The Late Ice Age Europe¦ The Cro–Magnons (40¸000 to 15¸000 years ago)
The first fully modern Europeans are known to biological anthropologists as the Cro–Magnon's named after a rock shelter near the village of Les Eyzies in southwestern France. Anatomically¸ the Cro–Magnons are indistinguishable from ourselves, strongly built, large–headed people¸ whose appearance contrasts dramatically with that of their Neanderthal predecessors. The Cro–Magnons had settled in Southeast and central Europe by at least 40¸000 years ago¸ apparently near Neanderthal groups. Some of them had penetrated into the sheltered¸ deep river valleys of southwestern France by 35¸000 to 40¸000 years ago. By 30¸000 years ago¸ the Neanderthals had vanished and the density of Cro–Magnon settlement intensified considerably.
Subsistence
The Cro–Magnons entered Europe during a brief period of more temperate climate. Even then¸ climatic conditioned and seasonal contrasts may have been such as to require new artifacts and much more sophisticated hunting and foraging skills. These adaptations developed rapidly¸ indeed spectacularly¸ after 30¸000 years ago. It was during these millennia that Homo sapiens finally mastered winter¸ for it was in northern latitudes that human ingenuity and endurance were tested to the fullest. The Cro–Magnons of western and central Europe developed elaborate and sophisticated hunting cultures during this period. Their cultures were marked not only by many technological innovations¸ but by a flowering of religions and social life¸ reflected in one of the earliest art traditions in the world.
The center of these activities was away from the open plains¸ in the river valleys of southwestern France and northern Spain¸ and in parts of central Europe like the Danube Basin. Here¸ deep valleys supported lush summer meadows and a mix of open steppe and forest where cold tolerant animals ranging in size from the mammoth and bison to the wild horse and boar flourished. High cliffs often provided caves and rock shelters warmed by the winter sun. The area lay astride reindeer migration routes in spring and fall¸ while salmon ran up the fast running rivers. The Cro–Magnons may have migrated to open country during the short summer months concentrating in more sheltered river valleys from fall through spring. They hunted not only big game¸ but smaller animals such as arctic fox¸ beaver¸ rabbits¸ wolves¸ and many birds;they also gathered plant foods. After 16¸000 years ago¸ they also fished for salmon¸ trout¸ perch¸ and eels from rivers and streams.
The Cro–Magnons survived in a harsh and unpredictable environment not only because they were expert hunters and foragers¸ but because they had effective ways of keeping warm outside in the depth of winter and the ability to store large amounts of meat and other foods to tide them over lean periods. Above all¸ anyone living in the late Ice Age Europe had to be adaptable¸ capable of cooperating with others¸ and ready to grab opportunities to obtain food when they arose. Survival depended on diversification¸ on never concentrating on one or two animals to the exclusion of others.
For most of the year¸ the Cro–Magons lived in small groups¸ subsisting off a wide range of game and stored foods. The times when they came together in larger groups may have been in spring¸ summer¸ and early fall¸ when reindeer¸ and in later times¸ salmon¸ were abundant. This period of coming together was an important annual occasion¸ when social life was at its most intense. It was then that people arranged marriages¸ conducted initiation rites¸ and bartered raw materials¸ artifacts and other commodities with one another. Then¸ as winter closed in¸ the groups would disperse through the sheltered river valleys¸ returning to their stored foods and the small herds of game animals that also took refuge from the bitter winds.
Reindeer were vital to survival. At the Abri Pataud rock shelter near Les Eyzies in France's Dordogone¸ reindeer provided up to 30 percent of all prey for more than 10¸000 years. The hunters located their camps close to shallow river crossings where they knew migrating reindeer were likely to pass. This complex rhythm of reindeer hunting was but a part of a constant pattern of groups movements that persisted over many thousands of years. It survived for thousands of years from at least 32¸000 years ago right up to the end of the Ice Age¸ when the glaciers finally melted and dense forest spreads over the open plains and deep valleys of central and western Europe. Not that life stayed exactly the same through these many millennia¸ for climatic conditions changed constantly. The Cro–Magnons had an efficient and highly versatile tool kit and a wide range of food resources to choose from¸ so they could readily adjust to changing circumstances.
