#aurignacian

[memories-of-ancients]

Horse figurine carved from mammoth ivory, discovered in a cave in Germany, aprox. 32,000 - 35,000 years old

[bigsoggyballs]

Flight of the geese.

More ice age oc art.

[tyrannoninja]

Paleolithic Commerce

40,000 years ago on the grassy steppes of Pleistocene Europe, a Neanderthal trader plies some exquisite furs of his to an Aurignacian (Homo sapiens) couple. Although modern humans like the Aurignacians would end up displacing the Neanderthals in Europe, some peaceful interactions between the two hominin lineages must have taken place, especially considering the genetic evidence for interbreeding between them in Eurasia.

[bush-or-bald]

A-aea (Spear and Fang): Bush or Bald?

A-aea is a "cro-magnon," a now discarded term for the first anatomically modern humans in Europe. Today, we call them Aurignacians. Aurignacian blades were crude stone implements that no lady should ever put near her lady cave.

Verdict: bush

[whereishermes]

Ancient Cave Art | Chauvet, France

The cave of Chauvet in the Ardéche Valley of France contains the earliest known art made by humans—depictions of bears, panthers, horses, and more, made 30,000 years ago. Examining this art closely gives us much information about the humans who created it—what their lives, beliefs, and environment must have been like. Because these cave paintings represent some of the earliest human artistic…

[thepastisalreadywritten]

A 34,000 year old Aurignacian lunar calendar carved on a bone-tablet, found in Dordogne in France.

Louvre Museum

NOTE:

The Aurignacian is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with Early European Modern Humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago.

[randomtangle]

Warfare Wednesday: Stone Tools

To start Warfare Wednesdays, I’m going to take it back to 3.3-3.2 million years ago to with Kenyanthropus platyops, the earliest known tool-making hominid.

So, stone tools. They are grouped by archaeologists into industries. Grahame Clark grouped the industries into a sequence in their evolution, from Mode I to Mode V. Let’s take a look!

Pre-Mode I

“Aha!” You cry, thinking you’ve caught me slipping up my act. “This isn’t Mode 1!” And you’re right. It predates it. In fact, it predates humanity. How does that work? Because Kenyanthropus platyops existed.

This crusty old skull is responsible for these little guys:

Weapons! Or, erm, tools, heheh. Flint flakes (yum!) made with knapping by use of a lithic core and a hammerstone. Sounds complicated but it’s literally hitting two rocks together. But you wanted human tools. Lets get to those.

Mode I: Oldowan Industry

Pictured above is a drawing of an Oldowan chopping tool. The industry is named after the sites in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, where mass amounts of these tools were discovered. They are identified primarily by their core forms; simple river rocks. They were struck by spherical hammerstones, as shown by their conchoidal fractures (the way brittle materials fracture following no natural planes of separation). They were held proximally and brought down upon their foestargets. They are believed to have been manufactured by either Australopithecus garhi or Homo habilis.

Mode II: Acheulean Industry

The Acheulean industry is named after the site in Saint-Acheul, France, where early human has lived since at least the time these tools were manufactured. They are notable by their bifacial quality and amygdaloidal (almond-shaped) shape. Most famous are the hand axes. Taking a look at Mode I compared to Mode II, the upgrade in quality it clear. Oldowan tools are cruder and simply one sharp edge on a rock, while Acheulean tools are more deliberate and thoughtfully manufactured. Due to their lack of a haft, they were probably not used for killing, but instead butchering. It should be noted that in folklore, tools such as these have been called thunderstones and kept as amulets, based off of the belief that they arose where lightning had struck.

Mode III: Mousterian Industry

The Mousterian industry is named after Le Moustier in France, where examples were first discovered in the 1860s. They feature usage of the Levallois technique of knapping around a core (called a “tortoise core”, above) in the shape of the desired tool and subsequently separating it. (Pictured below). it is also known as “prepared core technique”.

This allowed for smaller and sharper tools formed from the flaked tools. Just see for yourself!

Mode IV: Aurignacian Industry

The Aurignacian industry, named after Aurignac, France, is notable for its blades instead of flakes. We start to see daggers and killing weapons. It’s also notable there was a rise in bone and antler tools, but we’re not talking about those here.

Mode V: Microlithic Industry

The Microlithic was by far the most advanced and varied. Long, geometrical tools, such as the harpoon depicted above (left) and trapezoidal ones (right) are just two examples of what the microlithic contained. These are your spear points and arrowheads. Finally approaching something that seems almost modern, if it were made of metal. (That’s foreshadowing.)

I hope you found this interesting! Thank you for reading!

[gothlovingoth]

Archeologists think they have found the use of a small bone fragment punctured by 10 equidistant small holes dated to nearly 40 000 years ago. Through experimental archeology, a method that uses the known tools and materials of the time to recreate the object, they reverse engineered its making.

With the use of burin and a heavier hammer-like object, they were able to reproduce very similar results. Placing a piece of heavy leather upon the bone and using the tools the pierce it, they were able to recreate the same rounded out marks. Not only does the technique work, it provides an explanation as well. The bone was used as backing in the process of puncturing leather in preparation for sewing it.

TL;DR a team of archeologists figured out the purpose of a 40 000 years old object because the technique and tools that made it are still used today in leather working.

[historyfiles]

Kebaran Culture: the Palaeolithic's regionally-dominant Levantine Aurignacian made a transition into the Kebaran or Kebarian culture, the very start of the path towards farming.

[blackbearmagic]

watching a documentary about the Aurignacian culture and crying about cave art

[memories-of-ancients]

Life in Paleolithic Europe 35,000 Years Ago

from Stefan Milo

[bigsoggyballs]

Prehistory-posting

[tyrannoninja]

Cave Lion Attack

Having a cave lion (Panthera spelaea) attack you and your partner while you two are tracking down a gravelly ravine in Ice Age Europe may not be most people’s idea of a romantic outing, but at least this Neanderthal/human couple has an experience to bond over as they fend off the big cat. And lucky for our heroes that it’s only one bachelor male lion this time, as a whole pride of these fierce felines would be a lot for two hominin hunters to handle!

[lalulutres]

Horses facing one another.

Charcoal drawing on rock. Height of large horse facing left: 89 cm.

Chauvet Cave, Vallon- Pont- d' Arc, Ardèche, France.

Aurignacian Culture, 35.000 BP.

[ancestorsalive]

Prepare to be amazed by this astounding relic of humanity's past: a 35,000-year-old mammoth sculpture unearthed from the depths of Vogelherd Cave in Germany, discovered way back in 1931.

This isn't just any old trinket; it's one of the earliest ivory carvings known to mankind.

At a minuscule 3.7 cm (1.5 inches) long and weighing in at a featherlight 7.5 grams (0.26 ounces), this woolly mammoth figurine packs a punch with its intricate details, boasting an elegantly arched trunk and a striking crosshatch pattern on its tiny feet.

Radiocarbon dating proudly associates it with the Aurignacian culture—yes, that’s the era when modern humans first strolled into Europe.

So, what does this delicate masterpiece scream about the artistic flair and cultural depth of our early ancestors?

It's time to dig deep and confront what this craftsmanship reveals about the minds of those who came before us.