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[[Image:Phaseolus vulgaris seed.jpg|150px|right|thumb|[[Pulse (legume)|Legumes]] were part of Paleolithic diets.]] |
[[Image:Phaseolus vulgaris seed.jpg|150px|right|thumb|[[Pulse (legume)|Legumes]] were part of Paleolithic diets.]] |
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The diet of the Paleolithic hunting and gathering peoples consisted primarily of animal flesh, fruits, and vegetables.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Weiss E, Wetterstrom W, Nadel D, Bar-Yosef O |title=The broad spectrum revisited: evidence from plant remains. |journal=Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A |volume=101 |issue=26 |pages=9551-5 |year=2004 Jun 29 |pmid=15210984 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0402362101}}</ref> There is insufficient data to determine with any certainty the relative proportions of plant and animal foods in the diets of Paleolithic humans.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Richards MP |title=A brief review of the archaeological evidence for Palaeolithic and Neolithic subsistence |journal=Eur J Clin Nutr |volume=56 |issue=12 |pages=1270–1278 |year=2002 Dec |pmid=12494313 |doi=10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601646 |url=}}</ref> According to some anthropologists and many advocates of the [[Paleolithic diet]], Paleolithic hunter-gatherers consumed a significant amount of meat and possibly obtained the majority of their food from hunting.<ref>Cordain L. [http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/2006_Oxford.pdf Implications of Plio-Pleistocene Hominin Diets for Modern Humans.] In: Early Hominin Diets: The Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable. Ungar, P (Ed.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006, pp 363-83.</ref> Competing theories suggest that Paleolithic humans may have consumed a plant-based diet in general,<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA10,M1 Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction]</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=eTPULzP1MZAC&pg=PA120&dq=Gathering+and+Hominid+Adaptation&sig=f2ulfIDfAvoqEcolNjz6MTIrM84#PPA111,M1 Woman the Gatherer By Frances Dahlberg]</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZHGwGwAACAAJ&dq=Gathering+and+Hominid+Adaptation Gathering and Hominid Adaptation]</ref> or that hunting and gathering possibly contributed equally their diet.<ref>Nature's Magic: Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind By Peter A. Corning</ref> Paleolithic humans consumed animal organ meats, including the livers, kidneys and brains. Overall they experienced less famine and malnutrition than the Neolithic farming tribes that followed them due in part to the fact that Paleolithic Hunter gatherers had access to a wider variety of plants and other foods than Neolithic farmers did which allowed Paleolithic hunter gathers to have a more nutritious diet along with a decreased risk of famine as many of the famines experienced by Neolithic (and some modern) farmers were caused or amplified by their dependence on a small number of crops<ref>[http://www.primitivism.com/sedentism.htm The Consequences of Domestication and Sedentism by Emily Schultz, et al]</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.awok.org/worst-mistake/ |title= The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race |work= Discover |author= Jared Diamond |accessdate=2008-01-14}}</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=8C-jOdT4LqYC&pg=PA2&dq=paleolithic+history+malnutrition&sig=yNZhXu70IfMI_JXVxbRaHFWTkPI#PPA1 Russell, pg 2.]</ref> furthermore, it is unlikely that Paleolithic Hunter gatherers were affected by modern [[Diseases of affluence|diseases of affluence]] such as Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease either.<ref name="pmid15699220">{{cite journal |author=Cordain L, Eaton SB, Sebastian A, Mann N, Lindeberg S, Watkins BA, O'Keefe JH, Brand-Miller J |title=Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century |journal=Am. J. Clin. Nutr. |volume=81 |issue=2 |pages=341-54 |year=2005 |pmid=15699220 |doi= |url=}}</ref> Large seeded [[legume]]s were part of the human diet long before the [[Neolithic]] agricultural revolution as evident from archaeobotanical finds from the [[Mousterian]] layers of [[Kebara Cave]], in Israel.<ref name="doi10.1016/j.jas.2004.11.006">{{cite journal |author=Efraim Lev, Mordechai E. Kislev, Ofer Bar-Yosef |title=Mousterian vegetal food in Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=475-484 |year=March 2005 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2004.11.006}}</ref> Moreover, recent evidence indicates that humans processed and consumed wild cereal grains as far back as 23,000 years ago in the [[Upper Paleolithic]].<ref name="pmid15295598">{{cite journal |author=Piperno DR, Weiss E, Holst I, Nadel D. |title=Processing of wild cereal grains in the Upper Palaeolithic revealed by starch grain analysis. |journal=Nature |volume=430 |issue=7000 |pages=670-3 |year=2004 Aug 5 |pmid=15295598 |doi=10.1038/nature02734 |url=http://anthropology.si.edu/archaeobio/Ohalo%20II%20Nature.pdf}}</ref> Recent archeological evidence also indicates that the processes of winemaking had its origins in the Paleolithic when early humans drank the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes from animal-skin pouches.