(sometimes lowercase) Anthropology. of, relating to, or characteristic of the last phase of the Stone Age, marked by the domestication of animals, the development of agriculture, and the manufacture of pottery and textiles: commonly thought to have begun c b.c. in the Middle East.
Compare , .
(usually lowercase) belonging to or remaining passé.
preneolithic, adjective
UnabridgedBased on the Random House Dictionary, (C) Random House, Inc. 2015.
British Dictionary definitions for
the cultural period that lasted in SW Asia from about 9000 to 6000 bc and in Europe from about 4000 to 2400 bc and was characterized by primitive crop growing and stock rearing and the use of polished stone and flint tools and weapons
relating to this period
See also ,
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition (C) William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd.
(C) HarperCollinsPublishers , , ,
Word Origin and History for
"pertaining to the later Stone Age," 1865, coined by John Lubbock, later Baron Avebury, () from
Online Etymology Dictionary, (C) 2010 Douglas Harper
in Science Expand
(nē'?-l?th'?k)
The period of human culture that began around 10,000 years ago in the Middle East and later in other parts of the world. It is characterized by the beginning of farming, the domestication of animals, the development of crafts such as pottery and weaving, and the making of polished stone tools. The Neolithic Period is generally considered to end for any particular region with the introduction of metalworking, writing, or other developments of urban civilization. Also called
New Stone Age. Compare , Paleolithic.
The American Heritage(R) Science DictionaryCopyright (C) 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Nearby words for neolithicFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Paleolithic (A British spelling: Palaeolithic; pronunciation:
or ) Age, Era or Period is a prehistoric
distinguished by the development of the most primitive
discovered ('s Modes I and II), and covers roughly 95% of human technological . It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools, probably by
such as , 2.6 million years ago, to the end of the
around 10,000 .
The Paleolithic era is followed by the . The date of the Paleolithic—Mesolithic boundary may vary by locality as much as several thousand years. During the Paleolithic period, humans grouped together in small societies such as , and subsisted by gathering plants and fishing, hunting or scavenging wild animals. The Paleolithic is characterized by the use of
, although at the time humans also used
tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools, inclu however, due to their nature, these have not been preserved to any great degree. Surviving artifacts of the Paleolithic era are known as . Humankind gradually evolved from early members of the genus
such as  – who used simple stone tools – into fully behaviorally and anatomically modern humans () during the Paleolithic era. During the end of the Paleolithic, specifically the Middle and or Upper Paleolithic, humans began to produce the earliest works of art and engage in religious and spiritual behavior such as burial and ritual. The
during the Paleolithic consisted of a set of glacial and
in which the climate periodically fluctuated between warm and cool temperatures.
The term "" was coined by archaeologist
in 1865. It derives from Greek: , palaios, "old"; and , lithos, "stone", meaning "old age of the stone" or "Old ."
Main article:
This section requires . (November 2014)
This , of , a
predecessor to
and possibly , dates to sometime between 500,000 and 400,000 BP.
Human evolution is the part of biological
concerning the emergence of
as a distinct species.
Main articles: ,
The Paleolithic climate consisted of a set of glacial and interglacial periods.
The Paleolithic Period coincides almost exactly with the
epoch of geologic time, which lasted from 2.6 million years ago to about 12,000 years ago. This epoch experienced important geographic and climatic changes that affected human societies.
During the preceding , continents had continued to
from possibly as far as 250 km from their present locations to positions only 70 km from their current location.
became linked to North America through the , bringing a nearly complete end to South America's distinctive
fauna. The formation of the Isthmus had major consequences on global temperatures, because warm
ocean currents were cut off, and the cold Arctic and Antarctic waters lowered temperatures in the now-isolated . Most of
formed during the Pliocene to connect the continents of North and South America, allowing fauna from these continents to leave their native habitats and colonize new areas. 's collision with
created the , cutting off the remnants of the . During the , the modern
were essentially at the the
on which they sit have probably moved at most 100 km from each other since the beginning of the period.
Climates during the Pliocene became cooler and drier, and seasonal, similar to modern climates.
grew on . The formation of an Arctic ice cap around three million years ago is signaled by an abrupt shift in
ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North
beds. Mid-latitude
probably began before the end of the epoch. The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of
climate was characterized by repeated glacial cycles during which
pushed to the 40th
in some places. Four major glacial events have been identified, as well as many minor intervening events. A major event is a general glacial excursion, termed a "glacial". Glacials are separated by "interglacials". During a glacial, the glacier experiences minor advances and retreats. The minor excursion is a "stadial"; times between stadials are "interstadials". Each glacial advance tied up huge volumes of water in continental ice sheets
m deep, resulting in temporary sea level drops of 100 m or more over the entire surface of the Earth. During interglacial times, such as at present, drowned coastlines were common, mitigated by isostatic or other emergent motion of some regions.
Many great mammals such as , , and
inhabited places like Siberia during the Pleistocene.
hunting a . Glyptodons were hunted to extinction within two millennia after humans' arrival to South America.
The effects of glaciation were global.
was ice-bound throughout the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene. The
were covered in the south by the
ice cap. There were glaciers in
and . The now decaying glaciers of , , and the
in east and central Africa were larger. Glaciers existed in the mountains of
and to the west in the . In the northern hemisphere, many glaciers fused into one. The
covered the North A the
covered the east. The Fenno-Scandian ice sheet covered northern , the Alpine ice sheet covered the Alps. Scattered domes stretched across
and the Arctic shelf. The northern seas were frozen. During the late Upper Paleolithic (Latest Pleistocene) c. 18,000 BP, the
land bridge between
was blocked by ice, which
such as the
from directly crossing Beringa to reach the Americas.
According to
(through collected data), the Pleistocene's overall climate could be characterized as a continuous
in the south
weakening or heading east, warm air rising near , warm water spreading from the west Pacific and the
to the east Pacific, and other El Ni?o markers.
The Paleolithic is often held to finish at the end of the ice age (the end of the Pleistocene epoch), and Earth's climate became warmer. This may have caused or contributed to the extinction of the , although it is also possible that the late
were (at least in part) caused by other factors such as disease and overhunting by humans. New research suggests that the extinction of the
may have been caused by the combined effect of climatic change and human hunting. Scientists suggest that climate change during the end of the
caused the mammoths' habitat to shrink in size, resulting in a drop in population. The small populations were then hunted out by Paleolithic humans. The global warming that occurred during the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the
may have made it easier for humans to reach mammoth habitats that were previously frozen and inaccessible. Small populations of wooly mammoths survived on isolated Arctic islands,
and , till circa 3700 and 1700 BCE respectively. The Wrangel Island population went extinct around the same time the island was settled by prehistoric humans. There's no evidence of prehistoric human presence on Saint Paul island (though early human settlements dating as far back as 6500 BCE were found on nearby ).
Currently agreed upon classifications as Paleolithic geoclimatic episodes
10,000 years
Flandrian interglacial
Flandriense
Mellahiense
Versiliense
80,000 years
Devensiense
Regresión
Regresión
140,000 years
Sangamoniense
Ipswichiense
Tirreniense II y III
200,000 years
Wolstoniense
Regresión
Regresión
450,000 years
Yarmouthiense
Anfatiense
Tirreniense I
580,000 years
Regresión
Regresión
750,000 years
Aftoniense
Cromeriense
Maarifiense
Siciliense
1,100,000 years
Beestoniense
Regresión
Regresión
1,400,000 years
interglaciar
Ludhamiense
Messaudiense
Calabriense
Donau-Günz
An artist's rendering of a temporary wood house, based on evidence found at
(in , ) and dated to the Lower Paleolithic (c. 400,000 BP)
Nearly all of our knowledge of Paleolithic human culture and way of life comes from
comparisons to modern hunter-gatherer cultures such as the
who live similarly to their Paleolithic predecessors. The economy of a typical Paleolithic society was a
economy. Humans hunted wild animals for meat and gathered food, firewood, and materials for their tools, clothes, or shelters. Human population density was very low, around only one person per square mile. This was most likely due to low body fat, , women regularly engaging in intense endurance exercise, late weaning of infants and a nomadic lifestyle. Like contemporary hunter-gatherers, Paleolithic humans enjoyed an abundance of leisure time unparalleled in both Neolithic farming societies and modern industrial societies. At the end of the Paleolithic, specifically the Middle and or Upper Paleolithic, humans began to produce works of art such as ,
and began to engage in religious behavior such as burial and ritual.
At the beginning of the Paleolithic, hominids were found primarily in eastern Africa, east of the . Most known hominid fossils dating earlier than one million years before present are found in this area, particularly in , , and .
By 1.5-2 million years before present, groups of hominids began leaving Africa and settling southern Europe and Asia. Southern Caucasus was occupied by 1.7 million years BP, and northern China was reached by 1.66 million years BP. By the end of the Lower Paleolithic, members of the hominid family were living in what is now China, western Indonesia, and, in Europe, around the Mediterranean and as far north as England, southern Germany, and Bulgaria. Their further northward expansion may have been limited by the lack of control of fire: studies of cave settlements in Europe indicate no regular use of fire prior to 300,000-400,000 BP. East Asian fossils from this period are typically placed in the genus . Very little fossil evidence is available at known Lower Paleolithic sites in Europe, but it is believed that hominids who inhabited these sites were likewise Homo erectus. There is no evidence of hominids in America, Australia, or almost anywhere in Oceania during this time period.
