Upper Paleolithic

Short description: Subdivision of the Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age

Upper Paleolithic

Löwenmensch, a prehistoric ivory sculpture discovered in Hohlenstein-Stadel, c. 40,000–35,000 years old

Period| Stone Age
Dates| 50,000 to 12,000 BP
Preceded by| Middle Paleolithic
Followed by| Mesolithic

Template:Human history and prehistory

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Expansion of early modern humans from Africa

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 humans. It is followed by the Mesolithic.

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,[1] 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 the most common date assigned to expansion of modern humans from Africa throughout Asia and Eurasia, which may have 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 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.[2]

The peopling of Australia most likely took place before c. 60 ka. Europe 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 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.

## Contents

* 1 Lifestyle and technology
* 1.1 Notational signs
* 2 Changes in climate and geography
* 3 Timeline
* 3.1 50,000–40,000 BP
* 3.1.1 50,000 BP
* 3.1.2 48,000 BP
* 3.1.3 45,000–43,000 BP
* 3.2 43,000–41,000 BP
* 3.3 40,000–30,000 BP
* 3.3.1 40,000–35,000 BP
* 3.3.2 35,000-30,000 BP
* 3.3.3 30,000 BP
* 3.4 30,000–20,000 BP
* 3.4.1 29,000–25,000 BP
* 3.4.2 24,000 BP
* 3.4.3 23,000 BP
* 3.4.4 22,000 BP
* 3.4.5 21,000 BP
* 3.5 20,000–10,000 BP
* 3.5.1 18,000 BP
* 3.5.2 17,000 BP
* 3.5.3 15,000 BP
* 3.5.4 12,000 BP
* 3.5.5 11,000 BP
* 3.5.6 10,000 BP
* 4 Cultures
* 5 Examples
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links
* 9 See also
* 10 References
* 11 External links

## Lifestyle and technology

See also: Biology:Hunter-gatherer, Aurignacian, and Behavioral modernity

Both Homo erectus and Neanderthals used 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.

Flint Knives, Ahmarian Culture, Nahal Boqer, Israel, 47,000–40,000 BP. Israel Museum.

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 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.[3][4][5]

The Neanderthals continued to use Mousterian stone tool technology and possibly Châtelperronian technology. These tools disappeared from the archeological record at around the same time the Neanderthals themselves disappeared from the fossil record, about 40,000 cal BP.[6]

Stone core for making fine blades, Boqer Tachtit, Negev, Israel, c. 40,000 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 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".[7]

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 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).[8]

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 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.

### Notational signs

Art of Lascaux, with painted animal, and four dots, a possible notation for Lunar months[9]

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 a way to convey seasonal behavioural information about hunted animals.[9] 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.[9]

## Changes in climate and geography

The Upper Paleolithic covered the second half of the Last glacial period from 50,000 to 10,000 before present, until the warming of the Holocene. Ice core data from Antarctica and Greenland.

The climate of the period in Europe saw dramatic changes, and included the Last Glacial Maximum, 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 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 the Sahara, well-watered and with lower temperatures than today; after the end of the Pluvial the Sahara became arid.

European Last Glacial Maximum refuges, 20,000 BP:

Solutrean and Proto Solutrean Cultures

Epigravettian Culture

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. This period saw the Upper Paleolithic give way to the start of the following Mesolithic cultural period.

## Timeline

### 50,000-40,000 BP

Known archaeological remains in Europe and Africa of anatomically modern humans: directly dated, calibrated carbon dates as of 2013[10]: e72931 Layer sequence at Ksar Akil in the Levantine corridor, and discovery of two fossils of Homo sapiens, dated to 40,800 to 39,200 years BP for "Egbert",[10]: e72931 and 42,400–41,700 BP for "Ethelruda"[10]: e72931

#### 50,000 BP

* Numerous Aboriginal stone tools were found in gravel sediments in Castlereagh, Sydney, Australia. At first when these results were new they were controversial; more recently dating of the same strata has revised and corroborated these dates.[11][12]
* Start of the Mousterian Pluvial in North Africa.
* Occupants of the Fa-Hien Lena cave, Sri Lanka had developed bow and arrow technology 48,000 BP (though the earliest known bow and arrow technology dates to about 65,000 BP from Sibudu Cave, South Africa[13][14][15][16]).

#### 48,000 BP

The first direct evidence for Neanderthals hunting cave lions. This is based on a cave lion skeleton found in Seigsdorf, Germany which has hunting lesions.[17]

#### 45,000–43,000 BP

* Earliest evidence of modern humans found in Europe, in Southern Italy.[18] These are indirectly dated.[10]: 6
* Earliest mathematical artifact, the notched Lebombo bone, a possible tally stick or lunar calendar, dated to 44,000–43,000 BP in Eswatini (Swaziland), southern Africa.[19]
* Oldest-known mining in archaeological record, the Ngwenya Mine in Swaziland, at about 43,000 years ago, where humans mined hematite to make the red pigment ochre.[20][21]
* Earliest directly dated figurative cave art of mankind at Leang Bulu' Sipong in Sulawesi, Indonesia.[22]

### 43,000–41,000 BP

* Microlithic artefacts have been excavated from Kana, West Bengal, India.
* Ornaments and skeletal remains of modern humans, at Ksar Akil in Lebanon. These are directly dated.[10]: 6
* Denisova hominins live in the Altai Mountains (Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan).