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0721_040721_ancientwine.html |title= First Wine? Archaeologist Traces Drink to Stone Age |work= National Geographic News |author= William Cocke |accessdate=2008-02-03}}</ref> Fishing was invented during the [[Upper Paleolithic]]<ref>[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/11/1108_bonetool_2.html African Bone Tools Dispute Key Idea About Human Evolution] National Geographic News article.</ref> and it allowed some [[Hunter-gatherer]] communities in the following Mesolithic period such as [[Lepenski Vir]] as well as some contemporary hunter gatherers such as the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans of the northwest coast]] to become sedentary or semi-nomadic and even in some instances (at least in the case of the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans of the northwest coast]]) develop [[Social stratification]]. Anthropologists such as Tim White suggest that Cannibalism 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=-TVHr_XtDJcC&pg=PA338&lpg=PA338&dq=paleolithic+cannibalism&source=web&ots=Aso6yWbVfw&sig=y8t9jwbtzGyQcSpPlintukgjN6A#PPA338,M1|title= Once were Cannibals |work= Evolution: A Scientific American Reader|author= Tim D white |accessdate=2008-02-14}}</ref> Cannibalism in the Lower and middle paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061205-cannibals.html|title= Neandertals Turned to Cannibalism, Bone Cave Suggests |work= National Geographic News|author= James Owen |accessdate=2008-02-03}}</ref> |
The diet of the Paleolithic hunting and gathering peoples consisted primarily of animal flesh, fruits, and vegetables.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Weiss E, Wetterstrom W, Nadel D, Bar-Yosef O |title=The broad spectrum revisited: evidence from plant remains. |journal=Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A |volume=101 |issue=26 |pages=9551-5 |year=2004 Jun 29 |pmid=15210984 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0402362101}}</ref> There is insufficient data to determine with any certainty the relative proportions of plant and animal foods in the diets of Paleolithic humans.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Richards MP |title=A brief review of the archaeological evidence for Palaeolithic and Neolithic subsistence |journal=Eur J Clin Nutr |volume=56 |issue=12 |pages=1270–1278 |year=2002 Dec |pmid=12494313 |doi=10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601646 |url=}}</ref> According to some anthropologists and many advocates of the [[Paleolithic diet]], Paleolithic hunter-gatherers consumed a significant amount of meat and possibly obtained the majority of their food from hunting.<ref>Cordain L. [http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/2006_Oxford.pdf Implications of Plio-Pleistocene Hominin Diets for Modern Humans.] In: Early Hominin Diets: The Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable. Ungar, P (Ed.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006, pp 363-83.</ref> Competing theories suggest that Paleolithic humans may have consumed a plant-based diet in general,<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA10,M1 Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction]</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=eTPULzP1MZAC&pg=PA120&dq=Gathering+and+Hominid+Adaptation&sig=f2ulfIDfAvoqEcolNjz6MTIrM84#PPA111,M1 Woman the Gatherer By Frances Dahlberg]</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZHGwGwAACAAJ&dq=Gathering+and+Hominid+Adaptation Gathering and Hominid Adaptation]</ref> or that hunting and gathering possibly contributed equally their diet.<ref>Nature's Magic: Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind By Peter A. Corning</ref> Paleolithic humans consumed animal organ meats, including the livers, kidneys and brains. Overall they experienced less famine and malnutrition than the Neolithic farming tribes that followed them due in part to the fact that Paleolithic Hunter gatherers had access to a wider variety of plants and other foods than Neolithic farmers did which allowed Paleolithic hunter gathers to have a more nutritious diet along with a decreased risk of famine as many of the famines experienced by Neolithic (and some modern) farmers were caused or amplified by their dependence on a small number of crops<ref>[http://www.primitivism.com/sedentism.htm The Consequences of Domestication and Sedentism by Emily Schultz, et al]</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.awok.org/worst-mistake/ |title= The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race |work= Discover |author= Jared Diamond |accessdate=2008-01-14}}</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=8C-jOdT4LqYC&pg=PA2&dq=paleolithic+history+malnutrition&sig=yNZhXu70IfMI_JXVxbRaHFWTkPI#PPA1 Russell, pg 2.]</ref> furthermore, it is unlikely that Paleolithic Hunter gatherers were affected by modern [[Diseases of affluence|diseases of affluence]] such as Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease either.<ref name="pmid15699220">{{cite journal |author=Cordain L, Eaton SB, Sebastian A, Mann N, Lindeberg S, Watkins BA, O'Keefe JH, Brand-Miller J |title=Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century |journal=Am. J. Clin. Nutr. |volume=81 |issue=2 |pages=341-54 |year=2005 |pmid=15699220 |doi= |url=}}</ref> Large seeded [[legume]]s were part of the human diet long before the [[Neolithic]] agricultural revolution as evident from archaeobotanical finds from the [[Mousterian]] layers of [[Kebara Cave]], in Israel.<ref name="doi10.1016/j.jas.2004.11.006">{{cite journal |author=Efraim Lev, Mordechai E. Kislev, Ofer Bar-Yosef |title=Mousterian vegetal food in Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=475-484 |year=March 2005 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2004.11.006}}</ref> Moreover, recent evidence indicates that humans processed and consumed wild cereal grains as far back as 23,000 years ago in the [[Upper Paleolithic]].