The History of the Gravettian Culture

During the Upper Palaeolithic period in Europe, the continent saw the rise and fall of many different regionally distinct groups known in archaeology as ‘cultures’. These cultures are usually named after the location where tools or buildings were first found for a new culture. The Gravettian culture is named after the site of La Gravette in the Dordogne in France.

A general techno-complex, scholars are unclear on the origins of the Gravettian culture. It is thought that they may have originated outside Europe and then spread with the more modern human population. Some scholars believe that the Gravettian culture originated within the later native Aurignacian, in all probability in central Europe.

This culture lasted from at least 29,000 years ago to around 21,000 years ago. In some parts, it survived to a much later date, down to around 14,000 years ago when it is known as the Epigravettian.

When the Gravettian culture first appeared, it did so after the severe conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) came to an end. It was at this time when there was a rise of behavioural innovations, “such as semi-sedentism, elaborate burial, and projectile technology, which separate it from the early Upper Palaeolithic Aurignacian”.

The Gravettian culture represents subsistence innovations, burial customs, landscape organisation, the beginnings of art, projectile technology and other non-utilitarian elements of human behaviour. It has been suggested as a golden age. The Gravettian had developed prismatic blade technology as well as an array of points, many bearing steep backing (blunting) to assist in hafting. Due to finds of small dimensioned weapon tips, some scholars believe that the bow and arrow may have been invented at this time (although it should be stressed that this is still unproven).

There are a number of locations throughout Europe which may be recognised as to belonging to the Gravettian, especially in the Middle Upper Palaeolithic era. This seems to suggest large-scale population movements due to environmental changes. Southwest France has yielded many rich Gravettian sites.

In central Europe, especially Moravia (in the Czech Republic) and Slovakia, archaeologists have discovered many early Gravettian settlements. These are found along such rivers as the Dyje, where they were occupied for a number of months of the year. At site complexes such as Pavlov and Dolni Vestonice I and II in Moravia “have yielded hundreds of bones of mammoth, bison, and reindeer, and complex patterning of artefacts suggestive of highly organised campsites. At both site complexes, simple firing of loess (silt) obtained from the banks of the Dyje, either deliberately, or accidently, has left us impressions of sophisticated cordage, basketry, and textiles dating to as early as 27,000 years ago”.

Mobiliary art (mobile art produced during the Upper Palaeolithic era) has been found in abundance throughout Europe, suggesting that it was important for this activity in the context of climatic deterioration towards the LGM. Cave paintings and engravings continued at this time and more importantly, the iconic ‘Venus’ figurines which may depict the earliest portrayal of a deity or Mother Goddess, were produced.

Understanding and studying the Gravettian culture is an important task for historians, anthropologists and archaeologists, for it is this time when modern man began to come into his own and help establish the great cultures found all across Europe and the world.

Bibliography:

Pettitt, Paul (2005) The Human Past – The Rise of Modern Humans, Thames & Hudson, London.

An Overview on Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Sites in Central Asia

Until the 1930s there were no identified Palaeolithic or Mesolithic sites in Central Asia. However, we know that by the Late Neolithic, around the beginning of the third millennium BCE, the region began to be settled. This is confirmed by such sites as Anau, which has close cultural associations with the Middle East.

After the 1930s, Russian archaeologists started to document their findings. In the Termez region of Uzbekistan, excavations began under the guidance of AM. E. Masson, Leader of the Termez Archaeological Expedition. At Old Termez they found flint artefacts and port shards consisting of Anau I. They then found another Stone Age site near Aira-tama, a small town east of Old Termez.

It was in the Baisun-Tau region that archaeologists discovered “large number of caves test-pits revealed evidence of occupation only during historic times, but at six localities the existence of prehistoric cultural levels has been reported. These are as fol-lows: Zarangat-Gut, Dukan-Khan, Temir-Ul'de, Kurgan-Dar'ia, Amir-Temir and Teshik-Tash.3 The latter site, which was finally selected, was completely excavated during the 1938 and 1939 seasons. A small-scale dig was also undertaken at Amir-Temir, a cave in the Baisun region not far from Teshik-Tash”.