Fates of these early colonists, and their relationships to modern humans, are still subject to debate. According to current archeological and genetic models, there were at least two notable expansion events subsequent to peopling of Eurasia 2-1.5 million years BP. Around 500,000 BP, a group of early humans, frequently called , came to Europe from Africa and eventually evolved into . Both Homo erectus and Neanderthals went extinct by the end of the Paleolithic, having been replaced by a new wave of humans, the anatomically modern , which emerged in eastern Africa circa 200,000 BP, left Africa around 50,000 BP and expanded throughout the planet. It is likely that multiple groups coexisted for some time in certain locations. Neanderthals were still found in parts of Eurasia 30,000 years before present, and engaged in a limited degree of interbreeding with Homo sapiens. Hominid fossils not belonging either to Homo neanderthalensis or to Homo sapiens geni, found in Altai and Indonesia, were radiocarbon dated to 30,000-40,000 BP and 17,000 BP respectively.
The technological revolution of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic allowed humans to reach places that weren't accessible earlier. In the Middle Paleolithic, Neanderthals were present in Poland. By 40,000-50,000 BP, first humans set foot in Australia. By 45,000 BP, humans lived at 61° north latitude in Europe. By 30,000 BP, Japan was reached, and by 27,000 BP humans were present in Siberia above the Arctic Circle. At the end of the Upper Paleolithic, a group of humans crossed the Bering land bridge and quickly expanded throughout North and South America. Northern Eurasia became depopulated during the last Glacial Maximum (27,000 to 16,000 BP), but was repopulated as the climate got warmer and glaciers retreated.
For the duration of the Paleolithic, human populations remained low, especially outside the equatorial region. The entire population of Europe between 16,000-11,000 BP likely averaged some 30,000 individuals, and, between 40,000-16,000 BP, it was even lower, at 4,000-6,000 individuals.
Stone ball from a set of Paleolithic
Paleolithic humans made tools of stone, bone, and wood. The early paleolithic hominids, , were the first users of stone tools. Excavations in Gona, Ethiopia have produced thousands of artifacts, and through radioisotopic dating and , the sites can be firmly dated to 2.6 million years ago. Evidence shows these early hominids intentionally selected raw materials with good flaking qualities and chose appropriate sized stones for their needs to produce sharp-edged tools for cutting. The earliest Paleolithic stone tool industry, the , began around 2.6 million years ago. It contained tools such as choppers,
and . It was completely replaced around 250,000 years ago by the more complex Acheulean industry, which was first conceived by Homo ergaster around 1.8 or 1.65 million years ago. The most recent Lower Paleolithic (Acheulean) implements completely vanished from the archeological record around 100,000 years ago and were replaced by more complex Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age tool kits such as the
industries.
Lower Paleolithic humans used a variety of stone tools, including
and choppers. Although they appear to have used hand axes often, there is disagreement about their use. Interpretations range from cutting and chopping tools, to digging implements, flake cores, the use in traps and a purely ritual significance, maybe in courting behavior.
has suggested that some hand axes could have served as "killer Frisbees" meant to be thrown at a herd of animals at a water hole so as to stun one of them. There are no indications of hafting, and some artifacts are far too large for that. Thus, a thrown hand axe would not usually have penetrated deeply enough to cause very serious injuries. Nevertheless, it could have been an effective weapon for defense against predators. Choppers and scrapers were likely used for skinning and butchering scavenged animals and sharp ended sticks were often obtained for digging up edible roots. Presumably, early humans used wooden spears as early as five million years ago to hunt small animals, much as their relatives, , have been observed to do in , Africa. Lower Paleolithic humans constructed shelters such as the possible wood hut at .
Fire was used by the Lower Paleolithic hominid / as early as 300,000 or 1.5 million years ago and possibly even earlier by the early Lower Paleolithic (Oldowan) hominid Homo habilis and/or by robust australopithecines such as . However, the use of fire only became common in the societies of the following / Period. Use of fire reduced mortality rates and provided protection against predators. Early hominids may have begun to cook their food as early as the Lower Paleolithic (c. 1.9 million years ago) or at the latest in the early Middle Paleolithic (c. 250,000 years ago). Some scientists have hypothesized that Hominids began cooking food to defrost frozen meat, which would help ensure their survival in cold regions.
The Lower Paleolithic
Homo erectus possibly invented
(c. 800,000 or 840,000 BP) to travel over large bodies of water, which may have allowed a group of Homo erectus to reach the island of
and evolve into the small hominid . However, this hypothesis is disputed within the anthropological community. The possible use of rafts during the Lower Paleolithic may indicate that Lower Paleolithic Hominids such as Homo erectus were more advanced than previously believed, and may have even spoken an early form of modern language. Supplementary evidence from Neanderthal and Modern human sites located around the Mediterranean Sea such as Coa de sa Multa (c. 300,000 BP) has also indicated that both Middle and Upper Paleolithic humans used rafts to travel over large bodies of water (i.e. the Mediterranean Sea) for the purpose of colonizing other bodies of land.