<ref name="pmid15295598">{{cite journal |author=Piperno DR, Weiss E, Holst I, Nadel D. |title=Processing of wild cereal grains in the Upper Palaeolithic revealed by starch grain analysis. |journal=Nature |volume=430 |issue=7000 |pages=670-3 |year=2004 Aug 5 |pmid=15295598 |doi=10.1038/nature02734 |url=http://anthropology.si.edu/archaeobio/Ohalo%20II%20Nature.pdf}}</ref> Recent archeological evidence also indicates that the processes of winemaking had its origins in the Paleolithic when early humans drank the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes from animal-skin pouches.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0721_040721_ancientwine.html |title= First Wine? Archaeologist Traces Drink to Stone Age |work= National Geographic News |author= William Cocke |accessdate=2008-02-03}}</ref> Fishing was invented during the [[Upper Paleolithic]]<ref>[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/11/1108_bonetool_2.html African Bone Tools Dispute Key Idea About Human Evolution] National Geographic News article.</ref> and it allowed some [[Hunter-gatherer]] communities in the following Mesolithic period such as [[Lepenski Vir]] as well as some contemporary hunter gatherers such as the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans of the northwest coast]] to become sedentary or semi-nomadic and even in some instances (at least in the case of the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans of the northwest coast]]) develop [[Social stratification]]. Anthropologists such as Tim White suggest that Cannibalism 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=-TVHr_XtDJcC&pg=PA338&lpg=PA338&dq=paleolithic+cannibalism&source=web&ots=Aso6yWbVfw&sig=y8t9jwbtzGyQcSpPlintukgjN6A#PPA338,M1|title= Once were Cannibals |work= Evolution: A Scientific American Reader|author= Tim D white |accessdate=2008-02-14}}</ref> Cannibalism in the Lower and middle paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061205-cannibals.html|title= Neandertals Turned to Cannibalism, Bone Cave Suggests |work= National Geographic News|author= James Owen |accessdate=2008-02-03}}</ref> |
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== Notes == |
== Notes == |
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* [[Turkana boy]] |
* [[Turkana boy]] |
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* [[Lascaux]]-A cave containing a famous set of Upper Paleolithic cave paintings. |
* [[Lascaux]]-A cave containing a famous set of Upper Paleolithic cave paintings. |
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* [[Paleolithic-style diet]] |
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* [[Evolutionary Psychology]] (Controversial sub discipline of biology and psychology that claims to explain human behaviors as adaptations to the Paleolithic environment.) |
* [[Evolutionary Psychology]] (Controversial sub discipline of biology and psychology that claims to explain human behaviors as adaptations to the Paleolithic environment.) |
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|valign="top" maxwidth="250px"|{{Three-age system of Archaeology}} |
|valign="top" maxwidth="250px"|{{Three-age system of Archaeology}} |
Revision as of 21:31, 6 March 2008
The Paleolithic (or Palaeolithic) is a prehistoric era distinguished by the development of stone tools. It covers the greatest portion of humanity's time on Earth, extending from 2.6 million years ago, with the introduction of stone tools by hominids such as Homo habilis, to the introduction of agriculture around 10,000 BC.
The term Paleolithic, literally "Old Age of the Stone", was coined by archaeologist John Lubbock in 1865 and derives from the Greek παλαιολιθικός - palaiolithikos, παλαιός - palaios ("old") and λίθος, - lithos ("stone"). The Paleolithic era ended with the Mesolithic, or in areas with an early neolithisation, the Epipaleolithic.
The Paleolithic is characterized by the use of knapped stone tools, although at the time, humans also used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools, including leather and vegetable fibers; however, given their nature, these have not been preserved to any great degree.
Chronology
Traditionally, the Paleolithic is divided into three periods: the Lower Paleolithic, Middle Paleolithic, and the Upper Paleolithic. The three ages mark technological and cultural advances in different human communities.
- Paleolithic
- Lower Paleolithic (c. 2.6 million years ago-100,000 years ago)
- Olduwan culture
- Acheulean culture
- Clactonian culture
- Middle Paleolithic (c. 300,000 to 30,000 years ago)
- Mousterian culture
- Aterian culture
- Upper Paleolithic (c. 40,000 to 10,000 years ago)
- Châtelperronian culture
- Aurignacian culture
- Gravettian culture
- Solutrean culture
- Magdalenian culture
- Lower Paleolithic (c. 2.6 million years ago-100,000 years ago)
Human evolution
Human evolution is the part of biological evolution concerning the emergence of humans as a distinct species. It is the subject of a broad scientific inquiry that seeks to understand and describe how this change and development occurred. The study of human evolution encompasses many scientific disciplines, most notably physical anthropology, paleoanthropology, paleontology, archeology, linguistics, and genetics. The term human, in the context of human evolution, refers to the genus Homo, but studies of human evolution usually include other hominids, such as the australopithecines.
