Jump to content

Paleolithic: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Content deleted Content added
corrected era in lead
 
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|Prehistoric period, first part of the Stone Age}}
[[Image:Neanderthal 2D.jpg|right|thumb|Neanderthal hunter ([[American Museum of Natural History]]) ]]
{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}
[[File:Glyptodon old drawing.jpg|thumb|Hunting a ''[[Glyptodon]]''. Painting by [[Heinrich Harder]] {{Circa|1920}}.]]
[[File:Lubang Jeriji Saléh cave painting of Bull.jpg|thumb|The oldest known figurative painting is a depiction of a bull that was discovered in the [[Lubang Jeriji Saléh]] cave in [[Indonesia]]. It was painted 40,000–52,000 years ago or earlier.]]
{{Paleolithic}}
The '''Paleolithic''' or '''Palaeolithic''' ({{circa|3.3 million|11,700}} years ago) ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|p|eɪ|l|i|oʊ|ˈ|l|ɪ|θ|ɪ|k|,_|ˌ|p|æ|l|i|-}} {{respell|PAY|lee|oh|LITH|ik |,_|PAL|ee|-}}), also called the '''Old [[Stone Age]]''' ({{etymology|grc|''{{Wikt-lang|grc|παλαιός}}'' ([[wikt:palaeo-|{{grc-transl|παλαιός}}]])|old||''{{Wikt-lang|grc|λίθος}}'' ([[wikt:litho-|{{grc-transl|λίθος}}]])|stone}}), is a period in human [[prehistory]] that is distinguished by the original development of [[stone tool]]s, and which represents almost the entire period of human [[prehistoric technology]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Christian |first1=David |title=Big History: Between Nothing and Everything |date=2014 |publisher=[[McGraw Hill Education]] |location=New York |page=93}}</ref> It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools by [[Hominini|hominins]], {{circa}}&nbsp;3.3&nbsp;million years ago, to the end of the [[Pleistocene]], {{circa}}&nbsp;11,650 [[Before Present#Radiocarbon calibration|cal]] [[Before Present|BP]].<ref name="Thoth&Schick">{{cite book |doi=10.1007/978-3-540-33761-4_64 |title= Handbook of Paleoanthropology |pages=1943–1963 |year=2007 |last1=Toth |first1=Nicholas |last2=Schick |first2=Kathy |chapter=21 Overview of Paleolithic Archeology |isbn=978-3-540-32474-4 |editor1-last=Henke |editor1-first=H. C. Winfried |editor2-last=Hardt |editor2-first=Thorolf |editor3-last=Tatersall |editor3-first=Ian |volume=3 |location=Berlin; Heidelberg; New York |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]]}}</ref>


The Paleolithic Age in Europe preceded the [[Mesolithic Age]], although the date of the transition varies geographically by several thousand years. During the Paleolithic Age, hominins grouped together in small societies such as [[band society|bands]] and subsisted by gathering plants, fishing, and hunting or scavenging wild animals.<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book|author=McClellan |title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction |location=Baltimore |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8018-8360-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC |pages=6–12}}</ref> The Paleolithic Age is characterized by the use of [[Knapping|knapped]] stone tools,{{Not verified in body|date=November 2024}} although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools, including [[leather]] and vegetable [[fiber]]s; however, due to rapid decomposition, these have not survived to any great degree.
The '''Paleolithic''' (or '''Palaeolithic''') is a [[Prehistory|prehistoric]] era distinguished by the development of [[stone tool]]s. It covers the greatest portion of humanity's time (roughly 99% of human history<ref name=Thoth&Schick>{{cite book |title=Handbook of Paleoanthropology |url=http://www.springerlink.com/content/u68378621542472j/ |author=Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick |year=2007 |publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg |isbn=978-3-540-32474-4 (Print) 978-3-540-33761-4 (Online) |pages=1963 }}</ref>) on [[Earth]], extending from 2.5<ref>[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555928/Stone_Age.html "Stone Age," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007] © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Contributed by Kathy Schick, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. and Nicholas Toth, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.</ref> or 2.6<ref>{{cite book |title= The Encyclopedia Americana |author=Grolier Incorporated |Url=http://books.google.com/books?id=eRQaAAAAMAAJ&q=the+paleolithic+began+2.6+million+years+ago.&dq=the+paleolithic+began+2.6+million+years+ago.&pgis=1 |year=1989 |publisher=Grolier Incorporated |location=University of Michigan |isbn=ISBN 0717201201 |page=542 }}</ref><ref name=Thoth&Schick>{{cite book |title=Handbook of Paleoanthropology |url=http://www.springerlink.com/content/u68378621542472j/ |author=Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick |year=2007 |publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg |isbn=978-3-540-32474-4 (Print) 978-3-540-33761-4 (Online) |pages=1963 }}</ref> million years ago, with the introduction of stone tools by [[hominid]]s such as ''[[Homo habilis]]'', to the [[Agriculture#History|introduction of agriculture]] and the end of the [[Pleistocene]] around 10,000&nbsp;BC.<ref name=Thoth&Schick>{{cite book |title=Handbook of Paleoanthropology |url=http://www.springerlink.com/content/u68378621542472j/ |author=Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick |year=2007 |publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg |isbn=978-3-540-32474-4 (Print) 978-3-540-33761-4 (Online) |pages=1963 }}</ref><ref>[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555928_3/Stone_Age.html "Stone Age," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007] © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Contributed by Kathy Schick, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. and Nicholas Toth, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= The Encyclopedia Americana |author=Grolier Incorporated |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=eRQaAAAAMAAJ&q=the+paleolithic+began+2.6+million+years+ago.&dq=the+paleolithic+began+2.6+million+years+ago.&pgis=1 |year=1989 |publisher=Grolier Incorporated |location=University of Michigan |isbn=ISBN 0717201201 |page=542 }}</ref> The term ''Paleolithic'', literally "Old Age of the Stone", was coined by archaeologist [[John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury|John Lubbock]] in 1865 and derives from the [[Greek language|Greek]] παλαιολιθικός&mdash;''palaiolithikos'', παλαιός&mdash;''palaios'' ("old") and ''λίθος''&mdash;lithos ("stone"). The Paleolithic era ended with the [[Mesolithic]], or in areas with an early [[Neolithic Revolution|neolithisation]], the [[Epipaleolithic]].


About 50,000 years ago, a marked increase in the diversity of [[Artifact (archaeology)|artifacts]] occurred. In Africa, bone artifacts and the first [[art]] appear in the archaeological record. The first evidence of human [[fishing]] is also noted, from artifacts in places such as [[Blombos cave]] in [[South Africa]]. Archaeologists classify artifacts of the last 50,000 years into many different categories, such as [[projectile point]]s, engraving tools, sharp knife blades, and drilling and piercing tools.
During the Paleolithic humans were grouped together in [[Band society|bands]] of 25 to 100 members and gained their subsistence from gathering plants and hunting wild animals.<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book | author=McClellan
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press
| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 Page 6-12 ]</ref> The Paleolithic is characterized by the use of [[Lithic reduction|knapped]] stone [[tool]]s, 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. Humankind gradually evolved from early members of the genus ''[[Homo_genus|Homo]]'' such as ''[[Homo habilis]]'' who used simple stone tools into fully behaviorally and anatomically modern humans ([[Homo sapiens sapiens]]) during the Paleolithic era.<ref>[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394/Human_Evolution.html "Human Evolution," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007] © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Contributed by Richard B. Potts, B.A., Ph.D.</ref> During the end of the Paleolithic specifically the Middle and or Upper Paleolithic humans began to produce the earliest works of art and engage in religious and spiritual behavior such as burial and ritual.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3tS2MULo5rYC&pg=PA162&dq=Uniquely+Human+cognitive-linguistic+base&ei=nNUeR9fmBo74pwKwtKnMDg&sig=3UsvgAnE5B-vzb55I6W6OqqhJy4| title=Uniquely Human|Author=phillip lieberman|isbn=0674921836| year=1991|}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=xCa5zfefWVUC&printsec=frontcover&vq=Middle+Paleolithic&rview=1&source=gbs_summary_r#PPA133,M1 |title=African Foragers: Environment, Technology, Interactions |last=Kusimba |first=Sibel |year=2003 |publisher=Rowman Altamira |isbn=ISBN 075910154X |pages=285 }}</ref><ref name=ScienceDaily>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, fromhttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061130081347.htm</ref><ref name="McClellan">{{cite book | author=McClellan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press
| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 Page 6-12 ]</ref> The climate during the Paleolithic consisted of a set of glacial and interglacial periods in which the climate periodically fluctuated between warm and cool temperatures.


Humankind gradually evolved from early members of the genus ''[[Homo]]''—such as ''[[Homo habilis]]'', who used simple stone tools—into [[anatomically modern humans]] as well as [[behaviourally modern humans]] by the [[Upper Paleolithic]].<ref name="encarta.msn.com">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394/Human_Evolution.html |title=Human Evolution |encyclopedia=Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028041106/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394/Human_Evolution.html |archive-date=28 October 2009 |author=Contributed by Richard B. Potts, B.A., Ph.D. |accessdate=12 March 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> During the end of the Paleolithic Age, specifically the Middle or Upper Paleolithic Age, humans began to produce the earliest works of art and to engage in [[religious]] or [[spiritual practice|spiritual]] behavior such as [[burial]] and [[ritual]].<ref name=Lieberman>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3tS2MULo5rYC&q=Uniquely+Human+cognitive-linguistic+base&pg=PA162 |title=Uniquely Human |first=Philip |last=Lieberman |isbn=978-0-674-92183-2 |year=1991 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |author-link=Philip Lieberman}}</ref>{{page needed|date=January 2020}}<ref name="Kusimba 2003 285">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xCa5zfefWVUC&q=Middle+Paleolithic |title=African Foragers: Environment, Technology, Interactions |last=Kusimba |first=Sibel |year=2003 |publisher=Rowman Altamira |isbn=978-0-7591-0154-8 |page=285}}</ref>{{request quotation|date=January 2020}} Conditions during the Paleolithic Age went through a set of glacial and [[interglacial period]]s in which the [[climate]] periodically fluctuated between warm and cool temperatures.
==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]] ([[circa|''c.'']] 2.6 million years ago&ndash;100,000 years ago)
:::[[Olduwan]] culture
:::[[Acheulean]] culture
:::[[Clactonian]] culture
::[[Middle Paleolithic]] ([[circa|''c.'']] 300,000&ndash;30,000 years ago)
:::[[Mousterian]] culture
:::[[Aterian]] culture
::[[Upper Paleolithic]] ([[circa|''c.'']] 40,000&ndash;10,000 years ago)
:::[[Châtelperronian]] culture
:::[[Aurignacian]] culture
:::[[Gravettian]] culture
:::[[Solutrean]] culture
:::[[Magdalenian]] culture


By {{c.|50,000|40,000|lk=on}}&nbsp;BP, the first humans set foot in [[Australia]]. By {{c.|45,000}}&nbsp;BP, humans lived at 61°N latitude in [[Europe]].<ref name="Sami">{{cite web|url=http://www.utexas.edu/courses/sami/dieda/hist/SamiPrehistRevisitNew.htm |title=Sami Prehistory Revisited: transactions, admixture and assimilation in the phylogeographic picture of Scandinavia |first=John |last=Weinstock |publisher=[[University of Texas]]}}</ref> By {{c.|30,000|lk= no}}&nbsp;BP, [[Japan]] was reached, and by {{c.|27,000|lk= no}}&nbsp;BP humans were present in [[Siberia]], above the [[Arctic Circle]].<ref name="Sami" /> By the end of the Upper Paleolithic Age humans had crossed [[Beringia]] and expanded throughout the [[Americas]] continents.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Goebel |first1=Ted |last2=Waters |first2=Michael R. |last3=O'Rourke |first3=Dennis H. |date=14 March 2008 |title=The Late Pleistocene Dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |language=en |volume=319 |issue=5869 |pages=1497–502 |doi=10.1126/science.1153569 |issn=0036-8075 |pmid=18339930 |bibcode=2008Sci...319.1497G |s2cid=36149744 |url=http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/current/readings/GoebelsHumansinAmericas2008.pdf |access-date=24 September 2019 |archive-date=22 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922212528/http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/current/readings/GoebelsHumansinAmericas2008.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bennett |first1=Matthew R. |last2=Bustos |first2=David |last3=Pigati |first3=Jeffrey S. |last4=Springer |first4=Kathleen B. |last5=Urban |first5=Thomas M. |last6=Holliday |first6=Vance T. |last7=Reynolds |first7=Sally C. |last8=Budka |first8=Marcin |last9=Honke |first9=Jeffrey S. |last10=Hudson |first10=Adam M. |last11=Fenerty |first11=Brendan |last12=Connelly |first12=Clare |last13=Martinez |first13=Patrick J. |last14=Santucci |first14=Vincent L. |last15=Odess |first15=Daniel |date=23 September 2021|title=Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |language=en |volume=373 |issue=6562 |pages=1528–1531 |doi=10.1126/science.abg7586 |pmid=34554787 |bibcode=2021Sci...373.1528B |s2cid=237616125 |issn=0036-8075 |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg7586}}</ref>
==Human evolution==


== Etymology ==
[[Image:Homo heidelbergensis-Cranium -5.jpg|thumb|right|140px|This [[cranium]], of ''[[Homo heidelbergensis]]'', a [[Lower Paleolithic]] predecessor to ''[[Homo neanderthalensis]]'', dates to sometime between 500,000 to 400,000&nbsp;BC.]]
The term "[[wikt:Paleolithic|Palaeolithic]]" was coined by archaeologist [[John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury|John Lubbock]] in 1865.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lubbock |first=John |author-link=John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury |orig-year=1872 |year=2005 |title=Pre-Historic Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages |publisher=Williams and Norgate |page=75 |via=Elibron Classics |chapter=4 |chapter-url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t7vm4dg4c;view=1up;seq=87 |isbn=978-1421270395}}</ref> It derives from Greek: [[wikt:παλαιός|παλαιός]], ''palaios'', "old"; and [[wikt:λίθος|λίθος]], ''lithos'', "stone", meaning "old age of the stone" or "Old [[Stone Age]]".


== Paleogeography and climate ==
{{main|Human evolution}}
{{Main|Pleistocene#Paleogeography and climate|Pliocene climate|Pliocene#Paleogeography}}
Human evolution is the part of biological [[evolution]] concerning the emergence of [[human]]s as a distinct species. It is the subject of a broad [[Models of scientific inquiry|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 (genus)|Homo]]'', but studies of human evolution usually include other [[hominid]]s, such as the [[australopithecines]].
{{Human timeline}}
[[File:Homo heidelbergensis. Museo de Prehistoria de Valencia.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.7|A skull of early ''[[Homo neanderthalensis]]'', [[Miguelón]] from the [[Lower Paleolithic]] dated to 430,000&nbsp;BP.]]
[[File:20191021 Temperature from 20,000 to 10,000 years ago - recovery from ice age.png|thumb|290px |right |Temperature rise in Antarctica marking the end of the Paleolithic, as derived from ice core data.]]
<!--[[File:AntarcticaDomeCSnow.jpg|thumb|left|The Paleolithic climate consisted of a set of glacial and interglacial periods.]]-->
The Paleolithic overlaps with the [[Pleistocene]] epoch of geologic time. Both ended 12,000 years ago although the Pleistocene started 2.6&nbsp;million years ago, 700,000 years after the Paleolithic's start.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/quaternary/pleistocene.php |title=The Pleistocene Epoch |publisher=[[University of California Museum of Paleontology]] |access-date=22 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140824111711/http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/quaternary/pleistocene.php |archive-date=24 August 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> This epoch experienced important geographic and climatic changes that affected human societies.


During the preceding [[Pliocene]], continents had continued to [[plate tectonics|drift]] from possibly as far as {{cvt|250|km|lk=on|abbr=off}} from their present locations to positions only {{cvt|70|km}} from their current location. South America became linked to North America through the [[Isthmus of Panama]], bringing a nearly complete end to South America's distinctive [[marsupial]] fauna. The formation of the isthmus had major consequences on global temperatures, because warm [[equator]]ial ocean currents were cut off, and the cold Arctic and Antarctic waters lowered temperatures in the now-isolated Atlantic Ocean.
=== Human evolution during the Paleolithic ===


Most of [[Central America]] formed during the Pliocene to connect the continents of North and South America, allowing fauna from these continents to leave their native habitats and colonize new areas.<ref name=UCMPPliocene>{{cite web|url=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/tertiary/pli.html |title=University of California Museum of Paleontology website the Pliocene epoch |publisher=[[University of California Museum of Paleontology]] |access-date=31 January 2010}}</ref> Africa's collision with Asia created the Mediterranean, cutting off the remnants of the [[Tethys Ocean]]. During the [[Pleistocene]], the [[continent]]s were essentially at their modern positions; the [[tectonic plate]]s on which they sit have probably moved at most {{cvt|100|km}} from each other since the beginning of the period.<ref name=Scotese>{{cite web|url=http://www.scotese.com/lastice.htm |first=Christopher |last=Scotese |title=Paleomap project |access-date=23 March 2008 |work=The Earth has been in an Ice House Climate for the last 30 million years |author-link=Christopher Scotese}}</ref>
The evolutionary history of humankind is often traced back by paleoanthropologists to 5 or 7&nbsp;million years ago prior to the start of the Paleolithic when our closest hominid ancestors diverged from the shared common ancestor of humans, [[chimpanzee]]s and [[bonobo]]s.<ref name=Dawkins2004>{{cite book |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |authorlink=Richard Dawkins |title=The Ancestor's Tale, A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life. |publisher=Garden City Publishing Co., Inc. |year=2004 |location=Boston |pages=p. 673 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Tub-X6wydKgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Ancestor%27s+Tale&sig=agehYMXB31si51TbVS7mt2S8g5s}}</ref> These early pre-Paleolithic hominids (such as ''[[Sahelanthropus tchadensis]]'' 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. [[Bipedalism#Humans|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.<ref>{{cite book |author=James Steele and Stephen Shennan|title=The Archaeology of Human Ancestry: Power, Sex and Tradition |publisher=Routledge|location=United kingdom|year=1996}}; [http://books.google.com/books?id=ktpWM7Tl1EcC&pg=RA1-PA137&dq=thermoregulatory+model+of+bipedalism&sig=obofKY3PsF91bZaHTa_V6Oo_Pqc p 137]</ref>
[[Image:Humanevolutionchart.png|One current view of the temporal and geographical distribution of hominid populations. Other interpretations differ mainly in the taxonomy and geographical distribution of hominid species.|thumb|left|230px]]


Climates during the Pliocene became cooler and drier, and seasonal, similar to modern climates. [[Ice sheet]]s grew on [[Antarctica]]. The formation of an Arctic ice cap around 3&nbsp;million years ago is signaled by an abrupt shift in [[oxygen]] [[isotope]] ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and North [[Pacific Ocean]] beds.<ref name="Andel">{{cite book|last=Van Andel |first=Tjeerd H. |title=New Views on an Old Planet: A History of Global Change |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1994 |location=Cambridge |page=[https://archive.org/details/newviewsonoldpla00vana/page/454 454] |isbn=978-0-521-44243-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/newviewsonoldpla00vana/page/454}}</ref> Mid-latitude [[glacier|glaciation]] probably began before the end of the epoch. The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of [[grassland]]s and [[savanna]]s.<ref name=UCMPPliocene/>
The earliest member of the genus homo, ''Homo habilis'', appeared around 2.6&nbsp;million years ago and was responsible for the beginning of the Paleolithic era and the creation of the [[Oldowan|Oldowan tool case]]. Most experts assume the intelligence and social organization of H. habilis were more sophisticated than typical australopithecines or chimpanzees. ''Homo habilis'' coexisted 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 habilis eventually became ''[[Homo ergaster]]''.


The [[Pleistocene]] climate was characterized by repeated glacial cycles during which [[continental glacier]]s pushed to the 40th [[parallel (latitude)|parallel]] in some places. Four major glacial events have been identified, as well as many minor intervening events. A major event is a general glacial excursion, termed a "glacial". Glacials are separated by "interglacials". During a glacial, the glacier experiences minor advances and retreats. The minor excursion is a "stadial"; times between stadials are "interstadials". Each glacial advance tied up huge volumes of water in continental ice sheets {{cvt|1500–3000|m|ft|lk=on|abbr=off}} deep, resulting in temporary sea level drops of {{cvt|100|m}} or more over the entire surface of the Earth. During interglacial times, drowned coastlines were common, mitigated by isostatic or other emergent motion of some regions.
''Homo ergaster'' was the first hominid to stand fully upright and migrate out of Africa ([[circa|''c.'']] 2&nbsp;million years ago<ref>http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/johanson.html Origins of Modern Humans: Multiregional or Out of Africa? By Donald Johanson</ref><ref>http://discovermagazine.com/2002/aug/featafrica Discover: Not Out of Africa, Alan Thorne's challenging ideas about human evolution</ref>). ''Homo ergaster'' may also have been the first hominid to control [[fire]]. ''Homo ergaster'' is often considered to be the [[wikt:primogenitor|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 ([[circa|''c.'']] 300,000&nbsp;[[Before Present|BP]]), though earlier (disputed) evidence for controlled fire also exists at sites such as the [[Zhoukoudian|Zhoukoudian Caves]] in [[China]], which contain possible evidence for controlled fire as early as 1.5 million years ago.<ref name="beyondveg">{{cite web |url=http://www.beyondveg.com/nicholson-w/hb/hb-interview2c.shtml |title=First Control of Fire by Human Beings--How Early? |accessdate=2007-11-12}}</ref> The latest populations of ''Homo erectus'' were probably the first hominid societies to live in small scale (possibly egalitarian) [[Band society|band societies]] similar to modern hunter-gatherer band societies.<ref name=Bohem>{{cite book |author=Boehm, Christopher |title=Hierarchy in the forest: the evolution of egalitarian behavior |publisher=Harvard University Press |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=ljxS8gUlgqgC&pg=PA197&dq=Paleolithic&lr=&sig=V-GOM-s3rCApE_baw2oRoaw24w8#PPA198,M1 |location=Cambridge |year=1999 |isbn=0-674-39031-8 |pages=p. 198}}</ref> 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]]'', also the immediate ancestor of the Neanderthals.
[[File:Ice age fauna of northern Spain - Mauricio Antón.jpg|thumb|left|Many giant mammals such as [[woolly mammoth]]s, [[woolly rhinoceros]]es, and [[Panthera leo fossilis|cave lions]] inhabited the [[mammoth steppe]] during the Pleistocene.|253x253px]]
The effects of glaciation were global. [[Antarctica]] was ice-bound throughout the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene. The [[Andes]] were covered in the south by the [[Patagonia]]n ice cap. There were glaciers in New Zealand and [[Tasmania]]. The decaying glaciers of [[Mount Kenya]], [[Mount Kilimanjaro]], and the [[Ruwenzori Range]] in east and central Africa were larger. Glaciers existed in the mountains of [[Ethiopia]] and to the west in the [[Atlas Mountains]]. In the northern hemisphere, many glaciers fused into one. The [[Cordilleran Ice Sheet]] covered the North American northwest; the [[Laurentide]] covered the east. The Fenno-Scandian ice sheet covered northern Europe, including Great Britain; the Alpine ice sheet covered the Alps. Scattered domes stretched across [[Siberia]] and the Arctic shelf. The northern seas were frozen. During the late Upper Paleolithic (Latest Pleistocene) {{c.|18,000}}&nbsp;BP, the [[Beringia]] land bridge between Asia and North America was blocked by ice,<ref name=Scotese/> which [[Clovis culture#Evidence of human habitation before Clovis|may have prevented]] early [[Paleo-Indian]]s such as the [[Clovis culture]] from directly crossing [[Beringia]] to reach the Americas.


According to [[Mark Lynas]] (through collected data), the Pleistocene's overall climate could be characterized as a continuous [[El Niño]] with [[trade winds]] in the south [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] weakening or heading east, warm air rising near [[Peru]], warm water spreading from the west Pacific and the [[Indian Ocean]] to the east Pacific, and other El Niño markers.<ref>{{cite AV media|publisher=[[National Geographic Channel]] |title=Six Degrees Could Change The World Mark Lynas interview <!--|access-date=14 February 2008-->}}</ref>
During the Paleolithic more primitive humans or societies such as the [[Neanderthals]], ''Homo habilis'', ''Homo heidelbergensis'' and ''Homo erectus'' vanished and were replaced by more advanced humans, and the crudest types of Paleolithic implements vanished.<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book | author=McClellan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press
| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 Page 8-12 ]</ref> It is not certain whether they were absorbed into the new groups or displaced by them.<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book | author=McClellan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press
| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 Page 8-12 ]</ref> The [[Neanderthals]] and [[Homo erectus]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=lovers-not-fighters |title=Lovers not fighters |work=Scientific american |author=John Whitfield |accessdate=2008-02-23}}</ref> for instance may have interbred with modern humans (''Homo sapiens'') in [[Europe]] and [[Asia]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061030-neanderthals.html |title=Neanderthals, Modern Humans Interbred, Bone Study Suggests |work=National Geographic News |author=James Owen |accessdate=2008-01-14}}</ref>


The Paleolithic is often held to finish at the end of the ice age (the end of the Pleistocene epoch), and Earth's climate became warmer. This may have caused or contributed to the extinction of the [[Pleistocene megafauna]], although it is also possible that the late [[Quaternary extinction event|Pleistocene extinctions]] were (at least in part) caused by other factors such as disease and overhunting by humans.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/quaternary/ple.html |title=University of California Museum of Paleontology website the Pleistocene epoch(accessed March 25) |publisher=[[University of California Museum of Paleontology]] |access-date=31 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100207061412/http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/quaternary/ple.html |archive-date=7 February 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Johnson>{{cite web|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080401-mammoth-extinction.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080405041532/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080401-mammoth-extinction.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 5, 2008 |first=Kimberly |last=Johnson |work=[[National Geographic]] news |access-date=4 April 2008 |title=Climate Change, Then Humans, Drove Mammoths Extinct from National Geographic}}</ref> New research suggests that the extinction of the [[woolly mammoth]] may have been caused by the combined effect of climatic change and human hunting.<ref name=Johnson/> Scientists suggest that climate change during the end of the Pleistocene caused the mammoths' habitat to shrink, resulting in a drop in population. The small populations were then hunted out by Paleolithic humans.<ref name=Johnson/> The global warming that occurred during the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the [[Holocene]] may have made it easier for humans to reach mammoth habitats that were previously frozen and inaccessible.<ref name=Johnson/> Small populations of woolly mammoths survived on isolated Arctic islands, [[Saint Paul Island (Alaska)|Saint Paul Island]] and [[Wrangel Island]], until {{c.|3700}}&nbsp;BP and {{c.|1700|lk=no}}&nbsp;BP respectively. The Wrangel Island population became extinct around the same time the island was settled by prehistoric humans.<ref>{{cite book |title=Walker's Mammals of the World |url=https://archive.org/details/walkersmammalsof0001nowa |url-access=registration |last=Nowak |first=Ronald M. |year=1999 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |location=Baltimore |isbn=978-0-8018-5789-8}}</ref> There is no evidence of prehistoric human presence on Saint Paul island (though early human settlements dating as far back as 6500 BP were found on the nearby [[Aleutian Islands]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~wsoon/HoloceneClimate+Optimum10-d/Enketal09-midHoloceneMammothStPaulIslandAlaska.pdf |title=Phylogeographic Analysis of the mid-Holocene Mammoth from Qagnax Cave, St. Paul Island, Alaska |publisher=[[Harvard University]]}}</ref>
Although the first members of the species ''Homo sapiens'', the [[Archaic Homo sapiens|Archaic ''Homo sapiens'']], may have existed as long as 300,000&nbsp;years ago, ''Homo sapiens'' only became completely behaviorally modern during the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic ([[circa|''c.'']] 50,000&nbsp;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.


{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em auto; text-align:center;"
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 [[Lower Paleolithic|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-toothed cat]], ''[[Dinofelis]]'', and hyenas which apparently preyed on the hominid ''Homo habilis''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/01/0102_020107maneater.html |title=Killer Cats Hunted Human Ancestors |work=National Geographic News |author=Hillary Mayell
|+ Classifications of Paleolithic geoclimatic episodes<ref>{{cite book|last=Gamble |first=Clive |date=1990 |title=El poblamiento Paleolítico de Europa |language=es |trans-title=The Paleolithic settlement of Europe |location=Barcelona |publisher=Editorial Crítica|isbn=84-7423-445-X}}</ref>
|accessdate=2008-02-15}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0503_050305_neanderthal.html |title=Neandertals, Hyenas Fought for Caves, Food, Study Says |work=National Geographic News |author=Hillary Mayell |accessdate=2008-02-03}}</ref>
|- valign="top"
!Age <br />(before)!![[North America|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|Wisconsin Stage]]'''
|-
|| 140,000 years ||Sangamoniense ||Ipswichiense ||''Ouljiense'' ||''Tirreniense II y III'' ||[[Eemian Stage]]
|-
|| 200,000 years ||'''Illinois''' ||'''Wolstoniense''' ||Regresión ||Regresión ||'''[[Wolstonian Stage]]'''
|-
|| 450,000 years ||Yarmouthiense ||Hoxniense ||''Anfatiense'' ||''Tirreniense I'' ||[[Hoxnian Stage]]
|-
| 580,000 years ||'''Kansas''' ||'''Angliense''' ||Regresión ||Regresión ||'''[[Kansan glaciation|Kansan Stage]]'''
|-
|| 750,000 years ||Aftoniense ||Cromeriense ||''Maarifiense'' ||''Siciliense'' ||[[Cromer Forest Bed|Cromerian Complex]]
|-
|| 1,100,000 years ||'''Nebraska''' ||'''Beestoniense''' ||Regresión ||Regresión ||'''[[Beestonian stage]]'''
|-
|| 1,400,000 years ||interglacial ||Ludhamiense ||''Messaudiense'' ||''Calabriense'' ||Donau-Günz
|}


== Paleolithic people ==
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.<ref>[http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF001973/Rensberger/Rensberger08/Rensberger08.html "The Killer Ape is Dead" by Boyce Rensberger]</ref> A number of [[Feminist anthropology|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.<ref>{{cite book |author=Barbara D. Miller|title=Sex and Gender Hierarchies |publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge University|year=1993}}; [http://books.google.com/books?id=KfzCWv0oMn4C p 61]</ref> 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)|''Homo'']] that are not seen in other primates.<ref name=MacLarnon1999>{{cite journal | author = MacLarnon, A.M. | coauthors = Hewitt, G.P. | year = 1999 | title = The evolution of human speech: The role of enhanced breathing control | journal = American Journal of Physical Anthropology | volume = 109 | issue = 3 | pages = 341-363 | doi = 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199907)109:3%3C341::AID-AJPA5%3E3.3.CO%3B2-U}}</ref> However, like the killer ape theory, it is not widely accepted by the scientific community.<ref name=MacLarnon1999>{{cite journal |author=MacLarnon, A.M. |coauthors=Hewitt, G.P. |year=1999 |title=The evolution of human speech: The role of enhanced breathing control |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=109 |issue=3 |pages=341-363 |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199907)109:3%3C341::AID-AJPA5%3E3.3.CO%3B2-U}}</ref><ref name=Lowenstein1980>{{cite journal |author=Lowenstein, J.M. |coauthors=Zihlman, A.L. |year=1980 |title=The Wading Ape-A Watered-Down Version of Human Evolution |journal=Oceans |volume=17 |pages=3-6}}</ref><ref name="pmid9361254">{{cite journal |author=Langdon JH |title=Umbrella hypotheses and parsimony in human evolution: a critique of the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis |journal=J. Hum. Evol. |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=479–94 |year=1997 |pmid=9361254 |doi=10.1006/jhev.1997.0146}}</ref> Although the modern Aquatic ape hypothesis was only developed during the 20th century the concept of humankind arising from an aquatic or semi-aquatic environment is much more ancient, the theories of the Ancient Greek philosopher [[Anaximander]] who is widely considered to be evolution's most ancient proponent bare some similarity with the contemporary Aquatic ape hypothesis as he theorized that humans evolved from fish or fish like animals. [[Richard Wrangham]] of [[Harvard University]] argues that cooking of plant foods may have triggered brain expansion by allowing [[Polysaccharide|complex carbohydrates]] in [[starch]]y foods to become more digestible and in effect allow humans to absorb more calories.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=food-for-thought-into-the |title=Food for Thought: Into the Fire |work=Scientific american |author=William R. Leonard |accessdate=2008-02-22}}</ref><ref name=Wrangham>{{cite journal |author=Wrangham R, Conklin-Brittain N. |title=Cooking as a biological trait |journal=Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol |volume=136 |issue=1 |pages=35-46 |year=2003 Sep |pmid=14527628 |doi=10.1016/S1095-6433(03)00020-5 |url=http://anthropology.tamu.edu/faculty/alvard/anth630/reading/Week%208%20Diet%20tubers/Wrangham%20and%20Conklin-Brittain%202003.pdf}}</ref><ref name=TheWayWeEatNow>{{cite news |last=Lambert |first=Craig |title=The Way We Eat Now |publisher=Harvard Magazine |date=May-June 2004 |url=http://harvardmagazine.com/2004/05/the-way-we-eat-now.html}}</ref>
[[File:Terra-Amata-Hut.gif|thumb|right|An artist's rendering of a temporary wood house, based on evidence found at [[Terra Amata (archaeological site)|Terra Amata]] (in [[Nice, France]]) and dated to the Lower Paleolithic ({{c.|400,000}}&nbsp;BP)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.musee-terra-amata.org/musee/le-site-acheuleen-de-terra-amata/ |title=Le site acheuléen de Terra Amata |language=fr |trans-title=The Acheulean site of Terra Amata |author=Musée de Préhistoire Terra Amata |website=Musée de Préhistoire Terra Amata |access-date=10 June 2022}}</ref>]]


Nearly all of our knowledge of Paleolithic people and way of life comes from [[archaeology]] and [[ethnography|ethnographic]] comparisons to modern hunter-gatherer cultures such as the [[!Kung people|!Kung San]] who live similarly to their Paleolithic predecessors.<ref name="Leften Stavrianos"/> The economy of a typical Paleolithic society was a [[hunter-gatherer]] economy.<ref name="Stavrianos">{{cite book |first=Leften Stavros |last=Stavrianos |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society |title=A Global History from Prehistory to the Present |location=New Jersey |publisher=[[Prentice Hall]] |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-13-357005-2 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society 9–13]}}</ref> Humans hunted wild animals for meat and gathered food, firewood, and materials for their tools, clothes, or shelters.<ref name="Stavrianos"/>
===Simplified human genealogy===


The population density was very low, around only {{convert|1|PD/sqmi|PD/km2|order=flip|1}}.<ref name="McClellan"/> This was most likely due to low body fat, [[infanticide]], high levels of physical activity among women,<ref name="Schultz">{{cite web |title=The Consequences of Domestication and Sedentism by Emily Schultz, et al |url=http://www.primitivism.com/sedentism.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090715184334/http://www.primitivism.com/sedentism.htm |archive-date=15 July 2009 |access-date=31 January 2010 |publisher=Primitivism.com}}</ref> late weaning of infants, and a [[nomad]]ic lifestyle.<ref name="McClellan"/> In addition, even a large area of land could not support many people without being actively farmed - food was difficult to come by and so groups were prevented from growing too large by the amount of food they could gather. Like contemporary hunter-gatherers, Paleolithic humans enjoyed an abundance of leisure time unparalleled in both [[Neolithic]] farming societies and modern industrial societies.<ref name="Stavrianos"/><ref>{{cite book |first=Felipe Fernandez |last=Armesto |title=Ideas that changed the world |publisher=Dorling Kindersley limited |location=New York |year=2003 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tFIAAAAACAAJ&q=Ideas+that+changed+the+world+by+Felipe+Fernandez+Armesto 10], [https://archive.org/details/ideasthatchanged0000fern_a2p4/page/400 400] |isbn=978-0-7566-3298-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/ideasthatchanged0000fern_a2p4/page/400}}</ref> At the end of the Paleolithic, specifically the Middle or Upper Paleolithic, people began to produce works of art such as [[cave painting]]s, [[rock art]] and [[jewellery]] and began to engage in religious behavior such as burials and rituals.<ref name="Hillary Mayell">{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0220_030220_humanorigins2_2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050813013143/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0220_030220_humanorigins2_2.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 13, 2005 |title=When Did "Modern" Behavior Emerge in Humans? |work=[[National Geographic]] News |author= Hillary Mayell |access-date=5 February 2008}}</ref>
The timeline below shows a simplified genealogy of Paleolithic humanity, although other ideas of human genealogy exist for the same period:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.archaeologyinfo.com/species.htm |title=Human evolution |accessdate=2007-04-09 |publisher=Archaelogy.info}}</ref><!-- More refs needed -->
<timeline>
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:18
PlotArea = left:20 right:20 bottom:20 top:10
Colors =
id:white value:rgb(1,1,1)
id:black value:black
id:canvas value:gray(0.98)
id:holocene value:rgb(1,0.984,0.941)
id:pleisto value:rgb(1,0.968,0.690)
id:pliocene value:rgb(1,1,0.6)
id:miocene value:rgb(1,1,0)
id:paleo value:rgb(0.651,0.875,0.616)
id:gray value:gray(0.80)
id:darkblue value:rgb(0.3,0.3,0.7)
id:blue value:rgb(0.45,0.45,0.80)
id:lightblue value:rgb(0.65,0.65,0.90)
id:red value:rgb(0.8,0.30,0.30)
id:rougemoy value:rgb(0.88,0.45,0.45)
id:lightred value:rgb(0.92,0.64,0.64)
id:lightred2 value:rgb(0.95,0.84,0.84)
id:orange value:rgb(1,0.7,0.3)
id:orangesom value:rgb(0.9,0.45,0.25)
id:or value:rgb(1,0.9,0)
id:grilleMajor value:gray(0.7)
id:grilleMinor value:gray(0.9)


=== Homo erectus ===
Period = from:-3000 till:1
At the beginning of the Paleolithic, hominins were found primarily in eastern Africa, east of the [[Great Rift Valley]]. Most known hominin fossils dating earlier than one million years before present are found in this area, particularly in [[Kenya]], [[Tanzania]], and [[Ethiopia]].
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:100 start:-3000 gridcolor:grilleMinor
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:500 start:-3000 gridcolor:grilleMajor
BackgroundColors = canvas:canvas bars:canvas
BarData=
bar:evenement1
bar:espace1
bar:evenement2
bar:espace2
bar:evenement3
bar:espace3
bar:evenement4
bar:espace4
bar:evenement5
bar:espace5
bar:evenement6
bar:espace6
# barset:evenement
bar:ages0
bar:ages


By {{c.|2,000,000|1,500,000}}&nbsp;BP, groups of hominins began leaving Africa, settling southern Europe and Asia. The [[South Caucasus]] was occupied by {{c.|1,700,000|lk=no}}&nbsp;BP, and northern China was reached by {{c.|1,660,000|lk=no}}&nbsp;BP. By the end of the Lower Paleolithic, members of the hominin family were living in what is now China, western Indonesia, and, in Europe, around the Mediterranean and as far north as England, France, southern Germany, and Bulgaria. Their further northward expansion may have been limited by the lack of control of fire: studies of cave settlements in Europe indicate no regular use of fire prior to {{c.|400,000|300,000|lk=no}}&nbsp;BP.<ref>{{cite journal|title=On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe |first1=Wil |last1=Roebroeks |first2=Paola |last2=Villa |journal=[[PNAS]] |date=14 March 2011 |volume=108 |issue=13 |pages=5209–5214
Define $center = anchor:from align:center
|doi=10.1073/pnas.1018116108|pmid=21402905 |pmc=3069174 |bibcode=2011PNAS..108.5209R |doi-access=free }}</ref>
Define $left = anchor:from align:left shift:( 4,-4)
Define $right = anchor:till align:right shift:(-4,-4)
Define $left2 = anchor:from align:left shift:( 4, 3)
Define $right2 = anchor:till align:right shift:(-4, 3)


East Asian fossils from this period are typically placed in the genus ''[[Homo erectus]]''. Very little fossil evidence is available at known Lower Paleolithic sites in Europe, but it is believed that hominins who inhabited these sites were likewise ''Homo erectus''. There is no evidence of hominins in America, Australia, or almost anywhere in Oceania during this time period.
PlotData=


Fates of these early colonists, and their relationships to modern humans, are still subject to debate. According to current archaeological and genetic models, there were at least two notable expansion events subsequent to peopling of Eurasia {{c.|2,000,000|1,500,000}}&nbsp;BP. Around 500,000&nbsp;BP a group of early humans, frequently called ''[[Homo heidelbergensis]]'', came to Europe from Africa and eventually evolved into ''Homo neanderthalensis'' ([[Neanderthal]]s). In the Middle Paleolithic, Neanderthals were present in the region now occupied by Poland.
bar:evenement1 color:black width:20 $left
from:-3000 till:-1950 color:gray
at:-2650 textcolor:black text:" [[Australopithecus]]"


Both ''Homo erectus'' and ''Homo neanderthalensis'' became extinct by the start of the Upper Paleolithic. Descended from ''Homo sapiens'', the anatomically modern ''[[Homo sapiens sapiens]]'' emerged in eastern Africa {{c.|300,000}}&nbsp;BP, left Africa around 50,000&nbsp;BP, and expanded throughout the planet. Multiple hominid groups coexisted for some time in certain locations. ''Homo neanderthalensis'' were still found in parts of Eurasia {{c.|40,000}}&nbsp;BP years, and engaged in an unknown degree of interbreeding with ''Homo sapiens sapiens''. DNA studies also suggest an unknown degree of interbreeding between ''Homo sapiens sapiens'' and ''[[Denisovan|Homo sapiens denisova]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Callaway |last=Ewen |date=22 September 2011 |title=First Aboriginal genome sequenced |journal=[[Nature News]] |doi=10.1038/news.2011.551}}</ref>
bar:espace1 width:12 at:-2556 mark:(line, blue)


Hominin fossils not belonging either to ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or to ''Homo sapiens'' species, found in the [[Altai Mountains]] and Indonesia, were radiocarbon dated to {{c.|30,000|40,000}}&nbsp;BP and {{c.|17,000|lk=no}}&nbsp;BP respectively.
bar:evenement2 color:black width:20 $left
from:-2556 till:-1700 color:or
at:-2300 textcolor:black text:" [[Homo habilis]]"


For the duration of the Paleolithic, human populations remained low, especially outside the equatorial region. The entire population of Europe between 16,000 and 11,000&nbsp;BP likely averaged some 30,000 individuals, and between 40,000 and 16,000&nbsp;BP, it was even lower at 4,000–6,000 individuals.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.evolhum.cnrs.fr/bocquet/jas2005.pdf |title=Estimates of Upper Palaeolithic meta-population size in Europe from archaeological data |first=Jean-Pierre |last=Bocquet-Appel |year=2005 |journal=[[Journal of Archaeological Science]] |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2005.05.006 |volume=32 |issue=11 |pages=1656–1668 |bibcode=2005JArSc..32.1656B |display-authors=etal |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-date=20 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020081349/http://www.evolhum.cnrs.fr/bocquet/jas2005.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref> However, remains of thousands of butchered animals and tools made by Palaeolithic humans were found in [[Lapa do Picareiro]], a cave in [[Portugal]], dating back between 41,000 and 38,000 years ago.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/archaeology/more-surprises-about-palaeolithic-humans/ |title=More surprises about Palaeolithic humans |website=[[Cosmos Magazine]] |date=29 September 2020}}</ref>
bar:espace2 width:12 at:-2043 mark:(line, blue)


== Technology and crafts ==
bar:evenement3 color:black width:20 $left
[[File:Bifaz de Atapuerca (TG10).jpg|thumb|left|[[Lower Paleolithic]] [[biface]] viewed from both its superior and inferior surface|alt=photograph]]
from:-2043 till:-1000 color:darkblue
at:-1650 textcolor:black text:" [[Homo ergaster]]"
from:-700 till:-300 color:blue textcolor:black text:"[[Homo rhodesiensis]]"
from:-200 till:0 color:lightblue
at:-300 textcolor:black text:" [[Homo sapiens]]"
at:-880 textcolor:black text:"?"


Some researchers have noted that science, limited in that age to some early ideas about [[astronomy]] (or [[cosmology]]),{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}<!-- is there any actual evidence for this, or is it just somebody's guess? --> had limited impact on Paleolithic technology. Making fire was widespread knowledge, and it was possible without an understanding of chemical processes, These types of practical skills are sometimes called crafts. Religion, superstitution or appeals to the supernatural may have played a part in the cultural explanations of phenomena like [[combustion]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=McClellan|first1=James E.|last2=Dorn |first2=Harold |title=Science and Technology in World History|date=2006|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |location=United States |page=13}}</ref>
bar:espace3 width:12 at:-1121 mark:(line, blue)
bar:espace3 width:36 at:-1750 mark:(line, blue)


=== Tools ===
bar:evenement4 color:black width:20 $left
Paleolithic humans made tools of stone, bone (primarily of deer), and wood.<ref name="Stavrianos"/> The early paleolithic hominins, ''[[Australopithecus]]'', were the first users of stone tools. Excavations in [[Gona, Ethiopia]], have produced thousands of artifacts, and through radioisotopic dating and [[magnetostratigraphy]] the sites can be firmly dated to 2.6&nbsp;million years ago. Evidence shows these early hominins intentionally selected raw stone with good flaking qualities and chose appropriately sized stones for their needs to produce sharp-edged tools for cutting.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Semaw |first1=Sileshi |title=The World's Oldest Stone Artefacts from Gona, Ethiopia: Their Implications for Understanding Stone Technology and Patterns of Human Evolution Between 2.6–1.5 Million Years Ago |journal=[[Journal of Archaeological Science]] |date=2000 |volume=27 |issue=12 |pages=1197–214 |doi=10.1006/jasc.1999.0592 |bibcode=2000JArSc..27.1197S |s2cid=1490212 }}</ref>
from:-1121 till:-800 color:lightred
at:-1125 textcolor:black text:"[[Homo antecessor]]"
from:-700 till:-201 color:rougemoy
at:-675 textcolor:black text:"[[Homo heidelbergensis]]"
from:-199 till:-35 color:red
at:-225 textcolor:black text:"[[Homo neanderthalensis|Neanderthal]]"
at:-1750 mark:(line, darkblue)
at:-770 textcolor:black text:"?"
bar:espace4 width:12 at:-1750 mark:(line, darkblue)


The earliest Paleolithic stone tool industry, the [[Oldowan]], began around 2.6&nbsp;million years ago.<ref name=Klein>{{cite book |last=Klein |first=R. |year=1999 |title=The Human Career |url=https://archive.org/details/humancareerhuman00klei_0 |url-access=registration |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=9780226439631}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Oldowan Stone Tools |url=https://www.bradshawfoundation.com/origins/oldowan_stone_tools.php}}</ref> It produced tools such as [[Chopper (archaeology)|chopper]]s, [[Burin (lithic flake)|burins]], and [[stitching awl]]s. It was completely replaced around 250,000 years ago by the more complex [[Acheulean]] industry, which was first conceived by ''[[Homo ergaster]]'' around 1.8–1.65&nbsp;million years ago.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Hélène |last1=Roche |first2=Jean-Philip |last2=Brugal |first3=Anne |last3=Delagnes |first4=Craig |last4=Feibel |first5=Sonia |last5=Harmand |first6=Mzalendo |last6=Kibunjia |first7=Sandrine |last7=Prat |first8=Pierre-Jean |last8=Texier |title=Les sites archéologiques plio-pléistocènes de la formation de Nachukui, Ouest-Turkana, Kenya: bilan synthétique 1997-2001 |language=fr |trans-title=The Plio-Pleistocene archaeological sites of the Nachukui formation, West-Turkana, Kenya: summary report 1997-2001 |pages=663–673 |journal=Palevol Reports |volume=2 |issue=8 |date=2003|doi=10.1016/j.crpv.2003.06.001 |bibcode=2003CRPal...2..663R |url=https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00134898/file/Rocheetal2003.pdf }}</ref> The Acheulean implements completely vanish from the archaeological record around 100,000 years ago and were replaced by more complex Middle Paleolithic tool kits such as the [[Mousterian]] and the [[Aterian]] industries.<ref>[[John Desmond Clark|Clark, JD]], ''Variability in primary and secondary technologies of the Later Acheulian in Africa'' in Milliken, S and Cook, J (eds), 2001</ref>
bar:evenement5 color:black width:20
bar:evenement5 color:black width:20 $left
from:-1750 till:-100 color:orange
at:-1000 textcolor:black text:" [[Homo erectus]]"


Lower Paleolithic humans used a variety of stone tools, including [[hand axe]]s and choppers. Although they appear to have used hand axes often, there is disagreement about their use. Interpretations range from cutting and chopping tools, to digging implements, to flaking cores, to the use in traps, and as a purely ritual significance, perhaps in [[Courtship display|courting behavior]]. [[William H. Calvin]] has suggested that some hand axes could have served as "killer [[frisbees]]" meant to be thrown at a herd of animals at a waterhole so as to stun one of them. There are no indications of [[hafting]], and some artifacts are far too large for that. Thus, a thrown hand axe would not usually have penetrated deeply enough to cause very serious injuries. Nevertheless, it could have been an effective weapon for defense against predators. Choppers and [[Scraper (archaeology)|scrapers]] were likely used for skinning and butchering scavenged animals and sharp-ended sticks were often obtained for digging up edible roots. Presumably, early humans used wooden spears as early as 5&nbsp;million years ago to hunt small animals, much as their relatives, [[Common chimpanzee|chimpanzees]], have been observed to do in [[Senegal]], Africa.<ref>{{cite news|first=Rick |last=Weiss |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201007.html |title=Chimps Observed Making Their Own Weapons |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=22 February 2007}}</ref> Lower Paleolithic humans constructed shelters, such as the possible wood hut at [[Terra Amata (archaeological site)|Terra Amata]].
bar:espace5 width:12 at:-100 mark:(line, blue)


{{Further|List of earliest tools}}
bar:evenement6 color:black width:20 $left
from:-100 till:-27 color:orangesom
at:-315 textcolor:black text:" [[Homo soloensis]]"


