AURIGNACIAN

This time period is part of the Upper Paleolithic.

Pleistocene :Paleolithic ::Lower Paleolithic ::Middle Paleolithic ::Upper Paleolithic :::Châtelperronian culture :::Aurignacian culture :::Gravettian culture :::Solutrean culture :::Magdalenian culture

Holocene :Mesolithic or Epipaleolithic ::Kebaran culture ::Natufian culture :Neolithic::Halafian culture ::Hassuna culture ::Ubaid culture ::Uruk culture :Chalcolithic

'Aurignacian' is the name of a culture of the Upper Palaeolithic located in Europe and southwest Asia. It dates to between 32,000 and 21,000 BC. The name originates from the type site of Aurignac in the Haute Garonne area of France. The Aurignacian culture is considered by some archaeologists to have co-existed with the Périgordian culture of tool making.

Contents

"La Paquette"

Tools

See also

"La Paquette"

Worked bone points with grooves cut in the bottom and some of the earliest cave art were produced by the Aurignacian culture. Their flint tools were more varied than those of earlier industries, employing finer blades struck from prepared cores rather than using crude flakes, and they made pendants, bracelets and ivory beads to ornament themselves. Bâtons de commandement are also found at their sites. This sophistication and self-awareness leads archaeologists to consider the makers of Aurignacian artefacts the first modern humans in Europe. Human remains and Aurignacian artifacts originally found at Cro-Magnon in France indicate that the culture was modern human rather than Neanderthal.
The Aurignacian saw the first appearance of what paleoanthropologists refer to as "La Paquette" in Europe. This included new tool making skills, and the introduction of art.
In June 2007, a 35,000 year old figurine of a mammoth was discovered in the Vogelherd cave in south-western Germany. [1] Currently being studied by the University of Tuebingen, the figurine details the once intricate and complex artistic qualities by the inhabitants of Aurignacian culture.

Tools

See also

★ Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures