to the Young Dryas, the Ahrensburgian find layer in Alt Duvenstedt has been dated to the late Allerød, thus representing an early stage of Ahrensburgian which might have corresponded to the Bromme culture in the north. Artefacts with tanged points are found associated with the Ahrensburg cultures. Ahrensburg culture belongs to a Late Paleolithic and early Mesolithic cultural complex that started with the glacial recession and the subsequent disintegration of Late Palaeolithic cultures between 15,000 and 10,000 BCE; the extinction of mammoth and other megafauna provided for an incentive to exploit other forms of subsistence that included maritime resources. Northward migrations coincided with the warm Bølling and Allerød events, but much of northern Eurasia remained inhabited during the Younger Dryas. During the holocene climatic optimum, the increased biomass led to a marked intensification in foraging by all groups, the development of inter-group contacts, the initiation of agriculture.
The different technolithic complexes are chronologically associated with the climatic chronozones. The re-colonisation of Northern Germany is connected to the onset of the late Glacial Interstadial between Weichsel and the Dryas I glaciation, at the beginning of the Meiendorf Interstadial around 12.700 BCE. Palynological results demonstrate a close connection between the prominent temperature rise at the beginning of the Interstadial and the expansion of the hunter-gatherers into the northern Lowlands; the existence of a primary “pioneer phase” in the re-colonisation is contradicted by proof of e.g. an early Central European Magdalenian in Poland. Today it is accepted that the Hamburgian, featured by "Shouldered Point" lithics, is a techno-complex related to the Creswellian and rooted in the Magdalenian. Within the Hamburgian techno-complex, a younger dating is found for the Havelte phase, sometimes interpreted as a northwestern phenomenon oriented towards the former coastline; the Hamburgian culture existed during the warm Bølling period, the brief Dryas II glaciation and in the early warmer Allerød period.
However, the distribution of the Hamburgian east of the Oder River has been confirmed and Hamburgian culture can be distinguished in Lithuania. Finds in Jutland indicates the expansion of early Hamburgian hunters and gatherers reached further north than expected; the Hamburgian sites with shouldered point lithics reach as far north as the Pomeranian ice margin. The younger Havelte phase has been proven for the area beyond the Pomeranian ice margin and on the Danish Isles after circa 12.300 BCE. The "Backed Point" lithics of Federmesser culture are dated in the Allerød Interstadial. Early Federmesser finds are contemporary to Havelte; the culture lasted 1200 years from 11.900 to 10.700 BCE. and is located in Northern Germany and Poland to south Lithuania. Fish-hooks were discovered in Allerød layers and emphasize the importance of fishing in the Late Palaeolithic. A certain survival of late Upper Palaeolithic traditions similar to contemporary Azilian becomes apparent, such as the amber elk from Weitsche that can be considered as a link to the Mesolithic, amber animal sculptures.
Bromme culture sites are found in the entire southern and southeastern Baltic, are dated to the second half of Allerød and the early cold Dryas III period. The "classical" Brommian complex is typified by simple and fast, but uneconomical, flint processing using unipolar cores. A new development noticed in Lithuania introduced both massive and smaller "tanged Points". In Bromme culture this technology is proposed to be an innovation derived from tanged Havelte groups; as such, derivation of Bromme culture and migration of its representatives from the territories of Denmark and northern Germany have been proposed, although other sources hold early Bromme not to be well defined in Northern Germany, where it groups with Federmesser. Ahrensburg culture is associated with the Younger Dryas glacialization and the Pre-boreal period; the traditional view of the Ahrensburg culture being a direct inheritor of the Bromme culture in the late Dryas period is contradicted by new information that the Ahrensburgian techno-complex already started before the Younger Dryas, strengthening proposals to a direct derivation from the Havelte stage of the Hamburg culture.
Some recent finds, such as the Hintersee 24 site in southern Landkreis Vorpommern-Greifswald, would contribute t
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic is a period in human prehistory distinguished by the original development of stone tools that covers c. 99% of human technological prehistory. It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene c. 11,650 cal BP. The Paleolithic is followed in Europe by the Mesolithic, although the date of the transition varies geographically by several thousand years. During the Paleolithic, hominins grouped together in small societies such as bands, subsisted by gathering plants and fishing, hunting or scavenging wild animals; the Paleolithic is characterized by the use of knapped stone tools, although at the time humans used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for use including leather and vegetable fibers. About 50,000 years ago, there was a marked increase in the diversity of artifacts. In Africa, bone artifacts and the first art appear in the archaeological record; the first evidence of human fishing is noted, from artifacts in places such as Blombos cave in South Africa.