=== Fire use ===
bar:ages0
[[File:Font-de-Gaume.jpg|thumb|[[Charles R. Knight]]'s 1920 reconstruction of Magdalenian painters at [[Font-de-Gaume]], France]]
from:-2600 till:-10 width:10 color:paleo textcolor:white
Fire was used by the Lower Paleolithic hominins ''[[Homo erectus]]'' and ''[[Homo ergaster]]'' as early as 300,000 to 1.5&nbsp;million years ago and possibly even earlier by the early Lower Paleolithic (Oldowan) hominin ''[[Homo habilis]]'' or by robust ''[[Australopithecine]]s'' such as ''[[Paranthropus]]''.<ref name="McClellan"/> However, the use of fire only became common in the societies of the following [[Middle Stone Age]] and [[Middle Paleolithic]].<ref name="Thoth&Schick"/> Use of fire reduced mortality rates and provided protection against predators.<ref name=MarloweFW22>{{cite journal |last=Marlowe |first=F.W. |title=Hunter-gatherers and human evolution |journal=[[Evolutionary Anthropology (journal)|Evolutionary Anthropology]] |volume=14 |issue=2 |page=15294 |year=2005 |url=http://www.anthro.fsu.edu/people/faculty/marlowe_pubs/hunter-gatherers%20and%20human%20evolution.pdf |doi=10.1002/evan.20046 |s2cid=53489209 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080527230019/http://www.anthro.fsu.edu/people/faculty/marlowe_pubs/hunter-gatherers%20and%20human%20evolution.pdf |archive-date=27 May 2008 |accessdate=11 April 2008 }}</ref> Early hominins may have begun to cook their food as early as the Lower Paleolithic ({{c.|1.9}}&nbsp;million years ago) or at the latest in the early Middle Paleolithic ({{c.|250,000}} years ago).<ref name=Wrangham>{{cite journal |vauthors=Wrangham R, Conklin-Brittain N |title=Cooking as a biological trait |journal=Comp Biochem Physiol A |volume=136 |issue=1 |pages=35–46 |date=September 2003 |pmid=14527628 |doi=10.1016/S1095-6433(03)00020-5 |url=http://anthropology.tamu.edu/faculty/alvard/anth630/reading/Week%208%20Diet%20tubers/Wrangham%20and%20Conklin-Brittain%202003.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050519215539/http://anthropology.tamu.edu/faculty/alvard/anth630/reading/Week%208%20Diet%20tubers/Wrangham%20and%20Conklin-Brittain%202003.pdf |archive-date=19 May 2005}}</ref> Some scientists have hypothesized that hominins began cooking food to defrost frozen meat, which would help ensure their survival in cold regions.<ref name=Wrangham/>
at:-1600 text:"Paleolithic"
Archaeologists cite morphological shifts in cranial anatomy as evidence for emergence of cooking and [[food processing]] technologies. These morphological changes include decreases in [[molar (tooth)|molar]] and jaw size, thinner tooth [[Tooth enamel|enamel]], and decrease in gut volume.<ref>Wrangham, R.W. 2009. Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. Basic Books, New York.</ref>
During much of the [[Pleistocene]] epoch, our ancestors relied on simple [[food processing]] techniques such as [[roasting]].<ref>Johns, T.A., Kubo, I. 1988. A survey of traditional methods employed for the detoxification of plant foods. Journal of Ethnobiology 8, 81–129.</ref>
The [[Upper Palaeolithic]] saw the emergence of boiling, an advance in [[food processing]] technology which rendered plant foods more digestible, decreased their toxicity, and maximised their nutritional value.<ref>Speth, J.D., 2015. When did humans learn to boil. PaleoAnthropology, 2015, pp.54-67.</ref> Thermally altered rock (heated stones) are easily identifiable in the archaeological record. Stone-boiling and pit-baking were common techniques which involved heating large pebbles then transferring the hot stones into a perishable container to heat the water.<ref>Mousterian Brace 1997: 545</ref> This technology is typified in the [[Middle Palaeolithic]] example of the [[Abri Pataud]] hearths.<ref>Movius Jr, H.L., 1966. The hearths of the Upper Perigordian and Aurignacian horizons at the Abri Pataud, Les Eyzies (Dordogne), and their possible significance. American Anthropologist, pp.296-325.</ref>


=== Rafts ===
bar:ages fontsize:9
The Lower Paleolithic ''Homo erectus'' possibly invented [[raft]]s ({{c.|840,000|800,000}}&nbsp;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 hominin ''[[Homo floresiensis]]''. However, this hypothesis is disputed within the anthropological community.<ref name="vicnet1">{{cite web |url=http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/mariners/web/mariner1.html |title=First Mariners Project Photo Gallery 1 |publisher=Mc2.vicnet.net.au |access-date=31 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091025085331/http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/mariners/web/mariner1.html |archive-date=25 October 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/mariners/web/ng2004.html |title=First Mariners – National Geographic project 2004 |publisher=Mc2.vicnet.net.au |date=2 October 2004 |access-date=31 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091026043820/http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/mariners/web/ng2004.html |archive-date=26 October 2009}}</ref> The possible use of rafts during the Lower Paleolithic may indicate that Lower Paleolithic hominins such as ''Homo erectus'' were more advanced than previously believed, and may have even spoken an early form of modern language.<ref name="vicnet1"/> Supplementary evidence from Neanderthal and modern human sites located around the Mediterranean Sea, such as Coa de sa Multa ({{c.|300,000|lk=no}}&nbsp;BP), has also indicated that both Middle and Upper Paleolithic humans used rafts to travel over large bodies of water (i.e. the Mediterranean Sea) for the purpose of colonizing other bodies of land.<ref name="vicnet1"/><ref name="Miller2006">{{cite book |title=Anthropology |last1=Miller |first1=Barbra |first2=Bernard |last2=Wood |first3=Andrew |last3=Balansky |first4=Julio |last4=Mercader |first5=Melissa |last5=Panger |year=2006 |publisher=Allyn and Bacon |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-205-32024-0 |page=768}}</ref>
from:-3000 till:-1806 color:pliocene
at:-2400 text:"[[Pliocene]]"
from:-1806 till:-11 color:pleisto
at:-1000 text:"[[Pleistocene]]"
from:-11 till:0 color:holocene
at:-100 text:"[[Holocene|H->]]"
at:-3000 mark:(line, black)
at:-1806 mark:(line, black)
at:-11 mark:(line, black)
at:0 mark:(line, black)


=== Advanced tools ===
</timeline>
By around 200,000&nbsp;BP, Middle Paleolithic [[stone tool]] manufacturing spawned a tool-making technique known as the [[prepared-core technique]], which was more elaborate than previous [[Acheulean]] techniques.<ref name="encarta.msn.com"/> This technique increased efficiency by allowing the creation of more controlled and consistent [[Lithic flake|flakes]].<ref name="encarta.msn.com"/> It allowed [[Middle Paleolithic]] humans to create stone-tipped [[spear]]s, which were the earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts. In addition to improving tool-making methods, the Middle Paleolithic also saw an improvement of the tools themselves that allowed access to a wider variety and amount of food sources. For example, [[microlith]]s or small stone tools or points were invented around 70,000–65,000&nbsp;BP and were essential to the invention of bows and [[Spear-thrower|atlatls]] (spear throwers) in the following Upper Paleolithic.<ref name=MarloweFW22/>
Timeline scale is in thousands of years.


[[Harpoon]]s were invented and used for the first time during the late Middle Paleolithic ({{c.|90,000}}&nbsp;BP); the invention of these devices brought fish into the human diets, which provided a hedge against starvation and a more abundant food supply.<ref name="Miller2006"/><ref name="ReferenceA-1">[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394_12/human_evolution.html "Human Evolution," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080408032236/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394_12/human_evolution.html |date=2008-04-08 }} Contributed by Richard B. Potts, B.A., Ph.D.</ref> Thanks to their technology and their advanced social structures, Paleolithic groups such as the Neanderthals—who had a Middle Paleolithic level of technology—appear to have hunted large game just as well as Upper Paleolithic modern humans,<ref name=Parson2006>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0125_060125_neanderthal.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060217152429/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0125_060125_neanderthal.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 17, 2006 |title=Neanderthals Hunted as Well as Humans, Study Says |work=National Geographic News |author=Ann Parson |access-date=2008-02-01}}</ref> and the Neanderthals in particular may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boëda |first1=E. |last2=Geneste |first2=J.M. |last3=Griggo |first3=C. |last4=Mercier |first4=N. |last5=Muhesen |first5=S. |last6=Reyss |first6=J.L. |last7=Taha |first7=A. |last8=Valladas |first8=H. |year=1999 |title=A Levallois point embedded in the vertebra of a wild ass (Equus africanus): Hafting, projectiles and Mousterian hunting |journal=[[Antiquity (journal)|Antiquity]] |volume=73 |issue=280 |pages=394–402 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00088335 |s2cid=163560577}}</ref> Nonetheless, Neanderthal use of projectile weapons in hunting occurred very rarely (or perhaps never) and the Neanderthals hunted large game animals mostly by [[ambush]]ing them and attacking them with handheld weapons such as thrusting spears rather than attacking them from a distance with projectiles.<ref name="Hillary Mayell"/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4251299.stm |title= The icy truth behind Neanderthals |work=[[BBC News]] |first=Cameron |last=Balbirnie |access-date=1 April 2008 |date=10 May 2005}}</ref>
== Climate ==


=== Other inventions ===
<center>
During the [[Upper Paleolithic]], further inventions were made, such as the [[net (device)|net]] ({{c.|22,000}} or {{c.|29,000|lk=no}}&nbsp;BP)<ref name=MarloweFW22/> [[bolas]],<ref>J. Chavaillon, D. Lavallée, « Bola », in ''Dictionnaire de la Préhistoire'', PUF, 1988.</ref> the [[spear thrower]] ({{c.|30,000|lk=no}}&nbsp;BP), the bow and arrow ({{c.|25,000|lk=no}} or {{c.|30,000|lk=no}}&nbsp;BP)<ref name="McClellan"/> and the oldest example of ceramic art, the [[Venus of Dolní Věstonice]] ({{c.|29,000|25,000|lk=no}}&nbsp;BP).<ref name="McClellan"/> [[Kilu Cave]] at [[Buka Island|Buku island]], [[Solomon Islands (archipelago)|Solomon Islands]], demonstrates navigation of some 60&nbsp;km of open ocean at 30,000 BCcal.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wickler |first=Stephen |title=Prehistoric Melanesian Exchange and Interaction: Recent Evidence from the Northern Solomon Islands. |url=https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/16987/AP-v29n2-135-154.pdf |journal=Asian Perspectives |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=135–154}}</ref>


Early dogs were domesticated sometime between 30,000 and 14,000&nbsp;BP, presumably to aid in hunting.<ref name="TheBookofGeneralIgnorance">[[John Lloyd (producer)|Lloyd, J]] & [[John Mitchinson (researcher)|Mitchinson, J]]: "[[The Book of General Ignorance]]". Faber & Faber, 2006.</ref> However, the earliest instances of successful domestication of dogs may be much more ancient than this. Evidence from [[canidae|canine]] [[DNA]] collected by Robert K. Wayne suggests that dogs may have been first domesticated in the late Middle Paleolithic around 100,000&nbsp;BP or perhaps even earlier.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/pdfs/data/1997/151-26/15126-11.pdf |title=Stalking the ancient dog |work=Science news |first=Christine |last=Mellot |access-date=3 January 2008}}</ref>
;Currently agreed upon classifications as [[Paleolithic]] geoclimatic episodes


Archaeological evidence from the [[Dordogne]] region of France demonstrates that members of the European early [[Upper Paleolithic]] culture known as the [[Aurignacian]] used calendars ({{c.|30,000}}&nbsp;BP). This was a lunar calendar that was used to document the phases of the moon. Genuine solar calendars did not appear until the Neolithic.<ref name="Felipe Fernandez Armesto 2003 400"/> Upper Paleolithic cultures were probably able to time the migration of game animals such as wild horses and deer.<ref name="ReferenceA-2">[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555928_4/Stone_Age.html "Stone Age," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091101033259/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555928_4/Stone_Age.html |date=2009-11-01 }} Contributed by Kathy Schick, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. and Nicholas Toth, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.</ref> This ability allowed humans to become efficient hunters and to exploit a wide variety of game animals.<ref name="ReferenceA-2"/> Recent research indicates that the Neanderthals timed their hunts and the migrations of game animals long before the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic.<ref name=Parson2006/>
{|class="wikitable" border=1 style="float:center; margin:0 0 1em 1em; valign:top; "
|-valign="top"
!Age <br>(before)!![[North America|America]]!![[England|Atlantic Europe]]!![[Maghreb]]!![[Italy|Mediterranean Europe]]!![[Central Europe]]
|-----------------
|align="center" | 10,000 years ||align="center" |Flandrian interglacial ||align="center" |Flandriense ||align="center" |''Mellahiense'' ||align="center" |''Versiliense'' ||align="center" |[[Flandrian interglacial]]
|-----------------
|align="center" | 80,000 years ||align="center" |'''Wisconsin''' ||align="center" | '''Devensiense'''||align="center" |Regresión ||align="center" | Regresión||align="center" |'''[[Wisconsin glaciation]]'''
|-----------------
|align="center" | 140,000 years ||align="center" |Sangamoniense ||align="center" |Ipswichiense ||align="center" |''Ouljiense'' ||align="center" |''Tirreniense II y III'' ||align="center" |[[Eemian interglacial]]
|-----------------
|align="center" | 200,000 years ||align="center" |'''Illinois''' ||align="center" |'''Wolstoniense''' ||align="center" |Regresión ||align="center" |Regresión ||align="center" |'''[[Wolstonian glaciation]]'''
|-----------------
|align="center" | 450,000 years ||align="center" |Yarmouthiense ||align="center" |Hoxniense ||align="center" |''Anfatiense'' ||align="center" |''Tirreniense I'' ||align="center" |[[Hoxnian interglacial]]
|-----------------
|align="center" | 580,000 years ||align="center" |'''Kansas''' ||align="center" |'''Angliense''' ||align="center" |Regresión ||align="center" |Regresión ||align="center" |'''[[Kansan glaciation]]'''
|-----------------
|align="center" | 750,000 years ||align="center" |Aftoniense ||align="center" |Cromeriense ||align="center" |''Maarifiense'' ||align="center" |''Siciliense'' ||align="center" |[[Cromerian interglacial]]
|-----------------
|align="center" | 1,100,000 years ||align="center" |'''Nebraska''' ||align="center" |'''Beestoniense''' ||align="center" |Regresión ||align="center" |Regresión ||align="center" |'''[[Beestonian stage]]'''
|-----------------
|align="center" | 1,400,000 years ||align="center" |interglaciar ||align="center" |Ludhamiense ||align="center" |''Messaudiense'' ||align="center" |''Calabriense'' ||align="center" |Donau-Günz
|}
</center>


== Diet and nutrition ==<!-- linked from article "Paleolithic diet" -->
==Way of life==
{{See also|Pleistocene human diet}}
[[File:Wine grapes03.jpg|upright|thumb|People may have first fermented grapes in animal skin pouches to create [[wine]] during the Paleolithic age.<ref name="William Cocke">{{cite web |author=William Cocke |title=First Wine? Archaeologist Traces Drink to Stone Age |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0721_040721_ancientwine.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040724052540/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0721_040721_ancientwine.html |archive-date=July 24, 2004 |access-date=2008-02-03 |work=National Geographic News}}</ref>]]


Paleolithic hunting and gathering people ate varying proportions of vegetables (including tubers and roots), fruit, seeds (including nuts and wild grass seeds) and insects, meat, fish, and shellfish.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Gowlett JAJ |year=2003 |title=What actually was the Stone Age Diet? |url=http://pcwww.liv.ac.uk/~gowlett/GowlettCJNE_13_03_02.pdf |journal=J Nutr Environ Med |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=143–47 |doi=10.1080/13590840310001619338}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Weiss E, Wetterstrom W, Nadel D, Bar-Yosef O |date=June 29, 2004 |title=The broad spectrum revisited: Evidence from plant remains |journal=Proc Natl Acad Sci USA |volume=101 |issue=26 |pages=9551–55 |bibcode=2004PNAS..101.9551W |doi=10.1073/pnas.0402362101 |pmc=470712 |pmid=15210984 |doi-access=free}}</ref> However, there is little direct evidence of the relative proportions of plant and animal foods.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Richards, MP |date=December 2002 |title=A brief review of the archaeological evidence for Palaeolithic and Neolithic subsistence |journal=Eur J Clin Nutr |volume=56 |issue=12 |pages=1270–78 |doi=10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601646 |pmid=12494313 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Although the term "[[paleolithic diet]]", without references to a specific timeframe or locale, is sometimes used with an implication that most humans shared a certain diet during the entire era, that is not entirely accurate. The Paleolithic was an extended period of time, during which multiple technological advances were made, many of which had impact on human dietary structure. For example, humans probably did not possess the control of fire until the Middle Paleolithic,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Johanson |first1=Donald |url=https://archive.org/details/fromlucytolangua2006joha |title=From Lucy to Language: Revised, Updated, and Expanded |last2=Blake |first2=Edgar |date=2006 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |isbn=978-0743280648 |location=Berlin |pages=[https://archive.org/details/fromlucytolangua2006joha/page/96 96–97] |url-access=registration}}</ref> or tools necessary to engage in extensive [[fishing]].{{citation needed|date=March 2013}} On the other hand, both these technologies are generally agreed to have been widely available to humans by the end of the Paleolithic (consequently, allowing humans in some regions of the planet to rely heavily on fishing and hunting). In addition, the Paleolithic involved a substantial geographical expansion of human populations. During the Lower Paleolithic, ancestors of modern humans are thought to have been constrained to Africa east of the [[Great Rift Valley, Kenya|Great Rift Valley]]. During the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, humans greatly expanded their area of settlement, reaching ecosystems as diverse as [[New Guinea]] and [[Alaska]], and adapting their diets to whatever local resources were available.
{{main|Stone Age}}
The Old Stone Age, or Paleolithic, comprised more than a million years. During this period, major climatic and other changes occurred which affected the evolution of humans. Humans themselves evolved into their current [[Morphology (biology)|morphological]] form during the later period of the Stone Age.


Another view is that until the Upper Paleolithic, humans were [[frugivore]]s (fruit eaters) who supplemented their meals with carrion, eggs, and small prey such as baby birds and [[mussel]]s, and only on rare occasions managed to kill and consume big game such as [[antelope]]s.<ref name="HartSussman">{{cite book |last1=Hart |first1=Donna |url=https://archive.org/details/manhuntedprimate00hart |title=Man the Hunted |last2=Sussman |first2=Robert W. |publisher=Basic Books |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8133-3936-8}}</ref> This view is supported by studies of higher apes, particularly [[Common chimpanzee|chimpanzees]]. Chimpanzees are the closest to humans genetically, sharing more than 96% of their DNA code with humans, and their digestive tract is functionally very similar to that of humans.<ref name="nationalgeographic_com">{{cite news |last=Lovgren |first=Stefan |date=31 August 2005 |title=Chimps, Humans 96 Percent the Same, Gene Study Finds |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0831_050831_chimp_genes.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050905010617/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0831_050831_chimp_genes.html |archive-date=September 5, 2005 |access-date=23 December 2013 |work=[[National Geographic]]}}</ref> Chimpanzees are primarily [[frugivore]]s, but they could and would consume and digest animal flesh, given the opportunity. In general, their actual diet in the wild is about 95% [[Plant-based diet|plant-based]], with the remaining 5% filled with insects, eggs, and baby animals.<ref>{{cite web |title=Chimp hunting and flesh-eating |url=http://www.ecologos.org/chimphunt.htm}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=22 February 2007 |title=Chimpanzees 'hunt using spears' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6387611.stm |work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref> In some ecosystems, however, chimpanzees are predatory, forming parties to hunt monkeys.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Predatory Behavior and Ecology of Wild Chimpanzees |url=http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~stanford/chimphunt.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606110247/http://www-bcf.usc.edu/%7Estanford/chimphunt.html |archive-date=6 June 2013 |access-date=13 June 2014}}</ref> Some comparative studies of human and higher primate digestive tracts do suggest that humans have evolved to obtain greater amounts of calories from sources such as animal foods, allowing them to shrink the size of the gastrointestinal tract relative to body mass and to increase the brain mass instead.<ref name="meateating">{{cite journal |last=Milton |first=Katharine |year=1999 |title=A hypothesis to explain the role of meat-eating in human evolution |url=http://nature.berkeley.edu/miltonlab/pdfs/meateating.pdf |journal=[[Evolutionary Anthropology (journal)|Evolutionary Anthropology]] |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=11–21 |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1520-6505(1999)8:1<11::AID-EVAN6>3.0.CO;2-M |s2cid=86221120}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Aiello |first1=Leslie C. |last2=Wheeler |first2=Peter |year=1995 |title=The expensive-tissue hypothesis |url=http://references.260mb.com/Paleontologia/Aiello1995.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=[[Current Anthropology]] |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=199–221 |doi=10.1086/204350 |s2cid=144317407 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517135907/http://references.260mb.com/Paleontologia/Aiello1995.pdf |archive-date=2019-05-17 |access-date=2014-06-13}}</ref>
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.<ref name=Wells1920>{{cite book |last=Wells |first=H. G. |authorlink=H. G. Wells |title=The Outline of History |publisher=Garden City Publishing Co., Inc. |date=1920 |location=Garden City, New York |pages=57-58, 107 |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/sherwood/Wells-Outline/Text/Part-I.htm}}</ref>


Anthropologists have diverse opinions about the proportions of plant and animal foods consumed. Just as with still existing hunters and gatherers, there were many varied "diets" in different groups, and also varying through this vast amount of time. Some paleolithic hunter-gatherers consumed a significant amount of meat and possibly obtained most of their food from hunting,<ref>{{cite book |last=Cordain |first=L. |title=Early Hominin Diets: The Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable |date=2006 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |editor-last=Ungar |editor-first=P. |location=Oxford |pages=363–383 |chapter=Implications of Plio-Pleistocene Hominin Diets for Modern Humans |chapter-url=http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/2006_Oxford.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227122833/http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/2006_Oxford.pdf |archive-date=27 February 2008}}</ref> while others were believed to have a primarily plant-based diet.<ref name="Dahlberg" /> Most, if not all, are believed to have been opportunistic omnivores.<ref>Nature's Magic: Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind By [[Peter Corning]]</ref> One hypothesis is that carbohydrate [[tuber]]s (plant underground [[storage organ]]s) may have been eaten in high amounts by pre-agricultural humans.<ref name="pmid16085279">{{cite journal |vauthors=Laden G, Wrangham R |date=October 2005 |title=The rise of the hominids as an adaptive shift in fallback foods: plant underground storage organs (USOs) and australopith origins |url=http://www.tc.umn.edu/~laden002/Laden_Wrangham_Roots.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=[[Journal of Human Evolution]] |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=482–98 |bibcode=2005JHumE..49..482L |doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2005.05.007 |pmid=16085279 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080911010449/http://www.tc.umn.edu/~laden002/Laden_Wrangham_Roots.pdf |archive-date=11 September 2008}}</ref><ref name="pmid10539941">{{cite journal |vauthors=Wrangham RW, Jones JH, Laden G, Pilbeam D, Conklin-Brittain N |date=December 1999 |title=The Raw and the Stolen. Cooking and the Ecology of Human Origins |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/255939/The-raw-and-the-stolen-Cooking-and-the-ecology-of-human-origins |journal=[[Current Anthropology]] |volume=40 |issue=5 |pages=567–94 |doi=10.1086/300083 |pmid=10539941 |s2cid=82271116}}{{Dead link|date=July 2018|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref><ref name="pmid17472915">{{cite journal |vauthors=Yeakel JD, Bennett NC, Koch PL, Dominy NJ |date=July 2007 |title=The isotopic ecology of African mole rats informs hypotheses on the evolution of human diet |url=http://people.ucsc.edu/~njdominy/publications/pdf/Proc_R_Soc_B.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Proc Biol Sci |volume=274 |issue=1619 |pages=1723–1730 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2007.0330 |pmc=2493578 |pmid=17472915 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080911010452/http://people.ucsc.edu/~njdominy/publications/pdf/Proc_R_Soc_B.pdf |archive-date=11 September 2008 |accessdate=10 August 2008}}</ref><ref name="pmid18032604">{{cite journal |vauthors=Hernandez-Aguilar RA, Moore J, Pickering TR |date=December 2007 |title=Savanna chimpanzees use tools to harvest the underground storage organs of plants |journal=Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A |volume=104 |issue=49 |pages=19210–19213 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0707929104 |pmc=2148269 |pmid=18032604 |doi-access=free}}</ref> It is thought that the Paleolithic diet included as much as {{cvt|1.65–1.9|kg|lk=on|abbr=off}} per day of fruit and vegetables.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eaton |first1=S. Boyd |url=http://www.direct-ms.org/pdf/EvolutionPaleolithic/Long%20chain%20fatty%20acids.pdf |title=Dietary intake of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids during the Paleolithic |last2=Eaton III |first2=Stanley B. |last3=Sinclair |first3=Andrew J. |last4=Cordain |first4=Loren |last5=Mann |first5=Neil J. |journal=World Rev Nutr Diet |year=1998 |isbn=978-3-8055-6694-0 |series=World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics |volume=83 |pages=12–23 |citeseerx=10.1.1.691.6953 |doi=10.1159/000059672 |pmid=9648501 |access-date=14 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150509034221/http://www.direct-ms.org/pdf/EvolutionPaleolithic/Long%20chain%20fatty%20acids.pdf |archive-date=9 May 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The relative proportions of plant and animal foods in the diets of Paleolithic people often varied between regions, with more meat being necessary in colder regions (which were not populated by anatomically modern humans until {{c.|30,000|50,000}}&nbsp;BP).<ref name="Gowlet">{{cite journal |last=Gowlet |first=J. A. J. |date=September 2003 |title=What actually was the stone age diet? |url=http://pcwww.liv.ac.uk/~gowlett/GowlettCJNE_13_03_02.pdf |journal=[[Journal of Environmental Medicine]] |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=143–147 |doi=10.1080/13590840310001619338 |access-date=4 May 2008}})</ref> It is generally agreed that many modern hunting and fishing tools, such as fish hooks, nets, bows, and poisons, were not introduced until the Upper Paleolithic and possibly even Neolithic.<ref name="MarloweFW22" /> The only hunting tools widely available to humans during any significant part of the Paleolithic were hand-held spears and harpoons. There is evidence of Paleolithic people killing and eating [[Pinniped|seals]] and [[Taurotragus|elands]] as far as {{c.|100,000|lk=no}}&nbsp;BP. On the other hand, [[African Buffalo|buffalo]] bones found in African caves from the same period are typically of very young or very old individuals, and there is no evidence that pigs, elephants, or rhinos were hunted by humans at the time.<ref>{{cite book |last=Diamond |first=Jared |url=https://archive.org/details/thirdchimpanzee00jare_0 |title=The third chimpanzee: the evolution and future of the human animal |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1992 |isbn=9780060984038 |url-access=registration}}</ref>
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 shelters.


