- Prehistoric Archaeology, Archaeological Method & Theory, Human Evolution, Rock Art (Archaeology), Palaeolithic Archaeology, Evolutionary Anthropology, and 28 morePaleolithic Europe, Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition, Upper Paleolithic, Middle Stone Age (Archaeology), Mousterian, Early Upper Paleolithic technocomplex (Archaeology), Aurignacian, Palaeolithic Art, Mammoth Ivory, Tool Technology, Myths and Symols, Symbolism, Symbolic Anthropology (Anthropology), Symbology, Palaeolithic personal ornaments, Hard Animal Material Industry, Bone Tools, Bone and Antler, Personal Ornaments In Prehistory, Paleolithic, Ivory and bone technology, Middle Palaeolithic, Upper Palaeolithic, Paleolithic Art, Philosophy Of Language, Cognitive Linguistics, Theory of Mind, and Cognitive Scienceedit
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Research Interests: History, Archaeology, Geology, Aurignacian, Quaternary, and 4 moreCave, Ornaments, Mammoth, and The Symbolic
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Orientation in space and time is one of the most fundamental parameters of human life. In addition to the difference between day and night or the changing seasons, since ancient times people have found ways and means to measure the... more
Orientation in space and time is one of the most fundamental parameters of human life. In addition to the difference between day and night or the changing seasons, since ancient times people have found ways and means to measure the passage of time and to predict events. For this purpose, recurring astronomical events were observed, noted, and finally calculated. Impressive evidence of this can be found dating from the Neolithic period and the early civilizations around the world. But how far can such observations and calculations be traced back in human history? Since there are no written records or temple buildings from the Paleolithic, unambiguous evidence is rare. But the people of the last Ice Age, especially the Upper Paleolithic, left behind numerous works of art that point to observations and calculations of astronomical cycles and phenological calendars. Humans have been observing the moon for at least 40,000 years and have derived rhythms from it, as shown by several objects from the Aurignacian period. The path of the sun is more difficult to determine, but there is evidence that people used natural markers, such as cave entrances or rocks, to determine its course over a year. After all, one must also assume that people observed the night sky and, like later cultures, saw the regularities in it and created their myths according to it. This chapter aims to present possible examples of astronomical observations in the Paleolithic. The question of which basic social requirements must be met in order to carry out more complex astronomical observations should serve for discussing the plausibility of the examples presented. These and other examples, although they do not allow for a complete picture, give interesting insights into cosmologies of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers and their relation to time.
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ABSTRACT
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In the Paleolithic, geometric signs are abundant. They appear in rock art as well as on mobile objects like artworks, tools, or personal ornaments. These signs are often interpreted as a reflection of symbolic thought and associated with... more
In the Paleolithic, geometric signs are abundant. They appear in rock art as well as on mobile objects like artworks, tools, or personal ornaments. These signs are often interpreted as a reflection of symbolic thought and associated with the origin of cognitively modern behavior. SignBase is a project collecting the wealth of geometric signs on mobile objects in the European Upper Paleolithic, African Middle Stone Age (MSA), as well as selected sites from the Near East and South East Asia. Currently, more than 500 objects of the Aurignacian techno-complex (ca. 43,000 to 30,000 years BP) are registered in SignBase. They are linked to information about geographic and archaeological provenience, the type of object and material, size and preservation, and respective literature references. We identify around 30 different sign types found on these objects across Europe in the Aurignacian and illustrate how SignBase can be used to analyze geographical clusters. Ultimately, we aim to enable...
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In the Paleolithic, geometric signs are abundant. They appear in rock art as well as on mobile objects like artworks, tools, or personal ornaments. These signs are often interpreted as a reflection of symbolic thought and associated with... more
In the Paleolithic, geometric signs are abundant. They appear in rock art as well as on mobile objects like artworks, tools, or personal ornaments. These signs are often interpreted as a reflection of symbolic thought and associated with the origin of cognitively modern behavior. SignBase is a project collecting the wealth of geometric signs on mobile objects in the European Upper Paleolithic, African Middle Stone Age (MSA), as well as selected sites from the Near East and South East Asia. Currently, more than 500 objects of the Aurignacian techno-complex (ca. 43,000 to 30,000 years BP) are registered in SignBase. They are linked to information about geographic and archaeological provenience, the type of object and material, size and preservation, and respective literature references. We identify around 30 different sign types found on these objects across Europe in the Aurignacian and illustrate how SignBase can be used to analyze geographical clusters. Ultimately, we aim to enable quantitative analyses of abstract graphical expression before the emergence of writing.
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The region of the eastern Swabian Jura is particularly known for the earliest evidence of figurative art in the Aurignacian around 43 to 35,000 years ago (Conard and Bolus, 2003, 21; Conard and Bolus, 2008; Higham et al., 2012; Kind,... more
The region of the eastern Swabian Jura is particularly known for the earliest evidence of figurative art in the Aurignacian around 43 to 35,000 years ago (Conard and Bolus, 2003, 21; Conard and Bolus, 2008; Higham et al., 2012; Kind, 2014, this volume; Wolf, 2014, this volume). This paper will focus especially on four caves: the Geissenklösterle and the Hohle Fels Cave in the Ach Valley, and the Hohlenstein-Stadel and the Vogelherd Cave in the Lone Valley (see Conard, 2014, Figure 1, this volume). All four sites have yielded figurative art, usually in the form of animal figurines, but also representations of humans and hybrids are known. First excavated by Gustav Riek in 1931 in the Vogelherd Cave and published in 1934 (Riek, 1934), the Swabian Aurignacian figurines are mentioned in every summary of European Palaeolithic art. That these pieces represent the world’s oldest figurative art so far was not always accepted in the scientific community. The aesthetic quality and elaborate w...
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Animal depictions in the Paleolithic art of Central Europe are a widespread phenomenon. Unlike other regions of Europe, very few examples of parietal art are known, most of which are debatable. Instead, there is a long continuity of... more
Animal depictions in the Paleolithic art of Central Europe are a widespread phenomenon. Unlike other regions of Europe, very few examples of parietal art are known, most of which are debatable. Instead, there is a long continuity of portable art, beginning with the ivory figures of the Swabian Aurignacian cave sites, and followed by the figures of ivory and burnt clay in the open-air sites of the Pavlovian. With the Magdalenian, major changes are apparent. Animals were depicted on a wide range of media using different raw materials. In contrast to the three-dimensional statuettes from the previous techno-complexes, in the Magdalenian engravings on slate plates dominate, most of which come from the open-air sites of Gönnersdorf and Andernach (Germany). While great herbivores and carnivores are the dominant themes in the Aurignacian and Pavlovian, in the Magdalenian horses and mammoths are the most frequently depicted species. A comparison with the faunal material of some of the sites where the portable art originates shows that it was not the animals that were used for daily survival that were represented in the art, therefore the species that are represented in the art must have been selected for other reasons.
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In the Paleolithic, geometric signs are abundant. they appear in rock art as well as on mobile objects like artworks, tools, or personal ornaments. These signs are often interpreted as a reflection of symbolic thought and associated with... more
In the Paleolithic, geometric signs are abundant. they appear in rock art as well as on mobile objects like artworks, tools, or personal ornaments. These signs are often interpreted as a reflection of symbolic thought and associated with the origin of cognitively modern behavior. SignBase is a project collecting the wealth of geometric signs on mobile objects in the European Upper Paleolithic, african Middle Stone age (MSa), as well as selected sites from the Near East and South East asia. Currently, more than 500 objects of the Aurignacian techno-complex (ca. 43,000 to 30,000 years BP) are registered in SignBase. they are linked to information about geographic and archaeological provenience, the type of object and material, size and preservation, and respective literature references. We identify around 30 different sign types found on these objects across Europe in the Aurignacian and illustrate how SignBase can be used to analyze geographical clusters. Ultimately, we aim to enable quantitative analyses of abstract graphical expression before the emergence of writing.