Human evolution during the Paleolithic
The evolutionary history of humankind is often traced back by paleoanthropologists to 5 or 7 million years ago prior to the start of the Paleolithic when our closest hominid ancestors diverged from the shared common ancestor of Humans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos.[1] These early Pre-Paleolithic hominids (such as toumai and Australopithecus) began to develop bipedalism (though bipedalism was not fully developed until Homo erectus/Homo ergaster first appeared in the human fossil record) and eventually gave rise to the earliest member of the genus homo Homo Habilis around 2.6 million years ago. Numerous explanations have been proposed by anthropologists and biologists to explain why bipedalism evolved in humans including the Provisioning model which states that bipedalism was an adaptation to a monogamous society, the Postural feeding hypothesis which proposes that bipedalism was invented to help obtain food and the Thermoregulatory model which claims that human bipedalism arose to reduce body heat.
The earliest member of the genus homo Homo Habilis appeared around 2.6 million years ago and was responsible for the beginning of the Paleolithic era and the creation of the Olduwan Tool case. Most experts assume the intelligence and social organization of H. habilis were more sophisticated than typical australopithecines or chimpanzees.Homo habilis co-existed with other Homo-like bipedal primates, such as Paranthropus boisei, some of which prospered for many millennia. However, H. habilis, possibly because of its early tool innovation and a less specialized diet, became the precursor of an entire line of new species, whereas Paranthropus boisei and its robust relatives disappeared from the fossil record. Homo hablis eventually became Homo ergaster. Homo ergaster was the first hominid to stand fully upright and migrate out of Africa (c. 2 million years ago[2][3]). Homo ergaster may also have been the first hominid to discover fire. Homo ergaster is often considered to be the primogenitor of the later species Homo erectus, though H. ergaster is sometimes categorized as a subspecies of Homo erectus. Homo erectus (along with Homo ergaster) was probably the first early human species to fit squarely into the category of a hunter-gatherer society. Homo erectus was the first hominid to use controlled fire (c. 300,000 BP), though earlier (disputed) evidence for controlled fire also exists at sites such as the Zhoukoudian Caves in china, which contains possible evidence for controlled fire as early as 1.5 million years ago.[4] The latest populations of Homo erectus were probably the first hominid societies to live in small scale (possibly egalitarian) band societies similar to modern hunter gatherer band societies.[5] It is unknown who was the ancestor of Homo rhodesiensis, the primitive hominid species that humans are likely to have descended from, though many current paleoanthropologists postulate that Homo rhodesiensis was the same species as Homo heidelbergensis, who was also the immediate ancestor of the Neanderthals.
Although the first members of the species Homo sapiens, the Archaic Homo sapiens, may have existed as long as 300,000 years ago, Homo sapiens only became (completely) behaviorally modern during the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic (c. 50,000 BP). This change in human behavior is known as the Upper Paleolithic revolution and scientists suggest that these changes may have been caused by the development of language, though the development of behavioral modernity may have been the result of a gradual transition as the earliest evidence of behavioral modernity including artistic expression (such as ochre being used as body paint and early rock art) exists prior to the Upper Paleolithic during the Middle Paleolithic.
What was the driving force behind human evolution during the paleolithic is a matter of significant debate amongst anthropologists. The Hunting hypothesis suggests that human evolution was primarily shaped by the hunting of other animals, however it is currently known that humans during most of the Paleolithic period gained the majority of their meat from scavenging dead animals rather than hunting and were often prey for larger large carnivores such as the Saber tooth cat Dinofelis and hyenas which apparently prayed on the hominid Homo habilis.[6] It is also currently understood by anthropologists that even Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals, who hunted large game just as frequently and successfully as modern Upper Paleolithic humans, intermittently (and sometimes unsuccessfully) competed with carnivores such as hyenas for shelter in caves and food.[7] Several contending theories also exist including the (somewhat related) Killer ape theory, which proposes that warfare and violence were the driving forces behind human evolution. The Killer ape theory was first described by Raymond Dart in the 1950s and was further developed by the anthropologist Robert Ardrey (who also supported the Hunting hypothesis) in his book African Genesis (1961). The Killer Ape Theory is no longer supported by the majority of the anthropological community.[8] A number of Feminist anthropologists, such as Adrienne L. Zihlman, propose a reverse version of the Hunting hypothesis in which gathering was the driving force behind evolution and female primates played a significant part in human evolution.[9] The Aquatic ape hypothesis is another theory that seeks to uncover the driving force behind human evolution. In contrast to the two previously mentioned theories, the Hunting hypothesis and the Killer ape theory, the aquatic ape theory claims that life in aquatic or semi-aquatic settings was responsible for the development of many of the characteristics of Homo genus that are not seen in other primates. However, like the Killer ape theory, it is not widely accepted by the scientific community.[10][11][12]
Richard Wrangham of Harvard university argues that cooking of plant foods may have triggered brain expansion by allowing complex carbohydrates in starchy foods to become more digestible and in effect allow humans to absorb more calories.[13][14][15]
Simplified human genealogy
The timeline below shows a simplified genealogy of Paleolithic humanity, although other ideas of human genealogy exist for the same period:[16]
Timeline scale is in thousands of years.