Paleolithic peoples suffered less [[famine]] and [[malnutrition]] than the Neolithic farming tribes that followed them.<ref name="Leften Stavrianos" /><ref name="Russel">{{cite book |last=Russell |first=Sharman Apt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8CjOdT4LqYC&q=paleolithic+history+malnutrition&pg=PA2 |title=Hunger an unnatural history |publisher=[[Basic books]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-465-07165-4}}{{Dead link|date=September 2021|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=8C-jOdT4LqYC p. 2]</ref> This was partly because Paleolithic hunter-gatherers accessed a wider variety of natural foods, which allowed them a more nutritious diet and a decreased risk of famine.<ref name="Leften Stavrianos" /><ref name="Schultz" /><ref name="jareddiamond" /> 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 name="Leften Stavrianos" /><ref name="Schultz" /><ref name="jareddiamond" /> It is thought that wild foods can have a significantly different nutritional profile than cultivated foods.<ref name="isbn0-89789-736-6">{{cite book |last=Milton |first=Katharine |title=Human Diet: Its Origins and Evolution |publisher=[[Bergin and Garvey]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-89789-736-5 |editor-last1=Ungar |editor-first1=Peter S. |location=Westport, CN |pages=111–22 |chapter=Hunter-gatherer diets: wild foods signal relief from diseases of affluence (PDF) |editor-last2=Teaford |editor-first2=Mark F. |chapter-url=http://nature.berkeley.edu/miltonlab/pdfs/humandiet.pdf}}</ref> The greater amount of meat obtained by hunting big game animals in Paleolithic diets than Neolithic diets may have also allowed Paleolithic hunter-gatherers to enjoy a more nutritious diet than Neolithic agriculturalists.<ref name="Russel" /> It has been argued that the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture resulted in an increasing focus on a limited variety of foods, with meat likely taking a back seat to plants.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Larsen |first=Clark Spencer |date=1 November 2003 |title=Animal source foods and human health during evolution |journal=[[Journal of Nutrition]] |volume=133 |issue=11, Suppl 2 |pages=3893S–97S |doi=10.1093/jn/133.11.3893S |pmid=14672287 |doi-access=free}}</ref> It is also unlikely that Paleolithic hunter-gatherers were affected by modern [[diseases of affluence]] such as [[type 2 diabetes]], [[coronary heart disease]], and [[cerebrovascular disease]], because they ate mostly lean meats and plants and frequently engaged in intense physical activity,<ref name="pmid15699220">{{cite journal |vauthors=Cordain L, Eaton SB, Sebastian A, Mann N, Lindeberg S, Watkins BA, O'Keefe JH, Brand-Miller J |year=2005 |title=Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century |journal=[[The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition]] |volume=81 |issue=2 |pages=341–354 |doi=10.1093/ajcn.81.2.341 |pmid=15699220 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="pmid3541565">{{cite journal |vauthors=Thorburn AW, Brand JC, Truswell AS |date=1 January 1987 |title=Slowly digested and absorbed carbohydrate in traditional bushfoods: a protective factor against diabetes? |url=http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/45/1/98 |journal=[[The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition]] |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=98–106 |doi=10.1093/ajcn/45.1.98 |pmid=3541565}}</ref> and because the average lifespan was shorter than the age of common onset of these conditions.<ref name="kaplanetal2000">{{cite journal |last1=Kaplan |first1=Hillard |last2=Hill |first2=Kim |last3=Lancaster |first3=Jane |last4=Hurtado |first4=A. Magdalena |name-list-style=amp |year=2000 |title=A Theory of Human Life History Evolution: Diet, Intelligence and Longevity |url=http://www.unm.edu/~hkaplan/KaplanHillLancasterHurtado_2000_LHEvolution.pdf |journal=[[Evolutionary Anthropology (journal)|Evolutionary Anthropology]] |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=156–85 |doi=10.1002/1520-6505(2000)9:4<156::AID-EVAN5>3.0.CO;2-7 |s2cid=2363289 |access-date=12 September 2010}}</ref><ref name="Casparie&Lee2004">{{cite journal |last1=Caspari |first1=Rachel |last2=Lee |first2=Sang-Hee |name-list-style=amp |date=27 July 2004 |title=Older age becomes common late in human evolution |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]] |volume=101 |issue=20 |pages=10895–900 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0402857101 |pmc=503716 |pmid=15252198 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
===Technology===


Large-seeded [[legume]]s were part of the human diet long before the [[Neolithic 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 |last1=Lev |first1=Efraim |author-link1=Efraim Lev |last2=Kislev |first2=Mordechai E. |last3=Bar-Yosef |first3=Ofer |date=March 2005 |title=Mousterian vegetal food in Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel |journal=[[Journal of Archaeological Science]] |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=475–84 |bibcode=2005JArSc..32..475L |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2004.11.006}}</ref> There is evidence suggesting that Paleolithic societies were gathering wild cereals for food use at least as early as 30,000 years ago.<ref name="oldflour">{{cite journal |last1=Revedin |first1=Anna |last2=Aranguren |first2=B. |last3=Becattini |first3=R. |last4=Longo |first4=L. |last5=Marconi |first5=E. |last6=Lippi |first6=M.M. |last7=Skakun |first7=N. |last8=Sinitsyn |first8=A. |last9=Spiridonova |first9=E. |last10=Svoboda |first10=J. |display-authors=8 |year=2010 |title=Thirty thousand-year-old evidence of plant food processing |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A]] |volume=107 |issue=44 |pages=18815–19 |bibcode=2010PNAS..10718815R |doi=10.1073/pnas.1006993107 |pmc=2973873 |pmid=20956317 |doi-access=free}}</ref> However, seeds—such as grains and beans—were rarely eaten and never in large quantities on a daily basis.<ref name="doi:10.1080/11026480510032043">{{cite journal |last=Lindeberg |first=Staffan |date=June 2005 |title=Palaeolithic diet ("stone age" diet) |url=http://journals.sfu.ca/coaction/index.php/fnr/article/viewFile/1526/1394 |journal=Scandinavian Journal of Food & Nutrition |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=75–77 |doi=10.1080/11026480510032043 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Recent archaeological evidence also indicates that [[winemaking]] may have originated in the Paleolithic, when early humans drank the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes from animal-skin pouches.<ref name="William Cocke" /> Paleolithic humans consumed animal [[organ (anatomy)|organ]] meats, including the [[liver]]s, [[kidney]]s, and [[brain]]s. Upper Paleolithic cultures appear to have had significant knowledge about plants and herbs and may have sometimes practiced rudimentary forms of [[horticulture]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Academic American Encyclopedia By Grolier Incorporated |title=Academic American Encyclopedia By Grolier Incorporated |publisher=Grolier Academic Reference |year=1994 |location=[[University of Michigan]]}}; [https://books.google.com/books?id=7eKy64bqc2AC&q=paleolithic+horticulture p 61]</ref> In particular, [[banana]]s and [[tuber]]s may have been cultivated as early as 25,000&nbsp;BP in [[southeast Asia]].<ref name="Kiefer" /> In the Paleolithic Levant, 23,000 years ago, cereals cultivation of [[emmer wheat|emmer]], [[barley]], and [[oats]] has been observed near the [[Sea of Galilee]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Snir |first1=Ainit |last2=Nadel |first2=Dani |last3=Groman-Yaroslavski |first3=Iris |last4=Melamed |first4=Yoel |last5=Sternberg |first5=Marcelo |last6=Bar-Yosef |first6=Ofer |last7=Weiss |first7=Ehud |date=2015-07-22 |title=The Origin of Cultivation and Proto-Weeds, Long Before Neolithic Farming |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=10 |issue=7 |pages=e0131422 |bibcode=2015PLoSO..1031422S |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0131422 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=4511808 |pmid=26200895 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=First evidence of farming in Mideast 23,000 years ago: Evidence of earliest small-scale agricultural cultivation |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150722144709.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220423041305/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150722144709.htm |archive-date=23 April 2022 |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=ScienceDaily |language=en}}</ref>
[[Image:Bifaz de Atapuerca (TG10).jpg|thumb|91px|left|Picture of two [[Lower Paleolithic]] [[biface]]s.]]
[[Image:Bola-Sidi-Abderrahman.jpg|thumb|167px|Picture of a stone ball from a set of Paleolithic [[bolas]].]]
During this time period people made tools of stone, bone, and wood. 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&nbsp;million years ago.<ref name=Klein>{{cite book |author=Klein, R. |year=1999 |title=The Human Career |publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref> and contained tools such as choppers, [[burin]]s and [[awl]]s though it completely disappeared around 250,000&nbsp;years ago and was followed by the more complex Acheulean industry which was first conceived by ''Homo ergaster'' around 1.65&nbsp;million years ago.<ref>Scarre, C, 2005, p110</ref> The most recent Lower Paleolithic (Acheulean) implements vanished from the archeological record around 50,000 years ago.


Late Upper Paleolithic societies also appear to have occasionally practiced [[pastoralism]] and [[animal husbandry]], presumably for dietary reasons. For instance, some European late Upper Paleolithic cultures domesticated and raised [[reindeer]], presumably for their meat or milk, as early as 14,000&nbsp;BP.<ref name="TheBookofGeneralIgnorance" /> Humans also probably consumed [[hallucinogenic]] plants during the Paleolithic.<ref name="McClellan" /> The [[Aboriginal Australians]] have been consuming a variety of native animal and plant foods, called [[bushfood]], for an estimated 60,000 years, since the [[Middle Paleolithic]].
Lower Paleolithic humans are known to have used a variety of stone tools, including [[hand axe]]s, which were likely used as cutting/chopping tools, digging implements, animal traps, or possibly in courting behaviour. Choppers and scrappers were most likely used for the purpose of skinning and butchering scavenged animals and sharp ended sticks were often procured for the purpose of digging up edible roots. Early hominids presumably have been using wooden spears as early as 5&nbsp;million years ago to hunt small animals, much like our close relatives the common chimpanzee have recently been observed doing in [[Senegal]], Africa.<ref>Rick Weiss, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201007.html "Chimps Observed Making Their Own Weapons"], ''[[The Washington Post]]'', [[February 22]], [[2007]]</ref> Lower Paleolithic humans additionally known to have constructed shelters such as the possible wood hut at [[Terra Amata]]. Although fire was used by the Lower Paleolithic hominid ''[[Homo erectus]]''/''[[Homo ergaster]]'' as early as 300,000 or 1.5&nbsp;million years ago and possibly even earlier by the early Lower Paleolithic (Oldowan) hominid ''Homo habilis'' and or by robust australopithecines such as ''[[Paranthropus]]''<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book | author=McClellan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press
| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 Page 8-12 ]</ref> the use of fire only became common in the societies of the following [[Middle Stone Age]]/[[Middle Paleolithic]] Period.<ref name=Thoth&Schick>{{cite book |title=Handbook of Paleoanthropology |url=http://www.springerlink.com/content/u68378621542472j/ |author=Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick |year=2007 |publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg |isbn=978-3-540-32474-4 (Print) 978-3-540-33761-4 (Online) |pages=1963 }}</ref>


In February 2019, scientists reported evidence, based on [[isotope]] studies, that at least some Neanderthals may have eaten meat.<ref name="PNAS-20190210">{{cite journal |last=Jaouen |first=Klervia |display-authors=etal |date=19 February 2019 |title=Exceptionally high δ15N values in collagen single amino acids confirm Neandertals as high-trophic level carnivores |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |volume=116 |issue=11 |pages=4928–4933 |bibcode=2019PNAS..116.4928J |doi=10.1073/pnas.1814087116 |pmc=6421459 |pmid=30782806 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="PHY-20190219">{{cite news |last=Yika |first=Bob |date=19 February 2019 |title=Isotopes found in bones suggest Neanderthals were fresh meat eaters |url=https://phys.org/news/2019-02-isotopes-bones-neanderthals-fresh-meat.html |access-date=20 February 2019 |work=Phys.org}}</ref><ref name="SD-20190219">{{cite news |author=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |author-link=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |date=19 February 2019 |title=Neanderthals' main food source was definitely meat – Isotope analyses performed on single amino acids in Neanderthals' collagen samples shed new light on their debated diet |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190219111704.htm |access-date=21 February 2019 |work=[[Science Daily]]}}</ref> People during the Middle Paleolithic, such as the Neanderthals and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in Africa, began to catch shellfish for food as revealed by shellfish cooking in Neanderthal sites in Italy about 110,000 years ago and in Middle Paleolithic ''Homo sapiens'' sites at [[Pinnacle Point]], South Africa around 164,000&nbsp;BP.<ref name="Miller2006" /><ref name="NYTIMES/10/08/07">{{cite news |last=Wilford |first=John Noble |date=18 October 2007 |title=Key Human Traits Tied to Shellfish Remains |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/science/18beach.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin |access-date=11 March 2008 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Although fishing only became common during the [[Upper Paleolithic]],<ref name="Miller2006" /><ref>{{cite news |title=African Bone Tools Dispute Key Idea About Human Evolution |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/11/1108_bonetool_2.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060117013632/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/11/1108_bonetool_2.html |archive-date=January 17, 2006 |work=[[National Geographic]] News}}</ref> [[fish]] have been part of human diets long before the dawn of the Upper Paleolithic and have certainly been consumed by humans since at least the Middle Paleolithic.<ref name="ReferenceA-2" /> For example, the Middle Paleolithic ''Homo sapiens'' in the region now occupied by the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]] hunted large {{cvt|6|ft|m|adj=on}}-long [[catfish]] with specialized barbed fishing points as early as 90,000 years ago.<ref name="Miller2006" /><ref name="ReferenceA-2" /> The invention of fishing allowed some Upper Paleolithic and later hunter-gatherer societies to become sedentary or semi-nomadic, which altered their social structures.<ref name="Bahn, Paul 1996" /> Example societies are the [[Lepenski Vir]] as well as some contemporary hunter-gatherers, such as the [[Tlingit people|Tlingit]]. In some instances (at least the Tlingit), they developed [[social stratification]], [[slavery]], and complex social structures such as [[chiefdom]]s.<ref name="MarloweFW22" />
The lower Paleolithic [[hominid]] ''Homo erectus'' possibly invented rafts ([[circa|''c.'']] 800,000 or 840,000&nbsp;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.<ref>[http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20031018/bob8.asp Erectus Ahoy Prehistoric seafaring floats into view]</ref><ref>[http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/mariners/web/mariner1.html]</ref><ref>[http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/mariners/web/ng2004.html]</ref> The possible use of rafts during the Lower Paleolithic may indicate that Lower Paleolithic societies were more advanced than previously believed and may have even spoken an early form of modern language.<ref>[http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/mariners/web/mariner1.html]</ref> Supplementary evidence from Neanderthal and Modern human sites located around the Mediterranean sea such as Coa de sa Multa (c.300.000 BCE) has also indicated that both Middle and Upper Paleolithic humans used rafts to travel over large bodies of water (I.e. the Mediterranean sea) for the purpose of colonizing other bodies of land.<ref>[http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/mariners/web/mariner1.html]</ref>


Anthropologists such as Tim White suggest that [[Human cannibalism|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 book |author=Tim D. White |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-TVHr_XtDJcC&q=paleolithic+cannibalism&pg=PA338 |title=Once were Cannibals |work=Evolution: A Scientific American Reader |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-226-74269-4 |access-date=2008-02-14}}</ref> Cannibalism in the Lower and Middle Paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages.<ref>{{cite web |last=Owen |first=James |title=Neandertals Turned to Cannibalism, Bone Cave Suggests |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061205-cannibals.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061208001007/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061205-cannibals.html |archive-date=December 8, 2006 |access-date=3 February 2008 |work=[[National Geographic]] News}}</ref> However, it may have been for religious reasons, and would coincide with the development of religious practices thought to have occurred during the Upper Paleolithic.<ref name="Narr" /><ref>{{cite journal |last=Pathou-Mathis |first=M. |year=2000 |title=Neanderthal subsistence behaviours in Europe |journal=International Journal of Osteoarchaeology |volume=10 |issue=5 |pages=379–395 |doi=10.1002/1099-1212(200009/10)10:5<379::AID-OA558>3.0.CO;2-4 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Nonetheless, it remains possible that Paleolithic societies never practiced cannibalism, and that the damage to recovered human bones was either the result of [[excarnation]] or [[predation]] by carnivores such as [[saber-toothed cat]]s, [[lion]]s, and [[hyena]]s.<ref name="Narr" />
Around 200,000 BCE [[Middle Paleolithic]] [[Stone tool]] manufacturing spawned a tool making technique known as the [[prepared-core technique]], that was more elaborate than previous [[Acheulean]] techniques. This method increased efficiency by permitting the creation of more controlled and consistent [[flake]]s. This method allowed Middle Paleolithic humans to correspondingly create stone tipped spears which were the earliest composite tools by hafting sharp, pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts. Neanderthals who possessed a Middle Paleolithic level of technology appear to have hunted large game just as [[Homo sapiens|modern humans]] have done<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0125_060125_neanderthal.html |title=Neanderthals Hunted as Well as Humans, Study Says |work=National Geographic News |author=Ann Parson |accessdate=2008-02-01}}</ref> and Neanderthals may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons.<ref>Boëda E., Geneste J.M., Griggo C., Mercier N., Muhesen S., Reyss J.L., Taha A. & Valladas H. (1999) A Levallois point embedded in the vertebra of a wild ass (Equus africanus): Hafting, projectiles and Mousterian hunting. ''Antiquity'', 73, 394&ndash;402</ref>


A modern-day diet known as the [[Paleolithic diet]] exists, based on restricting consumption only to those foods presumed to be available to anatomically modern humans prior to the advent of settled [[agriculture]].<ref>{{cite web |date=22 April 2014 |title=Prehistoric Dining: The Real Paleo Diet |url=http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2014/04/22/prehistoric-dining-the-real-paleo-diet/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804014549/http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2014/04/22/prehistoric-dining-the-real-paleo-diet/ |archive-date=4 August 2017 |access-date=3 August 2017 |website=[[National Geographic]]}}</ref>
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]],<ref>J. Chavaillon, D. Lavallée, « Bola », in ''Dictionnaire de la Préhistoire'', PUF, 1988.</ref> the [[spear thrower]], the bow and arrow ([[circa|''c.'']] 30,000&nbsp;BP) and the creation of the world's oldest example of ceramic art the [[Venus of Dolní Věstonice]] ([[circa|''c.'']] 29,000&ndash;25,000&nbsp;BP).<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book | author=McClellan
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press
| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 Page 8-12 ]</ref> Early dogs were also domesticated during the end of the Paleolithic sometime between 100,000 BP<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/pdfs/data/1997/151-26/15126-11.pdf |title= stalking the ancient dog |work=Science news |author=Christine mellot |accessdate=2008-01-03}}</ref> and 14,000 BP<ref name=TheBookofGeneralIgnorance>[[John Lloyd (writer)|Lloyd, J]] & [[John Mitchinson|Mitchinson, J]]: "[[The Book of General Ignorance]]". Faber & Faber, 2006.</ref> (presumably) to aid in hunting.<ref name=TheBookofGeneralIgnorance>[[John Lloyd (writer)|Lloyd, J]] & [[John Mitchinson|Mitchinson, J]]: "[[The Book of General Ignorance]]". Faber & Faber, 2006.</ref> Both Middle and Upper Paleolithic cultures appear to have had significant knowledge about plants and herbs and may have, albeit very rarley practiced rudimentry forms of horticulture.<ref>{{cite book |author=Academic American Encyclopedia By Grolier Incorporated |title=Academic American Encyclopedia By Grolier Incorporated |publisher=Grolier Academic
Reference|location=University of Michigan |year=1994 }}; [http://books.google.com/books?id=7eKy64bqc2AC&q=paleolithic+horticulture&dq=paleolithic+horticulture&pgis=1 p 61]</ref> 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 ([[circa|''c.'']] 30,000&nbsp;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.<ref>{{cite book |author=Felipe Fernandez Armesto |title=Ideas that changed the world |publisher=Dorling Kindersley limited|location=[[New York City|New York]] |year=2003 |pages=400 |isbn=978-0-7566-3298-4 |oclc= |doi=}}; [http://books.google.com/books?id=tFIAAAAACAAJ&dq=Ideas+that+changed+the+world+by+Felipe+Fernandez+Armesto]</ref> An artifact of the Paleolithic period is often known as a [[Paleolith‎]].


== Social organization ==
===Society===
{{Unreliable sources|date=February 2010}}


[[File:Arrowhead.jpg|thumb|Humans may have taken part in long-distance trade between [[band society|bands]] for rare commodities and raw materials (such as stone needed for making tools) as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic.]]
[[Image:Terra-Amata-Hut.gif|thumb|right|An artist's rendering of a temporary wood house, based on evidence found at [[Terra Amata]] (in [[Nice, France|Nice]], [[France]]) and dated to the lower Paleolithic ([[circa|''c.'']] 400,000&nbsp;BC).]]
The social organization of the earliest Paleolithic ([[Lower Paleolithic]]) societies remains largely unknown to scientists, though Lower Paleolithic hominins such as ''Homo habilis'' and ''Homo erectus'' are likely to have had more complex social structures than chimpanzee societies.<ref name=White>{{cite web |url=http://www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix/ia/ia03_mod_10.html |title=Intro to archeology The First People and Culture |access-date=2008-03-20 |author=Nancy White |work=Introduction to archeology |archive-date=2012-10-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121009153844/http://www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix/ia/ia03_mod_10.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Late Oldowan/Early Acheulean humans such as ''Homo ergaster''/''Homo erectus'' may have been the first people to invent central campsites or home bases and incorporate them into their foraging and hunting strategies like contemporary hunter-gatherers, possibly as early as 1.7 million years ago;<ref name="encarta.msn.com"/> however, the earliest solid evidence for the existence of home bases or central campsites (hearths and shelters) among humans only dates back to 500,000 years ago.<ref name="encarta.msn.com"/>


Similarly, scientists disagree whether Lower Paleolithic humans were largely [[monogamous]] or [[polygynous]].<ref name=White/> In particular, the Provisional model suggests that [[bipedalism]] arose in pre-Paleolithic [[australopithecine]] societies as an adaptation to monogamous lifestyles; however, other researchers note that [[sexual dimorphism]] is more pronounced in Lower Paleolithic humans such as ''Homo erectus'' than in modern humans, who are less polygynous than other primates, which suggests that Lower Paleolithic humans had a largely polygynous lifestyle, because species that have the most pronounced sexual dimorphism tend more likely to be polygynous.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6937476.stm |title=Finds test human origins theory |work=[[BBC News]] |first=James |last=Urquhart |access-date=20 March 2008 |date=8 August 2007}}</ref>
More primitive humans or societies such as the [[Neanderthals]], ''Homo habilis'' and ''Homo erectus'' vanished, and the crudest types of Paleolithic implements vanished.<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book | author=McClellan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press
| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 Page 8-12 ]</ref> It is not certain whether they were absorbed into the new groups or displaced by them.<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book | author=McClellan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press
| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 Page 8-12 ]</ref> The [[Neanderthals]] and [[Homo erectus]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=lovers-not-fighters |title=Lovers not fighters |work=Scientific american |author=John Whitfield |accessdate=2008-02-23}}</ref> for instance may have interbred with modern humans (''Homo sapiens'') in [[Europe]] and [[Asia]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061030-neanderthals.html |title=Neanderthals, Modern Humans Interbred, Bone Study Suggests |work=National Geographic News |author=James Owen |accessdate=2008-01-14}}</ref>


Human societies from the Paleolithic to the early Neolithic farming tribes lived without states and organized governments. For most of the Lower Paleolithic, human societies were possibly more hierarchical than their Middle and Upper Paleolithic descendants, and probably were not grouped into [[band society|bands]],<ref name=Bohem198-208>Christopher Boehm (1999) [https://books.google.com/books?id=ljxS8gUlgqgC&dq=Paleolithic&pg=PA197 "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" pp. 198–208] Harvard University Press</ref> though during the end of the Lower Paleolithic, the latest populations of the hominin ''Homo erectus'' may have begun living in small-scale (possibly egalitarian) bands similar to both Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies and modern hunter-gatherers.<ref name=Bohem198-208/>
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,<ref>[http://www.primitivism.com/sedentism.htm The Consequences of Domestication and Sedentism by Emily Schultz, et al]</ref> late weaning of infants and a nomadic lifestyle.<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book |author=McClellan
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History:
An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA12 pg 12 ]</ref>


Middle Paleolithic societies, unlike Lower Paleolithic and early Neolithic ones, consisted of bands that ranged from 20–30 or 25–100 members and were usually nomadic.<ref name="McClellan"/><ref name=Bohem198-208/> These bands were formed by several families. Bands sometimes joined together into larger "macrobands" for activities such as acquiring mates and celebrations or where resources were abundant.<ref name="McClellan"/> By the end of the Paleolithic era ({{c.|10,000}}&nbsp;BP), people began to settle down into permanent locations, and began to rely on agriculture for sustenance in many locations. Much evidence exists that humans took part in long-distance trade between bands for rare commodities (such as [[ochre]], which was often used for religious purposes such as ritual<ref name=Henahan>{{cite web |url=http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/SU/caveart.html |title=Blombos Cave art |access-date=12 March 2008 |first=Sean |last=Henahan |work=Science News}}</ref><ref name="Felipe Fernandez Armesto 2003 400">{{cite book |last=Armesto |first=Felipe Fernandez |url=https://archive.org/details/ideasthatchanged0000fern_a2p4/page/400 |title=Ideas that changed the world |publisher=[[Dorling Kindersley]] limited |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7566-3298-4 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/ideasthatchanged0000fern_a2p4/page/400 400]}}; [https://books.google.com/books?id=tFIAAAAACAAJ&q=Ideas+that+changed+the+world+by+Felipe+Fernandez+Armesto]{{Dead link|date=May 2023|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>) and raw materials, as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic.<ref name="Hillary Mayell" /> Inter-band trade may have appeared during the Middle Paleolithic because trade between bands would have helped ensure their survival by allowing them to exchange resources and commodities such as raw materials during times of relative scarcity (i.e. famine, drought).<ref name="Hillary Mayell"/> Like in modern hunter-gatherer societies, individuals in Paleolithic societies may have been subordinate to the band as a whole.<ref name="Leften Stavrianos">{{cite book |first=Leften Stavros |last=Stavrianos |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eamHPkIkE1UC&q=paleolithic+society&pg=PA23 |title=Lifelines from Our Past: A New World History |location=New Jersey |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-13-357005-2}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=eamHPkIkE1UC&dq=paleolithic+society&pg=PA23 pp. 9–13] [https://books.google.com/books?id=9H6oqN3Q-GoC&dq=Paleolithic+egalitarianism&pg=PA55 p. 70]</ref><ref name="Stavrianos"/> Both Neanderthals and modern humans took care of the elderly members of their societies during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.<ref name="Hillary Mayell"/>
Like contemporary hunter-gatherers Paleolithic humans enjoyed an abundance of leisure time unparalleled in both [[Neolithic]] farming societies and modern industrial societies.<ref>{{cite book |author=Felipe Fernandez Armesto |title=Ideas that changed the world |publisher=Dorling Kindersley limited|location=Newyork |year=2003 |pages=400 |isbn=978-0-7566-3298-4 |oclc= |doi=}}; [http://books.google.com/books?id=tFIAAAAACAAJ&dq=Ideas+that+changed+the+world+by+Felipe+Fernandez+Armesto Page 10]</ref>


