Art of Ice Age Europe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_of_the_Upper_Paleolithic Art of the Ice Age: http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/sculpture/gallery.php Early modern Homo sapiens in Africa and Southwest Asia made tools that were similar to those of the Neandertals and other late archaic humans. These were mostly simple Mousterian-like Levallois flake and core tools. However, by 75,000 years ago some modern humans began producing new kinds of artifacts that were revolutionary enough to warrant their being placed into a different Paleolithic stage--the Upper Paleolithic. This was the height of technical sophistication during the Old Stone Age. These innovative developments are most well known from European site. Small game and plant food exploitation became increasingly important to the Cro-Magnon and most other people in the northern hemisphere. This was a necessity because most of their populations were growing and the climate was changing as the ice began to melt near the end of the last ice age. During the roughly 5,000 years of final glacial melt, large game animals became progressively scarce in the northern hemisphere. As a result, human hunting success would have been rarer. The combined effect of rapidly changing climates and increased hunting by humans with more effective weapons heavily contributed to the extinction of at least 50 genera of large animals (mostly mammals) at that time. The Cro-Magnon people increased their food supply by developing coordinated group hunting techniques for the killing of large herd animals, especially in the river valleys of Western Europe and the plains of Central and Eastern Europe. They also developed new specialized hunting weapons. The art of spear hunting was revolutionized by the invention of the spear thrower. The Cro-Magnon people of Europe regularly decorated their tools and sculpted small pieces of stone, bone, antler, and ivory. Necklaces, bracelets, and decorative pendants were made of bones, teeth, and shells. Cave walls were often painted with naturalistic scenes of animals. Clay was also modeled occasionally. Some of the European cave art seems to have been associated with ceremonies. These ceremonies may have been accompanied by music. The areas of the caves in which paintings were made and used often have good acoustical qualities. Drumsticks, flutes, and bull-roarers were found near the paintings in Lascaux click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced Cave. The art very likely reflects the Cro-Magnon world view. Some researchers have suggested that they were, in part, depicting their spirit world. The fact that footprints of both adults and children have been found in some of the caves near the paintings has also suggested that the art was connected with male initiation ceremonies for boys becoming men. The Cro-Magnon people are, perhaps, most well known for their paintings on the walls of caves. Although, this cave art is most abundant in Southwest France and Northern Spain, it was made elsewhere by other early modern humans as well. With cave art, we see the first large scale, concrete symbols of human thoughts, feelings, and perhaps even beliefs about the supernatural. Over 150 Western European caves have been found with these ice age paintings on their walls. A few Cro-Magnon bone artifacts dating to as early as 25,000 years ago have what appear to be carefully incised lineal sequences of circular to crescent-shaped ticks. Alexander Marshack believes that at least one of these bones was made to be used as a lunar calendar of sorts. If calendars were being made, it implies that some people were recognizing the cyclical nature of the seasons. To people dependent on seasonally available foods and migrating herds, a calendar would have allowed more accurate predictions that would make the food quest more efficient. Also of great value to Upper Paleolithic hunters and gatherers would have been maps. The earliest possible map was scratched into a 16,000 year old bone found at Mezhirich in Ukraine. It evidently shows the countryside around a Cro-Magnon settlement.

• published: 08 Oct 2015
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