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107-866: The Prehistoric Rock-Art Site of the Côa Valley is an open-air Paleolithic archaeological site located in northeastern Portugal , near the border with Spain. In the early 1990s, rock engravings were discovered in Vila Nova de Foz Côa during the construction of a dam in the Côa River valley. They include thousands of engraved rock drawings of horses, bovines and other animals, human and abstract figures, dated from 22,000 to 10,000 years B.C. The sites were reviewed by archaeologists and other specialists of UNESCO and other agencies. Public support grew, both within Portugal and internationally, for preservation of

214-428: A nomadic lifestyle. In addition, even a large area of land could not support many people without being actively farmed - food was difficult to come by and so groups were prevented from growing too large by the amount of food they could gather. Like contemporary hunter-gatherers, Paleolithic humans enjoyed an abundance of leisure time unparalleled in both Neolithic farming societies and modern industrial societies. At

321-729: A 15 kilometre stretch across the border includes over 500 representations. Its dating to a similar period allowed its inclusion in the world heritage designation along with the Côa Valley sites. In March 2018, the Côa Valley Sites and Museum were added to the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe , along other major prehistoric sites like Lascaux (France), Altamira (Spain) and Valcamonica (Italy). The prehistoric site can be accessed from EN102 road (Vila Nova de Foz Côa-Celorico da Beira), via Muxagata, or alternately via

428-568: A Paleolithic style. The essentially anthropomorphic and zoomorphic designs included horses identifiable by their characteristic manes, aurochs with mouths and nostrils detailed, and deer. Other paintings dating back to the Epipaleolithic period were of zoomorphic semi-naturalist design. Some anthropomorphic and zoomorphic designs, both geometric and abstract, date from the Neolithic period. Others, primarily anthropomorphic, date back to

535-657: A government change. Incoming Prime Minister António Guterres cancelled the dam project in November 1995. The government established a system to monitor and preserve the archeological resources; the events of the so-called "Battle of Côa" led to the establishment in May 1997 of the National Centre for Prehistoric Art ( Portuguese : Centro Nacional de Arte Rupestre/CNART ) and the Archaeological Park of

642-617: A great part of the carvings dated as far back as the Palaeolithic. The Portuguese government's insistence in proceeding with the dam project led to mounting political scandal and pressure from the international community. The dam project was denounced in international newspapers such as The Sunday Times , The New York Times , the International Herald Tribune , and broadcasters such as the BBC . Meanwhile, after

749-694: A group of early humans, frequently called Homo heidelbergensis , came to Europe from Africa and eventually evolved into Homo neanderthalensis ( Neanderthals ). In the Middle Paleolithic, Neanderthals were present in the region now occupied by Poland. Both Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis became extinct by the start of the Upper Paleolithic. Descended from Homo sapiens , the anatomically modern Homo sapiens sapiens emerged in eastern Africa c.  300,000  BP, left Africa around 50,000 BP, and expanded throughout

856-793: A herd of animals at a waterhole so as to stun one of them. There are no indications of hafting , and some artifacts are far too large for that. Thus, a thrown hand axe would not usually have penetrated deeply enough to cause very serious injuries. Nevertheless, it could have been an effective weapon for defense against predators. Choppers and scrapers were likely used for skinning and butchering scavenged animals and sharp-ended sticks were often obtained for digging up edible roots. Presumably, early humans used wooden spears as early as 5 million years ago to hunt small animals, much as their relatives, chimpanzees , have been observed to do in Senegal , Africa. Lower Paleolithic humans constructed shelters, such as

963-505: A need to distribute resources such as food and meat equally to avoid famine and ensure a stable food supply. Raymond C. Kelly speculates that the relative peacefulness of Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies resulted from a low population density, cooperative relationships between groups such as reciprocal exchange of commodities and collaboration on hunting expeditions, and because the invention of projectile weapons such as throwing spears provided less incentive for war, because they increased

1070-540: A number of ways by modern archaeologists. The earliest explanation, by the prehistorian Abbe Breuil , interpreted the paintings as a form of magic designed to ensure a successful hunt. However, this hypothesis fails to explain the existence of animals such as saber-toothed cats and lions , which were not hunted for food, and the existence of half-human, half-animal beings in cave paintings. The anthropologist David Lewis-Williams has suggested that Paleolithic cave paintings were indications of shamanistic practices, because

1177-531: A pronounced hierarchy and a somewhat formal division of labor ) and may have engaged in endemic warfare . Some argue that there was no formal leadership during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Like contemporary egalitarian hunter-gatherers such as the Mbuti pygmies, societies may have made decisions by communal consensus decision making rather than by appointing permanent rulers such as chiefs and monarchs . Nor

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1284-453: Is a general glacial excursion, termed a "glacial". Glacials are separated by "interglacials". During a glacial, the glacier experiences minor advances and retreats. The minor excursion is a "stadial"; times between stadials are "interstadials". Each glacial advance tied up huge volumes of water in continental ice sheets 1,500–3,000  m (4,900–9,800  ft ) deep, resulting in temporary sea level drops of 100 m (330 ft) or more over

1391-726: Is an archaeological site in Serranillo, Villar de la Yegua , province of Salamanca , in Castile and León , Spain . It was added to the Côa Valley Paleolithic Art site in the World Heritage List in 2010. The site consists of a series of rock carvings , discovered in 1988 by professor Manuel Santoja Gómez, during an inventory campaign of archaeological sites in the valley of the Águeda river . Subjects include equids, aurochs, deer and goats, among