Some sources claim that most Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies were possibly fundamentally [[egalitarianism|egalitarian]]<ref name="McClellan"/><ref name="Stavrianos"/><ref name="Miller2006"/><ref name=Bohem198>Christopher Boehm (1999) [https://books.google.com/books?id=ljxS8gUlgqgC&dq=Paleolithic&pg=PA197 "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" p. 198] Harvard University Press</ref> and may have rarely or never engaged in organized violence between groups (i.e. war).<ref name="Miller2006"/><ref name="Gutrie">{{cite book |first=R. Dale |last=Gutrie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC&q=Paleolithic+religions&pg=PA428 |title=The Nature of Paleolithic art |location=Chicago |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-226-31126-5}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC&dq=Paleolithic+religions&pg=PA428 pp. 420-22]</ref><ref name="Barbara Ehrenreich">{{cite book |first=Barbara |last=Ehrenreich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nFuDltu509YC |title=Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-8050-5787-4}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=nFuDltu509YC p. 123]</ref><ref name="Kelly">{{cite journal |last=Kelly |first=Raymond |title=The evolution of lethal intergroup violence |doi=10.1073/pnas.0505955102 |journal=[[PNAS]]
====Social organization====
|volume=102 |date=October 2005 |pmid=16129826 |issue=43 |pmc=1266108 |pages=15294–98 |bibcode=2005PNAS..10215294K |doi-access=free}}</ref>


Some Upper Paleolithic societies in resource-rich environments (such as societies in [[Sungir]], in what is now Russia) may have had more complex and hierarchical organization (such as [[tribe]]s with a pronounced hierarchy and a somewhat formal [[division of labor]]) and may have engaged in [[endemic warfare]].<ref name="Miller2006"/><ref>Kelly, Raymond C. Warless societies and the origin of war. Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2000.</ref> Some argue that there was no formal leadership during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Like contemporary egalitarian hunter-gatherers such as the [[Mbuti#Political structure|Mbuti]] pygmies, societies may have made decisions by communal [[consensus decision making]] rather than by appointing permanent rulers such as chiefs and [[monarch]]s.<ref name="Kusimba 2003 285"/> Nor was there a formal [[division of labor]] during the Paleolithic. Each member of the group was skilled at all tasks essential to survival, regardless of individual abilities. Theories to explain the apparent egalitarianism have arisen, notably the [[Marxism|Marxist]] concept of [[primitive communism]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Communist Manifesto |first1=Karl |last1=Marx |author-link1=Karl Marx |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TiKKmyacAiAC&q=Primitive+communism&pg=PA71 |first2=Friedrich |last2=Engels |author-link2=Friedrich Engels |year=1848 |location=London |pages=71, 87 |isbn=978-1-59986-995-7 }}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Rigby |first=Stephen Henry |date=1999 |title=Marxism and History: A Critical Introduction |pages=111, 314 |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |isbn=0-7190-5612-8}}</ref> Christopher Boehm (1999) has hypothesized that egalitarianism may have evolved in Paleolithic societies because of a need to distribute resources such as food and meat equally to avoid famine and ensure a stable food supply.<ref name=Bohem192>Christopher Boehm (1999) [https://books.google.com/books?id=ljxS8gUlgqgC&dq=Paleolithic&pg=PA197 "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" p. 192] Harvard university press</ref> Raymond C. Kelly speculates that the relative peacefulness of Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies resulted from a low population density, cooperative relationships between groups such as reciprocal exchange of commodities and collaboration on hunting expeditions, and because the invention of projectile weapons such as throwing spears provided less incentive for war, because they increased the damage done to the attacker and decreased the relative amount of territory attackers could gain.<ref name="Kelly"/> However, other sources claim that most Paleolithic groups may have been larger, more complex, sedentary and warlike than most contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, due to occupying more resource-abundant areas than most modern hunter-gatherers who have been pushed into more marginal habitats by agricultural societies.<ref name=Kiefer>{{cite web |url=http://www.suluarchipelago.com/E20Website2002/default.htm |title=Anthropology E-20 |access-date=11 March 2008 |first=Thomas M. |last=Kiefer |date=Spring 2002 |work=Lecture 8 Subsistence, Ecology and Food production |publisher=[[Harvard University]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080410021259/http://www.suluarchipelago.com/E20Website2002/default.htm |archive-date=10 April 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[Image:Arrowhead.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Humans may have partook in long distance trade between [[Band society|bands]] for rare commodities and raw materials (such as stone needed for making tools) as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic.]]
Paleolithic humans lived without states and organized governments and instead were grouped in [[Band society|bands]] that ranged from 25 to 100 members.<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book | author=McClellan |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press | year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 Page 8-12 ]</ref> These bands were formed by several families. However bands sometimes joined together into larger "macrobands" or tribes for activities such as acquiring mates and celebrations.<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book | author=McClellan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press | year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 Page 8-12 ]</ref> 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 trade between [[Band society|bands]] for rare commodities (such as ochre, which was often used for religious purposes such as ritual<ref name=Henahan>{{cite web |url=http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/SU/caveart.html |title=Blombos Cave art |accessdate=2008-03-12 |author=Sean Henahan |work=Science news }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Felipe Fernandez Armesto |title=Ideas that changed the world |publisher=Dorling Kindersley limited|location=Newyork |year=2003 |pages=400 |isbn=978-0-7566-3298-4 |oclc= |doi=}}; [http://books.google.com/books?id=tFIAAAAACAAJ&dq=Ideas+that+changed+the+world+by+Felipe+Fernandez+Armesto]</ref>) and raw materials as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic.<ref name=Mayell>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0220_030220_humanorigins2_2.html |title=When Did "Modern" Behavior Emerge in Humans? |work=National Geographic News |author=Hillary Mayell |accessdate=2008-02-05}}</ref> Inter band trade may have appeared during the Middle Paleolithic because trade between bands would have helped ensure their survival by allowing them to exchange recourses and commodities such as raw materials during times of relative scarcity (i.e. famine, drought).<ref name=Mayell>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0220_030220_humanorigins2_2.html |title=When Did "Modern" Behavior Emerge in Humans? |work=National Geographic News |author=Hillary Mayell |accessdate=2008-02-05}}</ref> Paleolithic society was communal and [[collectivism|collectivistic]] and individuals were subordinate to the band as a whole.<ref name="Stavrianos">{{cite book | author=Leften Stavros Stavrianos|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society&dq=paleolithic+society&pgis=1 | title=A Global History from Prehistory to the Present| location=New Jersey, USA | publisher=Prentice Hall| year=1991 | id=ISBN 0133570053}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society&dq=paleolithic+society&pgis=1 Pages 9-13]</ref><ref name="Leften Stavrianos">{{cite book | author=Leften Stavros Stavrianos|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=eamHPkIkE1UC&pg=PA23&dq=paleolithic+society&sig=5hEjSg9y5nowvM7-7lPP9XuSw7I |title=Lifelines from Our Past: A New World History| location=New Jersey, USA | publisher=M.E. Sharpe| year=1997 | id=ISBN 0133570053}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=eamHPkIkE1UC&pg=PA23&dq=paleolithic+society&sig=5hEjSg9y5nowvM7-7lPP9XuSw7I Pages 9-13]</ref> Both Neanderthals and modern humans took care of the elderly members of their societies during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0220_030220_humanorigins2_2.html |title=When Did "Modern" Behavior Emerge in Humans? |work=National Geographic News |author=Hillary Mayell |accessdate=2008-02-05}}</ref>


Anthropologists have typically assumed that in Paleolithic societies, women were responsible for gathering wild plants and firewood, and men were responsible for hunting and scavenging dead animals.<ref name="McClellan"/><ref name="Miller2006"/> However, analogies to existent hunter-gatherer societies such as the [[Hadza people]] and the [[Aboriginal Australians]] suggest that the sexual division of labor in the Paleolithic was relatively flexible. Men may have participated in gathering plants, firewood and insects, and women may have procured small game animals for consumption and assisted men in driving herds of large game animals (such as woolly mammoths and deer) off cliffs.<ref name="Miller2006"/><ref name="Barbara Ehrenreich"/> Additionally, recent research by anthropologist and archaeologist Steven Kuhn from the University of Arizona is argued to support that this division of labor did not exist prior to the [[Upper Paleolithic]] and was invented relatively recently in human pre-history.<ref name="Dahlberg">{{cite book |author=Dahlberg, Frances |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eTPULzP1MZAC&q=Gathering+and+Hominid+Adaptation&pg=PA120 |title=Woman the Gatherer |location=London |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1975 |isbn=978-0-300-02989-5}}</ref><ref name="NG2006/12/061207">{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061207-sex-humans.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061210022722/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061207-sex-humans.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 10, 2006 |title=Sex-Based Roles Gave Modern Humans an Edge, Study Says |work=National Geographic News |author=Stefan Lovgren |access-date=2008-02-03}}</ref> Sexual division of labor may have been developed to allow humans to acquire food and other resources more efficiently.<ref name="NG2006/12/061207"/> Possibly there was approximate parity between men and women during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, and that period may have been the most [[gender equality|gender-equal]] time in human history.<ref name="Gutrie"/><ref>{{cite book |first=Leften Stavros |last=Stavrianos |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society |title=A Global History from Prehistory to the Present |location=New Jersey |publisher=[[Prentice Hall]] |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-13-357005-2 |quote=the sexes were more equal during Paleolithic millennia than at any time since.}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society p. 9]</ref><ref name=MuseumofAntiquites>[http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/flint/miscon.html Museum of Antiquites web site] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071121095952/http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/flint/miscon.html |date=2007-11-21 }} . Retrieved February 13, 2008.</ref> Archaeological evidence from art and funerary rituals indicates that a number of individual women enjoyed seemingly high status in their communities, and it is likely that both sexes participated in decision making.<ref name="MuseumofAntiquites"/> The earliest known Paleolithic [[shaman]] ({{c.|30,000}}&nbsp;BP) was female.<ref name=Tedlock>Tedlock, Barbara. 2005. The Woman in the Shaman's Body: Reclaiming the Feminine in Religion and Medicine. New York: Bantam.</ref> [[Jared Diamond]] suggests that the status of women declined with the adoption of agriculture because women in farming societies typically have more pregnancies and are expected to do more demanding work than women in hunter-gatherer societies.<ref name=jareddiamond>{{cite web |url=http://discovermagazine.com/1987/may/02-the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race |title=The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race |work=Discover |author=Jared Diamond |access-date=2008-01-14}}</ref> Like most modern hunter-gatherer societies, Paleolithic and Mesolithic groups probably followed a largely ambilineal approach. At the same time, depending on the society, the residence could be virilocal, uxorilocal, and sometimes the spouses could live with neither the husband's relatives nor the wife's relatives at all. Taken together, most likely, the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers can be characterized as multilocal.<ref name=MarloweFW22/>
Like the societies of our closest existent relative the [[Bonobo]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/vecase/Behavior/Spring2004/laird/Social%20Organization.htm |title=Bonobo social spacing |author=Courtney Laird |accessdate=2008-03-10 |format= |work=Davidson College }}</ref> Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies were fundamentally [[Egalitarianism|egalitarian]]<ref name=Bohem>Christopher Boehm (1999) [http://books.google.com/books?id=ljxS8gUlgqgC&pg=PA197&dq=Paleolithic&lr=&sig=V-GOM-s3rCApE_baw2oRoaw24w8#PPA198,M1 "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" page 198] Harvard university press </ref><ref name=Bohem>Christopher Boehm (1999) [http://books.google.com/books?id=ljxS8gUlgqgC&pg=PA197&dq=Paleolithic&lr=&sig=V-GOM-s3rCApE_baw2oRoaw24w8#PPA208,M1 "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" page 208] Harvard university press</ref><ref name="McClellan">{{cite book |author=McClellan|url=http://books.google.com/books
id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History:
An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA12 pg 12][http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 8][http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA10][http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11]</ref><ref name="Stavrianos">{{cite book | author=Leften Stavros Stavrianos|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society&dq=paleolithic+society&pgis=1 | title=A Global History from Prehistory to the Present| location=New Jersey, USA | publisher=Prentice Hall| year=1991 | id=ISBN 0133570053}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society&dq=paleolithic+society&pgis=1 Pages 9-13]</ref> and did not engage in organized violence between groups (i.e. war),<ref name="Gutrie">{{cite book | author=R Dale Gutrie|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC&printsec=frontcover#PPA420,M1 | title=The Nature of Paleolithic art| location=Chicago | publisher=University of Chicago Press | year=2005 | id=ISBN 0226311260}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC&printsec=frontcover#PPA420,M1 Pages 420-422]</ref><ref name="Kelly">{{cite journal |last=Kelly |first=Raymond |title=The evolution of lethal intergroup violence |url=http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/102/43/15294 |journal=PNAS |volume=102 |year=2005 |month=October }}</ref> though ([[Bonobo#Other_social_behavior|like Bonobo societies]]) Middle and Upper Paleolithic cultures may have practiced some (small-scale) status ranking within bands.<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book |author=McClellan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History:
An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA12 pg 12 ]</ref> Theories to explain the apparent egalitarianism of Paleolithic societies have arisen, notably the [[Marxism|Marxist]] concept of [[primitive communism]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Communist Manifesto |first=Karl |last=Marx |url= http://books.google.com/books?id=TiKKmyacAiAC&pg=PA71&vq=Primitive+communism&source=gbs_search_r&cad=0_2&sig=0FNLE3CIJWpm2tTPamCSHHn4b80|coauthors=Friedrich Engels |year=1848 |location=London |pages=87 }} Page 71</ref> Christopher Boehm (1999) has hypothesized that egalitarianism may have evolved in Paleolithic societies because of a need to distribute recourses such as food and meat equally to avoid famine and ensure a stable food supply.<ref name=Bohem>Christopher Boehm (1999) [http://books.google.com/books?id=ljxS8gUlgqgC&pg=PA197&dq=Paleolithic&lr=&sig=V-GOM-s3rCApE_baw2oRoaw24w8#PPA192,M1 "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" page 192] Harvard university press </ref> Raymond C. Kelly speculates that the relative peacefulness of Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies resulted from a low population density, cooperative relationships between groups such as reciprocal exchange of commodities and collaboration on hunting expeditions and lastly because the invention of projectile weapons such as throwing spears provided less incentive for war because they increased the amount of damage that is done to the attacker and decreased the relative amount of territory aggressors could gain.<ref name="Kelly">{{cite journal |last=Kelly |first=Raymond |title=The evolution of lethal intergroup violence |url=http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/102/43/15294 |journal=PNAS |volume=102 |year=2005 |month=October }}</ref>


== Sculpture and painting ==
Typically it has been assumed by anthropologists that women were responsible for gathering wild plants and men were responsible for hunting and scavenging dead animals amongst Paleolithic humans.<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book | author=McClellan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press
[[File:Wien NHM Venus von Willendorf.jpg|thumb|The [[Venus of Willendorf]] is one of the most famous Venus figurines.]]
| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 Page 8-12 ]</ref> However according to recent archeological research carried out by anthropologist and archaeologist Steven Kuhn from the University of Arizona this division of labor did not exist prior to the [[Upper Paleolithic]] and was invented relatively recently in human pre-history.<ref name="Dahlberg">{{cite book |author=Dahlberg, Frances. |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=eTPULzP1MZAC&pg=PA120&dq=Gathering+and+Hominid+Adaptation&sig=f2ulfIDfAvoqEcolNjz6MTIrM84#PPA110,M1 |title=Woman the Gatherer |location=London |publisher=Yale university press |year=1975 |id=ISBN 0-30-02989-6}}</ref><ref name=NG2006/12/061207>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061207-sex-humans.html |title=Sex-Based Roles Gave Modern Humans an Edge, Study Says |work=National Geographic News |author=Stefan Lovgren |accessdate=2008-02-03}}</ref> The sexual division of labor may have been developed to allow humans to acquire food and other resources more efficiently.<ref name=NG2006/12/061207>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061207-sex-humans.html |title=Sex-Based Roles Gave Modern Humans an Edge, Study Says |work=National Geographic News |author=Stefan Lovgren |accessdate=2008-02-03}}</ref> There was approximate parity between men and women during the Paleolithic and this era was the most [[Zygarchy|gender-equal]] period in human history.<ref>{{cite book | author=Leften Stavros Stavrianos|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society&dq=paleolithic+society&pgis=1 | title=A Global History from Prehistory to the Present| location=New Jersey, USA | publisher=Prentice Hall| year=1991 | id=ISBN 0133570053 |quote="the sexes were more equal during the Paleolithic millennia than at any time since." }} [http://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society&dq=paleolithic+society&pgis=1 Page 9]</ref><ref name="Gutrie">{{cite book | author=R Dale Gutrie|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC&printsec=frontcover#PPA420,M1 | title=The Nature of Paleolithic art| location=Chicago | publisher=University of Chicago Press | year=2005 | id=ISBN 0226311260}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC&printsec=frontcover#PPA420,M1 Page 420-422]</ref><ref name=Fielder>{{cite web |last=Fielder |first=Christine |title=Sexual Paradox:Culture |work=Sexual Paradox: Complementarity, Reproductive Conflict and Human Emergence |publisher=Christine Fielder and Chris King |date=2004 |url=http://www.dhushara.com/paradoxhtm/culture.htm}}</ref><ref name=MuseumofAntiquites>[http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/flint/miscon.html Museum of Antiquites web site] (accessed February 13, 2008).</ref> Indeed archeological evidence from art and funerary rituals indicates that a number of individual women enjoyed seemingly high status in their bands<ref name=MuseumofAntiquites>[http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/flint/miscon.html Museum of Antiquites web site] (accessed February 13, 2008).</ref> and additional scientific research of Paleolithic society has also revealed that the earliest known Paleolithic [[shaman]] ([[circa|''c.'']] 30,000&nbsp;BC) was female.<ref name=Tedlock>Tedlock, Barbara. 2005. The Woman in the Shaman's Body: Reclaiming the Feminine in Religion and Medicine. New York: Bantam.</ref> [[Jared Diamond]] suggests that the status of women may have declined with the adoption of agriculture because farming women typically have more pregnancies and are expected to do more demanding work then women in hunter-gatherer societies.<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> [[Matrilineal]] decent patterns were likely to have been more common during the Paleolithic and the Mesolithic than in the following [[Neolithic]] period.<ref>{{cite book |author=Felipe Fernandez Armesto |title=Ideas that changed the world |publisher=Dorling Kindersley limited|location=Newyork |year=2003 |pages=400 |isbn=978-0-7566-3298-4 |oclc= |doi=}}; [http://books.google.com/books?id=tFIAAAAACAAJ&dq=Ideas+that+changed+the+world+by+Felipe+Fernandez+Armesto]</ref>


Early examples of artistic expression, such as the [[Venus of Tan-Tan]] and the patterns found on [[elephant]] bones from [[Bilzingsleben (Paleolithic site)|Bilzingsleben]] in [[Thuringia]], may have been produced by Acheulean tool users such as ''[[Homo erectus]]'' prior to the start of the [[Middle Paleolithic]] period. However, the earliest undisputed evidence of art during the Paleolithic comes from [[Middle Paleolithic]]/[[Middle Stone Age]] sites such as [[Blombos Cave]]–South Africa–in the form of [[bracelet]]s,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3629559.stm |title=Cave yields 'earliest jewellery'|work=BBC News |author=Jonathan Amos|access-date=2008-03-12 | date=2004-04-15}}</ref> [[bead]]s,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0415_040415_oldestjewelry.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040416062817/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0415_040415_oldestjewelry.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 16, 2004 |title=Oldest Jewelry? "Beads" Discovered in African Cave |work=National Geographic News |author=Hillary Mayell |access-date=2008-03-03}}</ref> [[rock art]],<ref name=Henahan/> and [[ochre]] used as body paint and perhaps in ritual.<ref name="Miller2006"/><ref name=Henahan/> Undisputed evidence of art only becomes common in the Upper Paleolithic.<ref>[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394_13/Human_Evolution.html "Human Evolution," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091031235302/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394_13/Human_Evolution.html |date=2009-10-31 }} Contributed by Richard B. Potts, B.A., Ph.D.</ref>
==== Paleolithic Art and Music ====


Lower Paleolithic [[Acheulean]] tool users, according to Robert G. Bednarik, began to engage in symbolic behavior such as art around 850,000&nbsp;BP. They decorated themselves with beads and collected exotic stones for aesthetic, rather than utilitarian qualities.<ref name=Bednarik>{{cite web |url=http://www.semioticon.com/frontline/bednarik.htm |title=Beads and the origins of symbolism |author=Robert G. Bednarik |access-date=2008-04-05 |archive-date=2018-10-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026143154/https://semioticon.com/frontline/bednarik.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> According to him, traces of the pigment ochre from late Lower Paleolithic Acheulean archaeological sites suggests that Acheulean societies, like later Upper Paleolithic societies, collected and used ochre to create rock art.<ref name=Bednarik/> Nevertheless, it is also possible that the ochre traces found at Lower Paleolithic sites is naturally occurring.<ref>{{cite book|first=Richard G. |last=Klein |title=The Dawn of Human Culture |date=22 March 2002 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=0-471-25252-2}}</ref>
[[Image:Wien NHM Venus von Willendorf.jpg|right|thumb|150px|The [[Venus of Willendorf]] one of the most famous Venus figurines.]]
[[Image:Valtorta cave painting.jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[Cave painting]] from Valtorta, [[Spain]] depicting [[Upper Paleolithic]] humans hunting with bows ([[circa|''c.'']] 13,000&nbsp;years ago).]]


[[Upper Paleolithic]] humans produced works of art such as cave paintings, Venus figurines, animal carvings, and rock paintings.<ref name="ReferenceA-3">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761578676/Paleolithic_Art.html |title=Paleolithic Art |encyclopedia=Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia |date=2007 |access-date=20 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080314202447/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761578676/paleolithic_art.html |archive-date=14 March 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Upper Paleolithic art can be divided into two broad categories: figurative art such as cave paintings that clearly depicts animals (or more rarely humans); and nonfigurative, which consists of shapes and symbols.<ref name="ReferenceA-3"/> Cave paintings have been interpreted in a number of ways by modern archaeologists. The earliest explanation, by the prehistorian [[Abbe Breuil]], interpreted the paintings as a form of magic designed to ensure a successful hunt.<ref name=Clottes>{{cite web |url=http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/clottes/page7.php |title=Shamanism in Prehistory |first=Jean |last=Clottes |access-date=11 March 2008 |work=Bradshaw foundation |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080430093540/http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/clottes/page7.php |archive-date=30 April 2008 }}</ref> However, this hypothesis fails to explain the existence of animals such as [[saber-toothed cat]]s and [[lion]]s, which were not hunted for food, and the existence of half-human, half-animal beings in cave paintings. The anthropologist [[David Lewis-Williams]] has suggested that Paleolithic cave paintings were indications of [[shaman]]istic practices, because the paintings of half-human, half-animal figures and the remoteness of the caves are reminiscent of modern hunter-gatherer shamanistic practices.<ref name=Clottes/> Symbol-like images are more common in Paleolithic cave paintings than are depictions of animals or humans, and unique symbolic patterns might have been trademarks that represent different [[Upper Paleolithic]] ethnic groups.<ref name="ReferenceA-3" /> [[Venus figurines]] have evoked similar controversy. Archaeologists and anthropologists have described the figurines as representations of [[goddess]]es, [[pornography|pornographic]] imagery, apotropaic amulets used for sympathetic magic, and even as self-portraits of women themselves.<ref name="Miller2006"/><ref name=McDeroy>{{cite journal |last1=McDermott |first1=LeRoy |year=1996 |title=Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines |journal=[[Current Anthropology]] |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=227–275 |jstor=2744349 |doi=10.1086/204491 |s2cid=144914396}}</ref>
The earliest undisputed evidence of art during the Paleolithic period comes from [[Middle Paleolithic]]/[[Middle Stone Age]] sites such as [[Blombos Cave]] in the form of bracelets,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3629559.stm |title=Cave yields 'earliest jewellery'|work=BBC news |author=Jonathan Amos|accessdate=2008-03-12}}</ref> beads,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0415_040415_oldestjewelry.html |title=Oldest Jewelry? "Beads" Discovered in African Cave |work=National Geographic News |author=Hillary Mayell |accessdate=2008-03-03}}</ref> rock art,<ref name=Henahan>{{cite web |url=http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/SU/caveart.html |title=Blombos Cave art |accessdate=2008-03-12 |author=Sean Henahan
|work=Science news }}</ref> ochre used as body paint and perhaps in ritual,<ref name=Henahan>{{cite web |url=http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/SU/caveart.html |title=Blombos Cave art |accessdate=2008-03-12 |author=Sean Henahan
|work=Science news }}</ref> though earlier examples of artistic expression such as the [[Venus of Tan-Tan]] and the patterns found on elephant bones from [[Bilzingsleben (Paleolithic site)|Bilzingsleben]] in [[Thuringia]] may have been produced by Acheulean tool users such as [[Homo Erectus]] prior to the start of the [[Middle Paleolithic]] period.<ref>[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394_13/Human_Evolution.html "Human Evolution," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007] © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Contributed by Richard B. Potts, B.A., Ph.D.</ref>


R. Dale Guthrie<ref name="Guthrie">R. Dale Guthrie, ''The Nature of Paleolithic Art''. University of Chicago Press, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-226-31126-5}}. [http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/311260.html Preface].</ref> 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 out that the main themes in the paintings and other artifacts (powerful beasts, risky hunting scenes and the over-sexual representation of women) are to be expected in the fantasies of adolescent males during the Upper Paleolithic.
[[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]] [[Abbe Breuil]] interpreted the paintings as a form of magic designed to ensure a successful hunt,<ref name=Clottes>{{cite web |url=http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/clottes/page7.php |title=Shamanism in Prehistory |author=Jean Clottes |accessdate=2008-03-11 |work=Bradshaw foundation }}</ref> although this hypothesis falls short of explaining the existence of animals such as [[saber-toothed cat]]s 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.<ref name=Clottes>{{cite web |url=http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/clottes/page7.php |title=Shamanism in Prehistory |author=Jean Clottes |accessdate=2008-03-11 |work=Bradshaw foundation }}</ref> 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.<ref>McDermott, LeRoy. "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199604%2937%3A2%3C227%3ASIUPFF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines]". Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. 2, April., 1996. pp. 227-275.</ref>
[[File:Bradshaw rock paintings.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|[[Gwion Gwion rock paintings]] found in the north-west [[Kimberley region of Western Australia]].]]
The "Venus" figurines have been theorized, not universally, as representing a [[mother goddess]]; the abundance of such female imagery has inspired the theory that religion and society in Paleolithic (and later Neolithic) cultures were primarily interested in, and may have been directed by, women. Adherents of the theory include archaeologist [[Marija Gimbutas]] and [[feminist]] scholar [[Merlin Stone]], the author of the 1976 book ''[[When God Was a Woman]]''.<ref name=Merlinstone>{{cite book |title=When God Was a Woman |first=Merlin |last=Stone |year=1978 |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |isbn=978-0-15-696158-5 |page=265 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l44AAAAACAAJ&q=When+God+Was+a+Woman}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Marija |last=Gimbutas |date=1991 |title=The Civilization of the Goddess |publisher=HarperSanFrancisco |isbn=978-0062508041}}</ref> Other explanations for the purpose of the figurines have been proposed, such as Catherine McCoid and LeRoy McDermott's hypothesis that they were self-portraits of woman artists<ref name="McDeroy"/> and R.Dale Gutrie's hypothesis that served as "stone age [[pornography]]".


== Music ==
R. Dale Guthrie<ref name="Guthrie">R. Dale Guthrie, ''The Nature of Paleolithic Art''. University Of Chicago Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-226-31126-5. [http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/311260.html Preface].</ref> 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 figurine]]s) are to be expected in the fantasies of adolescent males during the Upper Paleolithic.
The origins of music during the Paleolithic are unknown. The earliest forms of music probably did not use musical instruments other than the human voice or natural objects such as rocks. This early music would not have left an archaeological footprint. Music may have developed from rhythmic sounds produced by daily chores, for example, cracking open nuts with stones. Maintaining a rhythm while working may have helped people to become more efficient at daily activities.<ref>{{cite book|first=Karl |last=Bücher |author-link=Karl Bücher |title=Trabajo y ritmo |language=es |trans-title=Work and rhythm |publisher=Biblioteca Científico-Filosófica |location=Madrid}}</ref> An alternative theory originally proposed by [[Charles Darwin]] explains that music may have begun as a hominin mating strategy. Bird and other animal species produce music such as calls to attract mates.<ref>{{cite book|first=Charles |last=Darwin |author-link=Charles Darwin |title=[[The origin of man]] |date=May 1998 |publisher=Edimat books, S.A. |isbn=84-8403-034-2}}</ref> This hypothesis is generally less accepted than the previous hypothesis, but nonetheless provides a possible alternative.


Additionally [[Upper Paleolithic]] (and possibly [[Middle Paleolithic]]<ref name="BoneAge">Nelson, D.E., ''Radiocarbon dating of bone and charcoal from Divje babe I cave'', cited by Morley, p. 47</ref>) humans used flute-like bone pipes as musical instruments,<ref>Bahn, Paul (1996) "The atlas of world archeology" Copyright 2000 The brown Reference Group plc</ref> though 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 [[Hominidae|hominid]]s. The [[noise]]s produced by work such as pounding seed and roots into meal is a likely source of rhythm created by early humans.
[[Upper Paleolithic]] (and possibly [[Middle Paleolithic]])<ref name="BoneAge">Nelson, D.E., ''Radiocarbon dating of bone and charcoal from Divje babe I cave'', cited by Morley, p. 47</ref> humans used [[flute]]-like bone pipes as musical instruments,<ref name="Miller2006"/><ref name="Bahn, Paul 1996">Bahn, Paul (1996) "The atlas of world archeology" Copyright 2000 The Brown Reference Group PLC</ref> and music may have played a large role in the religious lives of Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers. As with modern hunter-gatherer societies, music may have been used in ritual or to help induce [[trance]]s. In particular, it appears that animal skin [[drum]]s may have been used in religious events by Upper Paleolithic shamans, as shown by the remains of drum-like instruments from some Upper Paleolithic graves of shamans and the [[ethnography|ethnographic]] record of contemporary hunter-gatherer shamanic and ritual practices.<ref name=Tedlock/><ref name="ReferenceA-3"/>


====Religion and beliefs====
== Religion and beliefs ==
{{Main|Paleolithic religion}}
[[File:Gabillou Sorcier.png|thumb|Picture of a half-human, half-animal being in a Paleolithic [[cave painting]] in [[Dordogne]]. France. Some archaeologists believe that cave paintings of half-human, half-animal beings may be evidence for early shamanic practices during the Paleolithic.]]


According to James B. Harrod humankind first developed [[religion|religious]] and [[spirituality|spiritual]] beliefs during the [[Middle Paleolithic]] or [[Upper Paleolithic]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.originsnet.org/aboutornet1.html |title=About OriginsNet by James Harrod |publisher=Originsnet.org |access-date=31 January 2010}}</ref> Controversial scholars of prehistoric religion and anthropology, James Harrod and Vincent W. Fallio, have recently proposed that religion and spirituality (and art) may have first arisen in Pre-Paleolithic chimpanzees<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.originsnet.org/chimpspiritdatabase.pdf |title=Appendices for chimpanzee spirituality by James Harrod |access-date=31 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080527230019/http://www.originsnet.org/chimpspiritdatabase.pdf |archive-date=27 May 2008 }}</ref> or Early [[Lower Paleolithic]] ([[Oldowan]]) societies.<ref name="V.Fallio">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-kJHI9MdxNwC&q=Paleolithic+religions&pg=PA108 |title=New Developments in Consciousness Research |first=Vincent W. |last=Fallio |publisher=[[Nova Publishers]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-60021-247-5 |location=New York |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-kJHI9MdxNwC&dq=Paleolithic+religions&pg=PA108 98–109]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.originsnet.org/mindold.html |title=Oldowan Art, Religion, Symbols, Mind by James Harrod |publisher=Originsnet.org |access-date=31 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100310011922/http://www.originsnet.org/mindold.html |archive-date=10 March 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> According to Fallio, the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans experienced altered states of consciousness and partook in ritual, and ritual was used in their societies to strengthen social bonding and group cohesion.<ref name="V.Fallio"/>
[[Image:Gabillou Sorcier.png|right|150px|thumb|Picture of a half animal half human being in a Paleolithic [[cave painting]] in [[Dordogne]]. [[France]] archeologists believe that cave paintings of half animal half human beings may be evidence for early shamanic practices during the Paleolithic.]]


Middle Paleolithic humans' use of burials at sites such as [[Krapina]], Croatia ({{c.|130,000}}&nbsp;BP) and [[Qafzeh]], Israel ({{c.|100,000|lk=no}}&nbsp;BP) have led some anthropologists and archaeologists, 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".<ref name=Lieberman/> Cut marks on Neanderthal bones from various sites, such as Combe-Grenal and Abri Moula in France, suggest that the [[Neanderthal#Cannibalism|Neanderthals]]—like some contemporary human cultures—may have practiced [[excarnation|ritual defleshing]] for (presumably) religious reasons. According to recent archaeological findings from ''Homo heidelbergensis'' sites in [[Archaeological Site of Atapuerca|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.
A controversial scholar of prehistoric religion and anthropology James Harrod has recently proposed that religion and spirituality (and art) may have first arose in Pre-Paleolithic chimpanzee<ref>[http://www.originsnet.org/chimpspiritdatabase.pdf Appendices for chimpanzee spirituality by James Harrod]</ref> and or Early [[Lower Paleolithic]] ([[Oldowan]]) societies,<ref>[http://www.originsnet.org/mindold.html Oldowan Art, Religion, Symbols, Mind by James Harrod]</ref> however the established anthropological view holds that it is more probable that humankind first developed [[Religion|religious]] and [[Spirituality|spiritual]] beliefs during the [[Middle Paleolithic]] or [[Upper Paleolithic]].<ref>[http://www.originsnet.org/aboutornet1.html About OriginsNet by James Harrod]</ref>


Likewise, some scientists have proposed 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. In particular, Emil Bächler suggested (based on archaeological evidence from Middle Paleolithic caves) that a [[Bear worship|bear cult]] was widespread among Middle Paleolithic [[Neanderthal]]s.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wunn |first=Ina |date=2000 |title=Beginning of Religion |journal=Numen |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=434–435|doi=10.1163/156852700511612 }}</ref> A claim that evidence was found for [[Middle Paleolithic]] animal worship {{c.|70,000}}&nbsp;BCE originates from the [[Tsodilo Hills]] in the African Kalahari desert has been denied by the original investigators of the site.<ref name="Robbins et al">{{cite journal |last1=Robbins |first1=Lawrence H. |first2=Alec C. |last2=Campbell |first3=George A. |last3=Brook |first4=Michael L. |last4=Murphy |title=World's Oldest Ritual Site? The "Python Cave" at Tsodilo Hills World Heritage Site, Botswana |journal=NYAME AKUMA, the Bulletin of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists |date=June 2007 |issue=67 |url=http://cohesion.rice.edu/CentersAndInst/SAFA/emplibrary/Robbins.pdf |access-date=1 December 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928023109/http://cohesion.rice.edu/CentersAndInst/SAFA/emplibrary/Robbins.pdf |archive-date=28 September 2011 }}</ref> Animal cults in the Upper Paleolithic, such as the bear cult, may have had their origins in these hypothetical Middle Paleolithic animal cults.<ref name=Narr>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://concise.britannica.com/oscar/print?articleId=109434&fullArticle=true&tocId=52333 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409074119/http://concise.britannica.com/oscar/print?articleId=109434&fullArticle=true&tocId=52333 |url-status=dead |archive-date=9 April 2008 |first=Karl J. |last=Narr |title=Prehistoric religion |access-date=28 March 2008 |encyclopedia=Britannica online encyclopedia 2008}}</ref> Animal worship during the Upper Paleolithic was intertwined with hunting rites.<ref name="Narr"/> For instance, archaeological evidence from art and bear remains reveals that the bear cult apparently involved a type of sacrificial bear ceremonialism, in which a bear was shot with [[arrow]]s, finished off by a shot or thrust in the [[lung]]s, and ritually worshipped near a clay bear statue covered by a bear fur with the skull and the body of the bear buried separately.<ref name="Narr"/> Barbara Ehrenreich controversially theorizes that the sacrificial hunting rites of the Upper Paleolithic (and by extension Paleolithic cooperative big-game hunting) gave rise to war or warlike raiding during the following [[Epipaleolithic]] and [[Mesolithic]] or late Upper Paleolithic.<ref name="Barbara Ehrenreich"/>
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".<ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3tS2MULo5rYC&pg=PA162&dq=Uniquely+Human+cognitive-linguistic+base&ei=nNUeR9fmBo74pwKwtKnMDg&sig=3UsvgAnE5B-vzb55I6W6OqqhJy4| title=Uniquely Human|Author=phillip lieberman|isbn=0674921836| year=1991}}</ref> Cut marks on Neanderthal bones from various sites such as Combe-Grenal and Abri Moula in [[France]] may imply that the [[Neanderthal#Ritual defleshing|Neanderthals]] like [[Excarnation|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.


The existence of anthropomorphic images and half-human, half-animal images in the Upper Paleolithic may further indicate that [[Upper Paleolithic]] humans were the first people to believe in a [[Polytheism|pantheon of gods or supernatural beings]],<ref name="mithen">{{cite book| author-link=Steve Mithen| isbn=978-0-500-05081-1| title=The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science| year=1996| publisher=Thames & Hudson| author=Steven Mithen| url=https://archive.org/details/prehistoryofmind00mith}}</ref> though such images may instead indicate shamanistic practices similar to those of contemporary tribal societies.<ref name="Clottes"/> 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}}&nbsp;BP) in what is now the [[Czech Republic]].<ref name=Tedlock/> However, during the early Upper Paleolithic it was probably more common for all members of the band to participate equally and fully in religious ceremonies, 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.<ref name="Stavrianos"/>
Likewise some scientists have proposed 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 suggested (based on archeological evidence from Middle Paleolithic caves) that a widespread [[Middle Paleolithic]] [[Neanderthal]] bear cult existed ([[#Reference-idWunn2000|Wunn, 2000]], pp. 434&ndash;435). Additional evidence in support of Middle Paleolithic animal worship originates from the [[Tsodilo Hills]] ([[circa|''c.'']] 70,000&nbsp;BCE) 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.<ref name=ScienceDaily>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, fromhttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061130081347.htm</ref>


Religion was possibly [[Apotropaic magic|apotropaic]]; specifically, it may have involved [[sympathetic magic]].<ref name="Miller2006"/> The [[Venus figurines]], which are abundant in the Upper Paleolithic archaeological record, provide an example of possible Paleolithic sympathetic magic, as they may have been used for ensuring success in hunting and to bring about fertility of the land and women.<ref name="McClellan"/> The Upper Paleolithic Venus figurines have sometimes been explained as depictions of an [[earth goddess]] similar to [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]], or as representations of a goddess who is the ruler or mother of the animals.<ref name=Narr/><ref>Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, "[http://witcombe.sbc.edu/willendorf/willendorfwomen.html Women in the Stone Age] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100801065954/http://witcombe.sbc.edu/willendorf/willendorfwomen.html |date=2010-08-01 }}", in the essay "The Venus of Willendorf" . Retrieved March 13, 2008.</ref> James Harrod has described them as representative of female (and male) shamanistic spiritual transformation processes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.originsnet.org/mindup.html |title=Upper Paleolithic Art, Religion, Symbols, Mind By James Harrod |publisher=Originsnet.org |access-date=2010-01-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100308130503/http://www.originsnet.org/mindup.html |archive-date=2010-03-08 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
The existence of anthropomorphic images and half human-half animal images in the Upper Paleolithic period may further indicate that [[Upper Paleolithic]] humans were the first people to believe in a [[Polytheism|pantheon of gods or supernatural beings]],<ref name="mithen">{{cite book| authorlink=Steve Mithen|isbn=0-500-05081-3| title=The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science| year=1996| publisher=Thames & Hudson}}</ref> though the half human-half animal images may have also been indicative of shamanistic practices similar to those practiced by contemporary tribal societies.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/clottes/page7.php |title=Shamanism in Prehistory |author=Jean Clottes |accessdate=2008-03-11 |work=Bradshaw foundation }}</ref> 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 ([[Circa|''c.'']] 30,000&nbsp;BC) in what is now the [[Czech Republic]]<ref name=Tedlock>Tedlock, Barbara. 2005. The Woman in the Shaman's Body: Reclaiming the Feminine in Religion and Medicine. New York: Bantam.</ref> 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.<ref name="Stavrianos">{{cite book | author=Leften Stavros Stavrianos|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society&dq=paleolithic+society&pgis=1 | title=A Global History from Prehistory to the Present| location=New Jersey, USA | publisher=Prentice Hall| year=1991 | id=ISBN 0133570053}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society&dq=paleolithic+society&pgis=1 Pages 9-13]</ref>

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.<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book | author=McClellan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press
| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 Page 8-12 ]</ref> The Upper Paleolithic Venus figurines have been sometimes explained as depictions of an [[Earth Goddess]] similar to [[Gaia]]<ref>Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, "[http://witcombe.sbc.edu/willendorf/willendorfwomen.html Women in the Stone Age]," in the essay "The Venus of Willendorf" (accessed [[March 13]], [[2008]])</ref> additionally, they have described by James Harrod as representative of female (and male) shamanistic spiritual transformation processes.<ref>[http://www.originsnet.org/mindup.html Upper Paleolithic Art, Religion, Symbols, Mind By James Harrod]</ref>

===Diet and nutrition===

[[Image:Phaseolus vulgaris seed.jpg|150px|left|thumb|Seeds, such as [[Pulse (legume)|legumes]], were rarely eaten by Paleolithic humans.<ref name=doi:10.1080/11026480510032043>{{cite journal |author=Lindeberg, Staffan |title=Palaeolithic diet ("stone age" diet) |journal=Scandinavian Journal of Food & Nutrition |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=75&ndash;77 |year=June 2005 |doi=10.1080/11026480510032043 |url=http://journals.sfu.ca/coaction/index.php/fnr/article/viewFile/1526/1394}}</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 name="McClellan">{{cite book |author=McClellan|url=http://books.google.com/books
id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History:
An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA12 pg 12][http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 8][http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA10][http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11]</ref><ref name="Dahlberg">{{cite book | author=Dahlberg, Frances. |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=eTPULzP1MZAC&pg=PA120&dq=Gathering+and+Hominid+Adaptation&sig=f2ulfIDfAvoqEcolNjz6MTIrM84#PPA126,M1 | title=Woman the Gatherer | location=London | publisher=Yale university press | year=1975 | id=ISBN 0-30-02989-6}}</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>

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 name="Russel">{{cite book | author=Sharman Apt Russell
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=8CjOdT4LqYC&pg=PA2&dq=paleolithic+history+malnutrition&sig=yNZhXu70IfMI_JXVxbRaHFWTkPI#PPA2,M1| title=Hunger an unnatural history| publisher=Basic books| year=2006 | id=ISBN 0465071651}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=8C-jOdT4LqYC&printsec=frontcover#PPA2,M1 Pages 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> However, seeds, such as grains and beans, were rarely eaten and never in large quantities on a daily basis.<ref name=doi:10.1080/11026480510032043>{{cite journal |author=Lindeberg, Staffan |title=Palaeolithic diet ("stone age" diet) |journal=Scandinavian Journal of Food & Nutrition |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=75&ndash;77 |year=June 2005 |doi=10.1080/11026480510032043 |url=http://journals.sfu.ca/coaction/index.php/fnr/article/viewFile/1526/1394}}</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> Paleolithic humans consumed animal organ meats, including the livers, kidneys and brains. People during the Middle Paleolithic such as the Neanderthals and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in Africa began to catch shellfish for food as revealed by shellfish cooking in Neanderthal sites in Italy about 110,000 years ago and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens sites at Pinnacle Point, in Africa.<ref name=NYTIMES/10/08/07>{{cite web |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/science/18beach.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin|title=Key Human Traits Tied to Shellfish Remains |work=New York times|author=John Noble Wilford |accessdate=2008-03-11}}</ref>

Although 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> [[Fish]] have been part of human diets long before the dawn of the Upper Paleolithic era and have certainly have been consumed by humans since at least the Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic.<ref>[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394_12/human_evolution.html "Human Evolution," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007] © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Contributed by Richard B. Potts, B.A., Ph.D.</ref> For example the Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic ''Homo sapiens'' in the region now occupied by the country [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]] hunted large catfish with specialized barbed fishing points as early as 90,000 years ago.<ref>[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394_12/human_evolution.html "Human Evolution," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007] © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Contributed by Richard B. Potts, B.A., Ph.D.</ref> The invention of Fishing during the [[Upper Paleolithic]] effected the social structures of some post Paleolithic hunter-gatherer societies by allowing these [[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 and complex social structures such as [[Cheifdoms]].

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> However it is also possible that damage to recovered human bones was the result of [[Ritual defleshing|ritual post-mortem bone cleaning]], which would coincide with the development of religious practices thought to have occurred during the Upper Paleolithic. Humans also probably consumed hallucinogenic plants during the Paleolithic period.<ref name="McClellan">{{cite book | author=McClellan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA11 | title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction| location=Baltimore, Maryland | publisher=JHU Press | year=2006 | id=ISBN 0801883601}} [http://books.google.com/books?id=aJgp94zNwNQC&printsec=frontcover#PPA8 Page 8-12 ]</ref>

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.<ref name=doi:10.1080/11026480510032043>{{cite journal |author=Lindeberg, Staffan |title=Palaeolithic diet ("stone age" diet) |journal=Scandinavian Journal of Food & Nutrition |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=75&ndash;77 |year=June 2005 |doi=10.1080/11026480510032043 |url=http://journals.sfu.ca/coaction/index.php/fnr/article/viewFile/1526/1394}}</ref>


== See also ==
== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=27em}}
<div style="-moz-column-count:3; column-count:3;">
* [[Abbassia Pluvial]]
* [[Abbassia Pluvial]]
* [[Bontnewydd Palaeolithic site]]
* [[Caveman]]
* [[Caveman]]
* [[Cave painting]]
* [[Clovis culture]]
* [[Evolutionary medicine]]
* [[Evolutionary psychology]]
* [[Geologic time scale]]
* [[Hunter gatherer]]
* [[Ice age]]
* [[Japanese Paleolithic]]
* [[Japanese Paleolithic]]
* [[Lascaux]]
* [[Lascaux]]
* [[Last Glacial Maximum]]
* [[List of archaeological sites sorted by continent and age#Palaeolithic|List of archaeological sites sorted by continent and age (includes Paleolithic)]]
* [[Luzia Woman]]
* [[Luzia Woman]]
* [[Models of migration to the New World]]
* [[Mousterian Pluvial]]
* [[Mousterian Pluvial]]
* [[Pre-Siberian American Aborigines]]
* [[Origins of society]]
* [[Stone Age]]
* [[Palaeoarchaeology]]
* [[Peopling of the Americas]]
* [[Turkana Boy]]
* [[Turkana Boy]]
{{div col end}}
</div>

== Footnotes ==

{{reflist|2}}


== References ==
== References ==
{{Reflist}}


== External links ==
{{Sisterlinks|Paleolithic|Paleolithic}}
{{EB1911 poster|Britain/Pre-Roman}}
* [http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-evolution-timeline-interactive Human Timeline (Interactive)] – [[Smithsonian Institution|Smithsonian]], [[National Museum of Natural History]] (August 2016).
* [http://donsmaps.com/ Donsmaps: a vast repository of Paleolithic resources]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20161123052918/http://www.miotas.org/timemap/paleolithic.cfm Interactive Timeline Simile/Timemap index of Eurasian sites]


{{Navboxes
*Wunn, Ina (2000). "Beginning of Religion", Numen, '''47'''(4).
|title = Articles related to the Paleolithic
*Christopher Boehm (1999) "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" page 198 Harvard university press
|list =
*Leften Stavros Stavrianos (1991). A Global History from Prehistory to the Present. New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0133570053
{{Three-age system of Archaeology}}
*[http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/anthro/programs/csho/Content/Facultycvandinfo/White/Women%20of%20Brassempouy%20Final%20red.pdf Randall White, "The women of Brassempouy: A century of research and interpretation", ''Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory'' '''13'''.4, December 2006:253] pdf file
{{Prehistoric technology|culture|state=expanded}}
*Bahn, Paul (1996) "The atlas of world archeology" Copyright 2000 The brown Reference Group plc
}}
*[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E0DF173CF936A25754C0A9659C8B63 Early Voices: The Leap to Language by Nicolas Wade]
{{Authority control}}
*[http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761566394 "Human Evolution," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007] © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Contributed by Richard B. Potts, B.A., Ph.D.
*[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555928/Stone_Age.html "Stone Age," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007] © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Contributed by Kathy Schick, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. and Nicholas Toth, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
*[http://www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix/ia/ia03_mod_11.html Middle and Upper Paleolithic Hunter-Gatherers The Emergence of Modern Humans, The Mesolithic]


[[Category:Paleolithic| ]]
[[Category:Pleistocene]]
[[Category:Pleistocene]]
[[Category:Paleolithic]]
[[Category:Historical eras]]
[[Category:Stone Age]]

{{Link FA|es}}

[[ar:عصر حجري قديم]]
[[ast:Paleolíticu]]
[[be-x-old:Палеаліт]]
[[bs:Paleolit]]
[[bg:Палеолит]]
[[ca:Paleolític]]
[[cs:Paleolit]]
[[cy:Hen Oes y Cerrig]]
[[da:Ældste stenalder]]
[[de:Altsteinzeit]]
[[et:Paleoliitikum]]
[[el:Παλαιολιθική περίοδος]]
[[es:Paleolítico]]
[[eo:Paleolitiko]]
[[eu:Paleolito]]
[[fr:Paléolithique]]
[[gl:Paleolítico]]
[[ko:구석기 시대]]
[[hr:Starije kameno doba]]
[[it:Paleolitico]]
[[he:תקופת האבן הקדומה]]
[[la:Palaeolithicum]]
[[lv:Paleolīts]]
[[lt:Paleolitas]]
[[li:Paleolithicum]]
[[hu:Paleolitikum]]
[[mk:Палеолит]]
[[ms:Zaman Paleolitik]]
[[nl:Paleolithicum]]
[[ja:旧石器時代]]
[[no:Paleolitikum]]
[[oc:Paleolitic]]
[[pl:Paleolit]]
[[pt:Paleolítico]]
[[ro:Paleolitic]]
[[ru:Палеолит]]
[[sq:Paleoliti]]
[[sk:Paleolit]]
[[sl:Paleolitik]]
[[sr:Палеолит]]
[[sh:Paleolit]]
[[fi:Paleoliittinen kausi]]
[[sv:Paleolitikum]]
[[th:ยุคหินเก่า]]
[[vi:Thời đại đồ đá cũ]]
[[tr:Eski Taş Çağı]]
[[uk:Палеоліт]]
[[zh:旧石器时代]]

{{Three-age system of Archaeology}}

Latest revision as of 16:00, 4 January 2025

Hunting a Glyptodon. Painting by Heinrich Harder c. 1920.
The oldest known figurative painting is a depiction of a bull that was discovered in the Lubang Jeriji Saléh cave in Indonesia. It was painted 40,000–52,000 years ago or earlier.