### 40,000-30,000 BP

#### 40,000–35,000 BP

Bone flute, Aurignacian, c. 35,000 BC

* First human inhabitants in Perth, Australia, as evidenced by archaeological findings on the Upper Swan River.[23]
* During this time period, Melbourne, Australia was occupied by hunter-gatherers.[24][25]
* Early cultural centre in the Swabian Alps, oldest depiction of a human being (Venus of Hohle Fels), beginning of the Aurignacian.
* Löwenmensch figure created in Hohlenstein-Stadel, one of the earliest examples of figurative art. It is now in Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany.
* The first flutes appear in Germany.
* Notational signs in caves, apparently conveying calendaric meaning about the behaviour of animal species drawn next to them, are the first[broken anchor] known (proto-)writing in history (see above).[26][9]
* Most of the giant vertebrates and megafauna in Australia became extinct.
* Fishing of pelagic fish species at Jerimalai shelter, Timor.Venus of Dolní Věstonice, the oldest surviving ceramic figurine in the world (29,000 – 25,000 BC)
* Examples of cave art in Spain are dated from around 40,000 BP, making them the oldest examples of cave art yet discovered in Europe (see: Caves of Nerja). Scientists theorise that the paintings may have been made by Neanderthals, rather than by modern humans.[27][28]
* Wall painting with horses, rhinoceroses and aurochs is made at Chauvet Cave, Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, Ardéche gorge, France. Discovered in December 1994.
* Evidence for continued Neanderthal presence in the Iberian Peninsula at 37,000 years ago was published in 2017.[29]
* Archaeological studies support human presence in the Chek Lap Kok area (now Hong Kong International Airport) from 35,000 to 39,000 years ago.[30]
* Zar, Yataghyeri, Damjili and Taghlar caves in Azerbaijan.
* First evidence of people inhabiting Japan.[31]

#### 35,000-30,000 BP

* Kostenki XVII, a layer of the Kostenki (Kostyonki) site, on the middle Don River, was occupied by the early upper paleolithic Spitsyn culture.
* The Red Lady of Paviland (really a young man) lived around 33,600 years ago.[32]

#### 30,000 BP

* First ground stone tools appear in Japan.[33]
* End of the Mousterian Pluvial in North Africa.
* The area of Sydney was occupied by Aboriginal Australians (specifically, the Eora and Dharug people) during this time period, as evidenced by radiocarbon dating.[34] In an archaeological dig in Parramatta, Western Sydney, it was found that the Aboriginals used charcoal, stone tools and possible ancient campfires.[35]
* First human settlement in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.[36]
* Kilu Cave at Buka in the Solomons is evidence for the first human settlement of an oceanic island and for navigating the open ocean.

The Venus of Brassempouy is preserved in the Musée d'Archéologie Nationale at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris. File:15 PanneauDesLion(PartieGauche).jpg30,000-year-old cave lion and woolly rhinoceros painting found in the Chauvet Cave, France

### 30,000-20,000 BP

#### 29,000–25,000 BP

* Eruption of the Ciomad volcano, the last volcanic eruption in the Carpathians.
* Venus of Dolní Věstonice (Czech Republic). It is the oldest known ceramic in the world.
* Venus of Willendorf, Austria, created. It is now at the Natural History Museum, Vienna.
* Human settlement in Beijing, China dates from about 27,000 to 10,000 years ago.[37]
* Paintings of spotted horses, Pech Merle cave, Dordogne, date to c.25,000 years ago[38]

#### 24,000 BP

* Start of the second Mousterian Pluvial in North Africa.

#### 23,000 BP

* Venus of Petřkovice is created at Petřkovice in Ostrava, Czech Republic. It is now in Archeological Institute, Brno.

#### 22,000 BP

* Last Glacial Maximum: Venus of Brassempouy, Grotte du Pape, Brassempouy, Landes, France, created. It is now at Musée des Antiquités Nationales, Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

#### 21,000 BP

* Artifacts suggests early human activity occurred at some point in Canberra, Australia.[39] Archaeological evidence of settlement in the region includes inhabited rock shelters, rock art, burial places, camps and quarry sites, and stone tools and arrangements.[40]
* End of the second Mousterian Pluvial in North Africa.

### 20,000-10,000 BP

* Last Glacial Maximum. Mean sea levels are believed to be 110 to 120 metres (360 to 390 ft) lower than present,[41] with the direct implication that many coastal and lower riverine valley archaeological sites of interest are today under water.

