1.
Aurignacian
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The Aurignacian culture is an archaeological culture of the Upper Palaeolithic. It is the earliest modern human culture in Europe, and is associated with the immigration of anatomically modern humans from the Near East and it first appeared in Eastern Europe around 43,000 BP, and in Western Europe between 40,000 and 36,000 years BP. It was replaced by the Gravettian culture around 28,000 to 26,000 years ago, the name originates from the type site of Aurignac, Haute-Garonne, which is a town in the south-west of France near Toulouse or Andorra. The oldest undisputed example of figurative art, the Venus of Hohle Fels. It was discovered in September 2008 in a cave at Schelklingen in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany, the Bacho Kiro site is one of the earliest known Aurignacian burials. The Aurignacian tool industry is characterized by worked bone or antler points with grooves cut in the bottom. Their flint tools include blades and bladelets struck from prepared cores rather than using crude flakes. )The people of this culture also produced some of the earliest known cave art, such as the animal engravings at Trois Freres. They also made pendants, bracelets, and ivory beads, as well as three-dimensional figurines, perforated rods, thought to be spear throwers or shaft wrenches, also are found at their sites. The sophistication and self-awareness demonstrated in the work led archaeologists to consider the makers of Aurignacian artifacts the first modern humans in Europe, human remains and Late Aurignacian artifacts found in juxtaposition support this inference. Although finds of human remains in direct association with Proto-Aurignacian technologies are scarce in Europe. At least three robust, but typically anatomically-modern individuals from the Peștera cu Oase cave in Romania, were dated directly from the bones to ca, although not associated directly with archaeological material, these finds are within the chronological and geographical range of the Early Aurignacian in southeastern Europe. On genetic evidence it has argued that both Aurignacian and the Dabba culture of North Africa came from an earlier big game hunting Aurignacian culture of the Levant. Many 35, 000-year-old animal figurines were discovered in the Vogelherd Cave in Germany, one of the horses, amongst six tiny mammoth and horse ivory figures found previously at Vogelherd, was sculpted as skillfully as any piece found throughout the Upper Paleolithic. The production of ivory beads for body ornamentation was also important during the Aurignacian, there is a notable absence of painted caves, however, which begin to appear within the Solutrean. Typical statuettes consist of women that are called Venus figurines and they emphasize the hips, breasts, and other body parts associated with fertility. Feet and arms are lacking or minimized, one of the most ancient figurines was discovered in 2008 in the Hohle Fels cave in Germany. The figurine has been dated to 35,000 years ago, the oldest undisputed musical instrument was the Hohle Fels Flute discovered in the Hohle Fels cave in Germanys Swabian Alb in 2008. The flute is made from a wing bone perforated with five finger holes
2.
Blade (archaeology)
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In archaeology a blade is a type of stone tool created by striking a long narrow flake from a stone core. This process of reducing the stone and producing the blades is called lithic reduction, archaeologists use this process of flintknapping to analyze blades and observe their technological uses for historical peoples. Blades are defined as being flakes that are at least twice as long as they are wide and it is important to note that blade cores appear and are different from regular flaking cores, as each cores conchoidal nature is suited for different types of flaking. Blades are created using stones that have a structure and easily be fractured into a smooth piece without fracturing. Blades became the technology of the Upper Palaeolithic era, although they are occasionally found in earlier periods. Different techniques are required for blade creation, a soft punch or hammerstone is necessary for creating a blade. The long sharp edges of blades made them useful for a variety of purposes, after blades are flaked, they are often incorporated as parts of larger tools, such as spears. Other times, the shape and sharpness serves the designed role. Blades were often employed in the process of material culture. Scrapers, used for working or woodworking, or burins. Cores from which blades have been struck are called blade cores, small examples are called microblades and were used in the Mesolithic as elements of composite tools. Blades with one edge blunted by removal of flakes are called backed blade. A blade core becomes a core when there are no more useful angles to knock off blades. Blades can be classified into different types depending on their shape. Archaeologists have also known to use the microscopic striations created from the lithic reduction process to classify the blades into specific types. Once classified archaeologists can use information to see how the blade was produced, who produced it. Blade technology, too, is able to provide researchers with understanding of the realms of the culture in question. For example, in 2002 an article was published concerning research done in Tehran which is located in central Iran, the researched focused on six late prehistoric sites which coincidentally had a large focus of blade production
3.
Racloir
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In archeology, a racloir, also known as racloirs sur talon, is a certain type of flint tool made by prehistoric peoples. It is a type of side scraper distinctive of Mousterian assemblages and it is created from a flint flake and looks like a large scraper. As well as being used for scraping hides and bark, it may also have used as a knife. Racloirs are most associated with the Neanderthal Mousterian industry and these racloirs are retouched along the ridge between the striking platform and the dorsal face. They have shaped edges and are modified by abrupt flaking from the dorsal face, barkai & Gopher, R. Reintroducing Butt Scrapers, Another Look at a Non-formal Tool Type. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology
4.
Lithic flake
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In archaeology, a lithic flake is a portion of rock removed from an objective piece by percussion or pressure, and may also be referred to as a chip or spall, or collectively as debitage. The objective piece, or the rock being reduced by the removal of flakes, is known as a core, the energy of this blow propagates through the material, often producing a Hertzian cone of force which causes the rock to fracture in a controllable fashion. Since cores are often struck on an edge with an angle for flake propagation. The process continues as the flintknapper detaches the desired number of flakes from the core, the surface area of the core which received the blows necessary for detaching the flakes is referred to as the striking platform. Flakes may be produced by a variety of means, force may be introduced by direct percussion, indirect percussion, or by pressure. Additionally, flakes may be initiated in a Hertzian, bending, when a flake is detached from its core in a Hertzian fashion, the flake propagates in a conchoidal manner from the point of impact or pressure, usually producing a partial Hertzian cone. The cone of force often leaves a distinctive bulb of applied force on the flake, wedging initiation is the result of a strong hammer blow. At impact, concentric radii emanate from the point of percussion, but unlike conchoidal fracture, the bipolar reduction technique is typified by its use of wedge initiation. The core is placed on a surface or anvil and is struck above by a hammer. The end which received the blow or pressure is referred to as the end of the flake. On most natural cobbles or nodules of source material, a weathered outer rind called a cortex covers the inner material. Flakes are often differentiated by the amount of cortex present on their dorsal surfaces, prominent bulbs of force generally indicate that a hard hammer percussor was used to detach the flake, flakes displaying this characteristic are referred to as conchoidal flakes. Hard hammer flakes are indicative of primary reduction strategies, more moderate and diffuse bulbs may indicate the use of a soft hammer percussor—such as bone, wood, or antler—which produces the bending flakes often associated with bifacial thinning and trimming. The relative abundance of type of flake can indicate what sort of lithic work was going on at a particular spot at a particular point in time. A blade is defined as a flake with parallel or subparallel margins that is usually at least twice as long as it is wide, there are numerous specialized types of blade flakes. Channel flakes are characteristic flakes caused by the fluting of certain Paleo-Indian projectile points, prismatic blades are long, narrow specialized blades with parallel margins which may be removed from polyhedral blade cores, another common lithic feature of Paleo-Indian lithic culture. Prismatic blades are triangular in cross section with several facets or flake scars on the dorsal surface. Prismatic blades begin to appear in high frequencies during the transition between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. This lithic technology basically replaces the Levallois reduction technology
5.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
