scholarly journals The Use of Ochre and Painting During the Upper Paleolithic of the Swabian Jura in the Context of the Development of Ochre Use in Africa and Europe

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibylle Wolf ◽  
Nicholas J. Conard ◽  
Harald Floss ◽  
Rimtautas Dapschauskas ◽  
Elizabeth Velliky ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans

Abstract While the earliest evidence for ochre use is very sparse, the habitual use of ochre by hominins appeared about 140,000 years ago and accompanied them ever since. Here, we present an overview of archaeological sites in southwestern Germany, which yielded remains of ochre. We focus on the artifacts belonging exclusively to anatomically modern humans who were the inhabitants of the cave sites in the Swabian Jura during the Upper Paleolithic. The painted limestones from the Magdalenian layers of Hohle Fels Cave are a particular focus. We present these artifacts in detail and argue that they represent the beginning of a tradition of painting in Central Europe.

Early Upper Paleolithic in Eastern Europe and Implications for the Dispersal of Modern Humans

Science ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 315 (5809) ◽  
pp. 223-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. V. Anikovich ◽  
A. A. Sinitsyn ◽  
John F. Hoffecker ◽  
Vance T. Holliday ◽  
V. V. Popov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Luminescence Dating ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Northern Eurasia ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating ◽  
Figurative Art ◽  
Early Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Don River

Radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating and magnetic stratigraphy indicate Upper Paleolithic occupation—probably representing modern humans—at archaeological sites on the Don River in Russia 45,000 to 42,000 years ago. The oldest levels at Kostenki underlie a volcanic ash horizon identified as the Campanian Ignimbrite Y5 tephra that is dated elsewhere to about 40,000 years ago. The occupation layers contain bone and ivory artifacts, including possible figurative art, and fossil shells imported more than 500 kilometers. Thus, modern humans appeared on the central plain of Eastern Europe as early as anywhere else in northern Eurasia.

scholarly journals The châtelperronian Neandertals of Cova Foradada (Calafell, Spain) used Iberian imperial eagle phalanges for symbolic purposes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo ◽  
Juan Ignacio Morales ◽  
Artur Cebriá ◽  
Lloyd A. Courtenay ◽  
Juan L. Fernández-Marchena ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Scale ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Middle Paleolithic ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Mediterranean Europe ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
Imperial Eagle

The use of personal ornaments by Neandertals is one of the scarce evidence of their symbolic behaviour. Among them stand up the eagle talons used presumably as pendants, in an analogous way than anatomically Modern Humans (Homo sapiens) did. Considering the broad range and time scale of Neandertals distribution across Eurasia, this phenomenon seems to be concentrated in a very specific area of Southwestern-Mediterranean Europe during a span of ca. 80 ka. Here we present the analysis of one pedal phalange of a large eagle recovered in Foradada cave site, Spain. Our research confirms the use of eagle talons as symbolic elements in Iberia, expanding geographically and temporally one of the most common evidence of symbolic behaviour among western European Neandertals. The convergence in use of large raptor talons as symbolic elements by one of the last Neandertal populations raises the survival of some cultural elements of the Middle Paleolithic into beginnings of the Upper Paleolithic.

scholarly journals Bones of Contention: Assorted Hypotheses on the Fate of the Neanderthals

1986 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Heilingbrunner
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Near East ◽  
Morphological Evolution ◽  
Short Interval ◽  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Middle Paleolithic ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans

The disappearance of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis at the end of the Middle Paleolithic has evoked a plethora of explanations, ranging from carefully supported theories to bizarre or romantic speculation. The processes by which the Neanderthals were replaced by anatomically modern humans occurred in a relatively short interval of time, and have been obscured by a wide variety of disturbances. A review of some of the inferences drawn by various researchers tentatively suggests a combination of in situ technological and morphological evolution in the Near East with movement of Upper Paleolithic genes and technology into Europe.

scholarly journals Symbolic emblems of the Levantine Aurignacians as a regional entity identifier (Hayonim Cave, Lower Galilee, Israel)

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (20) ◽  
pp. 5145-5150 ◽  
Author(s):  
José-Miguel Tejero ◽  
Anna Belfer-Cohen ◽  
Ofer Bar-Yosef ◽  
Vitaly Gutkin ◽  
Rivka Rabinovich
Keyword(s):  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Unique Characteristic ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
The West ◽  
Cut Marks ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
West European

