6 How Is the Development of Art Is Associated With Anatomically Modern Humans?
Early on modern Human being sapiens in Africa and Southwest Asia 100,000 years agone made tools that were similar to those of the Neandertals and other late primitive humans. These were mostly simple Mousterian-like Levallois flake and core tools. However, by 90,000-75,000 years ago some modern humans began producing new kinds of artifacts that were revolutionary enough to warrant their existence placed into a different Paleolithic stage--the Upper Paleolithic . This was the height of technical sophistication during the Erstwhile Rock Age. These innovative developments are almost well known from European sites, but similar advances were occurring elsewhere in the Quondam World and later in the New World as well. Foreshadowing these new technologies were harpoon-like bone projectile points in utilize by at to the lowest degree 75,000 years agone in W Central Africa. By lxx,000 years agone in Due south Africa, stone was beingness prepared for flaking by heat-treating. This fabricated it easier to flake and shape into finer cutting and puncturing tools. These innovations apparently were unknown to Neandertals and other archaic human populations.
Ultimately, there were a number of different regional Upper Paleolithic tool traditions around the world. The most sophisticated may have been the Magdalenian 
Tradition of Western Europe. Information technology began about 17,000 years agone and lasted until the end of the last water ice historic period effectually x,000 years ago.
| Paleolithic Tool Traditions | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notation: t he Acheulian Tradition began by at to the lowest degree ane.five million years agone in Africa. It did non accomplish Europe until much subsequently when the first humans arrived. The Mousterian Tradition is most well known from post-75,000 year erstwhile sites in Europe, simply information technology very likely began in Africa around 150,000-100,000 years ago. The showtime Upper Paleolithic tool traditions probably evolved in Africa by 90,000 years agone. |
The diverse Upper Paleolithic tool traditions were successful cultural adaptations to diverse environments around the world. In temperate and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere, specialized big game hunting was the about common subsistence strategy. However, fifty-fifty amidst the societies that focused their hunting efforts on reindeer, horses, and other big mammals, there was exploitation of vegetable foods, fish, and other small animals.
Modest game and plant nutrient exploitation became increasingly of import to the Cro-Magnon and nigh other people in the northern hemisphere after 15,000 years ago. This was a necessity because virtually of their populations were growing and the climate was irresolute as the ice began to melt near the stop of the terminal water ice age. During the roughly five,000 years of last glacial cook, big game animals became progressively deficient in the northern hemisphere. As a result, human hunting success would have been rarer. The combined outcome of rapidly irresolute climates and increased hunting by humans with more constructive weapons heavily contributed to the extinction of at least l genera of large animals (mostly mammals) at that time. Information technology likewise was in this late period after 15,000 years ago that line-fishing spears, hooks, and nets became increasingly more common. In Europe, the main focus of fishing appears to take been salmon going up streams to spawn and seals that were pursuing them. These climate related changes in subsistence pattern began even earlier in Southwest Asia and other relatively warm and dry regions.
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| Spear thrower |
The Cro-Magnon people increased their food supply by developing coordinated grouping hunting techniques for the killing of big herd animals, especially in the river valleys of Western Europe and the plains of Central and Eastern Europe. They also developed new specialized hunting weapons. The art of spear hunting was revolutionized by the invention of the spear thrower (or atlatl ) about 17,000-15,000 years agone. This was a woods or bone rod with a hook on one stop that fit into a socket at the base of a spear. This device was used as an aid in throwing spears. It increased the range and force of impact of projectiles by essentially increasing the length of the spear thrower's arm. The internet effect was that hunters did non demand to get as shut to prey earlier throwing their spears. Toggle-head harpoons were invented about this time as well. The bow and arrow were invented past 12,000 years agone or a fleck earlier. This farther increased the range of projectiles. The fact that these weapon systems were adult toward the end of the final water ice age is probably not a coincidence. They were technological solutions for the growing difficulty of acquiring meat.
anthropologistsouthward David Greenish, Susan Larson, and John Shea apropos the relationship between
the peculiar human shoulder joint and the development of effective projectile weapons. This link takes
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Notation: Spear throwers may have been made as early on as 25,000 years ago in North Africa. Whether the European Cro-Magnon people independently invented this engineering later or caused it from North Africa is not known.