#### 18,000 BP

* Ibex-headed spear-thrower, from Mas-d'Azil cave, now at the Musée de la Préhistoire in the village of Le Mas-d'Azil.
* Mammoth-bone village in Mezhyrich, Ukraine

#### 17,000 BP

Lascaux cave painting, 15,000 BC, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

* Spotted human hands are painted at Pech Merle cave, Dordogne, France. Discovered in December 1994.
* Oldest Dryas stadial.
* Hall of Bulls at Lascaux in France is painted. Discovered in 1940. Closed to the public in 1963.
* Bird-Headed man with bison and Rhinoceros, Lascaux, is painted.
* Lamp with ibex design, from La Mouthe cave, Dordogne, France, is made. It is now at Musée des Antiquités Nationales, Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
* Paintings in Cosquer Cave are made, where the cave mouth is now under water at Cap Margiou, France.

#### 15,000 BP

* Bølling interstadial.
* Bison, Le Tuc d'Audoubert, Ariège, France.
* Paleo-Indians move across North America, then southward through Central America.
* Pregnant woman and deer (?), from Laugerie-Basse, France was made. It is now at Musée des Antiquités Nationales, St.-Germain-en-Laye.

14,000 BP

Reindeer Age articles

* Older Dryas stadial, Allerød interstadial.
* Paleo-Indians searched for big game near what is now the Hovenweep National Monument.
* Bison, on the ceiling of a cave at Altamira, Spain, is painted. Discovered in 1879. Accepted as authentic in 1902.[clarification needed]
* Younger Dryas stadial.
* Beginning of the Holocene extinction.

#### 12,000 BP

* Wooden buildings in South America (Chile).
* First pottery vessels in Japan.

#### 11,000 BP

* First evidence of human settlement in Argentina.
* The Arlington Springs Man dies on the island of Santa Rosa, off the coast of California, United States.
* Human remains deposited in caves which are now located off the coast of Yucatán, Mexico.[42]
* Creswellian culture settlement on Hengistbury Head, England, dates from around this year.

#### 10,000 BP

* Evidence of a massacre near Lake Turkana, Kenya indicates upper paleolithic warfare.[43]

## Cultures

File:Venus of Malta (Siberia, RUssia), cop, 076846.jpgStatuette from the Venus figurines of Mal'ta, from the easternmost Upper Paleolithic culture, the Mal'ta–Buret' culture, Siberia The Paleolithic

↑ Pliocene (before Homo)

Lower Paleolithic

Short description: Latin loanword meaning "approximately, around"

CA|other uses of "Cca"|CCA (disambiguation)|CCA|other uses of "Circa"|Circa (disambiguation)}}Template:TWCleanup2Circa (from la 'around, about, roughly, approximately') - frequently abbreviated ca. or c. and less frequently circ., cca. or cc. - signifies "approximately" in several European languages and is used as a loanword in English, usually in reference to a date.[44] Circa is widely used in historical writing when the dates of events are not accurately known.

When used in date ranges, circa is applied before each approximate date, while dates without circa immediately preceding them are generally assumed to be known with certainty.

## Examples

* 1732–1799: Both years are known precisely.
* c. 1732 – 1799: The beginning year is approximate; the end year is known precisely.
* 1732 – c. 1799: The beginning year is known precisely; the end year is approximate.
* c. 1732 – c. 1799: Both years are approximate.

## See also

* Floruit

## References

1. ↑ Rightmire, G. P. (2009). "Out of Africa: modern human origins special feature: middle and later Pleistocene hominids in Africa and Southwest Asia". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106 (38): 16046–16050. doi:10.1073/pnas.0903930106. PMID 19581595. Bibcode: 2009PNAS..10616046R.
2. ↑ Gilman, Antonio. 1996. "Explaining the Upper Palaeolithic Revolution". pp. 220–239 (Chap. 8) in Contemporary Archaeology in Theory: A Reader. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell
3. ↑ "Klein: Behavioral and Biological Origins of Modern Humans 3 of 3". http://www.accessexcellence.org/BF/bf02/klein/bf02e3.html.
4. ↑ "Klein: Behavioral and Biological Origins of Modern Humans 1 of 3". http://www.accessexcellence.org/BF/bf02/klein/bf02e1.html.
5. ↑ "'Modern' Behavior Began 40,000 Years Ago In Africa", Science Daily, July 1998
6. ↑ Higham, Tom; Douka, Katerina; Wood, Rachel; Ramsey, Christopher Bronk; Brock, Fiona; Basell, Laura; Camps, Marta; Arrizabalaga, Alvaro et al. (21 August 2014). "The timing and spatiotemporal patterning of Neanderthal disappearance". Nature 512 (7514): 306–309. doi:10.1038/nature13621. PMID 25143113. Bibcode: 2014Natur.512..306H.
7. ↑ "In North America and Eurasia the species has long been an important resource—in many areas the most important resource—for peoples' inhabiting the northern boreal forest and tundra regions. Known human dependence on caribou/wild reindeer has a long history, beginning in the Middle Pleistocene (Banfield 1961:170; Kurtén 1968:170) and continuing to the present. ... The caribou/wild reindeer is thus an animal that has been a major resource for humans throughout a tremendous geographic area and across a time span of tens of thousands of years." Ernest S. Burch, Jr. "The Caribou/Wild Reindeer as a Human Resource", American Antiquity, Vol. 37, No. 3 (July 1972), pp. 339–368.
8. ↑ "The Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition". https://www.trentu.ca/anthropology/faculty-research/neandertals-and-early-modern-humans-europe/middle-upper-paleolithic-transition.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Bacon, Bennett; Khatiri, Azadeh; Palmer, James; Freeth, Tony; Pettitt, Paul; Kentridge, Robert (5 January 2023). "An Upper Palaeolithic Proto-writing System and Phenological Calendar". Cambridge Archaeological Journal 33 (3): 1–19. doi:10.1017/S0959774322000415.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Higham, Thomas F. G.; Wesselingh, Frank P.; Hedges, Robert E. M.; Bergman, Christopher A.; Douka, Katerina (11 September 2013). "Chronology of Ksar Akil (Lebanon) and Implications for the Colonization of Europe by Anatomically Modern Humans" (in en). PLOS ONE 8 (9). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0072931. ISSN 1932-6203. PMID 24039825. Bibcode: 2013PLoSO...872931D.
11. ↑ Attenbrow, Val (2010). Sydney's Aboriginal Past: Investigating the Archaeological and Historical Records. Sydney: UNSW Press. pp. 152–153. ISBN 978-1-74223-116-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=TDxldj_SLcYC&q=inauthor:"Val Attenbrow"&pg=PA152. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
12. ↑ Stockton, Eugene D.; Nanson, Gerald C. (April 2004). "Cranebrook Terrace Revisited". Archaeology in Oceania 39 (1): 59–60. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4453.2004.tb00560.x.
13. ↑ Backwell, L; d'Errico, F; Wadley, L (2008). "Middle Stone Age bone tools from the Howiesons Poort layers, Sibudu Cave, South Africa". Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (6): 1566–1580. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2007.11.006. Bibcode: 2008JArSc..35.1566B.
14. ↑ Backwell, L; Bradfield, J; Carlson, KJ; Jashashvili, T; Wadley, L; d'Errico, F (2018). "The antiquity of bow-and-arrow technology: evidence from Middle Stone Age layers at Sibudu Cave". Journal of Archaeological Science 92 (362): 289–303. doi:10.15184/aqy.2018.11.
15. ↑ "Indications of bow and stone-tipped arrow use 64,000 years ago in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa". Antiquity 84 (325): 635–648. 2010. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00100134.
16. ↑ "Quartz-tipped arrows older than 60 ka: further use-trace evidence from Sibudu, Kwa-Zulu-Natal, South Africa". Journal of Archaeological Science 38 (8): 1918–1930. 2011. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.04.001. Bibcode: 2011JArSc..38.1918L.
17. ↑ Russo, Gabriele; Milks, Annemieke; Leder, Dirk; Koddenberg, Tim; Starkovich, Britt M.; Duval, M.; Zhao, J.-X.; Darga, Robert et al. (12 October 2023). "First direct evidence of lion hunting and the early use of a lion pelt by Neanderthals" (in en). Scientific Reports 13 (1): 16405. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-42764-0. ISSN 2045-2322. PMID 37828055. Bibcode: 2023NatSR..1316405R.
18. ↑ Wilford, John Noble (2 November 2011). "Fossil Teeth Put Humans in Europe Earlier Than Thought". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/science/fossil-teeth-put-humans-in-europe-earlier-than-thought.html.
19. ↑ Francesco d'Errico et al. (2012) Early evidence of San material culture represented by organic artifacts from Border Cave, South Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(33): 13214-13219. It is called a notched bone, illustrated in Fig. 1, 12 d'Errico, F.; Backwell, L.; Villa, P.; Degano, I.; Lucejko, J. J.; Bamford, M. K.; Higham, T. F. G.; Colombini, M. P. et al. (2012). "Early evidence of San material culture represented by organic artifacts from Border Cave, South Africa". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 (33): 13214–13219. doi:10.1073/pnas.1204213109. PMID 22847420. Bibcode: 2012PNAS..10913214D.
20. ↑ Swaziland Natural Trust Commission, "Cultural Resources – Malolotja Archaeology, Lion Cavern," Retrieved 27 August 2007, "Swaziland National Trust Commission – Cultural Resources – Malolotja Archaeology, Lion Cavern". http://www.sntc.org.sz/cultural/malarch.asp. .
