WHAT IS THE MAGDALENIAN?

The final major European culture of the Upper Paleolithic period, from about 15,000 to 10,000 years ago; characterized by composite or specialized tools, tailored clothing, and, especially, geometric and representational cave art (e.g., Altamira) and for beautiful decorative work in bone and ivory (mobiliary art). The people were chiefly fishermen and reindeer hunters; they were the first known people to have used a spear thrower (of reindeer bone and antler) to increase range, strength, and accuracy. Magdalenian stone tools include small geometrically shaped implements (e.g., triangles, semilunar blades) probably set into bone or antler handles for use, burins (a sort of chisel), scrapers, borers, backed bladelets, and shouldered and leaf-shaped projectile points. Bone was used extensively to make wedges, adzes, hammers, spearheads with link shafts, barbed points and harpoons, eyed needles, jewelry, and hooked rods (probably used as spear throwers). They killed animals with spears, snares, and traps and lived in caves, rock shelters, or substantial dwellings in winter and in tents in summer. The name is derived from La Madeleine or Magdalene, the type site in the Dordogne of southwest France. The culture’s center of origin was southwest France and the adjacent parts of Spain, but elements characteristic of the later stages are represented in Britain (Creswell Crags), and eastwards to southwest Germany and Poland. The Magdalenian culture, like that of earlier Upper Paleolithic communities, was adapted to the cold conditions of the last (Würm) glaciation. The Magdalenian has been divided into six phases; it followed the Solutrean industry and was succeeded by the simplified Azilian. Magdalenian culture disappeared as the cool, near-glacial climate warmed at the end of the fourth (Würm) glacial period (c. 10,000 bc), and herd animals became scarce.

WHAT IS THE IVORY?

Material from enlarged teeth (or tusk) of certain mammals and used for various tools and artifacts from the Upper Paleolithic. The tusks of elephants, mammoths, and walruses have been prized throughout prehistory and history.

WHAT IS THE HARPOON?

A spear-like missile with a detachable head, often consisting of a pointed shaft with backward-pointing barbs. It was often loosely hafted so that it would separate from its shaft after the point had struck its target. The appearance of this weapon is associated in particular with the Magdalenian culture, was particularly popular during the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic, and was used for hunting or fishing. An attached line was used to retrieve the catch. Some anthropologists refer to all barbed bone or antler points as harpoons.

WHAT IS THE HAND AXE?

A large bifacially worked core tool, normally oval, pointed, or pear-shaped, and one of the most typical stone tools of the Lower Paleolithic. It is the diagnostic implement of certain Lower Paleolithic industries (Abbevillian, Chellean, Acheulian), and one variety of the Mousterian. In spite of the name it was not an ax at all and probably served as an all-purpose tool. The oldest and crudest hand axes have been found in Africa; the finer, Acheulian tools are known from most of Africa, Europe, southwest Asia, and India. It was used for chopping, chipping, flaking, cutting, digging, and scraping. Hand axes first appear between 1 and 2 million years ago and they were common in assemblages for about a million years.

WHAT IS THE GRAVETTIAN?

An Upper Paleolithic industry named after the site La Gravette in the Dordogne of southwest France and characterized by well-developed blade tools of flint and female figurines of ivory. This advanced industry succeeded the Aurignacian and preceded the Solutrean, c. 28,000–20,000 bp. In France it is known as the Upper Périgordian (Périgordian IV) and the Gravettian appears to have developed in central Europe, expanding to the east and west. The small, pointed blades with straight blunted backs are called Gravette points. Most of the French sites are caves, but related industries, known as Eastern Gravettian, are possibly distributed through the loess lands of central Europe and Russia at the camp sites of mammoth hunters; other sites are in Spain, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Italy. The Gravettians invented the bow and arrow, blunted-back knives of flint, and tanged arrowheads. They are famous, too, for their cave paintings. Other artifacts include bone or ivory spears and, in eastern Europe, numerous other bone tools incised with an elaborate geometric pattern.

WHAT IS THE CRESWELL POİNT ?