1498-412: Is characterized by the use of knapped stone tools, although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools, including leather and vegetable fibers ; however, due to rapid decomposition, these have not survived to any great degree. About 50,000 years ago, a marked increase in the diversity of artifacts occurred. In Africa, bone artifacts and

1605-583: Is more pronounced in Lower Paleolithic humans such as Homo erectus than in modern humans, who are less polygynous than other primates, which suggests that Lower Paleolithic humans had a largely polygynous lifestyle, because species that have the most pronounced sexual dimorphism tend more likely to be polygynous. Human societies from the Paleolithic to the early Neolithic farming tribes lived without states and organized governments. For most of

1712-543: Is no evidence of hominins in America, Australia, or almost anywhere in Oceania during this time period. Fates of these early colonists, and their relationships to modern humans, are still subject to debate. According to current archaeological and genetic models, there were at least two notable expansion events subsequent to peopling of Eurasia c.  2,000,000  – c.  1,500,000  BP. Around 500,000 BP

1819-506: The !Kung San who live similarly to their Paleolithic predecessors. The economy of a typical Paleolithic society was a hunter-gatherer economy. Humans hunted wild animals for meat and gathered food, firewood, and materials for their tools, clothes, or shelters. The population density was very low, around only 0.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (1/sq mi). This was most likely due to low body fat, infanticide , high levels of physical activity among women, late weaning of infants, and

1926-489: The Altai Mountains and Indonesia, were radiocarbon dated to c.  30,000  – c.  40,000  BP and c.  17,000  BP respectively. For the duration of the Paleolithic, human populations remained low, especially outside the equatorial region. The entire population of Europe between 16,000 and 11,000 BP likely averaged some 30,000 individuals, and between 40,000 and 16,000 BP, it

2033-722: The Arctic Circle . By the end of the Upper Paleolithic Age humans had crossed Beringia and expanded throughout the Americas continents. The term " Palaeolithic " was coined by archaeologist John Lubbock in 1865. It derives from Greek: παλαιός , palaios , "old"; and λίθος , lithos , "stone", meaning "old age of the stone" or "Old Stone Age ". The Paleolithic overlaps with the Pleistocene epoch of geologic time. Both ended 12,000 years ago although

2140-605: The Chalcolithic and Bronze Age . Between the 5th and 1st centuries BC, early organized societies produced anthropomorphic and zoomorphic carvings that include weapons and symbols. The most recent era of recorded rock art dates from the 17th to 20th centuries and includes religious, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic designs, inscriptions and dates. The most recent of these include representations of boats, trains, bridges, planes and representations of various scenes, including drawings completed by António Seixas and Alcino Tomé. In

2247-582: The Hadza people and the Aboriginal Australians suggest that the sexual division of labor in the Paleolithic was relatively flexible. Men may have participated in gathering plants, firewood and insects, and women may have procured small game animals for consumption and assisted men in driving herds of large game animals (such as woolly mammoths and deer) off cliffs. Additionally, recent research by anthropologist and archaeologist Steven Kuhn from

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2354-510: The Isthmus of Panama , bringing a nearly complete end to South America's distinctive marsupial fauna. The formation of the isthmus had major consequences on global temperatures, because warm equatorial ocean currents were cut off, and the cold Arctic and Antarctic waters lowered temperatures in the now-isolated Atlantic Ocean. Most of Central America formed during the Pliocene to connect

2461-646: The Mousterian and the Aterian industries. Lower Paleolithic humans used a variety of stone tools, including hand axes and choppers. Although they appear to have used hand axes often, there is disagreement about their use. Interpretations range from cutting and chopping tools, to digging implements, to flaking cores, to the use in traps, and as a purely ritual significance, perhaps in courting behavior . William H. Calvin has suggested that some hand axes could have served as "killer frisbees " meant to be thrown at

2568-510: The Old Stone Age (from Ancient Greek παλαιός ( palaiós )  'old' and λίθος ( líthos )  'stone'), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools , and which represents almost the entire period of human prehistoric technology . It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins , c.  3.3 million years ago, to

2675-533: The Oldowan , began around 2.6 million years ago. It produced tools such as choppers , burins , and stitching awls . It was completely replaced around 250,000 years ago by the more complex Acheulean industry, which was first conceived by Homo ergaster around 1.8–1.65 million years ago. The Acheulean implements completely vanish from the archaeological record around 100,000 years ago and were replaced by more complex Middle Paleolithic tool kits such as

2782-705: The Peasants' Revolt in the 1520s, during the Protestant Reformation in Germany . The original German name of the Black Company was Schwarzer Haufen . The term Schwarz (black) pointed out the ideological distance of the company from the large peasant army at that time, which called itself the Heller Haufen ( Hell meaning "light-colored"). The German word Haufen was

2889-513: The Pleistocene epoch, our ancestors relied on simple food processing techniques such as roasting . The Upper Palaeolithic saw the emergence of boiling, an advance in food processing technology which rendered plant foods more digestible, decreased their toxicity, and maximised their nutritional value. Thermally altered rock (heated stones) are easily identifiable in the archaeological record. Stone-boiling and pit-baking were common techniques which involved heating large pebbles then transferring

