The Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition revisited

Abstract: Only a precise chronological/stratigraphical framework can enable an understanding of the dynamics of change underlying the replacement of Neanderthals by Anatomically Modern Humans and the emergence of what are recognized as Upper Palaeolithic technologies and behaviour. This paper therefore examines the European radiocarbon-based chronometric record for the period between ca. 40.0 and 30.0 ka 14C BP with reference to the stratigraphic evidence. The following testable hypotheses are proposed: 14C ages for remains of the latest Neanderthals will regularly date to older than 38.0 ka 14C BP. While at present the oldest direct dates for remains of Anatomically Modern Humans are < ca. 35.0 ka 14C BP, AMH possibly appear in Europe as early as ca. 38.0 ka 14C BP. 14C will date Final Middle Palaeolithic “transitional” industries (leaf-point industries, Chatelperronian, Uluzzian) to between ca. 41.0 and 38.0 ka 14C BP, and possibly as young as 35.0/34.0 ka 14C BP. Initial and Early Upper Palaeolithic “transitional” industries (Bachokirian, Bohunician, Protoaurignacian, Kostenki 14, level IVb) will date to between ca. 39.0 and 35.0 ka 14C BP. The earliest Aurignacian (I) will not significantly pre-date ca. 35.0 ka 14C BP, whereas the earliest appearance of Aurignacian figurative art will not date earlier than 32.5 ka 14C BP.

Updating Neanderthals Understanding Behavioural Complexity in the Late Middle Palaeolithic, 2022

This chapter presents the first collective synthesis of Late Middle Palaeolithic lithic technology (MIS 4–3, ≈ 70-40 ka) from the Altai mountains to the Atlantic coast of Western Europe and the Mediterranean regions of Europe and the Levant. As early as the first half of the twentieth century, archaeological debates focused on characterising and interpreting Mousterian techno-typological variability. In recent decades, new data concerning several specific aspects of this question have modified our understanding of Neanderthal technology in terms of lithic economy. This chapter presents the main characteristics of Late Middle Palaeolithic lithic technologies, raw material management, tool forms and artefact transport patterns. This extensive overview reveals that it is still largely unclear whether spatio-temporal trends in the mosaic of reduction strategies exist, at least during MIS 4–3. Furthermore, disparities in available data from the different geographical areas currently precludes exhaustive inter-regional comparisons and introduces biases for identifying which variables reflect local adaptations or potentially more general trends. Currently, the degree to which lithic assemblage variability, including retouched stone tools, results from adaptations to different factors remains difficult to reliably assess. These factors include environmental constraints and the influence of local contexts, including the characteristics and accessibility of raw materials and the duration of site occupation. Stone tools assemblages may equally reflect specific traditions of certain Neanderthal populations or groups and communities-of-practice. Differences in assemblage composition and tool types most likely result from the combined influences of these aspects in association with subsistence strategies and other ecological factors, as well as social structure and other cognitive and behavioural features. Finally, the possibility that the specific dynamics between different Neanderthal populations and between Neanderthals and other human groups affecting aspects of technology cannot be ruled out.

In, J. Shea & D. Lieberman (eds.), Transitions in Prehistory: Papers in Honor of Ofer Bar-Yosef, pp. 166-183. Oxford: Oxbow Books. , 2009

Paleoanthropology present a series of documents covering a variety of subjects in the archaeology of the Old World (Eurasia, Africa, Australia, and Oceania). This series encompasses a broad range of subjectsfrom the early prehistory to the Neolithic Revolution in the Old World, and beyond including: huntergatherers to complex societies; the rise of agriculture; the emergence of urban societies; human physical morphology, evolution and adaptation, as well as; various technologies such as metallurgy, pottery production, tool making, and shelter construction. Additionally, the subjects of symbolism, religion, and art will be presented within the context of archaeological studies including mortuary practices and rock art. Volumes may be authored by one investigator, a team of investigators, or may be an edited collection of shorter articles by a number of different specialists working on related topics.

