Gravettias

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Gravettias
Age : younger Paleolithic
Absolutely : about 35,000 to 24,000 years ago

expansion
Western, Central and Eastern Europe, Siberia
Leitforms

Blunt-backed blades, gravette points, notch points, burins, hand negatives, statuettes of women

The Gravettian (pronunciation [ ɡravɛˈti̯ɛ̃ː ]) is the most important archaeological culture of the Middle Upper Paleolithic in Europe. Gravettian hunters and gatherers have their traces in large parts of Europe (in the areas of today's Belgium , the Netherlands , England , Wales , France , Germany , Austria , the Czech Republic , Poland , Hungary , Romania , Bulgaria , Moldova and the Ukraine ) and up to left to Siberia . Dating of sites of the Gravettian range from about 30,500 to 22,000 BC. BC, which is calibrated dates from about 33,000 to 25,000 BC. Corresponds to.

The Gravettian follows the Aurignacian and falls into the cooling phase before the second cold peak of the Vistula / Würm glaciation . The older Gravettia is defined by blunt-backed blades and gravette tips . Regional expressions of the older Gravettia are the Périgordien IV (SW-France) and the Pavlovien in Moravia, Lower Austria and Slovakia. It should be noted here that the Gravettian of the East has a greater economic specialization and more pronounced technological features than the Gravettian of the West. The younger Gravettien ( cusps horizon) is also called Willendorf-Kostenkien, to find layers in Willendorf (Wachau) and Kostenki on Don .

In Southern and Eastern Europe, after the cold peak, there are still traditions of Gravettian (“ Epigravettia ”), which exist there at the same time as Western European Magdalenian .

Concept history

The term Gravettien was introduced in 1938 by Dorothy Garrod , after discoveries in the Abri La Gravette near Bayac in the Dordogne department . It replaces the phase of Aurignacien that Henri Breuil referred to as Aurignacien inferieur , characterized by Font-Robert and Gravette tips . In the southern French classification of Denis Peyrony it corresponds to Périgordien IV and V. Because of the dominance of the Gravettian time horizon in the Paleolithic of the Dordogne, it is sometimes shortened to Périgordien (without adding the stage).

Historical development and stratigraphy

The Gravettia follows the Aurignacien 4b and is in turn replaced by the Solutréen (Protosolutréen) or the Epigravettia . However, the transition from Aurignacia to Gravettia cannot be clearly demarcated, rather there is an overlap between the two cultures. The oldest Gravettian finds come from Kozarnika in Bulgaria followed by Buran Kaya in the Crimea . Both sites are a little older than Willendorf II , whose oldest grave site (site 5) with 30,500 radiocarbon years or 32,616 BC. Could be dated ( Denekamp II ). In Molodova V ( Ukraine ) the Older Gravettia starts from 30,200 radiocarbon years or from 32,440 years BC. And in the Geißenklösterle ( Swabian Jura ) were 29,500 radiocarbon years and 31,929 years BC, respectively. Determined for the beginning of the Gravettian.

The Aurignacia itself can continue to exist alongside the Gravettia, for example in Alberndorf ( Lower Austria ) it will continue to exist up to 28,400 radiocarbon years (30,835 BC) and in Mitoc-Malu Galben ( Romania ) even up to 27,500 radiocarbon years (30,108 BC). ) encountered. Even younger ages are reported for the Aurignacia from Moldova .

After the Maisières-Interstadial ended , the climate deteriorated steadily, which led to the Heinrich event H3 . During this period (28,000 to 26,000 BP or 30,524 to 29,013 BC) the maximum development of the Middle Gravettian and then the Pavlovian (26,500 to 25,500 BP or 29,334 to 28,410 BC ) falls at the beginning of the Tursac interstadial .

