scholarly journals Mobile Paleolithic Arts: long distances withesses

Author(s):  
Marcel Otte ◽  
◽  

The meaning of statuettes appearance across Paleolithic Europe has changed a lot. Different processes can explain their variations. The «creation» from nothing apparently but imitating certain aspects of the natural world (animals). The «transfer» process from one tradition to the other inside early Upper Paleolithic people. The «movement» of both statuettes and people when recolonizing the northern plains. The «drift» process, when different cores are following the same stylistic variations. The «diffusion» process, where we can see the movements affecting Central and Eastern Europe, from the west to the East. All these processes require specific ways of treatment and of understanding. They should not be confused, nor forgotten in any Paleolithic art study.

Author(s):  
I. Karavanić ◽  
N. Vukosavljević

Eastern Adriatic Late Middle Paleolithic is relatively well known. On the other hand, Early Upper Paleolithic sites in the same region are scarce, and in particular the sites from Early Aurignacian, which are completely lacking. Sites with stratigraphy encompassing Late Middle Paleolithic and Early Upper Paleolithic that would signifi cantly contribute to better understanding of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition have not yet been found. In this paper, we give an overview of the archaeological record of the regional Late Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania. The information on research of Late Middle Paleolithic sites conducted in different regions of the eastern Adriatic (e.g., Mujina pećina and Velika pećina in Kličevica in Dalmatia, open-air site Campanož and Romualdova pećina in Istria, Bioče and Crvena stijena in Montenegro) is given. AMS and ESR dates give good temporal frame for Late Middle Paleolithic. Contrary to this, radiocarbon dates for Early Upper Paleolithic are scarce, and were made long time ago, hence bringing into question their reliability as is supported by their very late age for Aurignacian. Only one recent AMS date from Šandalja II could represent real Aurignacian age. According to current data, there is a hiatus of several thousand years between Late Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic in the eastern Adriatic. Here we suggest several potential reasons for such fragmentary record of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in the eastern Adriatic.


2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (40) ◽  
pp. 10606-10611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thibaut Devièse ◽  
Ivor Karavanić ◽  
Daniel Comeskey ◽  
Cara Kubiak ◽  
Petra Korlević ◽  
...  

Previous dating of the Vi-207 and Vi-208 Neanderthal remains from Vindija Cave (Croatia) led to the suggestion that Neanderthals survived there as recently as 28,000–29,000 B.P. Subsequent dating yielded older dates, interpreted as ages of at least ∼32,500 B.P. We have redated these same specimens using an approach based on the extraction of the amino acid hydroxyproline, using preparative high-performance liquid chromatography (Prep-HPLC). This method is more efficient in eliminating modern contamination in the bone collagen. The revised dates are older than 40,000 B.P., suggesting the Vindija Neanderthals did not live more recently than others across Europe, and probably predate the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Eastern Europe. We applied zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) to find additional hominin remains. We identified one bone that is Neanderthal, based on its mitochondrial DNA, and dated it directly to 46,200 ± 1,500 B.P. We also attempted to date six early Upper Paleolithic bone points from stratigraphic units G1, Fd/d+G1 and Fd/d, Fd. One bone artifact gave a date of 29,500 ± 400 B.P., while the remainder yielded no collagen. We additionally dated animal bone samples from units G1 and G1–G3. These dates suggest a co-occurrence of early Upper Paleolithic osseous artifacts, particularly split-based points, alongside the remains of Neanderthals is a result of postdepositional mixing, rather than an association between the two groups, although more work is required to show this definitively.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 477-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akira Ono ◽  
Hiroyuki Sato ◽  
Takashi Tsutsumi ◽  
Yuichiro Kudo

We discuss the radiocarbon chronology of Late Pleistocene archaeology in the Japanese islands. In sum, 429 samples from more than 100 archaeological sites were compiled and then divided into three periods and four stages. The Early Upper Paleolithic, characterized by Trapezoid industries, lasted during approximately 34-26 ka. The Late Upper Paleolithic period includes both the backed-blade stage and point-tool stage, the latter appearing chronologically later than the former. This stage covers ~25–15 ka. The Final Upper Paleolithic and Incipient Jomon are distinguished by the appearance of microblade industries and the emergence of pottery at the end of this period. This period covers approximately 14-12 ka. The microblade tradition, in the broadest sense, is strongly connected to the background of peopling of the New World. New data on the transitional stage from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic are also discussed in regards to three archaeological sites. Issues on the application of the 14C calibration to the whole Japanese Upper Paleolithic are critically evaluated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (25) ◽  
pp. e2014657118
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Boaretto ◽  
Marion Hernandez ◽  
Mae Goder-Goldberger ◽  
Vera Aldeias ◽  
Lior Regev ◽  
...  

The Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) is a crucial lithic assemblage type in the archaeology of southwest Asia because it marks a dramatic shift in hominin populations accompanied by technological changes in material culture. This phase is conventionally divided into two chronocultural phases based on the Boker Tachtit site, central Negev, Israel. While lithic technologies at Boker Tachtit are well defined, showing continuity from one phase to another, the absolute chronology is poorly resolved because the radiocarbon method used had a large uncertainty. Nevertheless, Boker Tachtit is considered to be the origin of the succeeding Early Upper Paleolithic Ahmarian tradition that dates in the Negev to ∼42,000 y ago (42 ka). Here, we provide 14C and optically stimulated luminescence dates obtained from a recent excavation of Boker Tachtit. The new dates show that the early phase at Boker Tachtit, the Emirian, dates to 50 through 49 ka, while the late phase dates to 47.3 ka and ends by 44.3 ka. These results show that the IUP started in the Levant during the final stages of the Late Middle Paleolithic some 50,000 y ago. The later IUP phase in the Negev chronologically overlaps with the Early Upper Paleolithic Ahmarian of the Mediterranean woodland region between 47 and 44 ka. We conclude that Boker Tachtit is the earliest manifestation of the IUP in Eurasia. The study shows that distinguishing the chronology of the IUP from the Late Middle Paleolithic, as well as from the Early Upper Paleolithic, is much more complex than previously thought.


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