Cro Magnon Technology
Cro–Magnon technology was versatile¸ yet fundamentally very simple. It depended on four interrelated foundations.
Careful skeletons of fine–grained rock such as chert¸ flint¸ or obsidian for blade cores;
The production of relatively standardized¸ parallel–sided artifact blanks form these cores that could be used to make more specialized cutting¸ piercing¸ and scraping tools;
The refinement of the burin (engraving tool) which enable people to work antler and bone efficiently:
The use of the so–called groove and splinter techniquefor working antler and bone.
These technological innovations had a profound impact on the future course of human prehistory¸ for they were the material means by which humans adapted to the climatic extremes of Eurasia and Siberia. Late Ice Age stoneworkers everywhere were highly selective in their use of flint and other fine grained rock. The Cro–Magonos' primary objective was to produce blades¸ long¸ paralled–sided artifact blanks that could then be turned into a wide spectrum of specialized artifacts for hunting¸ for butchery and processing skins¸ for woodworking and clothing manufacture¸ and for the production of the raw materials needed to create specialized antler and bone tools in treeless environments. So great was Cro–Magnon concern for good toolmaking stone that they bartered it with neighbors considerable distances. Once procured¸ the precious raw materials were turned into carefully prepared blade cores that were carried around from one camp to the next. The cores were a kind a savings bank¸ an account of toolmaking stone used to produce tool blanks whenever they were needed. Thus¸ Cro–Magnon people were able to respond at a moment's notice to an opportunity to butcher an animal or to cut long slivers from fresh reindeer antlers.
The closest analogies in our own technology are the Leatherman and the Swiss army knife (or snap on mechanics tools). Both are multipurpose artifacts built on a strong chassis with a special spring system that enables the user to call on a wide variety of different tools¸ everything from a pair of scissors to pliers. The late Ice Age equivalents were the cores and the blades that came from them.
One important Cro–Magnon artifact was the burin¸ a delicate chisel for carving fine lines. The burin was used for woodworking¸ for cutting grooves in animal hides¸ for engraving designs on antler¸ bone¸ and cave walls¸ and above all¸ for cutting the long antler blanks for making artifacts of antler¸ bone¸ and ivory. Many of these were specialized tools like barbed points¸ mounted with foreshafts which snapped off when the spear entered its quarry. Some were important innovations¸ especially the eyed needle essential for making tailored winter clothes and the spear thrower¸a hooked and sometimes weighted device that extended the range and accuracy of hunting weapons. The same technology of fine–barbed antler head spears and stone barbed weapons could be used for hunting big game¸ as well as for taking salmon in shallow water¸ for dispatching rabbits¸ even for developing bows and arrows¸ which appeared some time during the late Ice Age.
The archaeological record reflects many refinements in Cro–Magnon technology over more that 15¸000 years. In the early years of this century¸ French archaeologist Henri Breuil classified the late Ice Age cultures of southwestern France into four basic cultural traditions that culminated in the celebrated Magdalenian culture of about 18¸000 to 12¸000 years ago. The Magdalenian¸ named after La Madeleine rock shelter on the Vezere River¸ was not only technologically sophisticated culture but one with a new concern for artistic expression and body ornamentation.
The World's First Art
The symbolic and ceremonial life of the Cro–Magnons was probably no more elaborate than that of their contemporaries known to have been painting in southern Africa and Australia at much the same time. However¸ it is the best known and most thoroughly explored. Fortunately¸ much has survived¸ for Cro–Magnon artists used cave walls as their canvas and durable antler and ivory¸ not wood and skins¸ as palettes.