The transition to the Younger Gravettia (in the period 26,000 to 25,000 BP or 29,013 to 28,028 BC) is marked by the first loess deposits (along the major rivers) in the late high glacial period. The Younger Gravettia itself can be divided into two sections. The first section lasted from 25,000 to 23,000 BP (or 28,028 to 25,629 BC) and is characterized by notch points . After the Tursac Interstadial there was another deterioration in the climate with significant cooling. However, it remained damp, so that the tundra floors gleyed .

During the second section from 23,000 to 20,000 BP (25,629 to 21,977 BC) the low point of cold was reached around 20,600 BP (22,632 BC) ( Brandenburg-Lezno phase ) and the upper loess layer was deposited. At that time it was extremely dry and cold. Due to the extreme environmental conditions, the hunter-gatherers of that time seem to have undergone a fundamental restructuring of their diet. The spread of xeric substrates and the standardization of the steppe biotopes were detrimental to the traditional large game. The people of that time were therefore forced to switch to a seasonal hunt for reindeer and horse .

With the Dansgaard-Oeschger event DO2 and the return to a more humid climate, the epigravettia established itself in southern and eastern Europe , which was to last until the beginning of the Holocene . In Western Europe, the Protosolutréen had started a little earlier (around 21,700 BP or 23980 BC).

Europe 20,000 years ago. The last glacial maximum was around 21,000 to 18,000 years ago.
  • Solutréen culture
  • Epi-Gravettian culture

    • In France, the following sequence of gravette industries can now be recognized (from young to old):

    Note: The levels of the Périgordiens should no longer be used due to inconsistencies

    The oldest industry is the Bayacien , which follows the Aurignacien 4b at the end of the Maisières Interstadial and is characterized by a large number of small arrowheads ( French: fléchettes ). The Fontirobertien with the typical Font Robert tips and only a few fléchettes is either an independent facies parallel to the Bayacien or emerged from it. Both facies are clearly overlaid by the undifferentiated Gravettia that developed during the cold relapse of the Heinrich event H3 . The Noaillien with the characteristic Noailles burin and the subsequent Rayssien with Raysse burin were created during the warmer Tursac Interstadial . The Laugérien with microgravettes, which can be subdivided into two facies (type A with burins, the cut-off points of which have been retouched, gravette points and microgravettes, and type B with diamond-shaped burins and microgravettes), falls into the beginning cooling phase after the Tursac interstadial. It leaves France and reaches Belgium and the Rhineland . The last gravette industry is the Protomagdalenien during a subordinate interstadial before the onset of the very cold Heinrich event H2 and the Brandenburg phase ( last ice age maximum ).

    Genetic Findings

    Venus of Willendorf

    In 2014 the findings of Kostenki (K-12) on the central Don were genetically examined and estimated to be 36,200 to 38,700 years old. Genetically, it is referred to as the dark-skinned basal Eurasian , which was widespread in Western Asia and Europe and harmonizes with the Venus figures found in these areas. K-12 is clearly closer to the Europeans and is not related to the population of East Asia, so that one assumes a split at the end of the Moustérien culture in West Asian and East Asian. In addition, K-12 had about two percent Neanderthal genome, which indicates that it was mixed with Neanderthals around 54,000 years ago. The morphological description of the bones at that time as “australoid” is not genetically confirmed. In terms of figures, immigration to Europe took place around 36,200 years ago. The yDNA of K-12 is rarely or not at all available in Europe today, the mtDNA was the most common group in the Neolithic. These results rekindle the discussion about the Paleolithic.

    Archaeological inventory

    Gravette tip

    The flint tool typical of Gravettias is the Gravette tip, a narrow tip that is completely steeply retouched on one long side and thus has a blunt back. Presumably, several of these points were inserted one behind the other at an angle into a wooden shaft and fixed with birch pitch in order to obtain a harpoon with barbs. Whether bows and arrows were used at this time cannot be answered due to the lack of corresponding arch finds. Some archaeologists assume that the delicate back knives and gravette tips only go with slender spears that were thrown with spear throwers.