This paper discusses different models of the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic. While most of the current models for the movements of anatomically modern humans &#x27;Out of Africa&#x27; are at least partially rejected for different reasons, the author suggests another scenario, according to which a movement out of Africa between 250,000 and 100,000 BP brought advanced but still pre-modern Homo sapiens into the Levant. At that time, people might have also spread beyond the Levant, in an arc north along the Levantine Coast and then eastward across the southern flanks of the Caucasus, as far east as southern Siberia. In this case, these African advanced early Homo sapiens might have continued to evolve on the same trajectory as those who remained in Africa, finally reaching an anatomically modern status about the same time as their African cousins. If so, the immediate origins of the explosion of &quot;modern behavior&quot; seen in Europe, but not in Africa, might be...

Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 2005

Lambda Alpha Journal, 1995

In 1829-30, P.C. Schmerling discovered the fragmentary remains of a child's skull In Engis Cave near Liege, Belgium. These fragments were the first Neanderthal remains to be found. This being the pre-Darwinian period and because they exhibited non-modern morphologies, the scientific community showed very little, if any, interest In the find. In 1848, a partial skull from an adult Neanderthal was discovered In a cave located at Forbes Quarry on the Rock of Gibraltar. Like the Belgium skull fragments, the Forbes Quarry skull received scant attention (Klein 1989). It was not until 1856, when workers quarrying in the Feldhofer Cave in the Neander Valley near Dusseldorf, Germany, unearthed the skeletal remains of what appeared to a human skullcap and several postcranial bones, that people began speculating as to their origins and significance of these odd, non-modern, bones (Klein 1989, Wolpoff 1980). Since these initial finds in northern Europe, many Neanderthal remains have been found across Europe, as far west as Great Britain and the Iberian peninsula, eastward into western Asia.

This paper examines the stone tool technology of dispersing Plio-Pleistocene hominins. The traditional division of Early Paleolithic assemblages into Oldowan, Developed Oldowan, Early Acheulean, and related industries obscures a more fundamental axis of strategic variation between pebblecore and large cutting tool technology. In Eurasia, as in Africa before it, first appearances of fossils of the genus Homo occur together with "Oldowan" pebble-core technology. Acheulean assemblages featuring large symmetrical cores/cutting tools, if they appear at all, do so after a considerable period of time. The patterning of the Early Paleolithic industrial variability may reflect a strategic shift between an initial "frontier" phase and a subsequent "settling in" phase of hominin dispersal.

2007

The Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age, comprises over 99% of human technological history and spans a time range from 2.6 Ma (the earliest recognizable stone tools and archeological record) to 10,000 years ago (the end of the last ice age). There are three major stages of the Paleolithic: (1) The Early Paleolithic which includes: (a) The Oldowan, from 2.6 to about 1.0 Ma, characterized by simple core forms on cobbles and chunks (choppers, discoids, polyhedrons), battered percussors (hammerstones and spheroids), flakes and fragments, and retouched forms such as flake scrapers. Cut marks and fracture patterns on animal bones indicate meat and marrow processing, with the use of simple stone knives and hammers. This stage is associated with the later australopithecines and the earliest forms of the larger-brained genus Homo and documents the first hominid dispersal out of Africa and into Eurasia and (b) The Acheulean, which lasted from approximately 1.7 Ma to 250,000 years ago, and was characterized by large bifaces such as hand axes, cleavers, and picks. The early Acheulean is associated with Homo erectus/ ergaster, while the later Acheulean (by ca. 500,000 years ago) is associated with the even larger-brained Homo heidelbergensis. (2) The Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age, from about 250,000 to 30,000 years ago, characterized by a focus on retouched flake tools, such as scrapers, points, and backed knives, and prepared core technologies such as the Levallois method. The controlled production and use of fire appears to be widespread for the first time. This stage is especially associated with archaic forms of Homo sapiens (having modern-size brains but more robust faces and postcranial skeletons), including the Neandertals and the earliest anatomically modern humans. (3) The Late Paleolithic, from 40,000 until 10,000 years ago, characterized by blade tool industries, a proliferation of artifacts in bone, antler, and ivory, and the emergence of rich symbolic art in the form of paintings, engravings, sculpture, and personal body adornment. Early examples of clear architectural structures, musical instruments, and mechanical devices (spear-throwers and bows and arrows) emerge during this time.