Upper Paleolithic Stone Tool Making Engineering
The basis of many Upper Paleolithic stone tool forms was the bract fleck . This is a thin, roughly parallel-sided flake that is at to the lowest degree twice as long equally it is wide. The cantankerous-department is usually either triangular or trapezoidal. They were made out of brittle-breaking rock materials such as flintstone , chert , and obsidian . Blade flakes were preforms for the industry of many dissimilar kinds of tools, such as knives, hide scrapers, spear tips, drills, awls, burins, etc.
| European Upper Paleolithic tools made from bract flakes | |
Blade flakes were nearly standardized shapes that were struck off assembly line fashion from a prepared core usually by punch flaking . This method uses indirect percussion to better command the management and strength of the stupor moving ridge entering a core. This facilitated the repeated production of long, delicate flakes. Blades were struck off around a prepared core like the careful unwinding and sectioning of a roll of paper. It is possible to knock off blade flakes with direct percussion using a hammerstone rather than a punch, but it is more difficult.
| Punch flaking technique used to make blade flakes |  | | Blade flakes and the "spent" cadre from which they came |
Tools fabricated from blade flakes were far more efficient than core and bit tools made by earlier peoples when compared in terms of maximizing the employ of precious brittle-flaking rock materials. This increased efficiency tin exist measured roughly in terms of the amount of cutting edge that can be produced from the same corporeality of stone.
| Tool Tradition and Tool Category | Length of Cutting Edge Per Pound of Rock (approximate) | Increase in Efficiency Over Previous Engineering science (approximate) |
|---|---|---|
| Oldowan choppers -- Lower Paleolithic (Human being habilis) | 2 inches (five cm.) | ------ |
| Acheulian hand axes -- Lower Paleolithic (Homo erectus) | viii inches (20 cm.) | 400% |
| Mousterian bit tools -- Eye Paleolithic (Neandertal) | ii 1/three feet (100 cm.) | 4 ninety% |
| Blade flake tools -- Upper Paleolithic (modern humans) | 10-39 anxiety (300-1200 cm.) | 300-1200% |
| Sources: Watson, West. (1968) Flint Implements: An Business relationship of Rock Historic period Techniques and Cultures; and Hester, J. and J. Grady (1982) Introduction to Archaeology. |
It is now known that cognition of how to make blade flakes preceded the Upper Paleolithic tool traditions. However, it was not until the belatedly ice age cultures of the Cro-Magnon people and some of their contemporaries outside of Europe that long, thin, delicate blade flakes were commonly produced and used.
Upper Paleolithic tool makers besides oftentimes employed a farther refinement in working with stone. After preliminary shaping by percussion flaking, they ofttimes finished a tool with pressure flaking . They literally pushed off the edge flakes with the tip of a deer antler in the final shaping and thinning process. This resulted in minor, regular flake scars and much greater control in determining the shape of the final product. Pressure flaking was as well used to retouch, or acuminate, thin edges of spear tips and knives. Pressure flaking apparently was commencement used during the Middle Paleolithic in Africa around 75,000 years agone.
During the Upper Paleolithic, we run into the showtime abundant testify of tools for making other tools. Such things as narrow gouging chisels, known as burins , were used to make and shape a host of other implements out of os, antler, and ivory. Boosted tools were created for the purpose of working on other implements such as force per unit area flakers, punches, and spear shaft straighteners. The Upper Paleolithic also saw a heavy dependence on compound tools , such as intentionally detachable harpoon points and interchangeable spear foreshafts of hard wood attached to spears. Compound tools have the advantage that they tin can be repaired. When 1 part breaks, it tin can be replaced rather than replacing the entire tool.
| Burin made |  |  | Ornamentally carved |
Compound tools and tools designed to work on other implements are not just new kinds of tools but rather new kinds of tool-using principles. This was a behemothic intellectual leap forward. It likewise extended the range of raw materials that could exist used for tool making. Bone and antler especially came into more than mutual use. They had been used occasionally in the before Mousterian tool tradition, but were only modified clumsily by hammering, scraping, and burning. Among the Cro-Magnon people, os and antler progressively replaced woods and stone for many functions. Dense bone and antler are more than durable than forest and more flexible than stone and so they do non break as easily and withal can be used to brand relatively precipitous cut edges and penetrating projectile points. The corporeality of fourth dimension that they are still usable can exist extended past resharpening by abrading with stone when they become dull. These materials were now being employed to make long thin knives, awls, sewing needles, habiliment fasteners, harpoons with barbs, and many other useful implements. 1 event was that tailored wear and tents were easier to make. The outset known sewing needle came from southwestern France and dates to nigh 25,000 years ago. Residues of creature skin pants, shirts, and shoes have been establish in a 22,000 year old Cro-Magnon grave almost Moscow in Russia. Wild flax fibers from 34,000 yr old thread or twine have been found at a cavern site in the Republic of Georgia. Some of these fibers appear to take been dyed black, gray, turquoise, and/or pink. The fibers were twisted, suggesting that they had been used to make thread, cord, or rope. Thread could have been used to sew leather pieces together. Thicker twine or rope could have been used to necktie things together and make carrying easier.