    The oldest known boomerang was discovered in 1985 in the Obłazowa Cave in the Polish Carpathian Mountains and was determined to be around 23,000 BP (25,629 BC) using radiocarbon dating . The oldest evidence of textiles also comes from the Gravettian time horizon . Fragments of baked clay in Dolní Věstonice contained imprints of threads , several types of textile ties , knots and nets .

    hunt

    Wolf , reindeer , rabbits , arctic foxes and various bird species have been identified as hunting prey through bone finds. The share of these smaller animals in the prey seemed to have predominated. Because the proportion of mammoth bones in the Moravian Pavlov was only 7.5% and 18.9% of the evaluated bone material. Of course, a shot mammoth - a difficult and dangerous prey - could feed a group for a much longer period of time.

    Simple forms of food preservation and storage for at least a short period of time may also be accepted during this time. In addition to hunting, there was also fishing as a source of food.

    Artworks of Gravettian

    Head of Venus de Brassempouy in frontal and profile view

    In Gravettia there was a high point in cave painting in quantitative and qualitative terms . Hand negatives are a special feature of Gravettian cave painting . In addition, a variety of small art and jewelry objects have come down to us. These include, for example, animal figures (which were first made from baked clay, for example in Dolní Věstonice, where figures made from baked clay that were baked at temperatures of up to 800 degrees Celsius were found). In the Gravettian era, jewelry was also placed in the grave, for example in Sungir .

    Characteristic of the younger section of Gravettia (approx. 25,000 to 22,000 BP) are female statuettes, outdated referred to as Venus figurines . Because of the frequent and stylistically very similar occurrences (over 100 copies) throughout Europe as far as Siberia, one speaks of the "statuette horizon" at this time. The figures are either made of mammoth ivory (e.g. Venus from Brassempouy , Venus from Moravany ), from baked clay like the Venus from Dolní Věstonice or from Oolithic limestone like the Venus from Willendorf . Other Venus figures are carved out of a rock wall as half-reliefs (e.g. Venus von Laussel ).

    Archaeological sites

    Belgium
    Bulgaria
    Germany
    England
    France
    Greece
    Moldova
    Netherlands
    Lower Austria
    Poland
    Romania
    Russia
    Slovakia
    Czech Republic
    Ukraine
    Hungary
    Wales

    literature

    • Gerhard Bosinski : The great time of the ice age hunters. Europe between 40,000 and 10,000 BC Chr. Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz 34, 1987, p 13 et seq.
    • Gerhard Bosinski: Homo sapiens - L'histoire des chasseurs du Paleolithique supérieur en Europe (40,000–10,000 av. J.-C.) . Paris 1990.
    • F. Djindjian, B. Bosselin: Périgordien et Gravettien: L'epilogue d'une contradiction? In: Préhistoire Européenne 6, 1994, pp. 117-132.
    • André Leroi-Gourhan : Prehistoric Art. Freiburg 1971.
    • A. Scheer: Ivory pendant of the Gravettia in southern Germany. In: Archaeological correspondence sheet. 15, 1985, pp. 269-285.
    • J. Svoboda, L. Sedlácková (Eds.): The Gravettien along the Danube. Colloquium (Miklov 2002). In: The Dolni Vestonice Studies. 11. Brno 2004.
    • Luc Moreau: Geißenklösterle. The Gravettia of the Swabian Alb in a European context. Kerns Verlag, Tübingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-935751-11-7 .

    Web links

    Commons : Gravettian artefacts  - collection of images, videos and audio files
    Wiktionary: Gravettien  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