21. ↑ Peace Parks Foundation, "Major Features: Cultural Importance." Republic of South Africa: Author. Retrieved 27 August 2007, [1].
22. ↑ Brumm, Adam; Oktaviana, Adhi Agus; Burhan, Basran; Hakim, Budianto; Lebe, Rustan; Zhao, Jian-xin; Sulistyarto, Priyatno Hadi; Ririmasse, Marlon et al. (1 January 2021). "Oldest cave art found in Sulawesi" (in en). Science Advances 7 (3). doi:10.1126/sciadv.abd4648. ISSN 2375-2548. PMID 33523879. Bibcode: 2021SciA....7.4648B.
23. ↑ Bowdler, Sandra. "Human settlement". in Denoon, D.. The Cambridge History of the Pacific Islanders. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 41–50. Cited in Bowdler, Sandra. "The Pleistocene Pacific". University of Western Australia. http://www.archaeology.arts.uwa.edu.au/staff/bowdler__research_interests/the_pleistocene_pacific.
24. ↑ Isabel Ellender and Peter Christiansen, People of the Merri Merri. The Wurundjeri in Colonial Days, Merri Creek Management Committee, 2001 ISBN 0-9577728-0-7
25. ↑ Gary Presland, The First Residents of Melbourne's Western Region (revised edition), Harriland Press, 1997. ISBN 0-646-33150-7. Presland says on page 1: "There is some evidence to show that people were living in the Maribyrnong River valley, near present day Keilor, about 40,000 years ago."
26. ↑ "Mysterious marks on Ice Age cave art may have been ancient records". Science News. 27 January 2023. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mysterious-marks-ice-age-cave-art.
27. ↑ "Red dot becomes 'oldest cave art'". BBC News. 15 June 2012. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18449711.
28. ↑ Pike, A. W. G.; Hoffmann, D. L.; García-Diez, M.; Pettitt, P. B.; Alcolea, J.; De Balbín, R. et al. (2012). "U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain". Science 336 (6087): 1409–1413. doi:10.1126/science.1219957. PMID 22700921. Bibcode: 2012Sci...336.1409P. https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1498254.
29. ↑ Zilhão, João (2017). "Precise dating of the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition in Murcia (Spain) supports late Neandertal persistence in Iberia". Heliyon 3 (11). doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2017.e00435. PMID 29188235. Bibcode: 2017Heliy...300435Z.
30. ↑ "The Trial Excavation at the Archaeological Site of Wong Tei Tung, Sham Chung, Hong Kong SAR". Hong Kong Archaeological Society. January 2006. http://www.hkarch.org/en_news.html.
31. ↑ "Prehistoric Archaeological Periods in Japan". Charles T. Keally.
32. ↑ Pettitt, Paul; White, Mark (2012). The British Palaeolithic: hominin societies at the edge of the Pleistocene world. London: Routledge. p. 415. ISBN 978-0-415-67454-6.
33. ↑ Keiji Imamura, Prehistoric Japan: New perspectives on insular East Asia University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1996 ISBN 0-8248-1853-9
34. ↑
* Macey, Richard (2007). "Settlers' history rewritten: go back 30,000 years". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/settlers-history-rewritten/2007/09/14/1189276983698.html.
* Blainey, Geoffrey (2004). A Very Short History of the World. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-300559-9.
35. ↑ Blainey, Geoffrey (2004). A Very Short History of the World. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-300559-9.
36. ↑ "Arrernte Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre Alice Springs". http://aboriginalart.com.au/culture/arrernte.html.
37. ↑ "The Peking Man World Heritage Site at Zhoukoudian". 14 November 2014. http://www.unesco.org/ext/field/beijing/whc/pkm-site.htm.
38. ↑ Pruvost, M.; Bellone, R.; Benecke, N.; Sandoval-Castellanos, E.; Cieslak, M.; Kuznetsova, T.; Morales-Muniz, A.; O'Connor, T. et al. (7 November 2011). "Genotypes of predomestic horses match phenotypes painted in Paleolithic works of cave art". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 (46): 18626–18630. doi:10.1073/pnas.1108982108. PMID 22065780. Bibcode: 2011PNAS..10818626P.
39. ↑ Flood, J. M.; David, B.; Magee, J.; English, B. (1987), "Birrigai: a Pleistocene site in the south eastern highlands", Archaeology in Oceania 22: 9–22, doi:10.1002/j.1834-4453.1987.tb00159.x
40. ↑ Gillespie, Lyall (1984). Aborigines of the Canberra Region. Canberra: Wizard (Lyall Gillespie). pp. 1–25. ISBN 978-0-9590255-0-7.
41. ↑ Sea level data from main article: Cosquer cave
42. ↑ "Divers find traces of ancient Americans". 9 September 2004. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna5955043.
43. ↑ M. Mirazón Lahr et al., "Inter-group violence among early Holocene hunter-gatherers of West Turkana, Kenya", Nature 529, 394–398 (21 January 2016), doi:10.1038/nature16477. "Here we report on a case of inter-group violence towards a group of hunter-gatherers from Nataruk, west of Lake Turkana ... Ten of the twelve articulated skeletons found at Nataruk show evidence of having died violently at the edge of a lagoon, into which some of the bodies fell. The remains ... offer a rare glimpse into the life and death of past foraging people, and evidence that warfare was part of the repertoire of inter-group relations among prehistoric hunter-gatherers." "Evidence of a prehistoric massacre extends the history of warfare". University of Cambridge. 20 January 2016. http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/evidence-of-a-prehistoric-massacre-extends-the-history-of-warfare. . For early depiction of interpersonal violence in rock art see: Taçon, Paul; Chippindale, Christopher (October 1994). "Australia's Ancient Warriors: Changing Depictions of Fighting in the Rock Art of Arnhem Land, N.T.". Cambridge Archaeological Journal 4 (2): 211–48. doi:10.1017/S0959774300001086. .
44. ↑ "circa". Dictionary.com. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/circa.