- Currently agreed upon classifications as Paleolithic geoclimatic episodes
Age (before) |
America | Atlantic Europe | Maghreb | Mediterranean Europe | Central Europe |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
10,000 years | Flandrian interglacial | Flandriense | Mellahiense | Versiliense | Flandrian interglacial |
80,000 years | Wisconsin | Devensiense | Regresión | Regresión | Wisconsin glaciation |
140,000 years | Sangamoniense | Ipswichiense | Ouljiense | Tirreniense II y III | Eemian interglacial |
200,000 years | Illinois | Wolstoniense | Regresión | Regresión | Wolstonian glaciation |
450,000 years | Yarmouthiense | Hoxniense | Anfatiense | Tirreniense I | Hoxnian interglacial |
580,000 years | Kansas | Angliense | Regresión | Regresión | Kansan glaciation |
750,000 years | Aftoniense | Cromeriense | Maarifiense | Siciliense | Cromerian interglacial |
1,100,000 years | Nebraska | Beestoniense | Regresión | Regresión | Beestonian stage |
1,400,000 years | interglaciar | Ludhamiense | Messaudiense | Calabriense | Donau-Günz |
Way of life
The Old Stone Age, or Paleolithic, comprises more than a million years, and during this period major climatic and other changes occurred which affected the evolution of humans. Humans themselves evolved into their current morphological form during the later period of the Stone Age.
Paleolithic humans appear to have ranged widely and were distributed sparsely, but uniformly. The Paleolithic remains which have been found are astonishingly uniform, everywhere in the range of humans. Implements of the same type have been found in what is now Britain, France, and along the banks of the Nile.[17]
The economy of a typical Paleolithic society was primitive, with humans living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. They hunted for meat and gathered food, firewood, and materials for their tools, clothes, or cabins.
Technology
During this time period people made tools of stone, bone, and wood. Lower Paleolithic humans used a variety of stone tools including Handaxes which were most likely used as cutting and chopping tools, digging implements or in animal traps and were possibly in courting behaviour, choppers and scrappers which were most likely used for the purpose of skinning and butchering scavenged animals and sharp ended sticks which were often procured for the purpose of digging up edible roots. Early humans presumably have been using wooden spears as early as 5 million years ago to hunt small animals much like our close relatives the common chimpanzee have recently been observed doing in Senegal, Africa.[18] The lower Paleolithic Hominid Homo erectus discovered fire around 300,000 or 1.5 million years ago and possibly invented rafts (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 Flores and evolve into the small hominid Homo floresiensis, however it must also be noted that this hypothesis is disputed within the anthropological community.[19][2][3] Lower Paleolithic humans are known to have constructed shelters such as the possible wood hut at Terra Amata. The most ancient Paleolithic stone tool industry the Oldowan was developed by the earliest members of the genus Homo such as Homo habilis around 2.6 million years ago.[20] and contained tools such as choppers, burins and awls though it completely disappeared around 250,000 years ago and was followed by the more complex Acheulean industry which began around 1.65 million years ago[4]. People during the Middle Paleolithic began to catch shellfish for food and preserve meat by smoking and drying it. Middle Paleolithic humans correspondingly created stone tipped spears which are widely considered by scientists to be the first composite tools in human prehistory. Neanderthals who possessed a Middle Paleolithic level of technology appear to have hunted large game just as modern humans have done[21] and Neanderthals may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons.[22] During the end of the Paleolithic (The late Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic) further technological advances were made such as the invention of Bolas,[23] the spear thrower, the bow and arrow (c. 30,000 BP) and the creation of the world's oldest example of ceramic art the Venus of Dolní Věstonice (c. 29,000–25,000 BP). [24] Early dogs were also domesticated during the end of the Paleolithic sometime between 100,000BP[25] and 14,000 BP[26] (presumably) to aid in hunting.[26] People also wore rough animal skins as articles of clothing. Both Middle and Upper Paleolithic cultures appear to have had significant knowledge about plants and herbs.
Archeological evidence from the Dordogne region of France demonstrates that members of the European early Upper Paleolithic culture known as the Aurignacian were the first people to use calendars (c. 30,000 BP). This early calendar 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.[27]
Humans probably consumed hallucinogenic plants during the Paleolithic period.[28]
An artifact of the Paleolithic period is often known as a Paleolith.
