Aurignacian

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This time period is part of the Upper Paleolithic.

Pleistocene Paleolithic Lower Paleolithic Middle Paleolithic Upper Paleolithic Châtelperronian culture Aurignacian culture Gravettian culture Solutrean culture Magdalenian culture

Holocene Mesolithic or Epipaleolithic Kebaran culture Natufian culture Neolithic Halafian culture Hassuna culture Ubaid culture Uruk culture Chalcolithic

Aurignacian is the name of a culture of the Upper Palaeolithic located in Europe and southwest Asia. It dates to between 32,000 and 26,000 BC. The name originates from the type site of Aurignac in the Haute Garonne area of France. The Aurignacian culture is considered by some archaeologists to have co-existed with the Périgordian culture of tool making.

Contents 1 Main characteristics 2 Tools 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] Main characteristics

Worked bone points with grooves cut in the bottom and some of the earliest cave art were produced by the Aurignacian culture bearers. Their flint tools were more varied than those of earlier industries, employing finer blades struck from prepared cores rather than using crude flakes, and they made pendants, bracelets and ivory beads to ornament themselves. Bâtons de commandement are also found at their sites. This sophistication and self-awareness leads some archaeologists to consider the makers of Aurignacian artefacts the first modern humans in Europe. Human remains and Aurignacian artifacts originally found at Cro-Magnon in France indicate that the culture was modern human rather than Neanderthal.

In June 2007, a 35,000 year old figurine of a mammoth was discovered in the Vogelherd cave in south-western Germany. [1] Currently being studied by the University of Tübingen, the figurine details the once intricate and complex artistic qualities by the inhabitants of Aurignacian culture.

[edit] Tools

Lames aurignaciennes.jpg Aurignacian blades

Lamelle Dufour aurignacien.png Dufour bladelet

Sagaie base fendue.jpg Bone point

[edit] See also

• Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures

[edit] External links

• Picture Gallery of the Paleolithic (reconstructional palaeoethnology), Libor Balák at the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Archaeology in Brno, The Center for Paleolithic and Paleoethnological Research

ca:Aurinyacià

cy:Diwylliant Aurignac de:Aurignacien es:Auriñaciense eo:Aŭrinjaka kulturo fr:Aurignacien nl:Aurignacien ja:オーリニャック文化 oc:Aurinhacian pl:Kultura oryniacka pt:Período Aurignaciano ru:Ориньякская археологическая культура sk:Aurignacien fi:Aurignacin kulttuuri sv:Aurignacienkulturen uk:Оріньякська культура