- Aurignacian
Aurignacian is the name of a culture of the
Upper Palaeolithic located inEurope and southwestAsia . It dates to between 32,000 and 26,000 BC. The name originates from thetype site ofAurignac in theHaute Garonne area ofFrance . The Aurignacian culture is considered by somearchaeologist s to have co-existed with thePérigordian culture of tool making.Main characteristics
Worked bone points with grooves cut in the bottom and some of the earliest
cave art were produced by the Aurignacian culture bearers. 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 madependant s,bracelet s andivory beads, they also made three-dimensional figurines to ornament themselves. The Aurignacian tool industry is characterized by complex art, which includes figurines depicting faunal representations of the time period associated with extinct mammals, including mammoths, rhinos, and the European horse along with anthropomorphized depictions that could be inferred as some of the earliest evidence of religion.Bâtons de commandement are also found at their sites. This sophistication and self-awareness leads some archaeologists to consider the makers of Aurignacian artefacts the first modern humans in Europe. Human remains and Aurignacian artifacts originally found at
Cro-Magnon inFrance indicate that the culture wasmodern human rather thanNeanderthal . That was not true and was discovered by directly dating human remains. [ [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v430/n6996/full/nature02690.html Unexpectedly recent dates for human remains from Vogelherd] ] [ [http://www.urgeschichte.uni-tuebingen.de/fileadmin/downloads/Conard/vogelherdNature04.pdf Unexpectedly recent dates for human remains from Vogelherd] ] The AMHuman bones are quite recent 3.9–5.0 kya.In June 2007, a 35,000 year old figurine of a
mammoth was discovered in the Vogelherd cave in south-westernGermany . [ [http://www.ice-age-art.de/anfaenge_der_kunst/vogelherd.php Finds from the Vogelherd cave] ] Currently being studied by theUniversity of Tübingen , the figurine details the once intricate and complex artistic qualities by the inhabitants of Aurignacian culture.Tools
Stone tools from the Aurignacian culture are known as Mode 4, characterised by blades (rather than flakes, typical of mode 2Acheulean and mode 3Mousterian ) from prepared cores. Also seen throughout the upper paleolithic is a greater degree of tool standardisation and the use ofbone andantler for tools such as needles andharpoons .references
ee also
*
Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures
*Ksar Akil External links
* [http://www.iabrno.cz/agalerie/aagalery.htm Picture Gallery of the Paleolithic (reconstructional palaeoethnology)] , Libor Balák at the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Archaeology in Brno, The Center for Paleolithic and Paleoethnological Research
* [http://aurignacien.de/index.php The Aurignacian and the Origins of Art in Europe]
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