Around 200,000 BP,
manufacturing spawned a tool making technique known as the , that was more elaborate than previous
techniques. This technique increased efficiency by allowing the creation of more controlled and consistent . It allowed Middle Paleolithic humans to create stone tipped , which were the earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp, pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts. In addition to improving tool making methods, the Middle Paleolithic also saw an improvement of the tools themselves that allowed access to a wider variety and amount of food sources. For example
or small stone tools or points were invented around 70,000 or 65,000 BP and were essential to the invention of bows and
in the following Upper Paleolithic period.
were invented and used for the first time during the late Middle Paleolithic (c.90,000 years ago); the invention of these devices brought fish into the human diets, which provided a hedge against starvation and a more abundant food supply. Thanks to their technology and their advanced social structures, Paleolithic groups such as the
who had a Middle Paleolithic level of technology, appear to have hunted large game just as well as Upper Paleolithic
and the Neanderthals in particular may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons. Nonetheless, Neanderthal use of projectile weapons in hunting occurred very rarely (or perhaps never) and the Neanderthals hunted large game animals mostly by
them and attacking them with mêlée weapons such as thrusting spears rather than attacking them from a distance with projectile weapons.
During the , further inventions were made, such as the
(c. 22,000 or 29,000 BP) , the
(c.30,000 BP), the bow and arrow (c. 25,000 or 30,000 BP) and the oldest example of ceramic art, the
(c. 29,000–25,000 BCE). Early dogs were domesticated, sometime between 30,000 BP and 14,000 BP, presumably to aid in hunting. However, the earliest instances of successful domestication of dogs may be much more ancient than this. Evidence from
collected by Robert K. Wayne suggests that dogs may have been first domesticated in the late Middle Paleolithic around 100,000 BP or perhaps even earlier. Archeological evidence from the
region of France demonstrates that members of the European early
culture known as the
used calendars (c. 30,000 BP). This was a lunar calendar that was used to document the phases of the moon. Genuine solar calendars did not appear until the following Neolithic period. Upper Paleolithic cultures were probably able to time the migration of game animals such as wild horses and deer. This ability allowed humans to become efficient hunters and to exploit a wide variety of game animals. Recent research indicates that the Neanderthals timed their hunts and the migrations of game animals long before the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic.
Some or all of this article's
may not be . Please help this article by looking for better, more reliable sources, or by checking whether the references meet the criteria for reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged or deleted. (February 2010)
Humans may have taken part in long-distance trade between
for rare commodities and raw materials (such as stone needed for making tools) as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic.
The social organization of the earliest Paleolithic () societies remains largely unknown to scientists, though Lower Paleolithic hominids such as Homo habilis and Homo erectus are likely to have had more complex social structures than chimpanzee societies. Late Oldowan/Early Acheulean humans such as Homo ergaster/Homo erectus may have been the first people to invent central campsites or home bases and incorporate them into their foraging and hunting strategies like contemporary hunter-gatherers, possibly as early as 1.7 however, the earliest solid evidence for the existence of home bases or central campsites (hearths and shelters) among humans only dates back to 500,000 years ago.[]
Similarly, scientists disagree whether Lower Paleolithic humans were largely
or . In particular, the Provisional model suggests that
arose in Pre Paleolithic australopithecine societies as an adaptation to m however, other researchers note that
is more pronounced in Lower Paleolithic humans such as Homo erectus than in , who are less polygynous than other primates, which suggests that Lower Paleolithic humans had a largely polygynous lifestyle, because species that have the most pronounced sexual dimorphism tend more likely to be polygynous.
Human societies from the Paleolithic to the early Neolithic farming tribes lived without states and organized governments. For most of the Lower Paleolithic, human societies were possibly more hierarchical than their Middle and Upper Paleolithic descendants, and probably were not grouped into , though during the end of the Lower Paleolithic, the latest populations of the hominid Homo erectus may have begun living in small-scale (possibly egalitarian) bands similar to both Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies and modern hunter-gatherers.