The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (c. 3.3 million – c. 11,700 years ago) (/ˌpliˈlɪθɪk, ˌpæli-/ PAY-lee-oh-LITH-ik, PAL-ee-), also called the Old Stone Age (from Ancient Greek παλαιός (palaiós) 'old' and λίθος (líthos) 'stone'), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehistoric technology.[1] It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins, c. 3.3 million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene, c. 11,650 cal BP.[2]

The Paleolithic Age in Europe preceded the Mesolithic Age, although the date of the transition varies geographically by several thousand years. During the Paleolithic Age, hominins grouped together in small societies such as bands and subsisted by gathering plants, fishing, and hunting or scavenging wild animals.[3] The Paleolithic Age is characterized by the use of knapped stone tools,[not verified in body] 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, due to rapid decomposition, these have not survived to any great degree.

About 50,000 years ago, a marked increase in the diversity of artifacts occurred. In Africa, bone artifacts and the first art appear in the archaeological record. The first evidence of human fishing is also noted, from artifacts in places such as Blombos cave in South Africa. Archaeologists classify artifacts of the last 50,000 years into many different categories, such as projectile points, engraving tools, sharp knife blades, and drilling and piercing tools.

Humankind gradually evolved from early members of the genus Homo—such as Homo habilis, who used simple stone tools—into anatomically modern humans as well as behaviourally modern humans by the Upper Paleolithic.[4] During the end of the Paleolithic Age, specifically the Middle or Upper Paleolithic Age, humans began to produce the earliest works of art and to engage in religious or spiritual behavior such as burial and ritual.[5][page needed][6][need quotation to verify] Conditions during the Paleolithic Age went through a set of glacial and interglacial periods in which the climate periodically fluctuated between warm and cool temperatures.

By c. 50,000 – c. 40,000 BP, the first humans set foot in Australia. By c. 45,000 BP, humans lived at 61°N latitude in Europe.[7] By c. 30,000 BP, Japan was reached, and by c. 27,000 BP humans were present in Siberia, above the Arctic Circle.[7] By the end of the Upper Paleolithic Age humans had crossed Beringia and expanded throughout the Americas continents.[8][9]

Etymology

The term "Palaeolithic" was coined by archaeologist John Lubbock in 1865.[10] It derives from Greek: παλαιός, palaios, "old"; and λίθος, lithos, "stone", meaning "old age of the stone" or "Old Stone Age".

Paleogeography and climate

A skull of early Homo neanderthalensis, Miguelón from the Lower Paleolithic dated to 430,000 BP.
Temperature rise in Antarctica marking the end of the Paleolithic, as derived from ice core data.

The Paleolithic overlaps with the Pleistocene epoch of geologic time. Both ended 12,000 years ago although the Pleistocene started 2.6 million years ago, 700,000 years after the Paleolithic's start.[11] This epoch experienced important geographic and climatic changes that affected human societies.

During the preceding Pliocene, continents had continued to drift from possibly as far as 250 km (160 mi) from their present locations to positions only 70 km (43 mi) from their current location. South America became linked to North America through the Isthmus of Panama, bringing a nearly complete end to South America's distinctive marsupial fauna. The formation of the isthmus had major consequences on global temperatures, because warm equatorial ocean currents were cut off, and the cold Arctic and Antarctic waters lowered temperatures in the now-isolated Atlantic Ocean.

Most of Central America formed during the Pliocene to connect the continents of North and South America, allowing fauna from these continents to leave their native habitats and colonize new areas.[12] Africa's collision with Asia created the Mediterranean, cutting off the remnants of the Tethys Ocean. During the Pleistocene, the continents were essentially at their modern positions; the tectonic plates on which they sit have probably moved at most 100 km (62 mi) from each other since the beginning of the period.[13]

Climates during the Pliocene became cooler and drier, and seasonal, similar to modern climates. Ice sheets grew on Antarctica. The formation of an Arctic ice cap around 3 million years ago is signaled by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Ocean beds.[14] Mid-latitude glaciation probably began before the end of the epoch. The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas.[12]

The Pleistocene climate was characterized by repeated glacial cycles during which continental glaciers pushed to the 40th parallel in some places. Four major glacial events have been identified, as well as many minor intervening events. A major event is a general glacial excursion, termed a "glacial". Glacials are separated by "interglacials". During a glacial, the glacier experiences minor advances and retreats. The minor excursion is a "stadial"; times between stadials are "interstadials". Each glacial advance tied up huge volumes of water in continental ice sheets 1,500–3,000 m (4,900–9,800 ft) deep, resulting in temporary sea level drops of 100 m (330 ft) or more over the entire surface of the Earth. During interglacial times, drowned coastlines were common, mitigated by isostatic or other emergent motion of some regions.

Many giant mammals such as woolly mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and cave lions inhabited the mammoth steppe during the Pleistocene.

The effects of glaciation were global. Antarctica was ice-bound throughout the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene. The Andes were covered in the south by the Patagonian ice cap. There were glaciers in New Zealand and Tasmania. The decaying glaciers of Mount Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro, and the Ruwenzori Range in east and central Africa were larger. Glaciers existed in the mountains of Ethiopia and to the west in the Atlas Mountains. In the northern hemisphere, many glaciers fused into one. The Cordilleran Ice Sheet covered the North American northwest; the Laurentide covered the east. The Fenno-Scandian ice sheet covered northern Europe, including Great Britain; the Alpine ice sheet covered the Alps. Scattered domes stretched across Siberia and the Arctic shelf. The northern seas were frozen. During the late Upper Paleolithic (Latest Pleistocene) c. 18,000 BP, the Beringia land bridge between Asia and North America was blocked by ice,[13] which may have prevented early Paleo-Indians such as the Clovis culture from directly crossing Beringia to reach the Americas.

According to Mark Lynas (through collected data), the Pleistocene's overall climate could be characterized as a continuous El Niño with trade winds in the south Pacific weakening or heading east, warm air rising near Peru, warm water spreading from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific, and other El Niño markers.[15]

The Paleolithic is often held to finish at the end of the ice age (the end of the Pleistocene epoch), and Earth's climate became warmer. This may have caused or contributed to the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna, although it is also possible that the late Pleistocene extinctions were (at least in part) caused by other factors such as disease and overhunting by humans.[16][17] New research suggests that the extinction of the woolly mammoth may have been caused by the combined effect of climatic change and human hunting.[17] Scientists suggest that climate change during the end of the Pleistocene caused the mammoths' habitat to shrink, resulting in a drop in population. The small populations were then hunted out by Paleolithic humans.[17] The global warming that occurred during the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene may have made it easier for humans to reach mammoth habitats that were previously frozen and inaccessible.[17] Small populations of woolly mammoths survived on isolated Arctic islands, Saint Paul Island and Wrangel Island, until c. 3700 BP and c. 1700 BP respectively. The Wrangel Island population became extinct around the same time the island was settled by prehistoric humans.[18] There is no evidence of prehistoric human presence on Saint Paul island (though early human settlements dating as far back as 6500 BP were found on the nearby Aleutian Islands).[19]

Classifications of Paleolithic geoclimatic episodes[20]
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 Stage
140,000 years Sangamoniense Ipswichiense Ouljiense Tirreniense II y III Eemian Stage
200,000 years Illinois Wolstoniense Regresión Regresión Wolstonian Stage
450,000 years Yarmouthiense Hoxniense Anfatiense Tirreniense I Hoxnian Stage
580,000 years Kansas Angliense Regresión Regresión Kansan Stage
750,000 years Aftoniense Cromeriense Maarifiense Siciliense Cromerian Complex
1,100,000 years Nebraska Beestoniense Regresión Regresión Beestonian stage
1,400,000 years interglacial Ludhamiense Messaudiense Calabriense Donau-Günz

Paleolithic people

An artist's rendering of a temporary wood house, based on evidence found at Terra Amata (in Nice, France) and dated to the Lower Paleolithic (c. 400,000 BP)[21]

Nearly all of our knowledge of Paleolithic people and way of life comes from archaeology and ethnographic comparisons to modern hunter-gatherer cultures such as the !Kung San who live similarly to their Paleolithic predecessors.[22] The economy of a typical Paleolithic society was a hunter-gatherer economy.[23] Humans hunted wild animals for meat and gathered food, firewood, and materials for their tools, clothes, or shelters.[23]

The population density was very low, around only 0.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (1/sq mi).[3] This was most likely due to low body fat, infanticide, high levels of physical activity among women,[24] late weaning of infants, and a nomadic lifestyle.[3] In addition, even a large area of land could not support many people without being actively farmed - food was difficult to come by and so groups were prevented from growing too large by the amount of food they could gather. Like contemporary hunter-gatherers, Paleolithic humans enjoyed an abundance of leisure time unparalleled in both Neolithic farming societies and modern industrial societies.[23][25] At the end of the Paleolithic, specifically the Middle or Upper Paleolithic, people began to produce works of art such as cave paintings, rock art and jewellery and began to engage in religious behavior such as burials and rituals.[26]

Homo erectus

At the beginning of the Paleolithic, hominins were found primarily in eastern Africa, east of the Great Rift Valley. Most known hominin fossils dating earlier than one million years before present are found in this area, particularly in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia.

By c. 2,000,000 – c. 1,500,000 BP, groups of hominins began leaving Africa, settling southern Europe and Asia. The South Caucasus was occupied by c. 1,700,000 BP, and northern China was reached by c. 1,660,000 BP. By the end of the Lower Paleolithic, members of the hominin family were living in what is now China, western Indonesia, and, in Europe, around the Mediterranean and as far north as England, France, southern Germany, and Bulgaria. Their further northward expansion may have been limited by the lack of control of fire: studies of cave settlements in Europe indicate no regular use of fire prior to c. 400,000 – c. 300,000 BP.[27]

East Asian fossils from this period are typically placed in the genus Homo erectus. Very little fossil evidence is available at known Lower Paleolithic sites in Europe, but it is believed that hominins who inhabited these sites were likewise Homo erectus. There is no evidence of hominins in America, Australia, or almost anywhere in Oceania during this time period.

Fates of these early colonists, and their relationships to modern humans, are still subject to debate. According to current archaeological and genetic models, there were at least two notable expansion events subsequent to peopling of Eurasia c. 2,000,000 – c. 1,500,000 BP. Around 500,000 BP a group of early humans, frequently called Homo heidelbergensis, came to Europe from Africa and eventually evolved into Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals). In the Middle Paleolithic, Neanderthals were present in the region now occupied by Poland.

Both Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis became extinct by the start of the Upper Paleolithic. Descended from Homo sapiens, the anatomically modern Homo sapiens sapiens emerged in eastern Africa c. 300,000 BP, left Africa around 50,000 BP, and expanded throughout the planet. Multiple hominid groups coexisted for some time in certain locations. Homo neanderthalensis were still found in parts of Eurasia c. 40,000 BP years, and engaged in an unknown degree of interbreeding with Homo sapiens sapiens. DNA studies also suggest an unknown degree of interbreeding between Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo sapiens denisova.[28]

Hominin fossils not belonging either to Homo neanderthalensis or to Homo sapiens species, found in the Altai Mountains and Indonesia, were radiocarbon dated to c. 30,000 – c. 40,000 BP and c. 17,000 BP respectively.

For the duration of the Paleolithic, human populations remained low, especially outside the equatorial region. The entire population of Europe between 16,000 and 11,000 BP likely averaged some 30,000 individuals, and between 40,000 and 16,000 BP, it was even lower at 4,000–6,000 individuals.[29] However, remains of thousands of butchered animals and tools made by Palaeolithic humans were found in Lapa do Picareiro, a cave in Portugal, dating back between 41,000 and 38,000 years ago.[30]

Technology and crafts

photograph
Lower Paleolithic biface viewed from both its superior and inferior surface

Some researchers have noted that science, limited in that age to some early ideas about astronomy (or cosmology),[citation needed] had limited impact on Paleolithic technology. Making fire was widespread knowledge, and it was possible without an understanding of chemical processes, These types of practical skills are sometimes called crafts. Religion, superstitution or appeals to the supernatural may have played a part in the cultural explanations of phenomena like combustion.[31]

Tools

Paleolithic humans made tools of stone, bone (primarily of deer), and wood.[23] The early paleolithic hominins, Australopithecus, were the first users of stone tools. Excavations in Gona, Ethiopia, have produced thousands of artifacts, and through radioisotopic dating and magnetostratigraphy the sites can be firmly dated to 2.6 million years ago. Evidence shows these early hominins intentionally selected raw stone with good flaking qualities and chose appropriately sized stones for their needs to produce sharp-edged tools for cutting.[32]

The earliest Paleolithic stone tool industry, the Oldowan, began around 2.6 million years ago.[33][34] It produced tools such as choppers, burins, and stitching awls. It was completely replaced around 250,000 years ago by the more complex Acheulean industry, which was first conceived by Homo ergaster around 1.8–1.65 million years ago.[35] The Acheulean implements completely vanish from the archaeological record around 100,000 years ago and were replaced by more complex Middle Paleolithic tool kits such as the Mousterian and the Aterian industries.[36]

Lower Paleolithic humans used a variety of stone tools, including hand axes and choppers. Although they appear to have used hand axes often, there is disagreement about their use. Interpretations range from cutting and chopping tools, to digging implements, to flaking cores, to the use in traps, and as a purely ritual significance, perhaps in courting behavior. William H. Calvin has suggested that some hand axes could have served as "killer frisbees" meant to be thrown at a herd of animals at a waterhole so as to stun one of them. There are no indications of hafting, and some artifacts are far too large for that. Thus, a thrown hand axe would not usually have penetrated deeply enough to cause very serious injuries. Nevertheless, it could have been an effective weapon for defense against predators. Choppers and scrapers were likely used for skinning and butchering scavenged animals and sharp-ended sticks were often obtained for digging up edible roots. Presumably, early humans used wooden spears as early as 5 million years ago to hunt small animals, much as their relatives, chimpanzees, have been observed to do in Senegal, Africa.[37] Lower Paleolithic humans constructed shelters, such as the possible wood hut at Terra Amata.

Fire use

Charles R. Knight's 1920 reconstruction of Magdalenian painters at Font-de-Gaume, France

Fire was used by the Lower Paleolithic hominins Homo erectus and Homo ergaster as early as 300,000 to 1.5 million years ago and possibly even earlier by the early Lower Paleolithic (Oldowan) hominin Homo habilis or by robust Australopithecines such as Paranthropus.[3] However, the use of fire only became common in the societies of the following Middle Stone Age and Middle Paleolithic.[2] Use of fire reduced mortality rates and provided protection against predators.[38] Early hominins may have begun to cook their food as early as the Lower Paleolithic (c. 1.9 million years ago) or at the latest in the early Middle Paleolithic (c. 250,000 years ago).[39] Some scientists have hypothesized that hominins began cooking food to defrost frozen meat, which would help ensure their survival in cold regions.[39] Archaeologists cite morphological shifts in cranial anatomy as evidence for emergence of cooking and food processing technologies. These morphological changes include decreases in molar and jaw size, thinner tooth enamel, and decrease in gut volume.[40] During much of the Pleistocene epoch, our ancestors relied on simple food processing techniques such as roasting.[41] The Upper Palaeolithic saw the emergence of boiling, an advance in food processing technology which rendered plant foods more digestible, decreased their toxicity, and maximised their nutritional value.[42] Thermally altered rock (heated stones) are easily identifiable in the archaeological record. Stone-boiling and pit-baking were common techniques which involved heating large pebbles then transferring the hot stones into a perishable container to heat the water.[43] This technology is typified in the Middle Palaeolithic example of the Abri Pataud hearths.[44]

Rafts

The Lower Paleolithic Homo erectus possibly invented rafts (c. 840,000 – c. 800,000 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 hominin Homo floresiensis. However, this hypothesis is disputed within the anthropological community.[45][46] The possible use of rafts during the Lower Paleolithic may indicate that Lower Paleolithic hominins such as Homo erectus were more advanced than previously believed, and may have even spoken an early form of modern language.[45] Supplementary evidence from Neanderthal and modern human sites located around the Mediterranean Sea, such as Coa de sa Multa (c. 300,000 BP), has also indicated that both Middle and Upper Paleolithic humans used rafts to travel over large bodies of water (i.e. the Mediterranean Sea) for the purpose of colonizing other bodies of land.[45][47]

Advanced tools

By around 200,000 BP, Middle Paleolithic stone tool manufacturing spawned a tool-making technique known as the prepared-core technique, which was more elaborate than previous Acheulean techniques.[4] This technique increased efficiency by allowing the creation of more controlled and consistent flakes.[4] It allowed Middle Paleolithic humans to create stone-tipped spears, which were the earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts. In addition to improving tool-making methods, the Middle Paleolithic also saw an improvement of the tools themselves that allowed access to a wider variety and amount of food sources. For example, microliths or small stone tools or points were invented around 70,000–65,000 BP and were essential to the invention of bows and atlatls (spear throwers) in the following Upper Paleolithic.[38]

Harpoons were invented and used for the first time during the late Middle Paleolithic (c. 90,000 BP); the invention of these devices brought fish into the human diets, which provided a hedge against starvation and a more abundant food supply.[47][48] Thanks to their technology and their advanced social structures, Paleolithic groups such as the Neanderthals—who had a Middle Paleolithic level of technology—appear to have hunted large game just as well as Upper Paleolithic modern humans,[49] and the Neanderthals in particular may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons.[50] Nonetheless, Neanderthal use of projectile weapons in hunting occurred very rarely (or perhaps never) and the Neanderthals hunted large game animals mostly by ambushing them and attacking them with handheld weapons such as thrusting spears rather than attacking them from a distance with projectiles.[26][51]

Other inventions

During the Upper Paleolithic, further inventions were made, such as the net (c. 22,000 or c. 29,000 BP)[38] bolas,[52] the spear thrower (c. 30,000 BP), the bow and arrow (c. 25,000 or c. 30,000 BP)[3] and the oldest example of ceramic art, the Venus of Dolní Věstonice (c. 29,000 – c. 25,000 BP).[3] Kilu Cave at Buku island, Solomon Islands, demonstrates navigation of some 60 km of open ocean at 30,000 BCcal.[53]

Early dogs were domesticated sometime between 30,000 and 14,000 BP, presumably to aid in hunting.[54] However, the earliest instances of successful domestication of dogs may be much more ancient than this. Evidence from canine DNA collected by Robert K. Wayne suggests that dogs may have been first domesticated in the late Middle Paleolithic around 100,000 BP or perhaps even earlier.[55]

Archaeological evidence from the Dordogne region of France demonstrates that members of the European early Upper Paleolithic culture known as the Aurignacian used calendars (c. 30,000 BP). This was a lunar calendar that was used to document the phases of the moon. Genuine solar calendars did not appear until the Neolithic.[56] Upper Paleolithic cultures were probably able to time the migration of game animals such as wild horses and deer.[57] This ability allowed humans to become efficient hunters and to exploit a wide variety of game animals.[57] Recent research indicates that the Neanderthals timed their hunts and the migrations of game animals long before the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic.[49]

Diet and nutrition

People may have first fermented grapes in animal skin pouches to create wine during the Paleolithic age.[58]

Paleolithic hunting and gathering people ate varying proportions of vegetables (including tubers and roots), fruit, seeds (including nuts and wild grass seeds) and insects, meat, fish, and shellfish.[59][60] However, there is little direct evidence of the relative proportions of plant and animal foods.[61] Although the term "paleolithic diet", without references to a specific timeframe or locale, is sometimes used with an implication that most humans shared a certain diet during the entire era, that is not entirely accurate. The Paleolithic was an extended period of time, during which multiple technological advances were made, many of which had impact on human dietary structure. For example, humans probably did not possess the control of fire until the Middle Paleolithic,[62] or tools necessary to engage in extensive fishing.[citation needed] On the other hand, both these technologies are generally agreed to have been widely available to humans by the end of the Paleolithic (consequently, allowing humans in some regions of the planet to rely heavily on fishing and hunting). In addition, the Paleolithic involved a substantial geographical expansion of human populations. During the Lower Paleolithic, ancestors of modern humans are thought to have been constrained to Africa east of the Great Rift Valley. During the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, humans greatly expanded their area of settlement, reaching ecosystems as diverse as New Guinea and Alaska, and adapting their diets to whatever local resources were available.

Another view is that until the Upper Paleolithic, humans were frugivores (fruit eaters) who supplemented their meals with carrion, eggs, and small prey such as baby birds and mussels, and only on rare occasions managed to kill and consume big game such as antelopes.[63] This view is supported by studies of higher apes, particularly chimpanzees. Chimpanzees are the closest to humans genetically, sharing more than 96% of their DNA code with humans, and their digestive tract is functionally very similar to that of humans.[64] Chimpanzees are primarily frugivores, but they could and would consume and digest animal flesh, given the opportunity. In general, their actual diet in the wild is about 95% plant-based, with the remaining 5% filled with insects, eggs, and baby animals.[65][66] In some ecosystems, however, chimpanzees are predatory, forming parties to hunt monkeys.[67] Some comparative studies of human and higher primate digestive tracts do suggest that humans have evolved to obtain greater amounts of calories from sources such as animal foods, allowing them to shrink the size of the gastrointestinal tract relative to body mass and to increase the brain mass instead.[68][69]

Anthropologists have diverse opinions about the proportions of plant and animal foods consumed. Just as with still existing hunters and gatherers, there were many varied "diets" in different groups, and also varying through this vast amount of time. Some paleolithic hunter-gatherers consumed a significant amount of meat and possibly obtained most of their food from hunting,[70] while others were believed to have a primarily plant-based diet.[71] Most, if not all, are believed to have been opportunistic omnivores.[72] One hypothesis is that carbohydrate tubers (plant underground storage organs) may have been eaten in high amounts by pre-agricultural humans.[73][74][75][76] It is thought that the Paleolithic diet included as much as 1.65–1.9 kg (3.6–4.2 lb) per day of fruit and vegetables.[77] The relative proportions of plant and animal foods in the diets of Paleolithic people often varied between regions, with more meat being necessary in colder regions (which were not populated by anatomically modern humans until c. 30,000 – c. 50,000 BP).[78] It is generally agreed that many modern hunting and fishing tools, such as fish hooks, nets, bows, and poisons, were not introduced until the Upper Paleolithic and possibly even Neolithic.[38] The only hunting tools widely available to humans during any significant part of the Paleolithic were hand-held spears and harpoons. There is evidence of Paleolithic people killing and eating seals and elands as far as c. 100,000 BP. On the other hand, buffalo bones found in African caves from the same period are typically of very young or very old individuals, and there is no evidence that pigs, elephants, or rhinos were hunted by humans at the time.[79]

Paleolithic peoples suffered less famine and malnutrition than the Neolithic farming tribes that followed them.[22][80] This was partly because Paleolithic hunter-gatherers accessed a wider variety of natural foods, which allowed them a more nutritious diet and a decreased risk of famine.[22][24][81] Many of the famines experienced by Neolithic (and some modern) farmers were caused or amplified by their dependence on a small number of crops.[22][24][81] It is thought that wild foods can have a significantly different nutritional profile than cultivated foods.[82] The greater amount of meat obtained by hunting big game animals in Paleolithic diets than Neolithic diets may have also allowed Paleolithic hunter-gatherers to enjoy a more nutritious diet than Neolithic agriculturalists.[80] It has been argued that the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture resulted in an increasing focus on a limited variety of foods, with meat likely taking a back seat to plants.[83] It is also unlikely that Paleolithic hunter-gatherers were affected by modern diseases of affluence such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease, because they ate mostly lean meats and plants and frequently engaged in intense physical activity,[84][85] and because the average lifespan was shorter than the age of common onset of these conditions.[86][87]

Large-seeded legumes were part of the human diet long before the Neolithic Revolution, as evident from archaeobotanical finds from the Mousterian layers of Kebara Cave, in Israel.[88] There is evidence suggesting that Paleolithic societies were gathering wild cereals for food use at least as early as 30,000 years ago.[89] However, seeds—such as grains and beans—were rarely eaten and never in large quantities on a daily basis.[90] Recent archaeological evidence also indicates that winemaking may have originated in the Paleolithic, when early humans drank the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes from animal-skin pouches.[58] Paleolithic humans consumed animal organ meats, including the livers, kidneys, and brains. Upper Paleolithic cultures appear to have had significant knowledge about plants and herbs and may have sometimes practiced rudimentary forms of horticulture.[91] In particular, bananas and tubers may have been cultivated as early as 25,000 BP in southeast Asia.[92] In the Paleolithic Levant, 23,000 years ago, cereals cultivation of emmer, barley, and oats has been observed near the Sea of Galilee.[93][94]

Late Upper Paleolithic societies also appear to have occasionally practiced pastoralism and animal husbandry, presumably for dietary reasons. For instance, some European late Upper Paleolithic cultures domesticated and raised reindeer, presumably for their meat or milk, as early as 14,000 BP.[54] Humans also probably consumed hallucinogenic plants during the Paleolithic.[3] The Aboriginal Australians have been consuming a variety of native animal and plant foods, called bushfood, for an estimated 60,000 years, since the Middle Paleolithic.