The Levantine Aurignacian is a unique phenomenon in the local Upper Paleolithic sequence, showing greater similarity to the West European classic Aurignacian than to the local Levantine archaeological entities preceding and following it. Herewith we highlight another unique characteristic of this entity, namely, the presence of symbolic objects in the form of notched bones (mostly gazelle scapulae) from the Aurignacian levels of Hayonim Cave, Lower Galilee, Israel. Through both macroscopic and microscopic analyses of the items, we suggest that they are not mere cut marks but rather are intentional (decorative?) human-made markings. The significance of this evidence for symbolic behavior is discussed in its chrono-cultural and geographical contexts. Notched bones are among the oldest symbolic expressions of anatomically modern humans. However, unlike other Paleolithic sites where such findings were reported in single numbers, the number of these items recovered at Hayonim Cave is sufficient to assume they possibly served as an emblem of the Levantine Aurignacian.

scholarly journals Dental Morphological Affinities Among Late-Pleistocene and Recent Humans

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Shara E. Bailey
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Dental Morphology ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Modern Human Origins ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Two Populations

The study uses analyses of Mean Measure of Divergence (MMD) to assess the affinities of ten populations representing early anatomically modern humans, Upper Paleolithic Europeans, recent modern humans, and Neandertals. The 18-triat MMD analysis demonstrates that, dentally, Neandertals are quite divergent from all modern humans. The results of cluster analyses based on MMD values suggest two major clusters: Neandertals and modern humans. The data also suggest two sub-clusters within the modern human cluster. One links Upper Paleolithic Europeans with recent North Africans and Europeans. The other links early anatomically modern humans with Late Pleistocene Africans and recent Sub-Saharan Africans. These results do not support a close relationship between Neandertals and any modern human groups samples. They also tentatively suggest that, if the two populations were interbreeding, it is not reflected in their dental morphology. The results showing a close affinity between early anatomically modern humans and Sub-Saharan Africans are consist with the Recent African Origin model for modern human origins. 

Art, sign, and representation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth V. Culley ◽  
Iain Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Homo Erectus ◽  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Cognitive Capacities ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans

This chapter addresses questions about the emergence of art, sign, and representation, showing what these categories mean as applied to the archaeological record and how evidence of them may relate to the evolution of human cognitive capacities. It goes beyond the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic to consider marked or decorated objects from significantly older sites associated with Anatomically Modern Humans in Africa and Indonesia, Neanderthals in Europe, and Homo erectus in Trinil, Java. The materials evidence a range of graphic production across significant space and time. They indicate the emergence of graphic expression and its role in human evolution is much more complex than traditional Eurocentric model, as well as more recent models, allow. The review points to problems with the current epistemology of symbolic evolution and emphasizes how the use of “art” and other traditional artifact classes bias interpretations of prehistoric behaviors and models of when and why symbolling emerged.

scholarly journals Stochastic models support rapid peopling of Late Pleistocene Sahul

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey J. A. Bradshaw ◽  
Kasih Norman ◽  
Sean Ulm ◽  
Alan N. Williams ◽  
Chris Clarkson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stochastic Models ◽  
Ecological Model ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Global Migration ◽  
Early Settlement ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
Settlement Event ◽  
Initial Entry

AbstractThe peopling of Sahul (the combined continent of Australia and New Guinea) represents the earliest continental migration and settlement event of solely anatomically modern humans, but its patterns and ecological drivers remain largely conceptual in the current literature. We present an advanced stochastic-ecological model to test the relative support for scenarios describing where and when the first humans entered Sahul, and their most probable routes of early settlement. The model supports a dominant entry via the northwest Sahul Shelf first, potentially followed by a second entry through New Guinea, with initial entry most consistent with 50,000 or 75,000 years ago based on comparison with bias-corrected archaeological map layers. The model’s emergent properties predict that peopling of the entire continent occurred rapidly across all ecological environments within 156–208 human generations (4368–5599 years) and at a plausible rate of 0.71–0.92 km year−1. More broadly, our methods and approaches can readily inform other global migration debates, with results supporting an exit of anatomically modern humans from Africa 63,000–90,000 years ago, and the peopling of Eurasia in as little as 12,000–15,000 years via inland routes.

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