Paleolithic
40-781: Epipalaeolithic Mesolithic Neolithic The Later Stone Age ( LSA ) is a period in African prehistory that follows the Middle Stone Age . The Later Stone Age is associated with the advent of modern human behavior in Africa, although definitions of this concept and means of studying it are up for debate. The transition from the Middle Stone Age to the Late Stone Age is thought to have occurred first in eastern Africa between 50,000 and 39,000 years ago. It
80-509: A great impact of the paleolithic populations at the end of the Ice Age, creating post-glacial cultures such as the Azilian , Sauveterrian , Tardenoisian , and Maglemosian . In the past, French archaeologists had a general tendency to prefer the term "Epipaleolithic" to "Mesolithic", even for Western Europe. Where "Epipaleolithic" is still used for Europe, it is generally for areas close to
120-603: A natural evolutionary development – a progressive transformation from Paleolithic to Neolithic. In reality, the final phase of the Capsian , the Tardenoisian , the Azilian and the northern Maglemose industries are the posthumous descendants of the Palaeolithic ;... This early history of the term introduced the ambiguity and degree of confusion which has continued to surround its use, at least as relates to
160-489: A specific purpose. The early modern humans who expanded into Europe, commonly referred to as the Cro-Magnons , left many sophisticated stone tools, carved and engraved pieces on bone, ivory and antler , cave paintings and Venus figurines . The Neanderthals continued to use Mousterian stone tool technology and possibly Châtelperronian technology. These tools disappeared from the archeological record at around
200-528: A way to convey seasonal behavioural information about hunted animals. Lines (|) and dots (•) were apparently used interchangeably to denote lunar months, while the (Y) sign apparently signified "To give birth". These characters were seemingly combined to convey the breeding period of hunted animals. The climate of the period in Europe saw dramatic changes, and included the Last Glacial Maximum ,
240-521: Is also found from a 125,000 years old artefacts in Buya , Eritrea and in other places such as Blombos cave in South Africa . More complex social groupings emerged, supported by more varied and reliable food sources and specialized tool types. This probably contributed to increasing group identification or ethnicity . The peopling of Australia most likely took place before c. 60 ka . Europe
280-405: Is also thought that Later Stone Age peoples and/or their technologies spread out of Africa over the next several thousand years. The terms "Early Stone Age", "Middle Stone Age" and "Later Stone Age" in the context of African archaeology are not to be confused with the terms Lower Paleolithic , Middle Paleolithic , and Upper Paleolithic . They were introduced in the 1920s, as it became clear that
320-688: Is much more commonly used. Mesolithic very rarely includes the Levant or the Near East ; in Europe , Epipalaeolithic is used, though not very often, to refer to the early Mesolithic. The Epipalaeolithic has been defined as the "final Upper Palaeolithic industries occurring at the end of the final glaciation which appear to merge technologically into the Mesolithic ". The period is generally dated from c. 20,000 BP to 10,000 BP in
360-840: The Balkans , parts of the Iberian Peninsula and areas around the Black Sea . This period saw cultures such as the Solutrean in France and Spain. Human life may have continued on top of the ice sheet, but we know next to nothing about it, and very little about the human life that preceded the European glaciers. In the early part of the period, up to about 30 kya, the Mousterian Pluvial made northern Africa, including
400-574: The Mediterranean , as with the Azilian industry. "Epipalaeolithic" stresses the continuity with the Upper Paleolithic. Alfonso Moure says in this respect: In the language of Prehistorical Archaeology, the most extended trend is to use the term "Epipaleolithic" for the industrial complexes of the post-glacial hunter-gatherer groups. Inversely, those that are in transitional ways towards artificial production of food are inscribed in
440-399: The Middle Stone Age and begins about 50,000 years ago. The LSA is characterized by a wider variety in stone artifacts than in the previous MSA period. These artifacts vary with time and location, unlike Middle Stone Age technology which appeared to have been relatively unchanged for several hundreds of thousands of years. LSA technology is also characterized by the use of bone tools. The LSA