The Mousterian cave site, excavated in 1938- 1939, is the first Palaeolithic site to be scientifically excavated in Central Asia and one of the most important. Situated around 90 miles from Samarkand, it is situated in a very narrow canyon-like gorge. It was inhabited for five continuous occasions, the culture layers being “separated from each other by sterile layers of clay, sand, and coarse silt laid down during intervals when the cave was flooded with water”.

The Cultural Layer I (B) has the richest occupation layer with a reported Neanderthal child’s burial (aged eight or nine) with a ring of Siberian Mountain Goat horns. In each of the Cultural Layers, archaeologists found goats horns. They show that the “artefacts of Mousterian hunters indicate temporary periods of habitation separated by times when Teshik-Tash was vacated and depositionary processes were active”.

Archaeologists have also discovered a few flint implements, including several end-scrapers and one or two small retouched blades in western Turkmenistan, indicating that this region was moderately densely occupied during Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic periods.

The Central Asian region has been largely ignored by archaeologists studying the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods; instead it is the Middle East that draws scholars. However, scholars are just learning that this part of Central Asia holds a wealth of knowledge on the cultures that lived in this region so long ago.

Bibliography:

Movius Jnr., Hallam L. (1953) Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Sites in Soviet Central Asia, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, American Philosophical Society.

Ulalinka: the Oldest Palaeolithic Site in Siberia

Siberia is a land which is often overlooked in history and archaeology. This is such a shame as there are many wonderful sites and archaeological discoveries to be found. The oldest Palaeolithic site in Siberia is Ulalinka.

Ulalinka was discovered in 1961 and is situated on the right tributary of the Maima River, on the left side of the Ulalinka below the cemetery of Gorny Altaisk. The site is located on the edge of the Iogola Ridge, which is composed of flint limestone, quartzite and other rock material dating from the late Proterozoic Age.

The site has two cultural layers that were exposed to the ridge as well as well as in a pit in the hilltop dug to a depth of 5.8 meters. “This section’s strata differ in genesis and form three informal units. In one of the pits walls this section was as follows: (1) modern black soil, 0.70 m; (2) grey-brownish loam with worm tunnels and roots of vegetation, 0.3 m; (3) loessy light grey loam with columnar parting and lime nodules, 0.3 m; and (4) loessy light brown loam with lime nodules, 0.4 m”. Confirmed by finds of molluscs, these four layers make up a typical late Quaternary loam unit.

The first cultural layer is found on the lower part of this loam unit, which then proceeds with lumpy brown clay, 0.45 m, then brown clay with iron hydrates, followed by yellowish brown clay with crushed stone. These particular layers and make up the middle section and indicates, along with the general appearance of the loan unit, a much earlier Quaternary age.

The upper cultural layer has yielded a vast array of archaeological artefacts, particularly Palaeolithic implements. Some of these include a few flakes, fragments of a prismatic core, a point, and a small scraper of a semi-lunar blade made of obsidian. These tools are from an age younger then the Sartan glaciation, which is less than 25,000 years ago.

One of the interesting things about this site is the fact that the stoning inventory and the way the tools were manufactured are not only so primitive, but they are so peculiar that they do not belong in the usual classification of the Lower Palaeolithic typology. Even the classic western European nomenclature schemes cannot be applied here.

The archaeological data was enough to date the site, however geological, paleogeographical paleontological methods were used as well. These methods by did not produce a common date; some scholars believe the site be no more than 40,000 years old, others dated it to the Middle Pleistocene, whilst others believed to it today from the Early Pleistocene. “A further group of scholars assigned it to the Late Pliocene on the basis of paleogeographical environments and lithology of the cultural layer”. However, we know now that the site itself is definitely more than 690,000 years old, making Ulalinka the oldest Palaeolithic site in Siberia.

Bibliography:

Okladnikov, A. L. & Pospelova, G. A. (1982) Ulalinka, the Oldest Palaeolithic Site in Siberia, Current Anthropology, The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.