    Individual evidence

    1. ^ Wil Roebroeks , Margherita Mussi , J. Svoboda, K. Fennema (Eds.): Hunters of the Golden Age. Pavlov Colloquium. - Annalecta Praehistorica Leidensia 31, Leiden 2000.
    2. ↑ CalPal calibration program ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.calpal.de
    3. ^ Ian Tattersall , Eric Delson et al .: Encyclopedia of human Evolution and Prehistory. Garland Verlag, New York / London 1988, p. 234.
    4. ↑ JA Svoboda, L. Sedlácková (ed.): The Gravettian along the Danube. The Dolní Vestonice Studies 11. Brno 2004
    5. ↑ Delson Tattersall et al. 1988, p. 235.
    6. ↑ Olga Soffer: The Upper Paleolithic of the Central Russian Plain. Orlando [u. a.], Academic Press, 1985, ISBN 0-12-654270-8 .
    7. ^ DAE Garrod: The Upper Palaeolithic in the Light of Recent Discovery. - Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 1938, pp. 1-2.
    8. ↑ Denis Peyrony: Le Périgordien et l'Aurignacien. New observations. In: Bull. Soc. Prehist. Fr. 33, No. 11, 1936, pp. 616-619.
    9. ↑ P. Haesaerts, N. Teyssandier: The Early Upper Palaeolithic occupations of Willendorf II (Lower Austria): a contribution to the chronostratigraphic and cultural context of the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic in Central Europe . In: J. Zilhao, F. d'Errico (eds.): Trabalhos de Arqueologia . tape 33 , 2003, p. 133-151 .
    10. ↑ AP Chernysh: The standard multi layerd site Molodova V . In: IK Ivanova and SM Tzeitlin, The multilayerd Palaeolithic site Molodova V. The stone men and environment (Eds.): Archeology . Nauka, Moscow 1987, p. 7-93 .
    11. ^ P. Noiret: Le Paléolithique supérieur de la Moldavie . In: L'Anthropologie . tape 108 . Paris 2004, p. 425-470 .
    12. ↑ M. Otte, P. Noiret: Evolution du Gravettien au Moyen Danube . In: J. Svoboda, L. Sedlácková (eds.): The Dolní Vestonice Studies, Institute of Archeology, ASCR . tape 11 . Brno 2004, p. 8-32 .
    13. ^ JK Kozlowski: The Gravettian in Central and Eastern Europe . In: F. Wendorf, A. Close (Ed.): Advances in World Archeology . tape 5 . Academic Press, Orlando 1986, pp. 131-200 .
    14. ^ S. Kozarski: An outline of the Vistulian stratigraphy and chronology of the Great Poland Lowland . In: SZ Rozycki (ed.): Quaternary Studies in Poland, Vistulian Stratigraphy Poland, 79, Polish Academy of Sciences (Varsovie-Poznan) . tape 2 , no. 1 , 1980, p. 21-35 .
    15. ↑ P. Haesaerts include: The East carpathian loess record: a reference for the middle and late pleniglacial stratigraphy in Central Europe . In: Quaternaire . tape 14 . Paris 2003, p. 163-188 .
    16. ↑ P. Haesaerts: Nouvelles Recherches au gisement de Willendorf (Basse Autriche) . In: Bulletin de l'Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique, Sciences de la Terre . tape 60 . Bruxelles 1990, p. 203-218 .
    17. ↑ Seguin-Orlando, Korneliussen, Sikora, et al. 2014; doi: 10.1126 / science.aaa0114
    18. ^ S. Gaudzinski-Windheuser , O. Jöris (Ed.): 600,000 years of human history in the center of Europe. Book accompanying the exhibition in the Museum for the Archeology of the Ice Age, Monrepos Castle, Neuwied. RGZM publishing house, Mainz 2006.
    19. ^ Paweł Valde-Nowak , Adam Nadachowski, Mieczyslaw Wolsan: Upper Palaeolithic boomerang made of a mammoth tusk in south Poland. In: Nature. 329, pp. 436-438 (Oct. 1, 1987).
    20. ↑ D. Evers, P. Valde-Nowak: Throwing attempts with the Upper Palaeolithic throwing device from the Obłazowa cave in the Polish Carpathians. In: Archaeological correspondence sheet. 24, 1994, pp. 137-144.