Archaeologists classify artifacts of the last 50,000 years into many different categories, such as projectile points, engraving tools, knife blades, drilling and piercing tools. Humankind evolved from early members of the genus Homo—such as Homo habilis, who used simple stone tools—into anatomically modern humans as well as behaviorally modern humans by the Upper Paleolithic. During the end of the Paleolithic the Middle or Upper Paleolithic, humans began to produce the earliest works of art and began to engage in religious and spiritual behavior such as burial and ritual; the climate during the Paleolithic consisted of a set of glacial and interglacial periods in which the climate periodically fluctuated between warm and cool temperatures. Archaeological and genetic data suggest that the source populations of Paleolithic humans survived in sparsely wooded areas and dispersed through areas of high primary productivity while avoiding dense forest cover. By c. 50,000 – c. 40,000 BP, the first humans set foot in Australia.
By c. 45,000 BP, humans lived at 61°N latitude in Europe. By c. 30,000 BP, Japan was reached, by c. 27,000 BP humans were present in Siberia, above the Arctic Circle. At the end of the Upper Paleolithic, a group of humans crossed Beringia and expanded throughout the Americas; the term "Palaeolithic" was coined by archaeologist John Lubbock in 1865. It derives from Greek: παλαιός, palaios, "old"; the Paleolithic coincides exactly with the Pleistocene epoch of geologic time, which lasted from 2.6 million years ago to about 12,000 years ago. This epoch experienced important climatic changes that affected human societies. During the preceding Pliocene, continents had continued to drift from as far as 250 km from their present locations to positions only 70 km from their current location. South America became linked to North America through the Isthmus of Panama, bringing a nearly complete end to South America's distinctive marsupial fauna; the formation of the isthmus had major consequences on global temperatures, because warm equatorial ocean currents were cut off, the cold Arctic and Antarctic waters lowered temperatures in the now-isolated Atlantic Ocean.
Most of Central America formed during the Pliocene to connect the continents of North and South America, allowing fauna from these continents to leave their native habitats and colonize new areas. Africa's collision with Asia created the Mediterranean, cutting off the remnants of the Tethys Ocean. During the Pleistocene, the modern continents were at their present positions. Climates during the Pliocene became cooler and drier, seasonal, similar to modern climates. Ice sheets grew on Antarctica; the formation of an Arctic ice cap around 3 million years ago is signaled by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Ocean beds. Mid-latitude glaciation began before the end of the epoch; the global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas. The Pleistocene climate was characterized by repeated glacial cycles during which continental glaciers pushed to the 40th parallel in some places.
Four major glacial events have been identified, as well as many minor intervening events. A major event is a general glacial excursion, termed a "glacial". Glacials are separated by "interglacials". During a glacial, the glacier experiences minor retreats; the minor excursion is a "stadial". Each glacial advance tied up huge volumes of water in continental ice sheets 1,500–3,000 m deep, resulting in temporary sea level drops of 100 m or more over the entire surface of the Earth. During interglacial times, such as at present, drowned coastlines were common, mitigated by isostatic or other emergent motion of some regions; the effects of glaciation were global. Antarctica was ice-bound throughout the preceding Pliocene; the Andes were covered in the south by the Patagonian ice cap. There were glaciers in New Tasmania; the now decaying glaciers of Mount Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro, the Ruwenzori Range in east and central Africa were larger. Glaciers existed to the west in the Atlas mountains. In the northern hemisphere, many glaciers fused into one.
T
Khiamian
The Khiamian is a period of the Near-Eastern Neolithic, marking the transition between the Natufian and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. Some sources date it from about 10,000 to 9,500 BCE, while the ASPRO chronology dates it to between 12,200 and 10,800 BP; the Khiamian owes its name to the site of El Khiam, situated on banks of the Dead Sea, where researchers have recovered the oldest chert arrows heads, with lateral notches, the so-called "El Khiam points". They have served to identify sites of this period, which are found in Israel, as well as in Jordan, to the north as far as the Middle Euphrates. Aside from the appearance of El Khiam arrow heads, the Khiamian is placed in the continuity of the Natufian, without any major technical innovations. However, for the first time houses were built on the ground level itself, not half below ground as was done. Otherwise, the bearers of the El Khiam culture were still hunter-gatherers, agriculture at that time was still rather primitive, based on what has been reported on sites of this period.
Newer discoveries show that in the Middle East and Anatolia some experiments with agriculture were being made by 10,900 BCE. and that there may have been experimenting with wild grain processing by around 19,000 BCE at Ohalo II. The Khiamien sees a change occur in the symbolic aspects of culture, as evidenced by the appearance of small female statuettes, as well as by the burying of aurochs skulls. According to Jacques Cauvin, it is the beginning of the worship of the Woman and the Bull, as evidenced in the following periods of the Near-Eastern Neolithic. SourcesC. Calvet. 2007. Zivilisationen – wie die Kultur nach Sumer kam. Munich. J. Cauvin. 2000. The birth of the gods and the origins of agriculture. Cambridge. Klaus Schmidt. 2008. Sie bauten die ersten Tempel. Das rätselhafte Heiligtum der Steinzeitjäger. Munich. Pp. 283. C. S. M. Turneya and H. Brown. 2007. "Catastrophic early Holocene sea level rise, human migration and the Neolithic transition in Europe." Quaternary Science Reviews 26: 2036–2041
Châtelperronian
The Châtelperronian is a claimed industry of the Upper Palaeolithic, the existence of, debated. It represents both the only Upper Palaeolithic industry made by Neanderthals and the earliest Upper Palaeolithic industry in Central and Southwestern France, as well as in Northern Spain, it derives its name from the site of la Grotte des Fées, in Châtelperron, France. It is preceded by the Mousterian industry, lasted from c. 45,000 to c. 40,000 BP. The industry produced denticulate stone tools and a distinctive flint knife with a single cutting edge and a blunt, curved back; the use of ivory at Châtelperronian sites appears to be more frequent than that of the Aurignacian, while antler tools have not been found. It is followed by the Aurignacian industry. Scholars who question its existence claim that it is an archaeological mix of Mousterian and Aurignacian layers; the Châtelperronian industry may relate to the origins of the similar Gravettian culture. French archaeologists have traditionally classified both cultures together under the name Périgordian, Early Perigordian being equivalent to the Châtelperronian and all the other phases corresponding to the Gravettian, though this scheme is not used by Anglophone authors.
Large thick flakes/small blocks were used for cores, were prepared with a crest over a long smooth surface. Using one or two striking points, long thin blades were detached. Direct percussion with a soft hammer was used for accuracy. Thicker blades made in this process were converted into side scrapers, burins were created in the same manner from debitage as well; the manner of production is a solid continuation of the Mousterian but the ivory adornments found in association are similar to those made by the Aurignacian. The technological refinement of the Châtelperronian and neighbouring Uluzzian in Central-Southern Italy is argued to be the product of cultural influence from H. sapiens that lived nearby. João Zilhão and colleagues argue that the findings are complicated by disturbance of the site in the 19th century, conclude that the apparent pattern of Aurignacian/Châtelperronian inter-stratification is an artifact of disturbance. While others think the Châtelperronian itself is an artifact of disturbance.
Paul Mellars and colleagues have criticized Zilhão et al.'s analysis, argue that the original excavation by Delporte was not affected by disturbance. Paul Mellars, now has concluded on the basis of new radiocarbon dating by Thomas Higham of the decorative artifacts of Grotte du Renne "that there was strong possibility—if not probability— that were stratigraphically intrusive into the Châtelperronian deposits from.. Overlying Proto-Aurignacian levels" and that "The central and inescapable implication of the new dating results from the Grotte du Renne is that the single most impressive and hitherto cited pillar of evidence for the presence of complex “symbolic” behavior among the late Neanderthal populations in Europe has now collapsed." Subsequent research led by Jean-Jacques Hublin argues using new dates that the Châtelperronian tools were produced by Neanderthals. Unlike Higham's dates, which were taken directly from the decorative material, Hublin's were taken from associated bones. To Higham, dates taken directly from the decorative material are more convincing and should be given priority over those from associated material.
To Hublin, Higham's dates were contaminated with varnish applied to the decorative material in the 1960s. Hublin's team subsequently used proteomic evidence to support their conclusion. Author Jared Diamond argues in his 1991 non-fiction book, The Third Chimpanzee, that Châtelperron may represent a community of Neanderthals who had to some extent adopted the culture of the modern Homo sapiens that had established themselves in the surrounding area, which would account for the signs of a hybrid culture found at the site. Diamond compares these hypothetical Neanderthal hold-outs to more recent Native Americans in North and South America who adopted European technologies such as firearms or domestication of horses in order to survive in an environment dominated by technologically more-advanced competitors; the fifth book of Jean Auel's Earth's Children series, The Shelters of Stone, 2002, the sixth book The Land of the Painted Caves 2010 are set in this region of modern-day France, during this period.
Franco-Cantabrian region Picture Gallery of the Paleolithic, Libor Balák at the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Archaeology in Brno, The Center for Paleolithic and Paleoethnological Research
Federmesser culture
Federmesser group is an archaeological umbrella term including the late Upper Paleolithic to Mesolithic cultures of the Northern European Plain, dating to between 14,000 and 12,800 years ago. It is related to the Tjongerian culture, as both have been suggested, it includes the Tjongerian sites at Lochtenrek in the Frisian part of the Netherland, spanning the area of Belgium, the Netherlands, northern France, northern Germany and Poland. It is closely related to the Creswellian culture to the west and the Azilian to the south; the name is derived in German termed Federmesser. It is succeeded by the Ahrensburg culture after 12,800 BP. Late Glacial Maximum Ahrensburg culture Hamburg culture Magdalenian Kozarnika Laacher See
Type site
In archaeology a type site is a site, considered the model of a particular archaeological culture. For example, the type site of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A culture is Jericho, in the West Bank. A type site is often the eponym. For example, the type site of the pre-Celtic/Celtic Bronze Age Hallstatt culture is the lakeside village of Hallstatt, Austria. In geology the term is used for a site considered to be typical of a particular rock formation etc. A type site contains artifacts, in an assemblage. Type sites are the first or foundational site discovered about the culture they represent; the use of this term is therefore similar to that of the specimen type in biology or locus typicus in geology. A river terrace of the River Somme, of the Abbevillian culture Aurignac, of the Aurignacian culture Hallstatt, of the Hallstatt culture La Tène, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, of the La Tène culture Vinča, Serbia, of the Vinča culture Abri de la Madeleine, of the Magdalenian culture Le Moustier, of the Mousterian culture Saint Acheul, of the Acheulean culture Butmir, of the Butmir culture Tell Halaf, for the Halaf culture Tell Hassuna, for the Hassuna culture Jemdet Nasr, for the Jemdet Nasr period Tell al-'Ubaid, for the Ubaid period Uruk, for the Uruk period Uaxactun Dzibilchaltun Monte Alban Folsom, New Mexico, United States Clovis, New Mexico, United States: accepted as the type site for one of the earliest human cultures in the North America La Plata County, United States Barton Gulch of the Blackwater Draw Paleo-Indian culture Adena Mound, United States Borax Lake Site, for two of the earliest cultural traditions in California: the Post Pattern and Borax Lake Pattern.
New Caledonia, of the Lapita culture. Kot Diji Harappa Banpo Liangzhu Town, near Hangzhou Songguk-ri Suemura cluster of kilns--Kilns of Sue warew:ja:須恵器 Sanage cluster of kilns—Kilns of Green Glazed Warew:ja:緑釉陶器 and Ash Glazed Warew:ja:灰釉陶器
Soanian
The Soanian is a archaeological culture of the Lower Paleolithic in the Siwalik region of the Indian subcontinent. Contemporary to the Acheulean, it is named after the Soan Valley in Pakistan. Soanian sites are found along the Sivalik region in present-day India and Pakistan; the term "Soan Culture" was first used by Hellmut De Terra in 1936, but D. N. Wadia had identified the presence of these archaeological implements in 1928. Further archaeological research was conducted by Stephen Lycett in order to determine the morphometric assessment of the Soanian techno-complex; the result of this experiment concluded that the Soanian techno-complex contains a Mode 3 Levallois technique core component. At Adiala and Khasala Kalan, about 16 km from Rawalpindi terrace on the bend of the river, hundreds of edged pebble tools were discovered. At Chauntra in Himachal Pradesh, hand axes and cleavers were found. Tools up to two million years old have been recovered. In the Soan River Gorge, many fossil bearing rocks are exposed on the surface.
14 million year old fossils of gazelle, crocodile and rodents have been found there. Some of these fossils are on display at the Pakistan Museum of Natural History in Islamabad; the earliest Paleolithic hominin archaeological site in the Indian subcontinent at the Soan Sakaser Valley, is part of Soanian, sites of are found in the Sivalik Hills across what are now India and Nepal. Madrasian culture Dani Ahmad Hasan. "Prehistoric Pakistan". Asian Perspectives. 7: 183–188. B. B. Lal. "A Decade of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology in India, 1951–1960". Asian Perspectives. 7: 144–159. Hellmut De Terra. Early man: as depicted by leading authorities at the International symposium, the Academy of Natural Sciences, March 1937. Ayer Publishing, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Pp. 263–. ISBN 978-0-8369-1184-8. Retrieved 21 August 2011. J. Armand. "The Middle Pleistocene Pebble Tool Site of Durkadi in Central India". Paléorient. 5: 105–144. Doi:10.3406/paleo.1979.4242. J. Armand. "The Emergence of the Handaxe Tradition in Asia, with Special Reference to India".
In V. N. Misra, Peter S. Bellwood. Recent advances in Indo-Pacific prehistory: proceedings of the international symposium held at Poona, December 19–21, 1978. BRILL. Pp. 4–. ISBN 978-90-04-07512-2. Retrieved 22 August 2011. V. A. Ranov. Vadim Mikhaĭlovich Masson, ed. History of civilizations of Central Asia. Motilal Banarsidass. Pp. 45–. ISBN 978-81-208-1407-3. Retrieved 21 August 2011. Kenneth Oakley. Frameworks for Dating Fossil Man. Transaction Publishers. Pp. 223–. ISBN 978-0-202-30960-6. Retrieved 21 August 2011; the Acheulian/Soanian dichotomy