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#1732765141075480-659: The Neolithic Revolution and agriculture . Anatomically modern humans (i.e. Homo sapiens ) are believed to have emerged in Africa around 300,000 years ago. It has been argued by some that their ways of life changed relatively little from that of archaic humans of the Middle Paleolithic , until about 50,000 years ago, when there was a marked increase in the diversity of artefacts found associated with modern human remains. This period coincides with
520-833: The Sahara , well-watered and with lower temperatures than today; after the end of the Pluvial the Sahara became arid. The Last Glacial Maximum was followed by the Allerød oscillation , a warm and moist global interstadial that occurred around 13.5 to 13.8 kya. Then there was a very rapid onset, perhaps within as little as a decade, of the cold and dry Younger Dryas climate period, giving sub-arctic conditions to much of northern Europe. The Preboreal rise in temperatures also began sharply around 10.3 kya, and by its end around 9.0 kya had brought temperatures nearly to present day levels, although
560-569: The Stone Age . Mesolithic also falls between these two periods, and the two are sometimes confused or used as synonyms. More often, they are distinct, referring to approximately the same period of time in different geographic areas. Epipaleolithic always includes this period in the Levant and, often, the rest of the Near East . It sometimes includes parts of Southeast Europe , where Mesolithic
600-439: The fish hook , the oil lamp , rope , and the eyed needle . Fishing of pelagic fish species and navigating the open ocean is evidenced by sites from Timor and Buka ( Solomon Islands ). The changes in human behavior have been attributed to changes in climate, encompassing a number of global temperature drops. These led to a worsening of the already bitter cold of the last glacial period (popularly but incorrectly called
640-623: The "Mesolithic". In Europe, the Epipalaeolithic may be regarded as a period preceding the Early Mesolithic, or as locally constituting at least a part of it. Other authors treat the Epipalaeolithic as part of the Late Palaeolithic; the culture in southern Portugal between about 10,500 to 8,500 years ago is "variously labelled as 'Terminal Magdalenian' and 'Epipalaeolithic ' ". The different usages often reflect
680-726: The Americas by about 15 ka. In Western Eurasia, the Paleolithic eases into the so-called Epipaleolithic or Mesolithic from the end of the LGM, beginning 15 ka. The Holocene glacial retreat begins 11.7 ka ( 10th millennium BC ), falling well into the Old World Epipaleolithic, and marking the beginning of the earliest forms of farming in the Fertile Crescent . Both Homo erectus and Neanderthals used
720-656: The Epipaleolithic, defining it as follows: With Epipaleolithic I mean the period during the early days that followed the age of the reindeer, the one that retained Paleolithic customs. This period has two stages in Scandinavia, that of Maglemose and that of Kunda. ( Par époque épipaléolithique j'entends la période qui, pendant les premiers temps qui ont suivi l'âge du Renne, conserve les coutumes paléolithiques. Cette période présente deux étapes en Scandinavie, celle de Maglemose et de Kunda. ) Stjerna made no mention of
760-581: The LSA " human revolution " is no longer favored by many archaeologists working in Africa due to the increasing evidence for development of modern human behavior earlier than 40,000-50,000 years ago. Epipalaeolithic In archaeology, the Epipalaeolithic or Epipaleolithic (sometimes Epi-paleolithic etc.) is a period occurring between the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic during
800-557: The Later Stone Age often fall into Modes 4 and 5. They have been further broken into four stages within the LSA. The end of the Later Stone Age took place when groups adopted technologies such as metallurgy to replace the use of stone tools. This process happened at different rates across the continent, and it is worth noting that the term "LSA" is typically used by archaeologists today to refer primarily to stone tool-using hunter/gatherer populations in southern Africa. The model of
840-855: The Levant, but later in Europe. If used as a synonym or equivalent for Mesolithic in Europe, it might end at about c. 5,000 BP or even later. In the Levant, the period may be subdivided into Early, Middle and Late Epipaleolithic, the last also being the Natufian . The preceding final Upper Paleolithic period is the Kebaran or "Upper Paleolithic Stage VI". Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherers , generally nomadic , made relatively advanced tools from small flint or obsidian blades, known as microliths , that were hafted in wooden implements. There are settlements with "flimsy structures", probably not permanently occupied except at some rich sites, but used and returned to seasonally. In describing
