The Upper Paleolithic Revolution

Anatomically modern humans first emerged around 100,000 years ago. However, thereafter there seems to have followed a period of around 60,000 years when the lifestyle of the modern humans changed little from that of their predecessors. It was not till around 40,000 years ago that the archaeological record reveals the emergence of technical and social advances which a modern human can understand as fundamentally like our own. This dramatic change is known as the Upper Palaeolithic Revolution. The revolution comprised new technologies, hunting techniques, human burials and an artistic tradition of astonishing competency.

New stone tools of this period include the blade; a flake-like tool twice as long as it is wide. Replication has shown that blades require a high level of skill to make, due to their shape, indicating a higher level of hominid complexity. At the same time, an elaborate bone technology was developed including the use of composite tools, such as harpoons (Klein, 1989).

With stone tools we are fortunate that they often survive intact, but typology and reconstruction of perishable materials would at first seem a practical impossibility. However, in just a few fortunate instances, we have been able to make casts by pouring plaster or similar materials into hollows, which have revealed the form of long decayed implements. This technique was used successfully at Abric Romani in Northern Spain to cast a pointed stick, which had been sharpened by one of our ancestors over 50,000 years ago. Of course in this instance it didn't show much other than that a stick had been sharpened, but the technique will undoubtedly prove invaluable one day.

Ecofacts such as evidence of changing populations and extinction events in other species can be cited of evidence of modern humanity's impact on the environment. If we consider that 33 of North America's total of 55 large mammalian genera became extinct shortly after the arrival of modern humans to that continent 100,000 years ago, then it is plain to see that a connection, between the two events, while not proven is distinctly possible. Colin Tudge believes it significant that, "The large mammals that survived the advent of human beings were largely of Eurasian origin. In other words, they were accustomed to human beings: they had already been hunted by them for tens of thousands of years."

We can also look at symbolism in art and equate that with the symbolic nature of language. The fossil record of artistic symbolism in humans doesn't run further back than 50,000 years ago, so perhaps, as Alan Walker argues, language doesn't either.

At Paviland Cave, on the Gower peninsula in Wales (an Upper Palaeolithic site, dating to around 30,000 - 20,000 years ago), the ceremonial burial of a young male, dated to 26,350 +/- 550 years ago provides fine evidence of a new aesthetic sensibility. Grave goods include perforated seashells and artefacts of mammoth ivory (rods, bracelets and a pendant). The corpse was also covered with ochre at the time of burial.
Randall White, of the Department of Anthropology, New York University investigated the large quantity of personal ornaments, including ivory and stone beads, animal teeth and ivory rings and pendants recovered by André Leroi-Gourhan from the grotte du Renne at Arcy-sur-Cure in central France. He and others used them as ammunition for debates surrounding Neanderthal symbolic capacities and relationships between Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal populations around 35,000 years ago. The crux of White's argument is that Neanderthals made these ornaments. If the Neanderthal was capable of symbolic expression, then this ability is most unlikely to be the 'edge' that Cro-Magnon people had over their Neanderthal neighbours.

Lastly, the first deliberate remains appear in the record. The cave paintings at Lascaux on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees reveal for the first time an aesthetically modern human. Whatever their direct purpose, be it worship, teaching, decoration or ritual magic, the execution reveals artistic flair and creativity. Analysis of the charcoal used to mark the walls can date the pictures; understanding of what animals are depicted tells us about the environment; colour coding may even show us something about what they thought of the animals; but ultimately, we feel we understand the impulse to create works like this and so when we discover them we feel we have unassailable evidence for the emergence of truly modern humans.

Chris Brown

The Upper Paleolithic Revolution

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