The Upper Palaeolithic cultural package does not appear at once and is demonstrated by numerous discoveries in African and Eurasian sites, through the variability of shaped stone artifacts, use of new raw materials, and artistic expressions. In a comprehensive short review, the novelties of this period, some originating in older cultures, were as follows:
1. Systematic production of prismatic blades, with only rare cases where flake production continued to be the dominant mode. The exceptions are sites in East Asia (mostly the Chinese plains), SE Asia, and Australia, where the common Upper and Late Pleistocene industries are flake dominated (such as the Hoabinian culture).
2. The exploitation of animal teeth, bones, antlers, and ivory as raw materials, although they were available to Middle Palaeolithic humans, for the production of domestic or ritual tools and ornamentations, as well as for art objects. The presence of bone tools, although not in every East Asian site, facilitates today the recognition of their attribution to the Upper Palaeolithic (see Bone Tool Analysis). The only geographic and chronological exceptions are the rich assemblages of Howieson’s Poort in South Africa, and in particular the Bloombos Cave, generally dated to 80 000-60 000 years ago.
3. Systematic usage of body decorations including beads and pendants made from marine shells, teeth, ivory, and ostrich egg shells is recorded from both Europe, Western and Central Asia, and Africa, and is seen as communicating the social identity of individuals and their group. Again, the exception are the contexts of Howieson’s Poort, and the lack of cultural continuity within the following MSA assemblages can be interpreted as the lost body of knowledge by the inhabitants of this region.
4. Long-distance exchange networks for providing lithic raw materials and marine shells are recorded from distances of up to several hundred kilometers, and are consistently different from the shorter procurement ranges during the Middle Palaeolithic.
5. Although Middle Palaeolithic spears hafted with Levallois or other Mousterian points were recorded in a few instances, the Upper Palaeolithic period witnessed the invention of improved hunting tools such as spear throwers, and later bows and arrows and boomerangs. These devices facilitated targeting animals from longer distances and could have brought higher rates of hunting success.
6. Human and animal figurines, decorated and carved bone, antler, ivory, and stone objects are reported from many Upper Palaeolithic contexts. Representational, abstract, and realistic images, either painted or engraved, began to appear in caves, rockshelters, and exposed rocky surfaces by 36 000 years ago. The Franco-Cantabrian region differs from the rest of the Upper Palaeolithic world possibly due to two factors: first, the pressures faced by local hunter-gatherers interacting with newcomers moving to an area richer in food resources during harsher times (c. 40 000-12 000 years ago). Second, a cultural continuity from the Chiitelperronian-Aurignacian to later cultural entities.
7. Storage facilities often characterize sites in regions of the northern latitudes, where seasonal depletion of resources led modern humans to this invention.
8. Grinding tools appear during the Upper Palaeolithic in the subtropical belt and the Mediterranean-type vegetation, where plant food was always a major component of human diet. Unfortunately, knowledge concerning the exploitation of plant food during the Palaeolithic is limited due to poor preservation in most sites.
9. Hearths in Upper Palaeolithic sites, with or without the use of rocks for warmth banking and parching activities, are often recorded although variable types of hearths are known from the Middle Palaeolithic and MSA contexts.
10. Distinct functional spatial organization within habitations and hunting stations such as kitchen areas, butchering space, sleeping grounds, discard zones, and the like are relatively common in Upper Palaeolithic sites (see Spatial Analysis Within Households and Sites). These features reflect the social structure or a particular combination of members of the band such as males’ task group. Although a few Middle Palaeolithic and MSA sites disclosed somewhat similar arrays, the clearest spatial organization characterizes modern humans.
11. Finally, intentional burials, a few with some grave goods, were exposed in Middle Palaeolithic sites. Upper Palaeolithic sites rarely disclose burials, and those often incorporate offerings or body decorations such as the famous ones from Sungir (Russia). It seems that the paucity of burials is due to a change in mortuary practices, when the dead were buried outside the main living area, or left to rot in particular places. Hence, they are not found within the traditional confines of the archaeological excavations that often target the occupational horizons.
World History