Society
More primitive humans or societies such as the Neanderthals, Homo habilis and Homo erectus vanished, and the crudest types of Paleolithic implements vanished. It is not certain whether they were absorbed into the new groups or displaced by them. The Neanderthals (and Homo erectus [29]) for instance may have interbred with modern humans (Homo Sapiens) in Europe and Asia.[30]
Neanderthals seemed acquainted with the use of fire, and as the last glacial era approached in Europe they began to seek shelter under rock ledges and in caves, leaving their remains for later discovery. Lower Paleolithic humans such as Homo Erectus and Homo Habilis discovered fire, invented shelters and used simple sharp stone tools known as Handaxes as cutting and chopping tools, digging implements and (possibly) in courting behavior.
The human population density in the Paleolithic was very small and numbered around only one person per square mile. The low population density during the Paleolithic was most likely due to low body fat, Infanticide, women regularly engaging in intense endurance exercise,[31] late weaning of infants and a nomadic lifestyle.[32]
Among the prey of late Paleolithic humans were the large mammals. They brought the large bones of these animals into caves to crack for the marrow. Animal skins were being used. These people were right-handed, demonstrated by the fact that the left side of their brains were larger than the right.[17]
Typically women were responsible for gathering wild plants and men were responsible for hunting and scavinging dead animals amongst Upper Paleolithic humans.[33] However according to recent archeological research this division of labor did not exist prior to the Upper Paleolithic and was invented relatively recently in human pre-history.[34][35] The sexual division of labor may have been developed to allow humans to acquire food and other resources more efficiently.[35] There was approximate parity between men and women during the Paleolithic and the paleolithic was the most gender-equal period in human history.[36][37][38][39] Indeed archeological evidence from art and funerary rituals indicates that a number of individual women enjoyed seemingly high status in their bands[39] and additional scientific research of Paleolithic society has also revealed that the earliest known Paleolithic shaman(c. 30,000 BC) was female.[40] Matrilineal decent patterns were likely to have been more common during the Paleolithic and the Mesolithic than in the following Neolithic period.[41]
Paleolithic humans were grouped in Bands that ranged from 25 to 100 members; these clans were formed by several families, however bands sometimes joined together into larger "macrobands" or tribes for activities such as acquiring mates and celebrations.[42] By the end of the Paleolithic era—which ended about 10,000 BP—people began to settle down into permanent locations and agriculture began to be relied upon for sustenance in many locations. A large body of scientific evidence exists to suggest that humans took part in long distance between Bands for rare commodities and raw materials as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic.[43] Paleolithic society was communal and collectivistic and individuals were subordinate to the band as a whole.[44][45] Both Neanderthals and modern humans took care of the elderly members of their societies during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.[46]
Like contemporary hunter-gatherers Paleolithic humans enjoyed an abundance of leisure time unparalleled in bolth Neolithic farming societies and modren industrial societies.[47]
Paleolithic societies were fundamentally egalitarian[48][49][50][51] and there is very little or no archaeological evidence to suggest that violent battles between groups (i.e. war) occurred during the paleolithic,[52] though Paleolithic cultures may have practiced some (small-scale) status ranking within bands.[53] Theories to explain the apparent egalitarianism of Paleolithic societies have arisen, notably the Marxist concept of primitive communism.
The earliest undisputed evidence of art during the Paleolithic period comes from the Middle Paleolithic in the form of bracelets, beads[54], ochre used as body paint and perhaps in ritual and rock art, though earlier examples of artistic expression such as the Venus of Tan-Tan and the patterns found on elephant bones from Bilzingsleben in Thuringia may have been produced by Acheulean tool users such as Homo Erectus prior to the start of the Middle Paleolithic period. Upper Paleolithic humans produced works of art such as cave paintings, Venus figurines, animal carvings and rock paintings. The cave paintings have been interpreted in a number of ways by modern archeologists, the earliest explanation of the Paleolithic cave paintings first proposed by the Physical anthropologist Henri Breuil interpreted the paintings as a form of magic designed to ensure a successful hunt although this hypothesis falls short of explaining the existence of animals such as Saber-tooth cats and lions which were not hunted for food and the existence of half human-half animal beings in cave paintings. The anthropologists Graham Hancock and David Lewis-Williams have suggested that Paleolithic cave paintings were indications of shamanistic practices as the paintings of half animal-half human paintings and the remoteness of the caves are reminiscent of modern hunter-gatherer shamanistic practices. The Venus figurines have evoked similar controversy amongst archeologists and have been described at various times and by various archeologists and anthropologists as representations of Goddesses, pornographic imagery, apotropaic amulets, used for sympathetic magic and even as self-portraits of women themselves.[55] Additionally Upper Paleolithic (and possibly Middle Paleolithic[56]) humans used flute-like bone pipes as musical instruments.[57] Music can be theoretically traced to prior to the Oldowan era of the Paleolithic age, the anthropological and archeological designation suggests that music first arose (amongst humans) when stone tools first began to be used by hominids. The noises produced by work such as pounding seed and roots into meal is a likely source of rhythm created by early humans.