European Upper Paleolithic Art
The Cro-Magnon people of Europe regularly decorated their tools and sculpted small pieces of stone, bone, antler, and ivory. Necklaces, bracelets, and decorative pendants were made of bones, teeth, and shells. Cave walls were oftentimes painted with naturalistic scenes of animals. Clay was besides modeled occasionally. From our civilization's perspective, these symbolic and naturalistic representations would be referred to as fine art. Nonetheless, that is an ethnocentric project. For the Cro-Magnon who made this fine art, it was very probable thought of as being something different, or at least much more than, than we think of equally art or decoration. For instance, it may have had magical and/or religious functions.
Upper Paleolithic European representational art began past forty,000 years ago and became intense 15,000-x,000 years ago. Perhaps, the most prominent portable art was in the form that has get known as Venus figurines . These are sculptures of women. They are non portraits but rather faceless idealized representations of well fed, good for you, usually pregnant nude women with exceptionally large buttocks and breasts. Because of these exaggerated sexual characteristics, they are idea by most paleoanthropologists to exist ritual objects symbolizing female fertility. Many of these stylized carvings are reminiscent of modern abstract art. Venus figurines were fabricated from around 35,000 years ago down to the terminate of the concluding ice historic period x,000 years ago. They have been plant from Western Europe all of the fashion to Siberia. Almost were small enough in size to exist hands hand held. The Venus of Laussel shown below on the right is a rare exception.
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| L ion-man hybrid from |
Not all of the portable fine art was in the form of Venus figurines. Many pocket-size carvings have been found that depict animals and people, including men. At that place are carvings of homo penises equally well.
| Carved bone (tardily Magdalenian Tool Tradition) |  | |
| Carved bear teeth | |
The Cro-Magnon people are, possibly, nearly well known for their paintings on the walls of caves. Although, this cave fine art is most abundant in Southwest France and Northorthern Spain, it was made elsewhere by other early modern humans also. With cave art, we see the first large calibration, concrete symbols of human thoughts, feelings, and perhaps even beliefs about the supernatural. Over 150 Western European caves have been found with these ice age paintings on their walls.
 |
| Cavern art from Lascaux, France (left and right) and Altamira, Spain (center) |
Nigh of this cave fine art was fabricated deep inside caves, in hard to get to dark areas. It is assumed that considering of the locations, these areas were very likely sacred or special in some sense and that the fine art was inspired by concerns with the supernatural. The majority of the figures are realistic looking herd animals, many of which are shown either wounded or significant. A number of paleoanthropologists have suggested that the artists were nearly likely performing sympathetic (or imitative) hunting and fertility magic. This would have been especially important when this art was at its peak in sophistication (15,000-10,000 years agone) considering at that time the terminal ice age was winding down and the herds of game animals were dying out or moving abroad to the northward. Some of the animals depicted in the caves were predators, such as cave bears and lions, rather than casualty. Cartoon and painting them may have been a way of obtaining protection from these dangerous creatures or even a way of taking on their ferociousness and skill to increase human being hunting success. Because of the subjects being depicted, it has been suggested that this cavern art was the focus of men and, after, was produced by male artists. In contrast, the Venus figurines suggest predominantly female interests. However, considering we know then little about the living cultures of the Cro-Magnon people, nosotros must ever exist careful in interpreting their art. We may not exist grasping the intended role and pregnant.
Human representations are rare amid European cave paintings. Those that practise exist usually are simple stick figures of men hunting. They often are shown with erect penises (as shown in the photo beneath). At that place are likewise several depictions of bearded adult male heads. One is life size. The largest is 6 1/2 feet (two g.) tall with a cap. At that place have besides been found geometric patterns in some of the caves that take been interpreted as female genitalia.
| Painted human stick figure |  | Note the spear through |
Some of the European cave art seems to have been associated with ceremonies. These ceremonies may have been accompanied by music. The areas of the caves in which paintings were made and used often have skillful acoustical qualities. Drumsticks, flutes, and bull-roarers were found nigh the paintings in Lascaux Cave. The art very likely reflects the Cro-Magnon world view. Some researchers have suggested that they were, in part, depicting their spirit globe. The fact that footprints of both adults and children accept been found in some of the caves nearly the paintings has also suggested that the art was connected with male person initiation ceremonies for boys becoming men.
Some cavern walls and bone artifacts have sequences of incised lines and short marks or ticks that do not appear to be representational fine art. Some of these incisions strike ane every bit existence strictly commonsensical tallies. Even so, their bodily purpose is unknown. Such marks have been found on bone artifacts made by late Neandertals, but they did not become mutual until the Cro-Magnon people developed their Upper Paleolithic tool traditions. A few Cro-Magnon bone artifacts dating to every bit early on equally 25,000 years ago have what appear to be carefully incised lineal sequences of round to crescent-shaped ticks. Alexander Marshack believes that at least one of these bones (shown below) was made to exist used as a lunar agenda of sorts.
| Antler os plaque |  | ||
| four� inches (10.8 cm.) long | |||
If calendars were being made, it implies that some people were recognizing the cyclical nature of the seasons. To people dependent on seasonally available foods and migrating herds, a calendar would have allowed more authentic predictions that would make the food quest more than efficient. Besides of great value to Upper Paleolithic hunters and gatherers would accept been maps. The primeval possible map was scratched into a 16,000 year quondam os found at Mezhirich in Ukraine. Information technology apparently shows the countryside around a Cro-Magnon settlement.
