Solutréen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Solutréen
Age : Middle Upper Paleolithic
Absolutely : 24,000 / 22,000-18,000 / 16,500 BC Chr.

expansion
Western Europe, Central Europe and Eastern Europe
Leitforms

Leaf tips, bay leaf tips, willow leaf tips, and notch tips

The Solutréen (pronunciation [ zolytreˈɛ̃ː ]) is an archaeological culture of the Upper Paleolithic , which occurred during the last cold maximum of the Vistula Ice Age from about 22,000 to 18,000 BC. Was widespread in Western Europe. The eponymous site is located near Solutré-Pouilly , near Mâcon in the Saône-et-Loire department ( Burgundy , France ). The site is located below a striking rock, which consists of a tectonically inclined fossil coral reef and is visible from afar as a point in the terrain.

The excavations in Solutré began shortly after the first discoveries in 1866. The first excavations were carried out by the French geologists Henry Testot-Ferry and Adrien Arcelin . The Solutréen was first used in 1869 by Gabriel de Mortillet as a cultural stage of the Paleolithic .

Temporal classification and regional distribution

Distribution area of ​​the Solutréens (except Belgium and Italy)

The relatively short epoch of the Solutréens follows the Gravettia quite abruptly from around 21,000 years BP , without a slow and continuous transition being discernible.

The earliest found layers and datable rock carvings of the Solutréens are in the Ardèche valley and especially in the Périgord (France), its main distribution area. It was also widespread in Cantabria (northern Spain) as well as on the Spanish Mediterranean coast (near Valencia ) and in Portugal . Although earlier sites with leaf tips located further east were ascribed to the Solutréen, it is now considered to be restricted to Western Europe. Only for those in the Eifel located Magdalena cave a short settlement of Solutréens is discussed.

Under unclear circumstances, the Solutréen disappears just as suddenly around 17,500 years BP as it appeared. The Magdalenian culture established itself as a subsequent culture. It belongs to the Upper Upper Palaeolithic and dates from 18,000–12,000 BC. Dated. It is in turn replaced by the Azilien ( penknife groups ).

Climate and wildlife

Climatically, the Solutréen falls into the coldest section (Würm III) of the Würm Ice Age . The Lower and Upper Solutréen were very cold and dry. In the middle Solutréen the somewhat more moderate and humid conditions of the Laugerie-Interstadial prevailed , in the final Solutréen those of the Lascaux-Interstadial .

The fauna was clearly dominated by the reindeer , later cattle , deer , ibex , wolf , mammoth and the Solutré horse were added.

The curves show the change in the Antarctic temperatures in the ice cores (blue = EPICA = European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) during the last ice ages compared to the changes in the extent of the polar ice caps (red = ice volume). Vostock (= green) refers to the measurements in the Vostok station .

Finds

Leaf tip of the Solutréens
Skull of a woman from the Solutréen, dated 20,600 BP, found in the Abri Pataud , Dordogne department ( France ).

Objects that were made by chopping off thin flint lamellas are typical of solutréen . Characteristic are the surface retouched leaf and notch tips using a new printing technique , of which a deposit of about 20,000 year old leaf tips was found in Volgu (near Digoin ). The extremely thin (five to six millimeters thick) tips exhibited in the Musée Dénon in Chalon-sur-Saône , up to 40 cm in size, are among the most impressive stone implements of the entire European Paleolithic. Of course, many devices from the Aurignacia remained in use, especially scrapers . Graver , knives and drills are less common - often with retouched edges and surfaces.

In France, a four-part split into Lower Solutréen , Middle Solutréen , Upper Solutréen and End-Solutréen ( French: Solutréen final ) can be made on the basis of the fund inventory. A proto-solutre is prefixed at some sites . The main types of sub-stages are the following projectile tips:

  • Proto-Solutréen : irregular, only very little retouched leaf tips
  • Lower solutréen : simple, smoothly worked double points
  • Middle solutre : laurel and willow leaf tips retouched on both sides
  • Upper and End Solutréen : Notch points that were easier to put on

Projectile tips for javelins and other items were made from antler or bone.

With the decline of the cultural stage of the Solutréens, the excellently crafted leaf tips typical for them also disappeared, only to reappear later in the Neolithic as arrowheads and in the Copper Age, for example, as daggers of dynastic Egypt .

Discoveries and inventions

The people of the Solutréen were the first to use needles

The invention of needles made from bone with an eye in the upper solutre made sewing of (fur) clothing easier. Perforated bars also appear for the first time .

Fireplaces measuring up to 18 × 9 meters appeared on which several animals could be roasted at the same time. Almost all the bones encountered were cracked open to harvest the bone marrow . At the type locality near Solutré-Pouilly, numerous bones of wild horses were found on a steep mountain slope , which are caked to so-called horse magma ( French magma de cheval) through the precipitation of lime in combination with water and sediment . The conglomerate-like mass there covers an area of ​​more than one hectare and is up to one meter thick. It is therefore assumed that several 10,000 wild horses were shot there.

At the Fourneau du Diable near Bourdeilles (Dordogne) there is a square hut surrounded by stones.

Works of art

Cave areas far from the entrance were explored, as can be seen in rock drawings and reliefs of animals. Small art can also be found: engraved bones , painted stone plates with figures and earrings, indicate a developed understanding of art. However, there are almost no full sculptures.

Carved animal reliefs come from the Roc de Sers (Charente) and the Fourneau du Diable . Musk ox and big cats act as rather rare animal representations .

Sites

France
Spain

literature

  • Adrien Arcelin: Les fouilles de Solutré . Mâcon 1873.
  • H. Breuil: Quatre cents siècles d'art pariétal . 1952.
  • F. Djindjian, J. Koslowski, M. Otte: Le Paléolithique supérieur en Europe . A. Colin, 1999, ISBN 2-200-25107-6 .
  • Ph. Smith: Le Solutréen en France . Bordeaux 1966.

Web links

Commons : Solutréen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gabriel de Mortillet: Essai d'une classification des cavernes et des stations sous abri fondée surles produits de l'industrie humaine. Materiaux pour l'histoire de l'Homme 5, 1869, Paris, pp. 172-179
  2. ^ Mathias Probst: The Paleolithic of the Magdalenahöhle near Gerolstein . Unpubl. Master's thesis, Mainz 2012.
  3. ↑ EPICA community members (2004) Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core, Nature 429: 6992, pp. 623–628, doi: 10.1038 / nature02599 . ncdc.noaa.gov
  4. ↑ JR Petit, J. Jouzel, D. Raynaud, NI Barkov, JM Barnola, I. Basile, M. Bender, J. Chappellaz, J. Davis, G. Delaygue, M. Delmotte, VM Kotlyakov, M. Legrand, V. Lipenkov, C. Lorius, L. Pépin, C. Ritz, E. Saltzman, M. Stievenard (1999): Climate and Atmospheric History of the Past 420,000 Years from the Vostok Ice Core. Antarctica, Nature , 399, pp. 429-436. ncdc.noaa.gov
  5. ↑ Harald Floss: Solutré - Museum of Prehistory. 2016, Monterrat, p. 66
  6. ↑ For example in the Eastern Spanish Parpalló Cave, where about 5000 stone slabs with animal figures were found.