2996-721: The Ruwenzori Range in east and central Africa were larger. Glaciers existed in the mountains of Ethiopia and to the west in the Atlas Mountains . In the northern hemisphere, many glaciers fused into one. The Cordilleran Ice Sheet covered the North American northwest; the Laurentide covered the east. The Fenno-Scandian ice sheet covered northern Europe, including Great Britain; the Alpine ice sheet covered

3103-588: The 20th century, the construction of the Pocinho Dam and its associated reservoir likely resulted in the immersion of many rock cliff drawings. By the 1990s, prospectors revealed a group of important Paleolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic carvings in the lower part of the Côa Valley, likely in November 1991 by Nelson Rabanda (articles were not published on this work until November 1994). Later, António Martinho Baptista would determine that Iron Age carvings corresponded to works by Celtic-Iberian tribes, specifically

3210-726: The Alps. Scattered domes stretched across Siberia and the Arctic shelf. The northern seas were frozen. During the late Upper Paleolithic (Latest Pleistocene) c.  18,000  BP, the Beringia land bridge between Asia and North America was blocked by ice, which may have prevented early Paleo-Indians such as the Clovis culture from directly crossing Beringia to reach the Americas. According to Mark Lynas (through collected data),

3317-616: The Black Company were left unharmed during these actions. But in Schweinsberg , Swabia, another company, led by peasant leader Jaecklein Rohrbach , executed about 50 local knights after they had opened fire on two negotiators. Geyer disapproved of this slaughtering and moved his troops back to Franconia to continue the fight. But Rohrbach's action had sealed the fate of captured peasants and of Geyer's men. From that time on, Georg , Truchsess (" Steward ") of Waldburg , commander of

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3424-520: The Côa Museum begun. More excavations were done in Fariseu from 19 September to October 2005, under the direction of Thierry Aubry, who discovered several slabs of schist (10 x 20 centimetres) dating to the Paleolithic. The conference HERITAGE 2008 – World Heritage and Sustainable Development International Conference took place at Vila Nova de Foz Côa between 7–9 May 2008. The conference examined

3531-425: The Côa Museum was constructed here following a major design competition. The earliest drawings appearing in the Côa Valley date between 22 and 20 thousand years B.C., consisting of zoomorphic imagery of nature. Between 20 and 18 thousand B.C. ( Solutrean period), a secondary group of animal drawings included examples of horses. There was greater elaboration during 16–10 thousand years B.C. ( Magdalenian period), with

3638-524: The Côa Valley ( Portuguese : Parque Arqueológico do Vale do COa/PAVC) ), the Portuguese Institute of Archaeology ( Portuguese : Instituto Português de Arqueologia , as well as dependent agencies. The National Centre for Aquatic and Subaquatic Archaeology ( Portuguese : Centro Nacional de Arqueologia Náutica e Subaquática/CNANS ) opened in August 1996. The Prehistoric Rock-Art Sites in

3745-607: The Côa Valley were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998 (from an advisory board report on 25 June 1997). In 2003, a study analysed the viability of introducing the Przewalski horse in the area, a species related to those portrayed in the Paleolithic rock art. By May 2004, a public tender was commissioned by the Portuguese Order of Architects to design the Côa Museum, won by architects Tiago Pimentel and Camilo Rebelo. On 26 January 2007, construction of

3852-549: The EN222 road (Vila Nova de Foz Côa-Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo) via Castelo Melhor. It reaches parts of the municipalities of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo , Mêda , Pinhel and Vila Nova de Foz Côa . The lower portion of Côa River Valley runs south to north, at about 130 metres above sea level, spread over an area of 17 km (6.6 sq mi). The watercourse is flanked by rolling/undulating hills, surrounded by rare species of river brush, vineyards, olive and almond trees, with

3959-483: The Faia site occupies several vertical panels of granite. Two groups of authors were identified in this region, including 230 carvings from the Epipaleolithic and Bronze Ages . The more archaic period of Côa corresponds to 137 rocks with 1000 carvings and rare paintings, by artists who concentrated on zoomorphic representations: equine (horses), bovine ( aurochs ), caprines and deer (the latter primarily associated with

4066-571: The Lower Paleolithic ( c.  1.9  million years ago) or at the latest in the early Middle Paleolithic ( c.  250,000 years ago). Some scientists have hypothesized that hominins began cooking food to defrost frozen meat, which would help ensure their survival in cold regions. Archaeologists cite morphological shifts in cranial anatomy as evidence for emergence of cooking and food processing technologies. These morphological changes include decreases in molar and jaw size, thinner tooth enamel , and decrease in gut volume. During much of

4173-837: The Lower Paleolithic, human societies were possibly more hierarchical than their Middle and Upper Paleolithic descendants, and probably were not grouped into bands , though during the end of the Lower Paleolithic, the latest populations of the hominin Homo erectus may have begun living in small-scale (possibly egalitarian) bands similar to both Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies and modern hunter-gatherers. Middle Paleolithic societies, unlike Lower Paleolithic and early Neolithic ones, consisted of bands that ranged from 20–30 or 25–100 members and were usually nomadic. These bands were formed by several families. Bands sometimes joined together into larger "macrobands" for activities such as acquiring mates and celebrations or where resources were abundant. By