The first appearance of cave art coincides with a new concern with body ornamentation¸ especially perforated carnivore teeth and sea shells. This explosion in body ornamentation probably coincided with realizations that such adornments could define and communicate social roles—gender¸ affiliation¸ and so on. Late Ice Age people mastered the ability to think in specific visual images¸ using them as well as chants¸recitations¸ and songs to share and communicate images and ideas. This resulted in complex and diverse art traditions that lasted for more than 20¸000 years.
The surviving Cro–Magnon art of Europe and Eurasia is but a minor proportion of their artistic output¸ for the artists almost certainly used many perishable materials—clay¸ other pigments as body paint¸ for decoration. The surviving art occurs over a vast area from North Africa to Siberia¸ with major concentrations in northern Spain¸southwestern animals and occasional humans¸ also schematic patters¦ lines¸ elaborate panels¸ and complex shapes. The same artists engraved antler¸ bone¸ and ivory with consummate skill. They created animals in the round¸ engraved bison with delicate strokes that etched ivory¸ soft stone¸ and baked clay¸ such as the celebrated Venus figurines that depict women of all ages.
Cro–Magnon art is full of compelling images¸ many of them concentrated in major sites such as Lascaux and Trois Fre´res in southwestern France¸ and Altmira in northern Spain. These may have been places of unusual religious and symbolic importance. They were ritual shrines¸ not only for local groups¸ but for people ceremonies. These are illustrated dramatically by Le Tuc d´ Audoubert Cave in Arie´ge¸ France¸ where two carefully modeled clay bison lie in a remote¸ low–ceilinged chamber far from the entrance¸ placed against a rock. The bison are about one–sixth the full size¸ shaped with with a skilled artist's fingers and a spatula¸ the eyes¸ nostrils¸ and other features marked with a pointed object. Ancient human heel marks can be seen around the figures in this remote and dark chamber. In many other caves¸ paintings and engravings are far from daylight. There are several instances in which the footprints of both adults and children are preserved in damp clay¸ perhaps left by small parties of initiates who attended ceremonies in remote subterranean chambers. Some caves may also have been chosen for their echoes and other resonant effects.
Upper Paleolithic art defies easy interpretation¸ for the symbolic messages it communicates come from a world that is remote from our own. Yet the paintings and engravings still seem to come alive and appear larger than life when seen by modern candlelight flickering in the intense darkness. Did the artists paint for art's sake¸ as some art historians and archaeologists allege? Or were they symbolically killing their prey before setting out in the chase? Such explanations are too simplistic¸ for we can be sure that the motivations for the art extended far beyond mere environmental and subsistence concerns.
Today¸ we know a great deal more about symbolic behavior and the art that goes with it¸ and much more about how forager societies function. In such societies¸ visual forms¸ are manipulated to structure and give meaning to existence. For Cro–Magnon artists¸ there were clearly continuities between animal and human life and with their social world. Thus¸ their art was a symbolic depiction of these continuities. Shamans¸ priests or sprit medium (the word comes from the Siberian Tungus word saman¸ meaning priest)¸ are important members of forager and subsistence farming societies all over the world. They are individuals perceived as having unusual spiritual powers¸ the ability to cross over into the world of the gods and ancestors. Through trance and chant¸ they would intercede with the ancestors and define the order of the world and the creation—the relationship between the living and the forces of the environment. Perhaps¸ argue some experts¸ much of the cave art was involved with shamanistic rituals¸ the animal figures being images of spirit creatures or the life force for the shamans.
Some of the art may also have been associated with initiation rites¸ the journey through dark passages adding to the disorienting ordeal of initiation. Almost certainly¸ the art was a way of transmitting environmental and other knowledge from one generation to the next. Australian Aborigines¸ for example¸ commit to memory vast quantities of information about their territory that is closely tied to the mythical and symbolic world of their ancestors. Much of this data is vital to survival¸ constantly impaired to the young in ceremonies and rituals.