Middle Paleolithic societies, unlike Lower Paleolithic and early Neolithic ones, consisted of bands that ranged from 20 to 30 or 25 to 100 members and were usually nomadic. These bands were formed by several families. Bands sometimes joined together into larger "macrobands" for activities such as acquiring mates and celebrations or where resources were abundant. By the end of the Paleolithic era, about 10,000 BP people began to settle down into permanent locations, and began to rely on agriculture for sustenance in many locations. Much evidence exists that humans took part in long-distance trade between bands for rare commodities (such as , which was often used for religious purposes such as ritual) and raw materials, as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic. Inter-band trade may have appeared during the Middle Paleolithic because trade between bands would have helped ensure their survival by allowing them to exchange resources and commodities such as raw materials during times of relative scarcity (i.e. famine, drought). Like in modern hunter-gatherer societies, individuals in Paleolithic societies may have been subordinate to the band as a whole. Both Neanderthals and modern humans took care of the elderly members of their societies during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.
Some sources claim that most Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies were possibly fundamentally
and may have rarely or never engaged in organized violence between groups (i.e. war). Some Upper Paleolithic societies in resource-rich environments (such as societies in , in what is now ) may have had more complex and hierarchical organization (such as
with a pronounced hierarchy and a somewhat formal ) and may have engaged in . Some argue that there was no formal leadership during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Like contemporary egalitarian hunter-gatherers such as the
pygmies, societies may have made decisions by communal
rather than by appointing permanent rulers such as chiefs and . Nor was there a formal
during the Paleolithic. Each member of the group was skilled at all tasks essential to survival, regardless of individual abilities. Theories to explain the apparent egalitarianism have arisen, notably the
concept of . Christopher Boehm (1999) has hypothesized that egalitarianism may have evolved in Paleolithic societies because of a need to distribute resources such as food and meat equally to avoid famine and ensure a stable food supply. Raymond C. Kelly speculates that the relative peacefulness of Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies resulted from a low population density, cooperative relationships between groups such as reciprocal exchange of commodities and collaboration on hunting expeditions, and because the invention of projectile weapons such as throwing spears provided less incentive for war, because they increased the damage done to the attacker and decreased the relative amount of territory attackers could gain. However, other sources claim that most Paleolithic groups may have been larger, more complex, sedentary and warlike than most contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, due to occupying more resource-abundant areas than most modern hunter-gatherers who have been pushed into more marginal habitats by agricultural societies.
Anthropologists have typically assumed that in Paleolithic societies, women were responsible for gathering wild plants and firewood, and men were responsible for hunting and scavenging dead animals. However, analogies to existent hunter-gatherer societies such as the
suggest that the sexual division of labor in the Paleolithic was relatively flexible. Men may have participated in gathering plants, firewood and insects, and women may have procured small game animals for consumption and assisted men in driving herds of large game animals (such as woolly mammoths and deer) off cliffs. Additionally, recent research by anthropologist and archaeologist Steven Kuhn from the University of Arizona is argued to support that this division of labor did not exist prior to the
and was invented relatively recently in human pre-history. Sexual division of labor may have been developed to allow humans to acquire food and other resources more efficiently. Possibly there was approximate parity between men and women during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, and that period may have been the most
time in human history. Archeological evidence from art and funerary rituals indicates that a number of individual women enjoyed seemingly high status in their communities, and it is likely that both sexes participated in decision making. The earliest known Paleolithic
(c. 30,000 BP) was female.
suggests that the status of women declined with the adoption of agriculture because women in farming societies typically have more pregnancies and are expected to do more demanding work than women in hunter-gatherer societies. Like most contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, Paleolithic and the Mesolithic groups probably followed mostly
descent patterns were probably rarer than in the following Neolithic period.
is one of the most famous Venus figurines.
Early examples of artistic expression, such as the
and the patterns found on
bones from
in , may have been produced by Acheulean tool users such as
prior to the start of the
period. However, the earliest undisputed evidence of art during the Paleolithic period comes from / sites such as
–– in the form of , , , and
used as body paint and perhaps in ritual. Undisputed evidence of art only becomes common in the following Upper Paleolithic period.
According to Robert G. Bednarik, Lower Paleolithic
tool users began to engage in symbolic behavior such as art around 850,000 BP and decorated themselves with beads and collected exotic stones for aesthetic rather than utilitarian qualities. According to Bednarik, traces of the pigment ochre from late Lower Paleolithic Acheulean archeological sites suggests that Acheulean societies, like later Upper Paleolithic societies, collected and used ochre to create rock art. Nevertheless, it is also possible that the ochre traces found at Lower Paleolithic sites is naturally occurring.
Vincent W. Fallio interprets Lower and Middle Paleolithic marking on rocks at sites such as
(such as zig zagging lines) as accounts or representation of
though some other scholars interpret them as either simple doodling or as the result of natural processes.
humans produced works of art such as cave paintings, Venus figurines, animal carvings and rock paintings. Upper Paleolithic art can be divided into two broad categories: figurative art such as cave paintings that clearly depicts animals (or more rarely humans); and nonfigurative, which consists of shapes and symbols. Cave paintings have been interpreted in a number of ways by modern archeologists. The earliest explanation, by the prehistorian , interpreted the paintings as a form of magic designed to ensure a successful hunt. However, this hypothesis fails to explain the existence of animals such as
and , which were not hunted for food, and the existence of half-human, half-animal beings in cave paintings. The anthropologist
has suggested that Paleolithic cave paintings were indications of
practices, because the paintings of half-human, half-animal paintings and the remoteness of the caves are reminiscent of modern hunter-gatherer shamanistic practices. Symbol-like images are more common in Paleolithic cave paintings than are depictions of animals or humans, and unique symbolic patterns might have been trademarks that represent different
ethnic groups.
have evoked similar controversy. Archeologists and anthropologists have described the figurines as representations of ,
imagery, apotropaic amulets used for sympathetic magic, and even as self-portraits of women themselves.
R. Dale Guthrie has studied not only the most artistic and publicized paintings, but also a variety of lower-quality art and figurines, and he identifies a wide range of skill and ages among the artists. He also points out that the main themes in the paintings and other artifacts (powerful beasts, risky hunting scenes and the over-sexual representation of women) are to be expected in the fantasies of adolescent males during the Upper Paleolithic.
The Venus figurines have sometimes been interprete the abundance of such female imagery has led some to believe that Upper Paleolithic (and later Neolithic) societies had a female-centered religion and a female-dominated society. For example, this was proposed by the archeologist
who was the author of the 1978 book When God Was a Woman. Various other explanations for the purpose of the figurines have been proposed, such as Catherine McCoid and LeRoy McDermott’s hypothesis that the figurines were created as self-portraits of actual women and R.Dale Gutrie's hypothesis that the venus figurines represented a kind of "stone age ".
The origins of music during the Paleolithic are unknown, since the earliest forms of music probably did not use musical instruments but instead used the human voice and or natural objects such as rocks, which leave no trace in the archaeological record. However, the
designation suggests that human music first arose when language, art and other modern behaviors developed in the Middle or the Upper Paleolithic period. Music may have developed from rhythmic sounds produced by daily activities such as cracking nuts by hitting them with stones, because maintaining a rhythm while working may have helped people to become more efficient at daily activities. An alternative theory originally proposed by
explains that music may have begun as a hominid mating strategy as many birds and some other animals produce music like calls to attract mates. This hypothesis is generally less accepted than the previous hypothesis, but it nonetheless provides a possible alternative. Another explanation is that humans began to make music simply because of the pleasure it produced.
(and possibly ) humans used -like bone pipes as musical instruments, and music may have played a large role in the religious lives of Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers. As with modern hunter-gatherer societies, music may have been used in ritual or to help induce . In particular, it appears that animal skin
may have been used in religious events by Upper Paleolithic shamans, as shown by the remains of drum-like instruments from some Upper Paleolithic graves of shamans and the
record of contemporary hunter-gatherer shamanic and ritual practices.
Main article:
Picture of a half-human, half-animal being in a Paleolithic
in . . Archeologists believe that cave paintings of half-human, half-animal beings may be evidence for early shamanic practices during the Paleolithic.
According to James B. Harrod humankind first developed
beliefs during the
or . Controversial scholars of prehistoric religion and anthropology, James Harrod and Vincent W. Fallio, have recently proposed that religion and spirituality (and art) may have first arisen in Pre-Paleolithic chimpanzees or Early
() societies. According to Fallio, the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans experienced altered states of consciousness and partook in ritual, and ritual was used in their societies to strengthen social bonding and group cohesion.
Middle Paleolithic humans' use of burials at sites such as , Croatia (c. 130,000 BP) and , Israel (c. 100,000 BP) have led some anthropologists and archeologists, such as , to believe that Middle Paleolithic humans may have possessed a belief in an
and a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life". Cut marks on Neanderthal bones from various sites, such as Combe-Grenal and Abri Moula in , suggest that the
like some contemporary human cultures may have practiced
for (presumably) religious reasons. According to recent archeological findings from
sites in , humans may have begun burying their dead much earlier, but this theory is widely questioned in the scientific community.
Likewise, some scientists have proposed that Middle Paleolithic societies such as Neanderthal societies may also have practiced the earliest form of
or , in addition to their (presumably religious) burial of the dead. In particular, Emil B?chler suggested (based on archeological evidence from Middle Paleolithic caves) that a
was widespread among Middle Paleolithic . A claim that evidence was found for
animal worship
70,000 BCE originates from the
in the African Kalahari desert has been denied by the original investigators of the site. Animal cults in the following Upper Paleolithic period, such as the bear cult, may have had their origins in these hypothetical Middle Paleolithic animal cults. Animal worship during the Upper Paleolithic was intertwined with hunting rites. For instance, archeological evidence from art and bear remains reveals that the bear cult apparently involved a type of sacrificial bear ceremonialism, in which a bear was sliced with , finished off by a blast in the , and ritualistically worshipped near a clay bear statue covered by a bear fur with the skull and the body of the bear buried separately. Barbara Ehrenreich controversially theorizes that the sacrificial hunting rites of the Upper Paleolithic (and by extension Paleolithic cooperative big-game hunting) gave rise to war or warlike raiding during the following / or late Upper Paleolithic period.
