Solutrean - the peak of stone tools
When I began this little study of human history I started because of a curiosity as to when Europeans first came to the Americas . The gene...
Jul 22, 2014 - Gravettian and Solutrean Cultures in Ice Age (20,000-16,000 BCE)
Skilled spear points made from Solutreans.
A stone axe from Cissbury, West Sussex (PRM.1884.125.153)
Le plus ancien représentant connu de notre espèce Homo sapiens vivait il y a environ 300 000 ans au Maroc. Cette découverte fait reculer de 100000 ans les origines de notre espèce.
The Gravettian toolmaking culture is named after the type site of La Gravette in the Dordogne region of France where its characteristic tools were first found and studied. It dates from between 28,000 and 22,000 years ago. Artistic achievements of the Gravettian cultural stage include the hundreds of Venus figurines, which are widely distributed in Europe.
The Official Indian Arrowhead Identification Online Database showcases over 1,000 individual point types, 60,000 photographs, and much more. Browse the database to identify arrowheads of all shapes and sizes from nine different regions.
Blades and scrapers
Axe, Unknown, Thailand, Nan Province, Haobinian culture, 9,000-6,000 B.C., Arms and Armor, Stone.
La grotte du Placard is a decorated cave in the commune of Vilhonneur in Charante, 30 km east of Angoulême. It is situated on the left bank of the Tardoire, in the hamlet of Rochebertier, in a cliff which overlooks the Tardoire. It was discovered around 1853. It has been extensively researched and has levels dating from the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, especially the Magdalenian and Solutrean. A dozen aviform signs identical to those discovered in the caves of Pech Merle and Cougnac, were unearthed in 1990 on the walls buried in the Solutrean layer, which suggests a cultural grouping or even a common ancestor who visited these caves which are separated by more than 150 km. Similar signs were found in the Cosquer Cave near Marseille, 500 km away. The figures date back about 20 000 years to the Solutrean. The signs are known as Placard type signs. The cave is not accessible to the public.
An established theory says the first Americans walked across the Bering Sea about 13,000-15,000 years ago. But stone tools found in the mid-Atlantic suggest an arrival from Europe about 20,000-22,000 years ago. The tools match those made by the mysterious Solutrean people of ice-age Iberia.
From these and other arguments we have to conclude that the majority of black paintings – as far as published until today – was created at Early Magdalenian (Badegoulian). Some elements may be of Late Solutrean, the latest ones even of Magdalenian III-IV. In my opinion, Grotte Chauvet houses two different sanctuaries: one centred in Gravettian (red series), the other in Early Magdalenian period (black series).
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Altamira Cave is 270 metres long and consists of a series of twisting passages and chambers. The main passage varies from two to six metres in height. Archaeological excavations in the cave floor found rich deposits of artefacts from the Upper Solutrean (ca 18 500 years ago) and Lower Magdalenean (between ca 16 500 and 14 000 years ago). Both periods belong to the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. In the millennia between these two occupations, the cave was evidently inhabited only by wild animals. Human occupants of the site were well-positioned to take advantage of the rich wildlife that grazed in the valleys of the surrounding mountains as well as the marine life available in nearby coastal areas. Around 13,000 years ago a rockfall sealed the cave's entrance, preserving its contents until its eventual discovery, which occurred after a nearby tree fell and disturbed the fallen rocks. Human occupation was limited to the cave mouth, although paintings were created throughout the length of the cave. The artists used charcoal and ochre or haematite to create the images, often diluting these pigments to produce variations in intensity and creating an impression of chiaroscuro. They also exploited the natural contours in the cave walls to give their subjects a three-dimensional effect. The Polychrome Ceiling is the most impressive feature of the cave, depicting a herd of extinct Steppe Bison (Bison priscus) in different poses, two horses, a large doe, and possibly a wild boar. Dated to the Magdalenean occupation, these paintings also include abstract shapes in addition to animal subjects. Solutrean paintings include images of horses and goats, as well as handprints that were created when artists placed their hands on the cave wall and blew pigment over them to leave a negative image. Numerous other caves in northern Spain contain Palaeolithic art, but none is as complex or well-populated as Altamira.
Grottes du Pape, Brassempouy - The Venus of Brassempouy, or the lady with the hood was discovered in the Grottes du Pape, (Pope's Cave) in 1894, accompanied by at least eight other human figures. These may be an example of unfinished work, as if artist(s) carved several figurines at the same time. P.E. Dubalen first explored the Grotte du Pape in 1881, followed by J. de Laporterie and Édouard Piette (1827–1906) from 1894 onwards. Since archaeological excavation techniques were then only starting to develop, they paid little attention to the stratigraphy of the site containing the remains. In 1892 the site was pillaged and disturbed almost beyond reconstruction by a field trip of amateurs from the Association française pour l’avancement de la science. Nevertheless, Piette described layers attributed to the late and middle Solutrean. He termed the bottom levels he reached as éburnéen (pale or white like ivory), in reference to the copious amounts of ivory works which they contained. Modern reanalysis of the site has been undertaken under the direction of Henri Delporte, 1981–2000. In 1894, one of those strata, today recognized as Gravettian, yielded several fragments of female statuettes, including the 'Lady with the Hood'. Piette saw the figures as closely related to the representations of animals of the Magdalenian. He developed a hypothetical chronology that was later refuted by Henri Breuil.
La Grotte d'Aurignac is a cave located in the commune of Aurignac , in Haute-Garonne ( Midi-Pyrenees , France ). Occupied during the Upper Paleolithic, it gave its name to the Aurignacian , a prehistoric culture of the beginning of that period. The cave is named after the town in which it is located, Aurignac. The cave is now reduced to a small rock-shelter . It is located at the northern end of the town of Aurignac, 1.6 km from the village. It lies in the valley of the stream of Rhodes, a tributary of the Louge , and parallel to the road joining Aurignac to Boulogne-sur-Gesse . The cave was discovered in 1852 by Jean-Baptiste Bonnemaison and studied from 1860 by Édouard Lartet , one of the inventors of prehistoric science . The oldest layer of the cave is after the Acheulean (- 1.7 Ma to 300 000 years ), but before the Solutrean (about 22 000 17 000 BP ) defining a new prehistoric culture, the Aurignacian (approximately 37,000 to 28 000 BP), the first part of the Upper Paleolithic in Europe. The Aurignac site is the site namesake of the Aurignacian . The cave is very rich archaeologically especially regarding the Aurignacian remains. However there are three different periods: first human settlement in the Aurignacian; occupation by wildlife; new human use as a place of burial in the Chalcolithic ( third millennium BC. AD ) Many objects from the cave are displayed at the Musée de la préhistoire d'Aurignac and at the Muséum de Toulouse.