    21. ↑ Jiří Svoboda: Čas lovců. Dějiny paleolitu, zvláště na Moravě. Archeologický ústav Akademie věd České republiky, 1999, ISBN 80-86023-19-2 , pp. 184-186.
    22. ↑ Jiří Svoboda: Čas lovců, p. 169 f.
    23. ↑ Uta von Freeden et al. (Ed.): Traces of the millennia. Our ancestors from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages. Frankfurt 2006, p. 84.
    24. ^ Anne Scheer: Ivory pendants of Gravettien in southern Germany. In: Archaeological correspondence sheet. 15, 1985. pp. 269-285.
    25. ↑ MM Barth: Family ties? The Gravettian bone and antler tools of the Akhtal (Swabian Alb). In: Tübingen works on prehistory. 4, Rahden / Westf. 2007.
    26. ↑ Delson Tattersall et al. 1988, p. 235.
    27. ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Find from the Abri in the village )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.uf.uni-erlangen.de
    28. ↑ Wolfgang Weißmüller : An open field site of the middle Upper Palaeolithic (Périgrodien-Gravettien) on the southern edge of the Straubing depression near Salching, district of Straubing-Bogen. In: Quaternary. 37/38, 1987, pp. 109-134.
    29. ^ Prehistory in the Erlanger area. Booklet accompanying the permanent exhibition, published by the Erlangen City Museum.
    30. ↑ J. Hahn (1969): Gravettia outdoor stations in the Rhineland: Mainz-Linsenberg, Koblenz-Metternich and Rhens. In: Bonner Jahrbücher. 169, pp. 44-87.
    31. ↑ Dietrich Mania: A place where the Perigordien-Gravettien from Bilzingsleben was found. In: Colloque International: L'Aurignacien et le Gravettien (Perigordien) dans leur Cadre Ecologique. Krakau 1981, pp. 57-63.
    32. ↑ C. Sebastian Sommer et al .: Archeology in Bavaria. Window to the past. Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2006, p. 42.
    33. ↑ Chr. Neugebauer-Maresch (ed.): Krems-Hundssteig - Mammoth hunter camp of the Ice Age. An area used by paleolithic hunters and gatherers 41,000–27,000 years ago. With contributions by Christine Neugebauer-Maresch, Ernst Bauernfeind, Otto Cichocki, Thomas Einwögerer, Florian Fladerer, Christa Frank, Marc Handel, Monika Krammer, Robert Peticzka, Gernot Rabeder, Tina Salcher-Jedrasiak, Ulrich Simon, Peter Stadler, Leif Steguweit and Brigitte Urban, communications of the prehist. Come. OeAW 67, 2008.
    34. ↑ Th. Einwögerer, U. Simon (2008): The stone devices of the Krems-Hundssteig excavations 2000–2002. In: Neugebauer-Maresch (Hrsg.): Krems-Hundssteig - Mammoth Hunter Camp of the Ice Age. An area used by paleolithic hunters and gatherers between 41,000 and 27,000 years ago. MPK 67, pp. 177-215. Vienna.
    35. ↑ Chr. Neugebauer-Maresch: A special category of finds: calcified woods from the Gravettian layers of Krems-Hundssteig. In: Quaternary. 55, 2008, 143-150.
    36. ↑ M. Händel, T. Einwögerer, U. Simon (2008): Krems-Wachtberg - A Gravettian Settlement Site in the Middle Danube Region. In: Wiss. Mitt. Niederösterr. State Museum. 19, pp. 91-108. St. Polten.
    37. ↑ T. Einwögerer, M. Handel, C. Neugebauer-Maresch, U. Simon, M. Teschler-Nicola (2008): The Gravettian Infant Burials from Krems-Wachtberg, Austria. Proceedings of the XV World Congress of the International Union for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences. (Lisbon, September 2006), WS26: Babies Reborn: Infant / child burials in pre- and protohistory. BAR International Series, Oxford: Archaeopress 24, pp. 15-19.
    38. ↑ T. Einwögerer, U. Simon, M. Handel (2008): New gravettia finds from the Wachtberg in Krems an der Donau. In: The Waldviertel. 57/2, pp. 171-175.