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"This article is published in the proceedings of the conference: Le Paléolithique supérieur ancien de l'Europe du Nord-Ouest: Réflexions et synthèses à partir d'un projet collectif de recherche sur le centre et le sud du Bassin parisien:... more
"This article is published in the proceedings of the conference: Le Paléolithique supérieur ancien de l'Europe du Nord-Ouest: Réflexions et synthèses à partir d'un projet collectif de recherche sur le centre et le sud du Bassin parisien: Actes du colloque de Sens (15-18 avril 2009).
It summarizes the current state of research (in 2009, with some additions) of the early Upper Paleolithic in southern Burgundy (primarily the Dep. Saône-et-Loire, France). This region is situated between the Saône valley and the Morvan mountains on the Rhone-Rhine axis, a major corridor of movement in the Upper Paleolithic. "
It summarizes the current state of research (in 2009, with some additions) of the early Upper Paleolithic in southern Burgundy (primarily the Dep. Saône-et-Loire, France). This region is situated between the Saône valley and the Morvan mountains on the Rhone-Rhine axis, a major corridor of movement in the Upper Paleolithic. "
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Research Interests: Palaeolithic Archaeology, Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition, Upper Paleolithic, Middle Palaeolithic, Middle Paleolithic, and 4 morePaleolithic Archaeology, Upper Palaeolithic, Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition, and Palaeolithic Europe, Palaeolithic archaeology, Mesolithic archaeology, Prehistoric transitions, Environmental archaeology, Archaeozoology, Pleistocene fauna, Palaeoclimate, Refugia and recolonisation, Spatial analysis, Palaeolithic art and symbolism
Depuis les recherches conduites au cours de la seconde moitié du XIX e siècle, le sud de la Bourgogne constitue une région clé pour l'étude du Paléolithique supérieur ancien. Si cette région est largement citée dans la littérature, il est... more
Depuis les recherches conduites au cours de la seconde moitié du XIX e siècle, le sud de la Bourgogne constitue une région clé pour l'étude du Paléolithique supérieur ancien. Si cette région est largement citée dans la littérature, il est néanmoins manifeste que des données demandent à être complétées, tant du point de vue du cadre chronologique – relatif et absolu – que du cadre tech-nologique. Dans la continuité des recherches amorcée par A. Arcelin, puis consolidées par J. Combier, un groupe de recherche de l'université de Tübingen a entrepris, sous la direction de H. Floss, de nouvelles études sur le Paléolithique supérieur depuis le milieu des années 1990. Le présent article introduit des données synthétiques sur le Paléolithique supérieur ancien du sud de la Bourgogne et présente les axes futurs de la recherche. Respectant une perspective chronologique, ce sont successivement les données sur le Châtelperronien, l'Aurignacien lato sensu et le Gravettien qui sont exposées. Une attention particulière est accordée au Châtelperronien de la grotte de la Verpillière, à Germolles. Pour les périodes plus récentes, le site de Solutré ainsi que plusieurs gisements du Chalonnais, dont la grotte de la Verpillière et le complexe des sites en plein air de Saint-Martin-sous-Montaigu, permet-tent d'introduire de nouvelles données et réflexions. Très récemment, enfin, des découvertes de surface repérées par J. Duriaud dans le Tournugeois apportent un nouvel éclairage sur nos connaissances régionales. L'objectif du groupe de recherche de Tübingen est donc d'intégrer l'ensemble de ces données et de proposer de nouveaux cadres de référence pour l'étude du Paléolithique supérieur ancien bourguignon.
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In diesem Buch widmet sich die Autorin geometrischen Zeichen, die auf den ältesten figürlichen Kunstwerken der Menschheit zu finden sind. Die Objekte stammen aus den Höhlen der Schwäbischen Alb und sind rund 40.000 Jahre alt. Eine... more
In diesem Buch widmet sich die Autorin geometrischen Zeichen, die auf den ältesten figürlichen Kunstwerken der Menschheit zu finden sind. Die Objekte stammen aus den Höhlen der Schwäbischen Alb und sind rund 40.000 Jahre alt. Eine Vorstellung des Fundmaterials, symboltheoretische Überlegungen zur Funktion abstrakter Motive in frühen Gesellschaften, sowie ein bebilderter Katalog geben einen umfassenden Einblick in eine bedeutende Stufe menschlicher Kulturentwicklung.