CRESWELL POİNT: Type of later Upper Paleolithic flint tool found in the British Isles made from a narrow flint blade, with one end worked to produce a slightly elongated trapezoidal form, with the long side of the blade left unworked, and the shorter side blunted.

WHAT IS THE CHOPPER ?

CHOPPER: Any large, simple stone or pebble tool with a single, transverse cutting edge. It was used for hacking, breaking, or chopping and was especially characteristic of Middle Pleistocene, pre-Acheulian industries of the Old World, such as Choukoutien, in the Clactonian in England, and at the earliest levels of Oldowan industries. This crude tool was made by striking a limited number of flakes from the edge of a cobble or fist-size rock to produce a coarse cutting edge. It persisted until the Neolithic. [chopping tool, slitter]

WHAT IS THE CHEDDAR POINT ?

CHEDDAR POINT: Type of later Upper Paleolithic flint tool of the British Isles, named for Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England. The point was made on a relatively narrow flint blade, and both ends were worked to make an elongated trapezoidal form with the long side of the blade left unworked and the shorter side blunted.

WHAT IS THE CAVE ART ?

CAVE ART: Any paintings, engravings, or designs on cave walls; man’s oldest surviving art, especially those by Paleolithic and Pleistocene people that are found in southwest France, northeast Spain, and elsewhere in Europe. Other sites have been discovered in Portugal, Italy, Greece, and the Ural mountains; the only known Russian site is Kapovo Cave. The subject matter of cave art is predominantly animals, especially mammoth, horse, ox, deer, and bison; human figures are relatively uncommon. There are also numerous signs and symbols. The artist used a range of reds, blacks, yellows, and browns derived from ochers and other naturally occurring mineral pigments (iron oxide and manganese dioxide). The purpose and meaning of cave art are still obscure. In France, the caves are mainly in the limestone of the Perigord and Pyrennean regions and the most famous are Altamira, Lascaux, Niaux, and Pech Merle. Occupational evidence is rarely found with the art.

WHAT IS THE BURIN ?

BURIN: A specialized engraving tool with a chipped flint or stone shaft that was cut or ground diagonally downward to form a diamond-shaped point at the tip. The angle of the point affected the width and depth of the engraved lines. The shaft of the tool was fixed in a flat handle that could be held close to the working surface. A burin had a wide rounded end for bracing against the palm of the hand and the point was guided by the thumb and forefinger. A blade or flake could be formed into any one of about 20 varieties of the tool. In its most characteristic form, the working tip was a narrow transverse edge formed by the intersection of two flake scars produced by striking at an angle to the main axis of the blade. Sometimes one facet was made by simply snapping the blade, or by truncating it with a steep retouch. Burins were used to carve or engrave softer materials such as antler, bone, ivory, metal, or wood. This tool was characteristic of the Upper Paleolithic (especially Magdalenian) in the Old World and of some Early Lithic and Mesolithic cultures of the New World. [graver]

WHAT IS THE BRADSHAW FIGURES ?

BRADSHAW FIGURES: Small, red, painted figures in scenes of the Kimberley region of Western Australia, named for Joseph Bradshaw who discovered them.

Dancing Bradshaw figures

WHAT IS THE BOW ?

BOW: An offensive weapon for shooting arrows or missiles and used in hunting and war. It generally consists of a strip of bendable wood or other material with a string stretched between its two ends. The arrow or missile is shot by the recoil after retraction of the string. The weapon was first used in the Upper Paleolithic by the Gravettians. Some Mesolithic examples have been preserved in peat bogs, but often all that remains is an arrowhead or wrist guard.

WHAT IS THE BLATTSPITZEN ?

BLATTSPITZEN: A category of stone artifact with complete or nearly complete flaking on both sides and points at one or both ends. They are found in some late Middle and early Upper Paleolithic industries of central and eastern Europe.

WHAT IS THE BLADE ?