The Cro-Magnon art changed through time. In the menses 40,000-25,000 years agone, bone flutes, carved figurines, and personal decorative ornaments such equally bracelets and pendants began to appear. Until recently, it was thought that the oldest rock art was charcoal drawings of bison and rhinoceroses dating to 31,000 � ane,300 years ago in the French cave of Grotte Chauvet . Recent dating of ruby-red human hand paintings in the northern Spanish cave of El Castillo indicate that they were fabricated at least 40,800 years ago.
The 2nd period of Cro-Magnon art was 25,000-18,000 years ago. Cavern art apparently became relatively common in Southouthern France and Northern Spain at that time; however, information technology mostly consisted of rough creature outlines, abstract forms, and genitals. This was a very cold stage of the last water ice historic period. The Cro-Magnon people probably created these paintings while wintering over in the caves.
In the menstruum eighteen,000-fifteen,000 years ago, more elaborate animal depictions were being painted. Shading was now used to indicate muscles and pilus. In addition, animals were depicted moving.
The greatest catamenia of European cave art was 15,000-xi,000 years agone. This phase coincided with the final melt phase of the last ice age and the height of the Magdalenian Tool Tradition. Large sanctuaries were created which had realistically colored bison, horses, deer, cattle, and other large animals. The cave art at this time was probable the product of a outburst of ceremonial activities. Many tools were carved decoratively in that terminal menses as well. Besides, personal decoration made of bone, teeth, and shell was very common. This was the menstruation of the nearly elaborate Venus figurines. The tradition of making these stylized female representations lasted for most 25,000 years. As such, it represents a remarkably persistent belief system. The duration is even more remarkable when considering that Islam has existed for only virtually 1,400 years, Christianity for 2,000 years, and Judaism (in its current class) for less than ii,500 years.
Information technology is important to call up that Europe was non the only office of the earth in which early modern humans produced art. The earliest known possible fine art object was establish in S Africa. It is a 77,000 year old nodule of hematite that has engraved geometrical designs. Depictions of animals were existence painted in southern African rock shelters possibly every bit early on as 28,000 years ago and beads made from ostrich shells were beingness made there by 38,000 years ago. Cave and rock shelter paintings likewise have considerable antiquity in Siberia and Australia. However, Upper Paleolithic art was specially abundant in Western Europe and is nigh well known from there.
Upper Paleolithic Social Changes
The extraordinary advancements in Upper Paleolithic technology and art did not accept place in a vacuum. They developed during a time of remarkable social changes. Those changes created the necessary environment for the cultural innovations to occur. The ultimate driving strength was probably a combination of population growth, larger communities, more than efficient subsistence patterns, and increased life spans. From the time of the earliest humans 2.5 meg years agone until around 50-40,000 years ago, the global man population experienced only very modest growth. People obviously lived in pocket-sized hunting, gathering, and scavenging bands that rarely exceeded a few dozen individuals. Life expectancy was typically thirty years or less, frequently much less. Contempo analysis past Rachel Caspari and Sang-Hee Lee of man teeth from Upper Paleolithic sites has shown that outset around 30,000 years agone there was a sharp ascent in the number of people who were over 30 years old. They were living significantly longer on boilerplate. Caspari and Lee calculated that there probably was a four-fold increment in the number of grandparents, since generational times were likely to have been around 15 years. In most societies of the past, grandparents performed the valuable role of taking care of and educating grandchildren, thereby allowing their own developed children to become more involved in food acquisition and other activities. This could have been 1 of the major contributors to the artistic explosion of culture in Upper Paleolithic societies. Childrearing grandparents perform the disquisitional job of passing on their social club's skills and cumulative noesis to the young. This was virtually probable the case in Upper Paleolithic societies as well. Another consequence of increased longevity is that women have more than reproductive years. As a outcome, an increase in family size and the growth of populations is nigh inevitable. Caspari and Lee suggest that the rapid cultural evolution, evidenced by new technology and art during the Upper Paleolithic, largely was a consequence of these demographic transformations. As well, the Upper Paleolithic cultural developments no dubiousness contributed to increased longevity in turn, which fueled the population explosion.
Copyright � 1999-2013 by Dennis O'Neil. All rights reserved.
illustration credits
Source: https://www2.palomar.edu/anthro/homo2/mod_homo_5.htm
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