European Cultures
/ Industries
Acheulian
1.4 million to 125,000 (Ipswichian interglacial) years ago
Core tool industry, tools were made by
removing flakes from cores
Characteristic stone tools:
Hand axes (bifaces )
Cleavers
Choppers
Flake tools
Compare to Clactonian stone-tool assemblages.
Aurignacian
34,000 to 27,000 years ago
contemporaneous with Châtelperronian
Characteristic stone tools:
dominated by blade tools
carinate scrapers on blocks
scaled marginal retouch
dihedral burins
distinctive bone points
few or no typical Mousterian forms
Chatelperronian
35,000 to 30,000 years ago
direct typological descendent of Mousterian of Acheulian Tradition (MTA)
Characteristic stone tools:
backed stone knives (Mousterian)
Châtelperron point
bone points
Art
Clactonian
500,000 to 125,000
years ago
Name given to the stone tools of the Lower Paleolithic period in Europe, made
by Homo erectus.
Characteristic stone tools:
Scrapers and knives are made from flakes chipped off of cores from alternating directions; the cores themselves were often used as
choppers.
Compare to Acheulian stone-tool assemblages.
Gravettian
27,000 to 22,000 years ago
material culture
Characteristic stone tools:
bone points
notched, sharpened blades
Gravette point
Art:
"Venus" figurines
Magdalenian
19,000 to 9,000 years ago
very cold (20,000) to warming (after 14,000) to temperate (8,000)
Characteristic stone tools:
Early Magdalenian
pressure-flaked bone-heads
bas-relief sculpture (France and Spain)
Late Magdalenian
apogee of cave and antler art
skillful bone and antler work
most elaborate development in France and Spain
Mesolithic Period
10,000 to 6,000 years ago
Micoquian
115,000 years ago (Wurm I)
Looks like Mousterian assemblage with Acheulean handaxes
Characteristic stone tools:
Lanceolate handaxe with globular butt and concave edges
otherwise assemblage resembles that of Mousterian of Acheulian Tradition
(MTA)
Occurs at the end of the European Middle Paleolithic.
Mousterian
125,000 - 35,000 yeas ago
Associated with the Neandertals
Characteristic stone tools:
Mousterian Industry is a prepared-core flake-tool industry, tools were made from flakes removed from a
core that had been prepared (shaped) so that the flake removed formed a particular shape.
(i.e Levallois core preparation flakes)
Side, Transversal, Convergent, Double Scrapers
Levallois and Mousterian points
Points and Blades (Knifes)
Mousterian Industries (assemblages) defined in France:
Micoquian industry
Charentian Mousterian
further divided into Quina and Ferrassie based on types of scrapers.
Denticulate Mousterian
Mousterian of Acheulian Tradition (MTA)
Neolithic Period
6,000 to 3,500 years ago
Perigordian
26,000 to 20,000 years ago
French counterpart to the Gravettian
Characteristic stone tools:
Gravette points, truncated blades, noailles burins, truncated elements and Font Robert points with truncation
and dihedral burin
Solutrean
25,000 to 16,000 years ago
material culture
Characteristic stone tools:
Well made bifacial tools (Solutrean points)
backed points and blades
Cave art
African
Cultures / Industries
Aterian
45,000 to 24,000 years ago
North African (Saharan) culture
Characteristic stone tools:
Pressure-flaked tanged points.
Dabban
45,000 to 24,000 years ago
North African (Mediterranean Coast).
Fauresmith
Southern African culture (open plains)
resembles Mousterian of Acheulian Tradition
Characteristic stone tools:
Levallois points
Use of classic Levallois technique for preparation of cores.
Howieson's Poort
90,000 to 50,000 years ago
South African culture
Characteristic stone tools:
Microlithic industry.
Early Neolithic
12,000 to 7,900 years ago
The El Nabta, El Ghorab, El Adam types.
Often located adjacent to shallow basins and ponds .
A variety of lithic and bone tools occur in these sites, including the first
sickles, stemmed points with pointed and retouched bases, perforators, burins,
scrapers, notched pieces, bone points, and scalene triangles measuring about one
centimeter, often made on reused Middle Paleolithic artifacts. Grinding stones and
sherds of pottery are more numerous than in earlier sites.
Middle Neolithic
7,700 to 6,500 years ago
Marked by the much greater abundance of pottery.
Lithic tools are more often made of local rocks.
Animal husbandry is wide spread.
Late Neolithic
6,500 to 5,000 years ago
Late Neolithic tools are made on "side-blow flakes" that have been retouched into denticulates and notched pieces
There are also a few bifacial arrowheads, often with tapering stems, or rarely with concave bases similar to those found in the
Fayum Neolithic.
Oldowan
2.5 million years ago (1st stone tools appear)
East Africa, (i.e. Olduvai Gorge)
Characteristic stone tools:
Pebble tools
Chopping tools (Hand Axes)
Flake tools
Sangoan
45,000 to 30,000 years ago
Central and eastern African (forested areas) culture
Characteristic stone tools:
Sangoan pick
Large plane
Discoidal cores (Levallois techique cores)
Points
Scrapers
Denticulates
Handaxes
Denmark:
Cultures / Industries
Hamburg Culture: approximately 13,000
to 12,000 BC
Federmesser Culture: 12,000 to 11,400 BC
Bromme Culture: 11,400 to 10,200 BC
Ahrensburg Culture: 10,200 to 8,900 BC
Maglemose Culture: 8,900 to 6,400 BC
Kongemose Culture: 6,400 to 5,400 BC
Ertebölle Culture: 5,400 to 3,900 BC
Dolmen Period: 3,900 to 3,400 BC
(Funnel beaker culture I)
Passage Grave Culture: 3,400 to 2,800 BC
(Funnel beaker culture II)
Single Grave Culture: 2,800 to 2,400 BC
Pitware Culture: 2,800 to 2,600 BC
Bell-beaker Culture: 2,400 to 2,000 BC
Dagger Period: 2,400 to 1,800 BC
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