Prologue
Spanish landowner Marcellino de Sautuola had a casual interest in archaeology. He had visited an exhibit in Paris of some of the fine stone tools French caves. In 1875¸ he decided to dig for some artifacts of his own in the caverns of Altamira on his estate. Sautuola's 5–year–old daughter¸ Maria¸ begged for the chance to dig with him so he good–naturedly agreed. Maria soon tired of the muddy work and wandered off with a flickering lantern into a low side chamber of the cave. Suddenly he cries of “Toros! Toros!”(“Bulls! Bulls!”). Maria pointed excitedly at brightly painted figures of bison and a charging boar on the low ceiling. Daughter and father marveled at the fresh paintings¸ arranged so cleverly around bulge in the rock that they seemed to move in the flickering light.
Sautuola was convinced the paintings had been executed by the same people who had dropped stone tools in the cave, But the experts laughed at him and accused the marquis of smuggling an artist into Altamira to forge the bison. It was not until 1904 that the long– dead Spaniard was vindicated when some paintings with strong stylistic links to Altamira came to light in a French cave that had been sealed since the prehistoric artists had worked there. Clearly¸ whoever had painted on the cave walls at Altamira was s far cry from Homo habills¸ the earliest known toolmaker.
Something dramatic happened to humanity about 50¸000 to 60¸000 years ago. Suddenly¸ the place of human life¸ of cultural evolution ¸ accelerated rapidly. Some scientists have called these changes a “cultural explosion¸” but a better term is probably a series of “sparks¸” where there was rapid cultural change in one area but not in others.One such spark was the development of new stone technologies in southwest Asia by 50¸000 years ago¸ another the first appearance in Europe about 40¸000 years ago¸ a third the first settlement of Australia by 35¸000 years ago. Only after about 30¸000 years ago¸ during the late Ice Age¸ did rapidly cultural change take hold in all parts of the world. These are the events that describes the rapidly late Ice Age world of about 50¸000 to 15¸000 years ago. This section will show how humans first adapted to extreme arctic climates and developed highly specialized forager cultures that subsisted off cold–loving animals such as the mammoth and steppe bison. We discuss¸ also¸ the radiation of Homo sapiens throughout the Old World¸ and then turn to one of the most controversial subjects in modern archaeology–the first settlement of the Americas.
Archaeologist Steven Mithen believes that the new types of behavior associated with the cultural explosion resulted from the development of full cognitive fluidity. Some 50¸000 years ago¸ human beings developed new connections between previously isolated mental domains—environmental¸ technical¸ and social intelligence¸ knocking down the walls between chapels of the metaphorical cathedral refereed in the Human Origins part of this web site. One consequence was much more sophisticated social relations; another was visual symbolism¸ the development of art as a means of expression and communication. As the great cave paintings of western France show¸ humankind now had the ability to bring the natural and social worlds together in a seamless synthesis that is characteristic of many human societies¸ whether hunter—gathers or farmers¸ to this day. The evolution of cognitive fluidity gave Homo sapiens sapiens¸ spreading throughout the world after 45¸000 years ago¸ perhaps earlier¸ a competitive edge over resident earlier human populations. With their superior intellectual capabilities¸ they pushed earlier populations into extinction, perhaps occasionally interbreeding with them. Once the move toward cognitive fluidity began¸ there was no stopping the process. However¸ by 30¸000 years ago¸ the final step on the path to full modernity had been taken everywhere.