The existence of anthropomorphic images and half-human, half-animal images in the Upper Paleolithic period may further indicate that
humans were the first people to believe in a , though such images may instead indicate shamanistic practices similar to those of contemporary tribal societies. The earliest known undisputed burial of a shaman (and by extension the earliest undisputed evidence of shamans and shamanic practices) dates back to the early
era (c. 30,000 BP) in what is now the . However, during the early Upper Paleolithic it was probably more common for all members of the band to participate equally and fully in religious ceremonies, in contrast to the religious traditions of later periods when religious authorities and part-time ritual specialists such as shamans, priests and medicine men were relatively common and integral to religious life. Additionally, it is also possible that Upper Paleolithic religions, like contemporary and historical
religions, believed in the existence of a single creator deity in addition to other supernatural beings such as animistic spirits.
Vincent W. Fallio writes that
first emerged in complex Upper Paleolithic societies. He argues that the elites of these societies (like the elites of many more contemporary complex hunter-gatherers such as the ) may have used special rituals and ancestor worship to solidify control over their societies, by convincing their subjects that they possess a link to the spirit world that also gives them control over the earthly realm.
may have served a similar function in these complex quasi- societies, by dividing the religious practices of these cultures into the separate spheres of Popular Religion and Elite Religion.
Re specifically, it may have involved sympathetic magic. The , which are abundant in the Upper Paleolithic archeological record, provide an example of possible Paleolithic sympathetic magic, as they may have been used for ensuring success in hunting and to bring about fertility of the land and women. The Upper Paleolithic Venus figurines have sometimes been explained as depictions of an
similar to , or as representations of a goddess who is the ruler or mother of the animals. James Harrod has described them as representative of female (and male) shamanistic spiritual transformation processes.
People may have first fermented grapes in animal skin pouches to create
during the Paleolithic.
Paleolithic hunting and gathering people ate varying proportions of leafy vegetables, fruit, nuts and insects, meat, fish, and shellfish. However, there is little direct evidence of the relative proportions of plant and animal foods. Although the term "", without references to a specific timeframe or locale, is sometimes used with an implication that most humans shared a certain diet during the entire era, that is not entirely accurate. The Paleolithic was an extended period of time, during which multiple technological advances were made, many of which had impact on human dietary structure. For example, humans probably did not possess the control of fire until the Middle Paleolithic, or tools necessary to engage in extensive .[] On the other hand, both these technologies are generally agreed to have been widely available to humans by the end of the Paleolithic (consequently, allowing humans in some regions of the planet to rely heavily on fishing and hunting). In addition, the Paleolithic involved a substantial geographical expansion of human populations. During the Lower Paleolithic, ancestors of modern humans are thought to have been constrained to Africa east of the . During the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, humans greatly expanded their area of settlement, reaching ecosystems as diverse as
and , and adapting their diets to whatever local resources available.
Another view is that until the Upper Paleolithic, humans were
(fruit eaters) who supplemented their meals with carrion, eggs, and small prey such as baby birds and , and only on rare occasions managed to kill and consume big game such as . This view is supported by studies of higher apes, particularly . Chimpanzees are the closest to humans genetically, sharing more than 96% of their DNA code with humans, and their digestive tract is functionally very similar to that of humans. Chimpanzees are primarily , but they could and would consume and digest animal flesh, given the opportunity. In general, their actual diet in the wild is about 95% plant-based, with the remaining 5% filled with insects, eggs, and baby animals. In some ecosystems, however, chimpanzees are predatory, forming parties to hunt monkeys. Some comparative studies of human and higher primate digestive tracts do suggest that humans have evolved to obtain greater amounts of calories from sources such as animal foods, allowing them to shrink the size of the gastrointestinal tract relative to body mass and to increase the brain mass instead.