4280-563: The Mediterranean Sea, such as Coa de sa Multa ( c.  300,000  BP), has also indicated that both Middle and Upper Paleolithic humans used rafts to travel over large bodies of water (i.e. the Mediterranean Sea) for the purpose of colonizing other bodies of land. By around 200,000 BP, Middle Paleolithic stone tool manufacturing spawned a tool-making technique known as the prepared-core technique , which

4387-638: The Medobrigenais or Zoilos. Some of these cultures were identified for the first time with the Côa findings. In 1995, a plan to construct a dam was approved and works began in the Côa Valley. However, following the original discovery of rock art, an archaeologist had been investigating the Côa valley under the direction of the national energy company ( Energias de Portugal – EDP ) and the agency responsible for architectural heritage ( Instituto Português do Património Arquitectónico – IPPAR ). Both were made aware of

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4494-406: The Middle Paleolithic because trade between bands would have helped ensure their survival by allowing them to exchange resources and commodities such as raw materials during times of relative scarcity (i.e. famine, drought). Like in modern hunter-gatherer societies, individuals in Paleolithic societies may have been subordinate to the band as a whole. Both Neanderthals and modern humans took care of

4601-601: The Neanderthals hunted large game animals mostly by ambushing them and attacking them with handheld weapons such as thrusting spears rather than attacking them from a distance with projectiles. During the Upper Paleolithic , further inventions were made, such as the net ( c.  22,000 or c.  29,000  BP) bolas , the spear thrower ( c.  30,000  BP), the bow and arrow ( c.  25,000 or c.  30,000  BP) and

4708-417: The Neolithic. Upper Paleolithic cultures were probably able to time the migration of game animals such as wild horses and deer. This ability allowed humans to become efficient hunters and to exploit a wide variety of game animals. Recent research indicates that the Neanderthals timed their hunts and the migrations of game animals long before the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic. The social organization of

4815-693: The Paleolithic Age went through a set of glacial and interglacial periods in which the climate periodically fluctuated between warm and cool temperatures. By c.  50,000  – c.  40,000  BP, the first humans set foot in Australia . By c.  45,000  BP, humans lived at 61°N latitude in Europe . By c.  30,000  BP, Japan was reached, and by c.  27,000  BP humans were present in Siberia , above

4922-531: The Pleistocene started 2.6 million years ago, 700,000 years after the Paleolithic's start. This epoch experienced important geographic and climatic changes that affected human societies. During the preceding Pliocene , continents had continued to drift from possibly as far as 250  km (160  mi ) from their present locations to positions only 70 km (43 mi) from their current location. South America became linked to North America through

5029-533: The Pleistocene's overall climate could be characterized as a continuous El Niño with trade winds in the south Pacific weakening or heading east, warm air rising near Peru , warm water spreading from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific, and other El Niño markers. The Paleolithic is often held to finish at the end of the ice age (the end of the Pleistocene epoch), and Earth's climate became warmer. This may have caused or contributed to

5136-585: The Swabian League, showed little mercy to the Black Company and hunted them down ruthlessly throughout Swabia. Rohrbach himself was burned alive when he was captured in 1525. In the Battle of Ingolstadt, in May 1525, the Black Company found itself alone against the forces of the Swabian League after its allies had been destroyed. The Black Company fought its way back to Ingolstadt and occupied

5243-492: The University of Arizona is argued to support that this division of labor did not exist prior to the Upper Paleolithic and was invented relatively recently in human pre-history. Sexual division of labor may have been developed to allow humans to acquire food and other resources more efficiently. Possibly there was approximate parity between men and women during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, and that period may have been

5350-410: The adoption of agriculture because women in farming societies typically have more pregnancies and are expected to do more demanding work than women in hunter-gatherer societies. Like most modern hunter-gatherer societies, Paleolithic and Mesolithic groups probably followed a largely ambilineal approach. At the same time, depending on the society, the residence could be virilocal, uxorilocal, and sometimes

5457-414: The archaeological artifacts and rock paintings. In 1995 elections led to a change in government resulting in the cancellation of the dam project. Since 1995, a team of archaeologists have been studying and cataloging this prehistoric complex. The Archaeological Park of the Côa Valley ( Portuguese : Parque Arqueológico do Vale do Côa (PAVC) ) was created to receive visitors and research the findings, and

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5564-479: The beginning of the period. Climates during the Pliocene became cooler and drier, and seasonal, similar to modern climates. Ice sheets grew on Antarctica . The formation of an Arctic ice cap around 3 million years ago is signaled by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Ocean beds. Mid-latitude glaciation probably began before

5671-598: The biggest open air site of palaeolithic art in Europe, if not in the world". At the time, the number of known carvings was smaller but there was suspicion that many more had already been submerged by the completed Pocinho Dam. This was confirmed by Nelson Rabanda , who investigated the submerged Canada do Inferno site and found more carvings. Archaeologists discovered other sites in the areas of Penascosa, Ribeira de Piscos, Quinta da Barca, Vermelhosa, Vale de José Esteves, among others, and quickly published their discoveries and took

5778-564: The continents of North and South America, allowing fauna from these continents to leave their native habitats and colonize new areas. Africa's collision with Asia created the Mediterranean, cutting off the remnants of the Tethys Ocean . During the Pleistocene , the continents were essentially at their modern positions; the tectonic plates on which they sit have probably moved at most 100 km (62 mi) from each other since

5885-399: The continuation of the dam project. EDP was also helped by the direct dating controversy; Robert Bednarik and Alan Watchman, in addition to Fred Phillips and Ronald Dorn, used an unproven methodology to affirm that the carvings were not Palaeolithic. These events displeased archaeologists and the public. A broad-based movement against the dam developed. In 1995, general elections resulted in

5992-431: The crimes the peasants supposedly had committed. The actions of the Black Company has been memorialised in the song " Wir sind des Geyers schwarzer Haufen ", a World War I-era composition by Fritz Sotke with lyrics from Heinrich von Reder . The song has a strong anti-clerical and anti-noble theme, and it remains popular in modern day Germany, with contemporary bands offering different performances and reinterpretations of

6099-692: The damage done to the attacker and decreased the relative amount of territory attackers could gain. However, other sources claim that most Paleolithic groups may have been larger, more complex, sedentary and warlike than most contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, due to occupying more resource-abundant areas than most modern hunter-gatherers who have been pushed into more marginal habitats by agricultural societies. Anthropologists have typically assumed that in Paleolithic societies, women were responsible for gathering wild plants and firewood, and men were responsible for hunting and scavenging dead animals. However, analogies to existent hunter-gatherer societies such as

6206-457: The damage it would do to the findings. National controversy around the case forced IPPAR to petition UNESCO for a review of the site. In December 1994, Jean Clottes came to the region to investigate the discoveries. The UNESCO reports were not unanimous on whether the power plant should be cancelled; Clottes, the head of prehistoric department, noted that rising water may protect the engravings from vandalism, but also confirmed that Coa Valley "is

6313-555: The earliest Paleolithic ( Lower Paleolithic ) societies remains largely unknown to scientists, though Lower Paleolithic hominins such as Homo habilis and Homo erectus are likely to have had more complex social structures than chimpanzee societies. Late Oldowan/Early Acheulean humans such as Homo ergaster / Homo erectus may have been the first people to invent central campsites or home bases and incorporate them into their foraging and hunting strategies like contemporary hunter-gatherers, possibly as early as 1.7 million years ago; however,

6420-543: The earliest solid evidence for the existence of home bases or central campsites (hearths and shelters) among humans only dates back to 500,000 years ago. Similarly, scientists disagree whether Lower Paleolithic humans were largely monogamous or polygynous . In particular, the Provisional model suggests that bipedalism arose in pre-Paleolithic australopithecine societies as an adaptation to monogamous lifestyles; however, other researchers note that sexual dimorphism

6527-537: The elderly members of their societies during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Some sources claim that most Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies were possibly fundamentally egalitarian and may have rarely or never engaged in organized violence between groups (i.e. war). Some Upper Paleolithic societies in resource-rich environments (such as societies in Sungir , in what is now Russia) may have had more complex and hierarchical organization (such as tribes with

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6634-466: The end of the Pleistocene , c.  11,650 cal BP . The Paleolithic Age in Europe preceded the Mesolithic Age , although the date of the transition varies geographically by several thousand years. During the Paleolithic Age, hominins grouped together in small societies such as bands and subsisted by gathering plants, fishing, and hunting or scavenging wild animals. The Paleolithic Age

6741-480: The end of the Paleolithic era ( c.  10,000  BP), people began to settle down into permanent locations, and began to rely on agriculture for sustenance in many locations. Much evidence exists that humans took part in long-distance trade between bands for rare commodities (such as ochre , which was often used for religious purposes such as ritual ) and raw materials, as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic. Inter-band trade may have appeared during

6848-794: The end of the Paleolithic, specifically the Middle or Upper Paleolithic, people began to produce works of art such as cave paintings , rock art and jewellery and began to engage in religious behavior such as burials and rituals. At the beginning of the Paleolithic, hominins were found primarily in eastern Africa, east of the Great Rift Valley . Most known hominin fossils dating earlier than one million years before present are found in this area, particularly in Kenya , Tanzania , and Ethiopia . By c.  2,000,000  – c.  1,500,000  BP, groups of hominins began leaving Africa, settling southern Europe and Asia. The South Caucasus

6955-680: The end of the Pleistocene caused the mammoths' habitat to shrink, resulting in a drop in population. The small populations were then hunted out by Paleolithic humans. The global warming that occurred during the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene may have made it easier for humans to reach mammoth habitats that were previously frozen and inaccessible. Small populations of woolly mammoths survived on isolated Arctic islands, Saint Paul Island and Wrangel Island , until c.  3700  BP and c.  1700  BP respectively. The Wrangel Island population became extinct around

7062-430: The end of the epoch. The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas . The Pleistocene climate was characterized by repeated glacial cycles during which continental glaciers pushed to the 40th parallel in some places. Four major glacial events have been identified, as well as many minor intervening events. A major event

7169-632: The entire surface of the Earth. During interglacial times, drowned coastlines were common, mitigated by isostatic or other emergent motion of some regions. The effects of glaciation were global. Antarctica was ice-bound throughout the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene. The Andes were covered in the south by the Patagonian ice cap. There were glaciers in New Zealand and Tasmania . The decaying glaciers of Mount Kenya , Mount Kilimanjaro , and

7276-403: The extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna , although it is also possible that the late Pleistocene extinctions were (at least in part) caused by other factors such as disease and overhunting by humans. New research suggests that the extinction of the woolly mammoth may have been caused by the combined effect of climatic change and human hunting. Scientists suggest that climate change during

7383-400: The figurines as representations of goddesses , pornographic imagery, apotropaic amulets used for sympathetic magic, and even as self-portraits of women themselves. R. Dale Guthrie has studied not only the most artistic and publicized paintings, but also a variety of lower-quality art and figurines, and he identifies a wide range of skill and ages among the artists. He also points out that

7490-655: The final phase of the Magdalense period). There are also representations of fish, intermediary animals, along with a small group of geometric or abstract shapes (including lines and symbols in Penascosa and Canada do Inferno). In one of the rarer depictions, there is a solitary anthropomorphic figure with a phallus, dating to the Magdalenense period in the Ribeira de Piscos site. The artists' motives are unclear, and

7597-414: The first art appear in the archaeological record. The first evidence of human fishing is also noted, from artifacts in places such as Blombos cave in South Africa . Archaeologists classify artifacts of the last 50,000 years into many different categories, such as projectile points , engraving tools, sharp knife blades, and drilling and piercing tools. Humankind gradually evolved from early members of

7704-513: The first users of stone tools. Excavations in Gona, Ethiopia , have produced thousands of artifacts, and through radioisotopic dating and magnetostratigraphy the sites can be firmly dated to 2.6 million years ago. Evidence shows these early hominins intentionally selected raw stone with good flaking qualities and chose appropriately sized stones for their needs to produce sharp-edged tools for cutting. The earliest Paleolithic stone tool industry,

7811-421: The genus Homo —such as Homo habilis , who used simple stone tools—into anatomically modern humans as well as behaviourally modern humans by the Upper Paleolithic . During the end of the Paleolithic Age, specifically the Middle or Upper Paleolithic Age, humans began to produce the earliest works of art and to engage in religious or spiritual behavior such as burial and ritual . Conditions during

7918-606: The higher areas occupied by pasture and fields. At about the 17 kilometre mark, the relief is rocky with granite and schist outcroppings. The Côa Valley archaeological park comprises 23 sites with engravings or paintings, along the final 17 kilometres of the River Côa, with ten sites on the left bank and eight on the right bank. In addition, five sites are located along other tributaries of the Douro River, spread in three different nuclei: Faia, Quinta da Barca and Penacosa, along

8025-546: The hot stones into a perishable container to heat the water. This technology is typified in the Middle Palaeolithic example of the Abri Pataud hearths. The Lower Paleolithic Homo erectus possibly invented rafts ( c.  840,000  – c.  800,000  BP) to travel over large bodies of water, which may have allowed a group of Homo erectus to reach the island of Flores and evolve into

8132-852: The image appears isolated and over-drawn by other figures. At the Faia site, there are unique painted carvings, with ocre paint highlighting the nostrils and mouth of a figure. Other groups of carvings in Vale Cabrões and Faia, dating from the Epipaleolithic and Neolithic, include zoomorphic designs, also painted with ocre. There are also Iron Age sites along the mouth of the Côa in the valleys of smaller Douro river tributaries. They include anthropomorphic figures and horses, in addition to some dogs, deer and birds, accompanied by weapons (swords, lances and shields). These armed warriors could represent scenes from battles or hunting parties. Generally, these images are stratified, with new designs drawn over

8239-634: The invention of these devices brought fish into the human diets, which provided a hedge against starvation and a more abundant food supply. Thanks to their technology and their advanced social structures, Paleolithic groups such as the Neanderthals—who had a Middle Paleolithic level of technology—appear to have hunted large game just as well as Upper Paleolithic modern humans, and the Neanderthals in particular may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons. Nonetheless, Neanderthal use of projectile weapons in hunting occurred very rarely (or perhaps never) and

8346-434: The lack of control of fire: studies of cave settlements in Europe indicate no regular use of fire prior to c.  400,000  – c.  300,000  BP. East Asian fossils from this period are typically placed in the genus Homo erectus . Very little fossil evidence is available at known Lower Paleolithic sites in Europe, but it is believed that hominins who inhabited these sites were likewise Homo erectus . There

8453-581: The late Middle Paleolithic around 100,000 BP or perhaps even earlier. Archaeological evidence from the Dordogne region of France demonstrates that members of the European early Upper Paleolithic culture known as the Aurignacian used calendars ( c.  30,000  BP). This was a lunar calendar that was used to document the phases of the moon. Genuine solar calendars did not appear until

8560-469: The main themes in the paintings and other artifacts (powerful beasts, risky hunting scenes and the over-sexual representation of women) are to be expected in the fantasies of adolescent males during the Upper Paleolithic. Black Company The Black Company or the Black Troops ( Schwarze Haufen ) was a unit of Franconian farmers and knights that fought on the side of the peasants during

8667-473: The matter to national media. A citizens group, Movimento para a Salvação das Gravuras do Côa, arose with a slogan, "As gravuras não sabem nadar" ( The carvings don't know how to swim ), an allusion to a major hit song of the time, Black Company's "Nadar". A second UNESCO team, led by Mounir Bouchenaki , director of the World Heritage branch, was sent to conclude the case. His team determined that

8774-415: The most gender-equal time in human history. Archaeological evidence from art and funerary rituals indicates that a number of individual women enjoyed seemingly high status in their communities, and it is likely that both sexes participated in decision making. The earliest known Paleolithic shaman ( c.  30,000  BP) was female. Jared Diamond suggests that the status of women declined with