BLADE: A long, narrow, sharp-edged, thin flake of stone, used especially as a tool in prehistoric times. This flake was detached by striking from a prepared core, often with a hammer. Its length is usually at least twice the width. The blade may be a tool in itself, or may be the blank from which a two-edged knife, burin, or spokeshave was manufactured. This term, then, is used by archaeologists in several ways. (1) It can refer to a fragment of stone removed from a parent core. The blade is used to manufacture artifacts in what is known as the blade and core industry. (2) That portion of an artifact, usually a projectile point or a knife, beyond the base or tang. (3) In certain cultures, small artifacts are called microblades. It was a great technological advance when it was discovered that a knapper could make more than one tool from a chunk of stone. The Châtelperronian and Aurignacian were the earliest of the known blade cultures – associated with the arrival of modern humans. Industries in which many of the tools are made from blades became prominent at the start of the Upper Paleolithic period. A typical blade has parallel sides and regular scars running down its back parallel with the sides. A “backed blade” is a blade with one edge blunted by the removal of tiny flakes. Blades led to another invention – the handle. A handle made it easier and much safer to manipulate a sharp, two-edged blade. [blade tool]

Aurignacian blade

WHAT IS THE BILATERALLY BARBED ?

BILATERALLY BARBED: A projectile point or harpoon with barbs on both edges.

WHAT IS THE BIFACE ?

BIFACE: A type of prehistoric stone tool flaked on both faces or sides; the main tool of Homo erectus. The technique was typical of the handax tradition of the Lower Paleolithic period and the Acheulian cultures. Bifaces may be oval, triangular, or almond-shaped in form and characterized by axial symmetry, even if the marks made by use are more plentiful on one face or on one edge. The cutting edge could be straight or jagged and the tool used as a pick, knife, scraper, or even weapon. Only in the most primitive tools was flaking done to one side only. [bifacial, coup-de-poing, hand ax]

Cordiform biface typical of the Middle Palaeolithic. (Longueur : 11 cm).

WHAT IS THE BATTLE AX ?

BATTLE AX: A type of prehistoric stone weapon, designed as a weapon of war. It is always of the shaft-hole variety, and frequently has a hammer, knob, or point at the opposite end from the cutting edge. In stone, they are common throughout most of Europe in the Late Neolithic and Copper Age, and are often associated with Corded ware and beakers. (The term Battle-ax culture is often used as a synonym for Corded ware or Single Grave culture.) Further east, more elaborate ones of copper or gold were more ceremonial than functional. The Vikings made iron battle axes and used them well into the Middle Ages. The pole ax is distinguished from the battle ax by a spike on the back of the ax. [battle-axe, battleaxe]

WHAT IS THE BATON DE COMMANDEMENT ?

BATON DE COMMANDEMENT: A name given to perforated batons made of antler rod of the Upper Paleolithic period in western Europe, from the Aurignacian period (30,000 years ago) through the Magdalenian. They have a hole through the thickest part of the head, are usually 30 cm (12 inches) long, but are often broken. The perforation is smooth and round, and highly decorated examples come from the Magdalenian culture. Their use is unknown.

WHAT IS THE AURIGNACIAN ?

AURIGNACIAN: A series of Upper Paleolithic cultures in Europe that existed from about 35,000 to 20,000 years ago (dates also given as 38,000–22,000 years ago). They were characterized by their use of stone (flint) and bone tools, the refinement of those tools, and the development of sculpture and cave painting. The culture is named for the type site Aurignac, in southern France, where such artifacts were discovered. In France it is stratified between the Châtelperronian and the Gravettian (and before the Solutrean and the Magdalenian), but industries of Aurignacian type are also found eastwards to the Balkans, Palestine, Iran, and Afghanistan. At Abri Pataud there is a radiocarbon date of before 31,000 bc for the Aurignacian, but there are possibly earlier occurrences in central and southeast Europe (Istállóskö in Hungary, Bacho Kiro in Bulgaria). There is still considerable dispute about the extent to which the Aurignacian is contemporary with the cultures of the Perigordian group in southwest France. The sites are often in deep, sheltered valleys. Split-based bone points, carinates (steepend scrapers), and Aurignac blades (with heavy marginal retouch) are typical of the Aurignacian. Aurignacian is also important as the most distinctive and abundantly represented of the early Upper Paleolithic groups.