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#1732765141075880-644: The Mesolithic, and it is unclear if he intended his terms to replace that. His new terms were soon adopted by the German Hugo Obermaier , who in 1916 used them in El Hombre fósil (translated into English in 1924) as part of an attack on the concept of the Mesolithic, which he insisted was a period of "transition" and an "interim" rather than "transformation": But in my opinion this term is not justified, as it would be if these phases presented
920-459: The Middle Stone Age and the Later Stone Age. The larger prepared platform flake-based stone tool industries of the Middle Stone Age, such as Levallois were increasingly replaced with industries that focused on producing blades and bladelets on cores with simple platforms. African stone tool technologies are divided into modes as proposed by Grahame Clark in 1969 and outlined by Lawrence Barham and Peter Mitchell as follows: The lithic technologies of
960-522: The archaeology of Europe. Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic ) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age . Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene ), according to some theories coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity in early modern humans , until the advent of
1000-693: The climate was wetter. This period saw the Upper Paleolithic give way to the start of the following Mesolithic cultural period. As the glaciers receded sea levels rose; the English Channel , Irish Sea and North Sea were land at this time, and the Black Sea a fresh-water lake. In particular the Atlantic coastline was initially far out to sea in modern terms in most areas, though the Mediterranean coastline has retreated far less, except in
1040-457: The coldest phase of the last glacial period , which lasted from about 26.5 to 19 kya, being coldest at the end, before relatively rapid warming (all dates vary somewhat for different areas, and in different studies). During the Maximum, most of Northern Europe was covered by an ice-sheet , forcing human populations into the areas known as Last Glacial Maximum refugia , including modern Italy and
1080-699: The coming of 'true' Mesolithic technologies a few centuries later". The concept of the "Epipalaeolithic" arrived several decades after the main components of the three-age system , the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. It was first proposed in 1910 by the Swedish archaeologist, Knut Stjerna , his initial example being a culture or sub-culture in Scandinavian archaeology, that would not be often called Epipalaeolithic today. This left stone-lined pit graves containing implements of bone, such as harpoon and javelin heads. Stjerna observed that they "persisted during
1120-552: The degree of innovation and "economic intensification in the direction of domestication, sedentism or environmental modification" seen in the culture. If the Palaeolithic way of life continues with only adaptation to reflect changes in the types of wild food available, the culture may be called Epipalaeolithic. One writer, talking of Azilian microliths in Vasco-Cantabria talks of "some exceptions that seem to herald
1160-425: The discovery of ostrich eggshell beads and bone harpoons in contexts which predate the LSA by tens of thousands of years. The Later Stone Age was also long distinguished from the earlier Middle Stone Age as the time in which modern human behavior developed in Africa. This definition has become more tenuous as evidence for such modern human behaviors is found in sites which predate the LSA significantly. The LSA follows
1200-779: The existing chronological system of Upper, Middle, and Lower Paleolithic was not a suitable correlate to the prehistoric past in Africa. Some scholars, however, continue to view these two chronologies as parallel, arguing that they both represent the development of behavioral modernity . Originally, the Later Stone Age was defined as several stone industries and/or cultures which included other evidence of human activity, such as ostrich eggshell beads and worked bone implements, and lacked Middle Stone Age stone tools other than those recycled and reworked. LSA peoples were directly linked with biologically and behaviorally modern populations of hunter/gatherers, some being directly identified as San "Bushmen." This definition has changed since its creation with