8881-887: The most common ones, as well as bison, reindeer and the woolly rhinoceros , which were not yet extinct at the time. The engravings date to the Gravettian culture of the Upper Palaeolithic (circa 20,000 years ago). There are also more recent, anthropomorphic representations, dating to the Magdalenian age (c. 9,000 years ago). There are a total of 91 panels, spanning some 1 kilometers of rock. Paleolithic Fertile Crescent : Europe : Africa : Siberia : The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( c.  3.3 million  – c.  11,700 BC ) ( / ˌ p eɪ l i oʊ ˈ l ɪ θ ɪ k , ˌ p æ l i -/ PAY -lee-oh- LITH -ik, PAL -ee- ), also called

8988-781: The mouth of the Ribeira de Piscos, in an area of 20,000 hectares. Of the 23 prehistoric Rock-Art sites, 14 are classified: Nine sites are in ongoing classification process: The prehistoric art is either carved, incised or picked, combining various techniques, but rarely painted, utilizing the vertical schist slabs as canvass. These schist rocks, along the northern part of the Côa River, are large drawings in contrast with smaller depictions in areas. Their size varies between 15 cm (5.91 in) and 180 cm (70.87 in), but most are 40–50 centimetres in extension, often forming panels and compositions. The style often features bold lines, but many are touched with fine, thin lines. The art in

9095-521: The name the peasants gave to their armed companies. It was never used again for an army, possibly because the word Haufen means "heap" in German and was used to refer to loosely organised armed rabbles. The Black Company was formed in 1525 in Rothenburg , out of local, home guard farmers - maybe 600 men - and a company of mercenary knights . The leader of the Black Company, at least nominally,

9202-620: The oldest example of ceramic art, the Venus of Dolní Věstonice ( c.  29,000  – c.  25,000  BP). Kilu Cave at Buku island , Solomon Islands , demonstrates navigation of some 60 km of open ocean at 30,000 BCcal. Early dogs were domesticated sometime between 30,000 and 14,000 BP, presumably to aid in hunting. However, the earliest instances of successful domestication of dogs may be much more ancient than this. Evidence from canine DNA collected by Robert K. Wayne suggests that dogs may have been first domesticated in

9309-471: The paintings of half-human, half-animal figures and the remoteness of the caves are reminiscent of modern hunter-gatherer shamanistic practices. Symbol-like images are more common in Paleolithic cave paintings than are depictions of animals or humans, and unique symbolic patterns might have been trademarks that represent different Upper Paleolithic ethnic groups. Venus figurines have evoked similar controversy. Archaeologists and anthropologists have described

9416-695: The pigment ochre from late Lower Paleolithic Acheulean archaeological sites suggests that Acheulean societies, like later Upper Paleolithic societies, collected and used ochre to create rock art. Nevertheless, it is also possible that the ochre traces found at Lower Paleolithic sites is naturally occurring. Upper Paleolithic humans produced works of art such as cave paintings, Venus figurines, animal carvings, and rock paintings. Upper Paleolithic art can be divided into two broad categories: figurative art such as cave paintings that clearly depicts animals (or more rarely humans); and nonfigurative, which consists of shapes and symbols. Cave paintings have been interpreted in

9523-486: The planet. Multiple hominid groups coexisted for some time in certain locations. Homo neanderthalensis were still found in parts of Eurasia c.  40,000  BP years, and engaged in an unknown degree of interbreeding with Homo sapiens sapiens . DNA studies also suggest an unknown degree of interbreeding between Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo sapiens denisova . Hominin fossils not belonging either to Homo neanderthalensis or to Homo sapiens species, found in

9630-647: The possible wood hut at Terra Amata . Fire was used by the Lower Paleolithic hominins Homo erectus and Homo ergaster as early as 300,000 to 1.5 million years ago and possibly even earlier by the early Lower Paleolithic (Oldowan) hominin Homo habilis or by robust Australopithecines such as Paranthropus . However, the use of fire only became common in the societies of the following Middle Stone Age and Middle Paleolithic . Use of fire reduced mortality rates and provided protection against predators. Early hominins may have begun to cook their food as early as

9737-887: The pre-existing carvings. The last period of art dates from the modern era, and includes religious motifs, both anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, in addition to inscriptions, dates, boats, trains, bridges, planes and landscapes. The importance of this prehistoric art site is due to its rareness and extension. Although there are numerous prehistoric art sites in caves , open-air sites are rarer (including Mazouco ( Portugal ), Campôme ( France ) and Siega Verde ( Spain ), and few spread over 17 kilometres. Archaeologists acknowledge sites like this as open-air sanctuaries of prehistoric humankind , with particular relevance to West European Hunter-Gatherer (WHG) history. Siega Verde ( Spanish pronunciation: [ˈsjeɣa ˈβeɾðe] ; 40°41′51″N 6°39′40″W  /  40.69750°N 6.66111°W  / 40.69750; -6.66111 )

9844-405: The prehistoric art along the Côa, earlier than the general public and scientific community. Archaeologist Nélson Rabanda, studying the site under an agreement between EDP and IPPAR, reported the case to the press and other organizations interested in prehistoric art and heritage, such as UNESCO . There was a move by EDP to disprove the age of the carvings in order to continue the dam project, despite