A difficulty with the frugivore point of view is that humans are established to conditionally require certain long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs), such as
and , from the diet. Humans' LC-PUFA requirements are much greater than chimpanzees' because of humans' larger brain mass, and humans' abilities to synthesize them from other nutrients are poor, suggesting readily available external sources. Pregnant and lactating females require 100 mg of DHA per day. However, LC-PUFAs are almost nonexistent in plants and in most tissues of warm-climate animals.[]
Anthropologists have diverse opinions about the proportions of plant and animal foods consumed. Just as with still existing hunters and gatherers, there were many varied "diets" - in different groups - and also varying through this vast amount of time. Some paleolithic hunter-gatherers consumed a significant amount of meat and possibly obtained most of their food from hunting, while others are shown as a primarily plant-based diet, Most, if not all, are believed to have been opportunistic omnivores. One hypothesis is that carbohydrate
(plant underground ) may have been eaten in high amounts by pre-agricultural humans. It is thought that the Paleolithic diet included as much as 1.65–1.9 kilograms per day of fruit and vegetables. The relative proportions of plant and animal foods in the diets of Paleolithic people often varied between regions, with more meat being necessary in colder regions (which weren't populated by anatomically modern humans until 30,000-50,000 BP). It is generally agreed that many modern hunting and fishing tools, such as fish hooks, nets, bows, and poisons, weren't introduced until the Upper Paleolithic and possibly even Neolithic. The only hunting tools widely available to humans during any significant part of the Paleolithic period were hand-held spears and harpoons. There's evidence of Paleolithic people killing and eating
as far as 100,000 years BP. On the other hand,
bones found in African caves from the same period are typically of very young or very old individuals, and there's no evidence that pigs, elephants or rhinos were hunted by humans at the time.
Paleolithic peoples suffered less
than the Neolithic farming tribes that followed them. This was partly because Paleolithic hunter-gatherers accessed to a wider variety natural foods, which allowed them a more nutritious diet and a decreased risk of famine. Many of the famines experienced by Neolithic (and some modern) farmers were caused or amplified by their dependence on a small number of crops. It is thought that wild foods can have a significantly different nutritional profile than cultivated foods. The greater amount of meat obtained by hunting big game animals in Paleolithic diets than Neolithic diets may have also allowed Paleolithic hunter-gatherers to enjoy a more nutritious diet than Neolithic agriculturalists. It has been argued that the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture resulted in an increasing focus on a limited variety of foods, with meat likely taking a back seat to plants. It is also unlikely that Paleolithic hunter-gatherers were affected by modern
and , because they ate mostly lean meats and plants and frequently engaged in intense physical activity, and because the average lifespan was shorter than the age of common-onset of these conditions.
Large-seeded
were part of the human diet long before the Neolithic agricultural revolution, as evident from archaeobotanical finds from the
layers of , in Israel. There is evidence suggesting that Paleolithic societies were gathering wild cereals for food use at least as early as 30,000 years ago. However, seeds, such as grains and beans, were rarely eaten and never in large quantities on a daily basis. Recent archeological evidence also indicates that
may have originated in the Paleolithic, when early humans drank the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes from animal-skin pouches. Paleolithic humans consumed animal
meats, including the ,
and . Upper Paleolithic cultures appear to have had significant knowledge about plants and herbs and may have, albeit very rarely, practiced rudimentary forms of . In particular,
may have been cultivated as early as 25,000 BP in . Late Upper Paleolithic societies also appear to have occasionally practiced
and , presumably for
reasons. For instance, some European late Upper Paleolithic cultures domesticated and raised , presumably for their meat or milk, as early as 14,000 BP. Humans also probably consumed
plants during the Paleolithic period. The
have been consuming a variety of native animal and plant foods, called , for an estimated 60,000 years, since the .
Large game animals such as deer were an important source of protein in Middle and Upper Paleolithic diets.
People during the Middle Paleolithic, such as the Neanderthals and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in Africa, began to catch shellfish for food as revealed by shellfish cooking in Neanderthal sites in
about 110,000 years ago and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens sites at Pinnacle Point, in Africa around 164,000 BP. Although fishing only became common during the ,
have been part of human diets long before the dawn of the Upper Paleolithic and have certainly been consumed by humans since at least the Middle Paleolithic. For example, the Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in the region now occupied by the
hunted large 6-foot (1.8 m)-long
with specialized barbed fishing points as early as 90,000 years ago. The invention of fishing allowed some Upper Paleolithic and later hunter-gatherer societies to become sedentary or semi-nomadic, which altered their social structures. Example societies are the
as well as some contemporary hunter-gatherers such as the . In some instances (at least the Tlingit) they developed ,
and complex social structures such as .
Anthropologists such as Tim White suggest that
was common in human societies prior to the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, based on the large amount of “butchered human" bones found in Neanderthal and other Lower/Middle Paleolithic sites. Cannibalism in the Lower and Middle Paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages. However, it may have been for religious reasons, and would coincide with the development of religious practices thought to have occurred during the Upper Paleolithic. Nonetheless, it remains possible that Paleolithic societies never practiced cannibalism, and that the damage to recovered human bones was either the result of
or predation by carnivores such as ,
By 11,000 BCE -
reach the .[]
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