1240-513: The last ice age ). Such changes may have reduced the supply of usable timber and forced people to look at other materials. In addition, flint becomes brittle at low temperatures and may not have functioned as a tool. Some notational signs, used next to images of animals, may have appeared as early as the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe circa 35,000 BCE, and may be the earliest proto-writing : several symbols were used in combination as
Late Stone Age - Misplaced Pages Continue
1280-496: The most common date assigned to expansion of modern humans from Africa throughout Asia and Eurasia, which contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthals . The Upper Paleolithic has the earliest known evidence of organized settlements , in the form of campsites, some with storage pits. Artistic work blossomed, with cave painting, petroglyphs , carvings and engravings on bone or ivory. The first evidence of human fishing
1320-595: The north of the Adriatic and the Aegean . The rise in sea levels continued until at least 7.5 kya ( 5500 BC ), so evidence of human activity along Europe's coasts in the Upper Paleolithic is mostly lost, though some traces have been recovered by fishing boats and marine archaeology , especially from Doggerland , the lost area beneath the North Sea. The first direct evidence for Neanderthals hunting cave lions . This
1360-523: The period before the start of the Neolithic, "Epipaleolithic" is typically used for cultures in regions that were far from the glaciers of the Ice Age , so that the retreat of the glaciers made a less dramatic change to conditions. This was the case in the Levant . Conversely, the term "Mesolithic" is most likely to be used for Western Europe where climatic change and the extinction of the megafauna had
1400-652: The recent Paleolithic period and also during the Protoneolithic". Here he had used a new term, "Protoneolithic", which was according to him to be applied to the Danish kitchen-middens . Stjerna also said that the eastern culture "is attached to the Paleolithic civilization" ( "se trouve rattachée à la civilisation paléolithique" ). However, it was not intermediary and of its intermediates he said "we cannot discuss them here" ( "nous ne pouvons pas examiner ici "). This "attached" and non-transitional culture he chose to call
1440-709: The same crude stone tools. Archaeologist Richard G. Klein , who has worked extensively on ancient stone tools, describes the stone tool kit of archaic hominids as impossible to categorize. He argues that almost everywhere, whether Asia , Africa or Europe , before 50,000 years ago all the stone tools are much alike and unsophisticated. Firstly among the artefacts of Africa, archeologists found they could differentiate and classify those of less than 50,000 years into many different categories, such as projectile points, engraving tools, knife blades, and drilling and piercing tools. These new stone-tool types have been described as being distinctly differentiated from each other; each tool had
1480-421: The same time the Neanderthals themselves disappeared from the fossil record, about 40,000 cal BP. Settlements were often located in narrow valley bottoms, possibly associated with hunting of passing herds of animals. Some of them may have been occupied year round, though more commonly they appear to have been used seasonally; people moved between the sites to exploit different food sources at different times of
1520-486: The year. Hunting was important, and caribou/wild reindeer "may well be the species of single greatest importance in the entire anthropological literature on hunting". Technological advances included significant developments in flint tool manufacturing, with industries based on fine blades rather than simpler and shorter flakes . Burins and racloirs were used to work bone, antler and hides . Advanced darts and harpoons also appear in this period, along with
1560-546: Was associated with modern human behavior , but this view was modified after discoveries in MSA sites such as Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point . LSA sites also greatly outnumber MSA sites in Africa, a trend that could indicate an increase in population numbers. The greater number of LSA sites could also result from bias towards better preservation of younger sites which have had fewer chances to be destroyed. Differences in stone tool technologies are often used to distinguish between
1600-487: Was peopled after c. 45 ka. Anatomically modern humans are known to have expanded northward into Siberia as far as the 58th parallel by about 45 ka ( Ust'-Ishim man ). The Upper Paleolithic is divided by the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), from about 25 to 15 ka. The peopling of the Americas occurred during this time, with East and Central Asia populations reaching the Bering land bridge after about 35 ka, and expanding into
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