9951-656: The relationships between heritage, human development, natural environment and building preservation, and promoted significant discussion, organized by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture. In August 2010, the World Heritage Committee extended the UNESCO world heritage extension to neighbouring site of Siega Verde in Spain . The Siega Verde site, with comparable carvings/etchings in 94 panels along

10058-623: The ruins of the castle, the main buildings of which the members of the Company had themselves burned down some months before. The troops of the League encircled the castle and started their attack. The castle's occupants fought off two assaults but during the third attack, and after the League's heavy artillery breached the massive walls, they were killed. Geyer himself wasn't there during the last battle. He waited for an escort in Rothenburg, but

10165-408: The same time the island was settled by prehistoric humans. There is no evidence of prehistoric human presence on Saint Paul island (though early human settlements dating as far back as 6500 BP were found on the nearby Aleutian Islands ). Nearly all of our knowledge of Paleolithic people and way of life comes from archaeology and ethnographic comparisons to modern hunter-gatherer cultures such as

10272-423: The small hominin Homo floresiensis . However, this hypothesis is disputed within the anthropological community. The possible use of rafts during the Lower Paleolithic may indicate that Lower Paleolithic hominins such as Homo erectus were more advanced than previously believed, and may have even spoken an early form of modern language. Supplementary evidence from Neanderthal and modern human sites located around

10379-481: The spouses could live with neither the husband's relatives nor the wife's relatives at all. Taken together, most likely, the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers can be characterized as multilocal. Early examples of artistic expression, such as the Venus of Tan-Tan and the patterns found on elephant bones from Bilzingsleben in Thuringia , may have been produced by Acheulean tool users such as Homo erectus prior to

10486-754: The start of the Middle Paleolithic period. However, the earliest undisputed evidence of art during the Paleolithic comes from Middle Paleolithic / Middle Stone Age sites such as Blombos Cave –South Africa–in the form of bracelets , beads , rock art , and ochre used as body paint and perhaps in ritual. Undisputed evidence of art only becomes common in the Upper Paleolithic. Lower Paleolithic Acheulean tool users, according to Robert G. Bednarik, began to engage in symbolic behavior such as art around 850,000 BP. They decorated themselves with beads and collected exotic stones for aesthetic, rather than utilitarian qualities. According to him, traces of

10593-422: The tools themselves that allowed access to a wider variety and amount of food sources. For example, microliths or small stone tools or points were invented around 70,000–65,000 BP and were essential to the invention of bows and atlatls (spear throwers) in the following Upper Paleolithic. Harpoons were invented and used for the first time during the late Middle Paleolithic ( c.  90,000  BP);

10700-416: The visit by the UNESCO delegation, IPPAR created an international scientific commission to accompany the study of the art in the Côa valley. This was considered controversial. It included António Beltrán, E. Anati and Jean Clottes, and met in May 1994. EDP continued to promote other methods of "saving" the prehistoric art (such as creating moulds or carving the panels from the cliff faces), while still promoting

10807-409: Was banned from the city before it arrived. Geyer traveled North and was robbed and killed by two servants of his brother-in-law Wilhelm von Grumbach in the night of June 9–10 in the forest near Rimpar . The Black Company has remained very popular to the present day, although Swabian rulers did everything to nullify its fame in the years after the uprising, through publishing a number of "facts" about

10914-523: Was even lower at 4,000–6,000 individuals. However, remains of thousands of butchered animals and tools made by Palaeolithic humans were found in Lapa do Picareiro , a cave in Portugal , dating back between 41,000 and 38,000 years ago. Some researchers have noted that science, limited in that age to some early ideas about astronomy (or cosmology ), had limited impact on Paleolithic technology. Making fire

11021-429: Was more elaborate than previous Acheulean techniques. This technique increased efficiency by allowing the creation of more controlled and consistent flakes . It allowed Middle Paleolithic humans to create stone-tipped spears , which were the earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts. In addition to improving tool-making methods, the Middle Paleolithic also saw an improvement of

11128-415: Was nobleman Florian Geyer . Geyer managed to shape the Black Company into something like a company of real soldiers, instead of just an armed mob. Some of the knights were probably his vassals . After the Company took over the area around Rothenburg, it proceeded to Swabia to destroy fortified monasteries and castles and prevent their becoming strongholds of the Swabian League . Those who didn't attack

11235-402: Was occupied by c.  1,700,000  BP, and northern China was reached by c.  1,660,000  BP. By the end of the Lower Paleolithic, members of the hominin family were living in what is now China, western Indonesia, and, in Europe, around the Mediterranean and as far north as England, France, southern Germany, and Bulgaria. Their further northward expansion may have been limited by

11342-459: Was there a formal division of labor during the Paleolithic. Each member of the group was skilled at all tasks essential to survival, regardless of individual abilities. Theories to explain the apparent egalitarianism have arisen, notably the Marxist concept of primitive communism . Christopher Boehm (1999) has hypothesized that egalitarianism may have evolved in Paleolithic societies because of

11449-433: Was widespread knowledge, and it was possible without an understanding of chemical processes, These types of practical skills are sometimes called crafts. Religion, superstitution or appeals to the supernatural may have played a part in the cultural explanations of phenomena like combustion . Paleolithic humans made tools of stone, bone (primarily of deer), and wood. The early paleolithic hominins, Australopithecus , were

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