## External links

* v
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* e

Chronology

Key topics|

* Archaeology
* Astronomy
* Geology
* History
* Big History
* Paleontology
* Time

* Periods
* Eras
* Epochs

| Calendar eras|

* Human Era
* Ab urbe condita
* Anno Domini / Common Era
* Anno Mundi
* Byzantine era
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* Before Present
* Hijri
* Egyptian
* Sothic cycle
* Hindu units of time (Yuga)
* Mesoamerican
* Long Count
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|

Regnal year|

* Canon of Kings
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Era names|

* Chinese
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Calendars|

| Pre-Julian / Julian|

* Pre-Julian Roman
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|

Gregorian|

* Gregorian
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* Old Style and New Style dates
* Adoption of the Gregorian calendar
* Dual dating

Astronomical|

* Lunisolar
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Others|

* Chinese sexagenary cycle
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Astronomic time|

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Geologic time|

| Concepts|

* Deep time
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Standards|

* Global Standard Stratigraphic Age (GSSA)
* Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP)

Methods|

* Chronostratigraphy
* Geochronology
* Isotope geochemistry
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Chronological
dating|

| Absolute dating|

* Amino acid racemisation
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* Thermoluminescence dating

|

Relative dating|

* Fluorine absorption
* Nitrogen dating
* Obsidian hydration
* Seriation
* Stratigraphy

Genetic methods|

* Molecular clock

Linguistic methods|

* Glottochronology

Related topics|

* Chronicle
* New Chronology
* Synchronoptic view
* Timeline
* Year zero
* Circa
* Floruit
* Terminus post quem
* ASPRO chronology

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|

Ma – 300 ka)

* Lomekwian (3.3 Ma)
* Oldowan (2.6–1.7 Ma)
* Acheulean (1.76–0.13 Ma)
* Madrasian (1.5 Ma)
* Soanian (500–130 ka)
* Clactonian (424–400 ka)
* Mugharan (400–220 ka)

Middle Paleolithic
(c. 300–45 ka)

* Mousterian (160–40 ka)
* Aterian (145–20 ka)
* Micoquien (130–70 ka)
* Sangoan (130–10 ka)

Upper Paleolithic
(c. 50–10 ka)

Fertile Crescent:

* Emiran (50–40 ka)
* Ahmarian (46–42 ka)
* Baradostian (36–18 ka)
* Aurignacian (35–29 ka)
* Zarzian (20–10 ka)
* Kebaran (18–12.5 ka)
* Trialetian (16–8 ka)
* Natufian (14.5–11.5 ka)
* Khiamian (12.2–10.8 ka)

Europe:

* Bohunician (48–40 ka)
* Châtelperronian (44.5–36 ka)
* Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (43–32 ka)
* Aurignacian (43–26 ka)
* Périgordian (35–20 ka)
* Gravettian (33–24 ka)
* Pavlovian (29–25 ka)
* Solutrean (22–17 ka)
* Epigravettian (20–10 ka)
* Magdalenian (17–12 ka)
* Hamburg (15.5–13.1 ka)
* Federmesser (14–12.8 ka)
* Azilian (14–10 ka)
* Ahrensburg (13–12 ka)
* Swiderian (11–8 ka)

Africa:

* Khormusan (42–18 ka)
* Iberomaurusian (25–11 ka)
* Halfan (22–14 ka)
* Qadan (15—11 ka)
* Sebilian (15–11 ka)
* Eburran (15–5 ka)
* Magosian (10–8 ka)

Siberia:

* Mal'ta–Buret' (24–15 ka)
* Afontova Gora (21–12 ka}

↓ Mesolithic

* v
* t
* e

The Upper Paleolithic in the Franco-Cantabrian region:

* The Châtelperronian culture was located around central and south western France, and northern Spain. It appears to be derived from the Mousterian culture, and represents the period of overlap between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. This culture lasted from approximately 45,000 BP to 40,000 BP.[1]
* The Aurignacian culture was located in Europe and south west Asia, and flourished between 43,000 and 26,000 BP. It may have been contemporary with the Périgordian (a contested grouping of the earlier Châtelperronian and later Gravettian cultures).
* The Gravettian culture was located across Europe. Gravettian sites generally date between 33,000 and 20,000 BP.
* The Solutrean culture was located in eastern France, Spain, and England. Solutrean artifacts have been dated c. 22,000 to 17,000 BP.
* The Magdalenian culture left evidence from Portugal to Poland during the period from 17,000 to 12,000 BP.
* Central and east Europe:
* 33,000 BP, Gravettian culture in southern Ukraine[2]
* 30,000 BP, Szeletian culture
* 22,000 BP, Pavlovian, Aurignacian cultures
* 13,000 BP, Ahrensburg culture (Western Germany, Netherlands, England)
* 12,000 BP, Epigravettian
* North and west Africa, and Sahara:
* 32,000 BP, Aterian culture (Algeria, Libya)
* 12,000 BP, Ibero-Maurusian (a.k.a. Oranian, Ouchtatian), and Sebilian cultures
* 10,000 BP, Capsian culture (Tunisia, Algeria)
* Central, south, and east Africa:
* 50,000 BP, Fauresmith culture
* 30,000 BP, Stillbayan culture
* 12,000 BP, Lupembian culture
* 11,000 BP, Magosian culture (Zambia, Tanzania)
* 9,000 BP, Wiltonian culture
* West Asia (including Middle East):
* 50,000 BP, Jabroudian culture (Levant)
* 40,000 BP, Amoudian culture
* 30,000 BP, Emireh culture
* 20,000 BP, Aurignacian culture
* 12,000 BP, Kebarian, Athlitian cultures
* South, central and northern Asia:
* 30,000 BP, Angara culture
* 11,000 BP, Khandivili culture
* East and southeast Asia:
* 30,000 BP, Sen-Doki culture
* 16,000 BP, Jōmon period starts in Ancient Japan
* 12,000 BP, pre-Jōmon ceramic culture (Japan)
* 10,000 BP, Hoabinhian culture (Northern Vietnam)
* 9,000 BP, Jōmon culture (Japan)

* Oceania:
* 40,000 BP, Whadjuk and Noongar culture (Perth, Australia)[3]
* 35,000 BP, Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong culture (Melbourne, Australia)[4]
* 30,000 BP, Eora and Darug[5] culture (Sydney, Australia)[6]
* 30,000 BP, Arrernte culture (Alice Springs, Central Australia)[7]

## See also

* Last Glacial Maximum
* Mesolithic
* Neolithic
* Neolithic Europe
* Behavioral modernity
* Cro-Magnon 1
* Aurignacian
* Epigravettian
* Sungir
* Cultural universal
* Quaternary extinction event
* Early human migrations
* Dean R. Snow – A leading archeologist who has conducted extensive Paleolithic research.

## References

* Gilman, Antonio (1996). "Explaining the Upper Palaeolithic Revolution". Pp. 220–239 (Chap. 8) in Contemporary Archaeology in Theory: A Reader. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

1. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `nature.com`
2. ↑ Carpenter, Jennifer (20 June 2011). "Early human fossils unearthed in Ukraine". BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13846262.
3. ↑ Mulvaney, D J and White, Peter, 1987, Australians to 1788, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon, Sydney
4. ↑ Gary Presland, Aboriginal Melbourne: The Lost Land of the Kulin People, Harriland Press (1985), Second edition 1994, ISBN 0-9577004-2-3. This book describes in some detail the archaeological evidence regarding aboriginal life, culture, food gathering and land management, particularly the period from the flooding of Bass Strait and Port Phillip from about 7–10,000 years ago, up to the European colonisation in the nineteenth century.
5. ↑ Dousset, Laurent (2005). "Daruk". AusAnthrop Australian Aboriginal tribal database. http://www.ausanthrop.net/resources/ausanthrop_db/detail.php?id_search=76.
6. ↑ "Aboriginal people and place". Sydney Barani. 2013. http://www.sydneybarani.com.au/sites/aboriginal-people-and-place/.
7. ↑ Thorley, Peter (2004). "Rock-art and the archaeological record of Indigenous settlement in Central Australia". Australian Aboriginal Studies (1). http://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=200409749;res=APAFT. Retrieved 18 June 2011.

## External links

* The Upper Paleolithic Revolution. .
* Picture Gallery of the Paleolithic (reconstructional palaeoethnology) – Libor Balák at the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Archaeology in Brno, The Center for Paleolithic and Paleoethnological Research.

* v
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Prehistoric technology

* Prehistory
* Timeline
* Outline
* Stone Age
* Subdivisions
* New Stone Age
* Technology
* history
* Glossary

Tools

| Farming|

* Neolithic Revolution
* Founder crops
* New World crops
* Ard / plough
* Celt
* Digging stick
* Domestication
* Goad
* Irrigation
* Secondary products
* Sickle
* Terracing

|

Food processing
(Paleolithic diet)|

* Fire
* Basket
* Cooking
* Earth oven
* Granaries
* Grinding slab
* Ground stone
* Hearth
* Aşıklı Höyük
* Qesem cave
* Manos
* Metate
* Mortar and pestle
* Pottery
* Quern-stone
* Storage pits

Hunting|

* Arrow
* Boomerang
* throwing stick
* Bow and arrow
* history
* Nets
* Spear
* spear-thrower
* baton
* harpoon
* Schöningen
* woomera

Projectile points|

* Arrowhead
* Transverse
* Bare Island
* Cascade
* Clovis
* Cresswell
* Cumberland
* Eden
* Folsom
* Lamoka
* Manis Mastodon
* Plano

Systems|

* Game drive system
* Buffalo jump

Toolmaking|

* Earliest toolmaking
* Oldowan
* Acheulean
* Mousterian
* Aurignacian
* Clovis culture
* Cupstone
* Fire hardening
* Gravettian culture
* Hafting
* Hand axe
* Grooves
* Langdale axe industry
* Levallois technique
* Lithic core
* Lithic reduction
* analysis
* debitage
* flake
* Lithic technology
* Magdalenian culture
* Metallurgy
* Microblade technology
* Mining
* Prepared-core technique
* Solutrean industry
* Striking platform
* Tool stone
* Uniface
* Yubetsu technique

Other tools|

* Adze
* Awl
* bone
* Axe
* Bannerstone
* Blade
* prismatic
* Bone tool
* Bow drill
* Burin
* Canoe
* Oar
* Pesse canoe
* Chopper
* tool
* Cleaver
* Denticulate tool
* Fire plough
* Fire-saw
* Hammerstone
* Knife
* Microlith
* Quern-stone
* Racloir
* Rope
* Scraper
* side
* Stone tool
* Tally stick
* Weapons
* Wheel
* illustration

Architecture

| Ceremonial|

* Kiva
* Pyramid
* Standing stones
* megalith
* row
* Stonehenge

|

Dwellings|

* Neolithic architecture
* long house
* British megalith architecture
* Nordic megalith architecture
* Burdei
* Cave
* Cliff dwelling
* Dugout
* Hut
* Quiggly hole
* Jacal
* Longhouse
* Mudbrick
* Mehrgarh
* Pit-house
* Pueblitos
* Pueblo
* Rock shelter
* Blombos Cave
* Abri de la Madeleine
* Sibudu Cave
* Roundhouse
* Stilt house
* Alp pile dwellings
* Stone roof
* Wattle and daub

Water management|

* Check dam
* Cistern
* Flush toilet
* Reservoir
* Well

Other architecture|

* Archaeological features
* Broch
* Burnt mound
* fulacht fiadh
* Causewayed enclosure
* Tor enclosure
* Circular enclosure
* Goseck
* Cursus
* Henge
* Thornborough
* Megalithic architectural elements
* Midden
* Oldest extant buildings
* Timber circle
* Timber trackway
* Sweet Track

Arts and culture

| Material goods|

* Baskets
* Beadwork
* Beds
* Chalcolithic
* Clothing/textiles
* timeline
* Cosmetics
* Glue
* Hides
* shoes
* Ötzi
* Jewelry
* amber use
* Mirrors
* Pottery
* Cardium
* Cord-marked
* Grooved ware
* Jōmon
* Linear
* Unstan ware
* Sewing needle
* Weaving
* Wine
* winery
* wine press

|

Prehistoric art|

* Art of the Upper Paleolithic
* Art of the Middle Paleolithic
* Blombos Cave
* List of Stone Age art
* Bird stone
* Cairn
* Carved stone balls
* Cave paintings
* Cup and ring mark
* Geoglyph
* Hill figure
* Golden hats
* Guardian stones
* Gwion Gwion rock paintings
* painting
* pigment
* Megalithic art
* Petroform
* Petroglyph
* Petrosomatoglyph
* Pictogram
* Rock art
* Rock cupule
* Stone carving
* Sculpture
* Statue menhir
* Stone circle
* list
* British Isles and Brittany
* Venus figurine

Prehistoric music|

* Evolutionary musicology
* music archaeology
* Alligator drum
* Paleolithic flute
* Divje Babe flute
* Gudi

Prehistoric religion|

* Evolutionary origin of religion
* Paleolithic religion
* Spiritual drug use

Burial|

* Burial mounds
* Bowl barrow
* Round barrow
* Mound Builders culture
* U.S. sites
* Chamber tomb
* Cotswold-Severn
* Cist
* Dartmoor kistvaens
* Clava cairn
* Court cairn
* Cremation
* Dolmen
* Great dolmen
* Funeral pyre
* Gallery grave
* transepted
* wedge-shaped
* Grave goods
* Jar burial
* Kuyavian long barrows
* Long barrow
* unchambered
* Grønsalen
* Megalithic tomb
* Mummy
* Passage grave
* Rectangular dolmen
* Ring cairn
* Simple dolmen
* Stone box grave
* Tor cairn
* Unchambered long cairn

Other cultural|

* Archaeoastronomy
* sites
* lunar calendar
* Behavioral modernity
* Origin of language
* Prehistoric counting
* Prehistoric medicine
* trepanning
* Prehistoric warfare
* Symbols
* symbolism

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