R. Dale Guthrie[58] 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 that the main themes in the paintings and other artifacts (powerful beasts, risky hunting scenes and the over-sexual representation of women in the Venus figurines) are to be expected in the fantasies of adolescent males during the Paleolithic.
Religion and beliefs
A controversial scholar of prehistoric religion and anthropology James Harrod, (Ph.D) has recently proposed that religion and spirituality (and art) may have first arose in Pre-Paleolithic chimpanzee [59] and or Early Lower Paleolithic (Oldowan) societies,[60] however the established anthropological view holds that it is more probable that humankind first developed Religious and Spiritual beliefs during the Middle Paleolithic or Upper Paleolithic. It is likely that Middle Paleolithic cultures believed in an afterlife as evidenced by Middle Paleolithic humans use of burials at sites such as Krapina , Croatia (around 130,000 BP) and Qafzeh, Israel (around 100,000 BP) which have lead anthropologists and archeologists such as Philip Lieberman to believe that middle Paleolithic humans may have possessed a belief in an afterlife and a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life".[61] Cut marks on Neanderthal bones from various sites such as Combe-Grenal and Abri Moula in France may imply that the Neanderthals like some contemporary human cultures may have practiced Ritual defleshing for (presumably) religious reasons. According to recent archeological findings from H. heidelbergensis sites in Atapuerca humans may have begun burying their dead much earlier during the late Lower Paleolithic but this theory is widely questioned in the scientific community. Likewise a number of archeologists propose that Middle Paleolithic societies such as Neanderthal societies may also have practiced the earliest form of totemism or animal worship in addition to their (presumably religious) burial of the dead. Emil Bächler in particular suggests (based on archeological evidence from Middle Paleolithic caves) that a widespread Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal bear cult existed (Wunn, 2000, p. 434-435). Additional evidence in support of Middle Paleolithic animal worship originates from the Tsodilo Hills (c 70,000BCE) in the African Kalahari desert where a giant rock resembling a python that is accompanied by large amounts of colored broken spear points and a secret chamber has been discovered inside a cave. The Broken spear points were most likely sacrificial offerings and the python is also important to and worshipped by contemporary Bushmen Hunter-gatherers who are the descendants of the of the people who devised the ritual at the Tsodilo Hills and may have inherited their worship of the python from their distant Middle Paleolithic ancestors.[62] The existence of anthropomorphic images and half human-half animal images in the Upper Paleolithic period may futher indicate that Upper Paleolithic humans were the first people to believe in a pantheon of gods or supernatural beings,[63] though the half human-half animal images may have also been indicative of shamanistic practices similar to those practiced by 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 Upper Paleolithic era (c. 30,000 BC) in what is now the Czech Republic[64] howbeit, it was probably more common during the early Upper Paleolithic for religious ceremonies to receive equal and full participation from all members of the Band 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.[65] Religion was often apotropaic specifically, it involved sympathetic magic, the Venus figurines which are abundant in the Upper Paleolithic archeological record provide an example for Paleolithic sympathetic magic as they may have been used for ensuring success in hunting and to bring about fertility of the land and women.[66]
The Upper Paleolithic venus figurines have been sometimes explained as depictions of an Earth Goddess simliar to Gaia.[5]
Diet and nutrition
The diet of the Paleolithic hunting and gathering peoples consisted primarily of animal flesh, fruits, and vegetables.[67] There is insufficient data to determine with any certainty the relative proportions of plant and animal foods in the diets of Paleolithic humans.[68] According to some anthropologists and many advocates of the Paleolithic diet, Paleolithic hunter-gatherers consumed a significant amount of meat and possibly obtained the majority of their food from hunting.[69] Competing theories suggest that Paleolithic humans may have consumed a plant-based diet in general,[70][71][72] or that hunting and gathering possibly contributed equally their diet.[73] Paleolithic humans consumed animal organ meats, including the livers, kidneys and brains. Overall they experienced less famine and malnutrition than the Neolithic farming tribes that followed them due in part to the fact that Paleolithic Hunter gatherers had access to a wider variety of plants and other foods than Neolithic farmers did which allowed Paleolithic hunter gathers to have a more nutritious diet along with a decreased risk of famine as many of the famines experienced by Neolithic (and some modern) farmers were caused or amplified by their dependence on a small number of crops[74][75][76] furthermore, it is unlikely that Paleolithic Hunter gatherers were affected by modern diseases of affluence such as Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease either.[77] Large seeded legumes were part of the human diet long before the Neolithic agricultural revolution as evident from archaeobotanical finds from the Mousterian layers of Kebara Cave, in Israel.[78] Moreover, recent evidence indicates that humans processed and consumed wild cereal grains as far back as 23,000 years ago in the Upper Paleolithic.[79] Recent archeological evidence also indicates that the processes of winemaking had its origins in the Paleolithic when early humans drank the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes from animal-skin pouches.[80] Fishing was invented during the Upper Paleolithic[81] and it allowed some Hunter-gatherer communities in the following Mesolithic period such as Lepenski Vir as well as some contemporary hunter gatherers such as the Native Americans of the northwest coast to become sedentary or semi-nomadic and even in some instances (at least in the case of the Native Americans of the northwest coast) develop Social stratification. Anthropologists such as Tim White suggest that Cannibalism 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.[82] Cannibalism in the Lower and middle paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages.[83]
The Paleolithic-style diet (also known as the paleodiet or the caveman diet) is a modern diet that seeks to replicate the dietary habits of Paleolithic hunter gatherers.
Notes
- ^ Scarre, C, 2005, p110
- ^ ...the most conservative conclusion today is that Acheulean people and their contemporaries definitely hunted big animals, though their success rate is not clear ibid, p 120.
- Wunn, Ina (2000). "Beginning of Religion", Numen, 47(4).
- ^ Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, "Women in the Stone Age," in the essay "The Venus of Willendorf" (accessed March 13, 2008).
References
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- ^ McClellan, pg 10
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- ^ a b Stefan Lovgren. "Sex-Based Roles Gave Modern Humans an Edge, Study Says". National Geographic News. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
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- ^ Stavrianos, pg 13
- ^ Stavrianos, pg 23 .
- ^ Hillary Mayell. "When Did "Modern" Behavior Emerge in Humans?". National Geographic News. Retrieved 2008-02-05.
- ^ Felipe Fernandez Armesto (2003). Ideas that changed the world. Newyork: Dorling Kindersley limited. p. 400. ISBN 978-0-7566-3298-4.; Page 10
- ^ Christopher Boehm (1999) "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" page 198 Harvard university press
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- ^ Nelson, D.E., Radiocarbon dating of bone and charcoal from Divje babe I cave, cited by Morley, p. 47
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- ^ Uniquely Human. 1991. ISBN 0674921836.
- ^ World's Oldest Ritual Discovered -- Worshipped The Python 70,000 Years Ago The Research Council of Norway (2006, November 30). World's Oldest Ritual Discovered -- Worshipped The Python 70,000 Years Ago. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 2, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2006/11/061130081347.htm
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See also
Template:FixHTML |valign="top" width="220px"|
- Abbassia Pluvial
- Geologic time scale
- Ice age
- List of archaeological sites sorted by continent and age (Includes Paleolithic.)
- Mousterian Pluvial
- Pleistocene
- Lower Paleolithic
- Middle Paleolithic
- Upper Paleolithic
- Mesolithic
- Neolithic
- Stone age
- Bushmen
- Hunter gatherer
- Band society
- Japanese paleolithic
- Clovis culture
- Luzia Woman
- Turkana boy
- Lascaux-A cave containing a famous set of Upper Paleolithic cave paintings.
- Paleolithic-style diet
- Evolutionary Psychology (Controversial sub discipline of biology and psychology that claims to explain human behaviors as adaptations to the Paleolithic environment.)
|valign="top" maxwidth="250px"|
|
Subdivisions of the Quaternary Period | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
System/ Period |
Series/ Epoch |
Stage/ Age |
Age | |
Quaternary | Holocene | Meghalayan | 0 | 4,200 |
Northgrippian | 4,200 | 8,200 | ||
Greenlandian | 8,200 | 11,700 | ||
Pleistocene | 'Upper' | 11,700 | 129ka | |
Chibanian | 129ka | 774ka | ||
Calabrian | 774ka | 1.80Ma | ||
Gelasian | 1.80Ma | 2.58Ma | ||
Neogene | Pliocene | Piacenzian | 2.58Ma | 3.60Ma |
Subdivision of the Quaternary Period according to the ICS, as of January 2020.[1]
For the Holocene, dates are relative to the year 2000 (e.g. Greenlandian began 11,700 years before 2000). For the beginning of the Northgrippian a date of 8,236 years before 2000 has been set.[2] The Meghalayan has been set to begin 4,250 years before 2000.[1] 'Tarantian' is an informal, unofficial name proposed for a stage/age to replace the equally informal, unofficial 'Upper Pleistocene' subseries/subepoch. In Europe and North America, the Holocene is subdivided into Preboreal, Boreal, Atlantic, Subboreal, and Subatlantic stages of the Blytt–Sernander time scale. There are many regional subdivisions for the Upper or Late Pleistocene; usually these represent locally recognized cold (glacial) and warm (interglacial) periods. The last glacial period ends with the cold Younger Dryas substage. | ||||
- ^ a b c Cohen, K. M.; Finney, S. C.; Gibbard, P. L.; Fan, J.-X. (January 2020). "International Chronostratigraphic Chart" (PDF). International Commission on Stratigraphy. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
- ^ a b Mike Walker; et al. (December 2018). "Formal ratification of the subdivision of the Holocene Series/Epoch (Quaternary System/Period)" (PDF). Episodes. 41 (4). Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS): 213–223. doi:10.18814/epiiugs/2018/018016. Retrieved 11 November 2019. This proposal on behalf of the SQS has been approved by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and formally ratified by the Executive Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS).