|  | | | galerie-lithique | | | Boutique tenue par : | | With GALLERIE-LITHIQUE.COM rediscover the fascinating world of stones through prehistoric and historic artefacts, minerals, fossils, and meteorites. Retrouver sur GALERIE-LITHIQUE.COM le monde fascinant des pierres à travers la préhistoire,l'Antiquité,les minéraux,les fossiles et les météorites. | |
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LOWER
PALEOLITHIC :
The oldowan
culture:
(also spelled pebble culture or cheulean)The very first stone tools were probably naturally broken, sharp-edged rocks
that were casually picked up, used and discarded. There is probably no way
that we will ever know how long this type of behavior persisted in hominid
prehistory. At some point, however, early hominids began purposely selecting
specific raw materials, and making their own sharp-edged stone tools. The
earliest manifestation of this behavior has been called the Pebble Tool
Tradition, because it entailed the sharpening of pebbles and small cobbles
through the bifacial (two-sided) removal of flakes. Although it was thought
for years that the sharpened pebbles were the desired end product; new
evidence from the analysis of microscopic wear patterns on the flakes that
had been considered waste products indicates that the flakes may actually
have been the tools, used for general purpose cutting. |
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The acheulean
(also spelled Acheulian) is the name of an industry of stone tools used by
prehistoric hominids. It applies to the Paleolithic epoch following the
Abbevillian, and it is characterized by the use of pebble, bifacial, and
flake tools which included hand axes. It is named after the site,
Saint-Acheul, now a suburb of Amiens in northern France. It is thought that
HOMO ERGASTER ( HOMO HEIDELBERGENSIS in Europe and HOMO ERECTUS in Asia ) is
the first hominid to innovate such an industry, though this industry was
used by Cro-Magnons (early Homo sapiens) and Neanderthals as well. Both of
these species innovated significantly beyond the Acheulean industry in time.
The Acheulean era began about 1.2 million years ago and ended about 500,000
years ago. However, the Acheulean industry continued to be used by some
primitive hominid cultures up until 100,000 years ago. The primary
innovation associated with Acheulean handaxes is that the stone was chipped
on both sides to form two cutting edges.
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These tools were more
sophisticated in their conception and construction and much more effective
than the tools of the peeble industry they succeeded. Diverse materials and
difficult techniques were involved in this industry which had not been seen
before this period, and demonstrated that the hominids that innovated the
tools were capable of a high degree of forthought. These tools were made of stone with good fracture
characteristics such as chalcedony, jasper, flint, and quartzite. Peeble
tools were used by efficient scavengers, who were still preyed upon
frequently by larger animals and often bewildered by their environment.
Adversely, Acheulean tools gave their masters the ability to hunt and defend
themselves successfully and gave them the distinction of being equally as
deadly as the greatest predators of the prehistoric Earth.
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The period during which
these tools were innovated is usually thought to be the lower Paleolithic
era or the beginning of the middle Paleolithic era. The culture associated
with the Acheulean industry spread throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia,
during the lower Paleolithic period. It flourished roughly 400,000 to
100,000 years ago in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. The representatives
of this culture were hunter-gatherers who lived in primitive communities in
caves and in the open. They were able to construct fairly sophisticated
shelters, and it is thought by many scientists that they had discovered the
use of fire.
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MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC :
The mousterian
is a name given by
archaeologists to a style of predominantly flint tools (or industry)
associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis and dating to the Middle
Paleolithic, the middle part of the Old Stone Age. It was named after the
type site of Le Moustier, a rock shelter in theDordogne region of France.
Similar flintwork has been found all over unglaciated Europe and also
theNear East and North Africa. Handaxes, racloirs and points constitute the
industry; sometimes a Levallois technique or another prepared-core technique
was employed in making the flint flakes.Mousterian tools were made by
Neanderthals and date from between 300,000 BP and 30,000 BP. In Northern
Africa and the Near East they were also produced by anatomically modern
humans. In the Levant for example, assemblages produced by Neanderthals are
indistinguishable from those produced by modern humans. |
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UPPER
PALEOLITHIC :
In the Upper Paleolithic period
Neanderthal man disappears and is replaced by a variety of Homo sapiens
such as
Cro-Magnon man and Grimaldi man. This, the
flowering of the Paleolithic period, saw an astonishing number of human
cultures, such as the Aurignacian, Gravettian, Perigordian, Solutrean, and
Magdalenian, rise and develop in the Old World. The beginnings of communal
hunting and extensive fishing are found here, as is the first conclusive
evidence of belief systems centering on magic and the supernatural. Pit
houses, the first man-made shelters, were built, sewn clothing was worn, and
sculpture and painting originated. Tools were of great variety, including
flint and obsidian blades and projectile points. It is probable that the
people of the Aurignacian culture migrated to Europe after developing their
distinctive culture elsewhere, perhaps in Asia. Their stone tools are finely
worked, and they made a typical figure eight shaped blade. They also used
bone, horn, and ivory and made necklaces and other personal ornaments. They
carved the so-called Venus figures, ritual statuettes of bone, and made
outline drawings on cave walls.The hunters of the Solutrean phase of the
Upper Paleolithic entered Europe from the east and ousted many of their
Aurignacian predecessors. The Solutrean wrought extremely fine spearheads,
shaped like a laurel leaf. The Solutrean as well as remnants of the Aurignacian were replaced by the
Magdalenian, the final, and perhaps most impressive, phase of the
Paleolithic period. Here artifacts reflect a society made up of communities
of fishermen and reindeer hunters. Surviving Magdalenian tools, which range
from tiny microliths to implements of great length and fineness, indicate an
advanced technique. Weapons were highly refined and varied, the
atlatl (or spear thrower) first came into use, and along the
southern edge of the ice sheet boats and harpoons were developed. However,
the crowning achievement of the Magdalenian was its cave paintings, the
culmination of
Paleolithic art. |
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MESOLITHIC :
Mesolithic
period or Middle Stone Age
occurs in human
development between the end of the
Paleolithic period and the beginning of the
Neolithic period. It began with the end of
the last glacial period over 10,000 years ago and evolved into the Neolithic
period ; this change involved the gradual domestication of plants and animals
and the formation of settled communities at various times and places. While
Mesolithic cultures lasted in Europe until almost 3000
B.C., Neolithic communities developed in the Middle East between 9000
and 6000 B.C. Mesolithic cultures represent a
wide variety of hunting, fishing, and food gathering techniques. This
variety may be the result of adaptations to changed ecological conditions
associated with the retreat of glaciers, the growth of forests in Europe and
deserts in N Africa, and the disappearance of the large game of the Ice Age.
Characteristic of the period were hunting and fishing settlements along
rivers and on lake shores, where fish and mollusks were abundant. Microliths,
the typical stone implements of the Mesolithic period, are smaller and more
delicate than those of the late Paleolithic period. Pottery and the use of
the bow developed, although their presence in Mesolithic cultures may only
indicate contact with early Neolithic peoples. The Azilian culture, which
was centered in the Pyrenees region but spread to Switzerland, Belgium, and
Scotland, was one of the earliest representatives of Mesolithic culture in
Europe. The Azilian was followed by the Tardenoisian culture, which covered
much of Europe; most of these settlements are found on dunes or sandy areas.
The Maglemosian, named for a site in Denmark, is found in the Baltic region
and N England. It occurs in the middle of the Mesolithic period. It is there
that hafted axes, an improvement over the Paleolithic hand axe, and bone
tools are found. The Ertebolle culture, also named for a site in Denmark,
spans most of the late Mesolithic. It is also known as the kitchen-midden
culture for the large deposits of mollusk shells found around the
settlements. Other late Mesolithic cultures are the Campignian and Asturian,
both of which may have had Neolithic contacts. The Mesolithic period in
other areas is represented by the Natufian in the Middle East, the Badarian
and Gerzean in Egypt, and the Capsian in N Africa. The Natufian culture
provides the earliest evidence of an evolution from a Mesolithic to a
Neolithic way of life.
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NEOLITHIC :
The neolithic
period or New Stone Age. The term neolithic is used, especially in archaeology
and anthropology, to designate a stage of cultural evolution or technological
development characterized by the use of stone tools, the existence of settled
villages largely dependent on domesticated plants and animals, and the presence
of such crafts as pottery and weaving. The time period and cultural content
indicated by the term varies with the geographic location of the culture
considered and with the particular criteria used by the individual scientist.
The domestication of plants and animals usually distinguishes the Neolithic culture
from earlier Paleolithic or Mesolithic hunting, fishing, and food-gathering
cultures. The Mesolithic period in several areas shows a gradual transition from
a food-collecting to a food-producing culture. The termination of the Neolithic
period is marked by such innovations as the rise of urban civilization or the
introduction of metal tools or writing. Again, the criteria vary with each case.
The earliest known development of Neolithic culture was in SW Asia between 8000
BC and 6000 BC There the domestication of plants and animals was probably begun
by the Mesolithic Natufian peoples, leading to the establishment of settled
villages based on the cultivation of cereals, including wheat, barley, and
millet, and the raising of cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. In the Tigris and
Euphrates river valleys, the Neolithic culture of the Middle East developed into
the urban civilizations of the Bronze Age by 3500 BC. Between 6000 BC and 2000 BC
Neolithic culture spread through Europe, the Nile valley (Egypt), the Indus
valley (India), and the Huang He valley (N China). The formation of Neolithic
cultures throughout the Old World resulted from a combination of local cultural
developments with innovations diffused from the Middle East. In SE Asia, a
distinct type of Neolithic culture involving rice cultivation developed, perhaps
independently, before 2000 BC In the New World, the domestication of plants and
animals occurred independently of Old World developments. By 1500 BC, Neolithic
cultures based on the cultivation of corn, beans, squash, and other plants were
present in Mexico and South America, leading to the rise of the Inca and Aztec
civilizations and spreading to other parts of the Americas by the time of
European contact.
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