In February 2019, scientists reported evidence, based on isotope studies, that at least some Neanderthals may have eaten meat.[95][96][97] People during the Middle Paleolithic, such as the Neanderthals and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in Africa, began to catch shellfish for food as revealed by shellfish cooking in Neanderthal sites in Italy about 110,000 years ago and in Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens sites at Pinnacle Point, South Africa around 164,000 BP.[47][98] Although fishing only became common during the Upper Paleolithic,[47][99] fish have been part of human diets long before the dawn of the Upper Paleolithic and have certainly been consumed by humans since at least the Middle Paleolithic.[57] For example, the Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in the region now occupied by the Democratic Republic of the Congo hunted large 6 ft (1.8 m)-long catfish with specialized barbed fishing points as early as 90,000 years ago.[47][57] The invention of fishing allowed some Upper Paleolithic and later hunter-gatherer societies to become sedentary or semi-nomadic, which altered their social structures.[100] Example societies are the Lepenski Vir as well as some contemporary hunter-gatherers, such as the Tlingit. In some instances (at least the Tlingit), they developed social stratification, slavery, and complex social structures such as chiefdoms.[38]

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.[101] Cannibalism in the Lower and Middle Paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages.[102] However, it may have been for religious reasons, and would coincide with the development of religious practices thought to have occurred during the Upper Paleolithic.[103][104] Nonetheless, it remains possible that Paleolithic societies never practiced cannibalism, and that the damage to recovered human bones was either the result of excarnation or predation by carnivores such as saber-toothed cats, lions, and hyenas.[103]

A modern-day diet known as the Paleolithic diet exists, based on restricting consumption only to those foods presumed to be available to anatomically modern humans prior to the advent of settled agriculture.[105]

Social organization

Humans may have taken part in long-distance trade between bands for rare commodities and raw materials (such as stone needed for making tools) as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic.

The social organization of the earliest Paleolithic (Lower Paleolithic) societies remains largely unknown to scientists, though Lower Paleolithic hominins such as Homo habilis and Homo erectus are likely to have had more complex social structures than chimpanzee societies.[106] Late Oldowan/Early Acheulean humans such as Homo ergaster/Homo erectus may have been the first people to invent central campsites or home bases and incorporate them into their foraging and hunting strategies like contemporary hunter-gatherers, possibly as early as 1.7 million years ago;[4] however, the earliest solid evidence for the existence of home bases or central campsites (hearths and shelters) among humans only dates back to 500,000 years ago.[4]

Similarly, scientists disagree whether Lower Paleolithic humans were largely monogamous or polygynous.[106] In particular, the Provisional model suggests that bipedalism arose in pre-Paleolithic australopithecine societies as an adaptation to monogamous lifestyles; however, other researchers note that sexual dimorphism is more pronounced in Lower Paleolithic humans such as Homo erectus than in modern humans, who are less polygynous than other primates, which suggests that Lower Paleolithic humans had a largely polygynous lifestyle, because species that have the most pronounced sexual dimorphism tend more likely to be polygynous.[107]

Human societies from the Paleolithic to the early Neolithic farming tribes lived without states and organized governments. For most of the Lower Paleolithic, human societies were possibly more hierarchical than their Middle and Upper Paleolithic descendants, and probably were not grouped into bands,[108] though during the end of the Lower Paleolithic, the latest populations of the hominin Homo erectus may have begun living in small-scale (possibly egalitarian) bands similar to both Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies and modern hunter-gatherers.[108]

Middle Paleolithic societies, unlike Lower Paleolithic and early Neolithic ones, consisted of bands that ranged from 20–30 or 25–100 members and were usually nomadic.[3][108] These bands were formed by several families. Bands sometimes joined together into larger "macrobands" for activities such as acquiring mates and celebrations or where resources were abundant.[3] By the end of the Paleolithic era (c. 10,000 BP), people began to settle down into permanent locations, and began to rely on agriculture for sustenance in many locations. Much evidence exists that humans took part in long-distance trade between bands for rare commodities (such as ochre, which was often used for religious purposes such as ritual[109][56]) and raw materials, as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic.[26] Inter-band trade may have appeared during the Middle Paleolithic because trade between bands would have helped ensure their survival by allowing them to exchange resources and commodities such as raw materials during times of relative scarcity (i.e. famine, drought).[26] Like in modern hunter-gatherer societies, individuals in Paleolithic societies may have been subordinate to the band as a whole.[22][23] Both Neanderthals and modern humans took care of the elderly members of their societies during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.[26]

Some sources claim that most Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies were possibly fundamentally egalitarian[3][23][47][110] and may have rarely or never engaged in organized violence between groups (i.e. war).[47][111][112][113]

Some Upper Paleolithic societies in resource-rich environments (such as societies in Sungir, in what is now Russia) may have had more complex and hierarchical organization (such as tribes with a pronounced hierarchy and a somewhat formal division of labor) and may have engaged in endemic warfare.[47][114] Some argue that there was no formal leadership during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Like contemporary egalitarian hunter-gatherers such as the Mbuti pygmies, societies may have made decisions by communal consensus decision making rather than by appointing permanent rulers such as chiefs and monarchs.[6] Nor was there a formal division of labor during the Paleolithic. Each member of the group was skilled at all tasks essential to survival, regardless of individual abilities. Theories to explain the apparent egalitarianism have arisen, notably the Marxist concept of primitive communism.[115][116] Christopher Boehm (1999) has hypothesized that egalitarianism may have evolved in Paleolithic societies because of a need to distribute resources such as food and meat equally to avoid famine and ensure a stable food supply.[117] Raymond C. Kelly speculates that the relative peacefulness of Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies resulted from a low population density, cooperative relationships between groups such as reciprocal exchange of commodities and collaboration on hunting expeditions, and because the invention of projectile weapons such as throwing spears provided less incentive for war, because they increased the damage done to the attacker and decreased the relative amount of territory attackers could gain.[113] However, other sources claim that most Paleolithic groups may have been larger, more complex, sedentary and warlike than most contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, due to occupying more resource-abundant areas than most modern hunter-gatherers who have been pushed into more marginal habitats by agricultural societies.[92]

Anthropologists have typically assumed that in Paleolithic societies, women were responsible for gathering wild plants and firewood, and men were responsible for hunting and scavenging dead animals.[3][47] However, analogies to existent hunter-gatherer societies such as the Hadza people and the Aboriginal Australians suggest that the sexual division of labor in the Paleolithic was relatively flexible. Men may have participated in gathering plants, firewood and insects, and women may have procured small game animals for consumption and assisted men in driving herds of large game animals (such as woolly mammoths and deer) off cliffs.[47][112] Additionally, recent research by anthropologist and archaeologist Steven Kuhn from the University of Arizona is argued to support that this division of labor did not exist prior to the Upper Paleolithic and was invented relatively recently in human pre-history.[71][118] Sexual division of labor may have been developed to allow humans to acquire food and other resources more efficiently.[118] Possibly there was approximate parity between men and women during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, and that period may have been the most gender-equal time in human history.[111][119][120] Archaeological evidence from art and funerary rituals indicates that a number of individual women enjoyed seemingly high status in their communities, and it is likely that both sexes participated in decision making.[120] The earliest known Paleolithic shaman (c. 30,000 BP) was female.[121] Jared Diamond suggests that the status of women declined with the adoption of agriculture because women in farming societies typically have more pregnancies and are expected to do more demanding work than women in hunter-gatherer societies.[81] Like most modern hunter-gatherer societies, Paleolithic and Mesolithic groups probably followed a largely ambilineal approach. At the same time, depending on the society, the residence could be virilocal, uxorilocal, and sometimes the spouses could live with neither the husband's relatives nor the wife's relatives at all. Taken together, most likely, the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers can be characterized as multilocal.[38]

Sculpture and painting

The Venus of Willendorf is one of the most famous Venus figurines.

Early 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. However, the earliest undisputed evidence of art during the Paleolithic comes from Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age sites such as Blombos Cave–South Africa–in the form of bracelets,[122] beads,[123] rock art,[109] and ochre used as body paint and perhaps in ritual.[47][109] Undisputed evidence of art only becomes common in the Upper Paleolithic.[124]

Lower Paleolithic Acheulean tool users, according to Robert G. Bednarik, began to engage in symbolic behavior such as art around 850,000 BP. They decorated themselves with beads and collected exotic stones for aesthetic, rather than utilitarian qualities.[125] According to him, traces of the pigment ochre from late Lower Paleolithic Acheulean archaeological sites suggests that Acheulean societies, like later Upper Paleolithic societies, collected and used ochre to create rock art.[125] Nevertheless, it is also possible that the ochre traces found at Lower Paleolithic sites is naturally occurring.[126]

Upper Paleolithic humans produced works of art such as cave paintings, Venus figurines, animal carvings, and rock paintings.[127] Upper Paleolithic art can be divided into two broad categories: figurative art such as cave paintings that clearly depicts animals (or more rarely humans); and nonfigurative, which consists of shapes and symbols.[127] Cave paintings have been interpreted in a number of ways by modern archaeologists. The earliest explanation, by the prehistorian Abbe Breuil, interpreted the paintings as a form of magic designed to ensure a successful hunt.[128] However, this hypothesis fails to explain the existence of animals such as saber-toothed cats and lions, which were not hunted for food, and the existence of half-human, half-animal beings in cave paintings. The anthropologist David Lewis-Williams has suggested that Paleolithic cave paintings were indications of shamanistic practices, because the paintings of half-human, half-animal figures and the remoteness of the caves are reminiscent of modern hunter-gatherer shamanistic practices.[128] Symbol-like images are more common in Paleolithic cave paintings than are depictions of animals or humans, and unique symbolic patterns might have been trademarks that represent different Upper Paleolithic ethnic groups.[127] Venus figurines have evoked similar controversy. Archaeologists and anthropologists have described the figurines as representations of goddesses, pornographic imagery, apotropaic amulets used for sympathetic magic, and even as self-portraits of women themselves.[47][129]

R. Dale Guthrie[130] 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 out that the main themes in the paintings and other artifacts (powerful beasts, risky hunting scenes and the over-sexual representation of women) are to be expected in the fantasies of adolescent males during the Upper Paleolithic.

Gwion Gwion rock paintings found in the north-west Kimberley region of Western Australia.

The "Venus" figurines have been theorized, not universally, as representing a mother goddess; the abundance of such female imagery has inspired the theory that religion and society in Paleolithic (and later Neolithic) cultures were primarily interested in, and may have been directed by, women. Adherents of the theory include archaeologist Marija Gimbutas and feminist scholar Merlin Stone, the author of the 1976 book When God Was a Woman.[131][132] Other explanations for the purpose of the figurines have been proposed, such as Catherine McCoid and LeRoy McDermott's hypothesis that they were self-portraits of woman artists[129] and R.Dale Gutrie's hypothesis that served as "stone age pornography".

Music

The origins of music during the Paleolithic are unknown. The earliest forms of music probably did not use musical instruments other than the human voice or natural objects such as rocks. This early music would not have left an archaeological footprint. Music may have developed from rhythmic sounds produced by daily chores, for example, cracking open nuts with stones. Maintaining a rhythm while working may have helped people to become more efficient at daily activities.[133] An alternative theory originally proposed by Charles Darwin explains that music may have begun as a hominin mating strategy. Bird and other animal species produce music such as calls to attract mates.[134] This hypothesis is generally less accepted than the previous hypothesis, but nonetheless provides a possible alternative.

Upper Paleolithic (and possibly Middle Paleolithic)[135] humans used flute-like bone pipes as musical instruments,[47][100] and music may have played a large role in the religious lives of Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers. As with modern hunter-gatherer societies, music may have been used in ritual or to help induce trances. In particular, it appears that animal skin drums may have been used in religious events by Upper Paleolithic shamans, as shown by the remains of drum-like instruments from some Upper Paleolithic graves of shamans and the ethnographic record of contemporary hunter-gatherer shamanic and ritual practices.[121][127]

Religion and beliefs

Picture of a half-human, half-animal being in a Paleolithic cave painting in Dordogne. France. Some archaeologists believe that cave paintings of half-human, half-animal beings may be evidence for early shamanic practices during the Paleolithic.

According to James B. Harrod humankind first developed religious and spiritual beliefs during the Middle Paleolithic or Upper Paleolithic.[136] Controversial scholars of prehistoric religion and anthropology, James Harrod and Vincent W. Fallio, have recently proposed that religion and spirituality (and art) may have first arisen in Pre-Paleolithic chimpanzees[137] or Early Lower Paleolithic (Oldowan) societies.[138][139] According to Fallio, the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans experienced altered states of consciousness and partook in ritual, and ritual was used in their societies to strengthen social bonding and group cohesion.[138]

Middle Paleolithic humans' use of burials at sites such as Krapina, Croatia (c. 130,000 BP) and Qafzeh, Israel (c. 100,000 BP) have led some anthropologists and archaeologists, 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".[5] Cut marks on Neanderthal bones from various sites, such as Combe-Grenal and Abri Moula in France, suggest that the Neanderthals—like some contemporary human cultures—may have practiced ritual defleshing for (presumably) religious reasons. According to recent archaeological findings from Homo 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, some scientists have proposed 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. In particular, Emil Bächler suggested (based on archaeological evidence from Middle Paleolithic caves) that a bear cult was widespread among Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals.[140] A claim that evidence was found for Middle Paleolithic animal worship c. 70,000 BCE originates from the Tsodilo Hills in the African Kalahari desert has been denied by the original investigators of the site.[141] Animal cults in the Upper Paleolithic, such as the bear cult, may have had their origins in these hypothetical Middle Paleolithic animal cults.[103] Animal worship during the Upper Paleolithic was intertwined with hunting rites.[103] For instance, archaeological evidence from art and bear remains reveals that the bear cult apparently involved a type of sacrificial bear ceremonialism, in which a bear was shot with arrows, finished off by a shot or thrust in the lungs, and ritually worshipped near a clay bear statue covered by a bear fur with the skull and the body of the bear buried separately.[103] Barbara Ehrenreich controversially theorizes that the sacrificial hunting rites of the Upper Paleolithic (and by extension Paleolithic cooperative big-game hunting) gave rise to war or warlike raiding during the following Epipaleolithic and Mesolithic or late Upper Paleolithic.[112]

The existence of anthropomorphic images and half-human, half-animal images in the Upper Paleolithic may further indicate that Upper Paleolithic humans were the first people to believe in a pantheon of gods or supernatural beings,[142] though such images may instead indicate shamanistic practices similar to those of contemporary tribal societies.[128] 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 BP) in what is now the Czech Republic.[121] However, during the early Upper Paleolithic it was probably more common for all members of the band to participate equally and fully in religious ceremonies, 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.[23]

Religion was possibly apotropaic; specifically, it may have involved sympathetic magic.[47] The Venus figurines, which are abundant in the Upper Paleolithic archaeological record, provide an example of possible Paleolithic sympathetic magic, as they may have been used for ensuring success in hunting and to bring about fertility of the land and women.[3] The Upper Paleolithic Venus figurines have sometimes been explained as depictions of an earth goddess similar to Gaia, or as representations of a goddess who is the ruler or mother of the animals.[103][143] James Harrod has described them as representative of female (and male) shamanistic spiritual transformation processes.[144]

See also

References

  1. ^ Christian, David (2014). Big History: Between Nothing and Everything. New York: McGraw Hill Education. p. 93.
  2. ^ a b Toth, Nicholas; Schick, Kathy (2007). "21 Overview of Paleolithic Archeology". In Henke, H. C. Winfried; Hardt, Thorolf; Tatersall, Ian (eds.). Handbook of Paleoanthropology. Vol. 3. Berlin; Heidelberg; New York: Springer. pp. 1943–1963. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-33761-4_64. ISBN 978-3-540-32474-4.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l McClellan (2006). Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 6–12. ISBN 978-0-8018-8360-6.
  4. ^ a b c d e Contributed by Richard B. Potts, B.A., Ph.D. "Human Evolution". Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007. Archived from the original on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 12 March 2008.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ a b Lieberman, Philip (1991). Uniquely Human. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-92183-2.
  6. ^ a b Kusimba, Sibel (2003). African Foragers: Environment, Technology, Interactions. Rowman Altamira. p. 285. ISBN 978-0-7591-0154-8.
  7. ^ a b Weinstock, John. "Sami Prehistory Revisited: transactions, admixture and assimilation in the phylogeographic picture of Scandinavia". University of Texas.
  8. ^ Goebel, Ted; Waters, Michael R.; O'Rourke, Dennis H. (14 March 2008). "The Late Pleistocene Dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas" (PDF). Science. 319 (5869): 1497–502. Bibcode:2008Sci...319.1497G. doi:10.1126/science.1153569. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 18339930. S2CID 36149744. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 September 2017. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  9. ^ Bennett, Matthew R.; Bustos, David; Pigati, Jeffrey S.; Springer, Kathleen B.; Urban, Thomas M.; Holliday, Vance T.; Reynolds, Sally C.; Budka, Marcin; Honke, Jeffrey S.; Hudson, Adam M.; Fenerty, Brendan; Connelly, Clare; Martinez, Patrick J.; Santucci, Vincent L.; Odess, Daniel (23 September 2021). "Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum". Science. 373 (6562): 1528–1531. Bibcode:2021Sci...373.1528B. doi:10.1126/science.abg7586. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 34554787. S2CID 237616125.
  10. ^ Lubbock, John (2005) [1872]. "4". Pre-Historic Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages. Williams and Norgate. p. 75. ISBN 978-1421270395 – via Elibron Classics.
  11. ^ "The Pleistocene Epoch". University of California Museum of Paleontology. Archived from the original on 24 August 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
  12. ^ a b "University of California Museum of Paleontology website the Pliocene epoch". University of California Museum of Paleontology. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  13. ^ a b Scotese, Christopher. "Paleomap project". The Earth has been in an Ice House Climate for the last 30 million years. Retrieved 23 March 2008.
  14. ^ Van Andel, Tjeerd H. (1994). New Views on an Old Planet: A History of Global Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 454. ISBN 978-0-521-44243-5.
  15. ^ Six Degrees Could Change The World Mark Lynas interview. National Geographic Channel.
  16. ^ "University of California Museum of Paleontology website the Pleistocene epoch(accessed March 25)". University of California Museum of Paleontology. Archived from the original on 7 February 2010. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  17. ^ a b c d Johnson, Kimberly. "Climate Change, Then Humans, Drove Mammoths Extinct from National Geographic". National Geographic news. Archived from the original on April 5, 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2008.
  18. ^ Nowak, Ronald M. (1999). Walker's Mammals of the World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-5789-8.
  19. ^ "Phylogeographic Analysis of the mid-Holocene Mammoth from Qagnax Cave, St. Paul Island, Alaska" (PDF). Harvard University.
  20. ^ Gamble, Clive (1990). El poblamiento Paleolítico de Europa [The Paleolithic settlement of Europe] (in Spanish). Barcelona: Editorial Crítica. ISBN 84-7423-445-X.
  21. ^ Musée de Préhistoire Terra Amata. "Le site acheuléen de Terra Amata" [The Acheulean site of Terra Amata]. Musée de Préhistoire Terra Amata (in French). Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  22. ^ a b c d e Stavrianos, Leften Stavros (1997). Lifelines from Our Past: A New World History. New Jersey: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-13-357005-2. pp. 9–13 p. 70
  23. ^ a b c d e f g Stavrianos, Leften Stavros (1991). A Global History from Prehistory to the Present. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 9–13. ISBN 978-0-13-357005-2.
  24. ^ a b c "The Consequences of Domestication and Sedentism by Emily Schultz, et al". Primitivism.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2009. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  25. ^ Armesto, Felipe Fernandez (2003). Ideas that changed the world. New York: Dorling Kindersley limited. pp. 10, 400. ISBN 978-0-7566-3298-4.
  26. ^ a b c d e Hillary Mayell. "When Did "Modern" Behavior Emerge in Humans?". National Geographic News. Archived from the original on August 13, 2005. Retrieved 5 February 2008.
  27. ^ Roebroeks, Wil; Villa, Paola (14 March 2011). "On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe". PNAS. 108 (13): 5209–5214. Bibcode:2011PNAS..108.5209R. doi:10.1073/pnas.1018116108. PMC 3069174. PMID 21402905.
  28. ^ Ewen, Callaway (22 September 2011). "First Aboriginal genome sequenced". Nature News. doi:10.1038/news.2011.551.
  29. ^ Bocquet-Appel, Jean-Pierre; et al. (2005). "Estimates of Upper Palaeolithic meta-population size in Europe from archaeological data" (PDF). Journal of Archaeological Science. 32 (11): 1656–1668. Bibcode:2005JArSc..32.1656B. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2005.05.006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
  30. ^ "More surprises about Palaeolithic humans". Cosmos Magazine. 29 September 2020.
  31. ^ McClellan, James E.; Dorn, Harold (2006). Science and Technology in World History. United States: The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 13.
  32. ^ Semaw, Sileshi (2000). "The World's Oldest Stone Artefacts from Gona, Ethiopia: Their Implications for Understanding Stone Technology and Patterns of Human Evolution Between 2.6–1.5 Million Years Ago". Journal of Archaeological Science. 27 (12): 1197–214. Bibcode:2000JArSc..27.1197S. doi:10.1006/jasc.1999.0592. S2CID 1490212.
  33. ^ Klein, R. (1999). The Human Career. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226439631.
  34. ^ "Oldowan Stone Tools".
  35. ^ Roche, Hélène; Brugal, Jean-Philip; Delagnes, Anne; Feibel, Craig; Harmand, Sonia; Kibunjia, Mzalendo; Prat, Sandrine; Texier, Pierre-Jean (2003). "Les sites archéologiques plio-pléistocènes de la formation de Nachukui, Ouest-Turkana, Kenya: bilan synthétique 1997-2001" [The Plio-Pleistocene archaeological sites of the Nachukui formation, West-Turkana, Kenya: summary report 1997-2001] (PDF). Palevol Reports (in French). 2 (8): 663–673. Bibcode:2003CRPal...2..663R. doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2003.06.001.
  36. ^ Clark, JD, Variability in primary and secondary technologies of the Later Acheulian in Africa in Milliken, S and Cook, J (eds), 2001
  37. ^ Weiss, Rick (22 February 2007). "Chimps Observed Making Their Own Weapons". The Washington Post.
  38. ^ a b c d e f Marlowe, F.W. (2005). "Hunter-gatherers and human evolution" (PDF). Evolutionary Anthropology. 14 (2): 15294. doi:10.1002/evan.20046. S2CID 53489209. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 May 2008. Retrieved 11 April 2008.
  39. ^ a b Wrangham R, Conklin-Brittain N (September 2003). "Cooking as a biological trait" (PDF). Comp Biochem Physiol A. 136 (1): 35–46. doi:10.1016/S1095-6433(03)00020-5. PMID 14527628. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 May 2005.
  40. ^ Wrangham, R.W. 2009. Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. Basic Books, New York.
  41. ^ Johns, T.A., Kubo, I. 1988. A survey of traditional methods employed for the detoxification of plant foods. Journal of Ethnobiology 8, 81–129.
  42. ^ Speth, J.D., 2015. When did humans learn to boil. PaleoAnthropology, 2015, pp.54-67.
  43. ^ Mousterian Brace 1997: 545
  44. ^ Movius Jr, H.L., 1966. The hearths of the Upper Perigordian and Aurignacian horizons at the Abri Pataud, Les Eyzies (Dordogne), and their possible significance. American Anthropologist, pp.296-325.
  45. ^ a b c "First Mariners Project Photo Gallery 1". Mc2.vicnet.net.au. Archived from the original on 25 October 2009. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  46. ^ "First Mariners – National Geographic project 2004". Mc2.vicnet.net.au. 2 October 2004. Archived from the original on 26 October 2009. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  47. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Miller, Barbra; Wood, Bernard; Balansky, Andrew; Mercader, Julio; Panger, Melissa (2006). Anthropology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. p. 768. ISBN 978-0-205-32024-0.
  48. ^ "Human Evolution," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007 Archived 2008-04-08 at the Wayback Machine Contributed by Richard B. Potts, B.A., Ph.D.
  49. ^ a b Ann Parson. "Neanderthals Hunted as Well as Humans, Study Says". National Geographic News. Archived from the original on February 17, 2006. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
  50. ^ Boëda, E.; Geneste, J.M.; Griggo, C.; Mercier, N.; Muhesen, S.; Reyss, J.L.; Taha, A.; Valladas, H. (1999). "A Levallois point embedded in the vertebra of a wild ass (Equus africanus): Hafting, projectiles and Mousterian hunting". Antiquity. 73 (280): 394–402. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00088335. S2CID 163560577.
  51. ^ Balbirnie, Cameron (10 May 2005). "The icy truth behind Neanderthals". BBC News. Retrieved 1 April 2008.
  52. ^ J. Chavaillon, D. Lavallée, « Bola », in Dictionnaire de la Préhistoire, PUF, 1988.
  53. ^ Wickler, Stephen. "Prehistoric Melanesian Exchange and Interaction: Recent Evidence from the Northern Solomon Islands" (PDF). Asian Perspectives. 29 (2): 135–154.
  54. ^ a b Lloyd, J & Mitchinson, J: "The Book of General Ignorance". Faber & Faber, 2006.
  55. ^ Mellot, Christine. "Stalking the ancient dog" (PDF). Science news. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
  56. ^ a b Armesto, Felipe Fernandez (2003). Ideas that changed the world. New York: Dorling Kindersley limited. p. 400. ISBN 978-0-7566-3298-4.; [1][permanent dead link]
  57. ^ a b c d "Stone Age," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007 Archived 2009-11-01 at the Wayback Machine Contributed by Kathy Schick, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. and Nicholas Toth, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
  58. ^ a b William Cocke. "First Wine? Archaeologist Traces Drink to Stone Age". National Geographic News. Archived from the original on July 24, 2004. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
  59. ^ Gowlett JAJ (2003). "What actually was the Stone Age Diet?" (PDF). J Nutr Environ Med. 13 (3): 143–47. doi:10.1080/13590840310001619338.
  60. ^ Weiss E, Wetterstrom W, Nadel D, Bar-Yosef O (June 29, 2004). "The broad spectrum revisited: Evidence from plant remains". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 101 (26): 9551–55. Bibcode:2004PNAS..101.9551W. doi:10.1073/pnas.0402362101. PMC 470712. PMID 15210984.
  61. ^ Richards, MP (December 2002). "A brief review of the archaeological evidence for Palaeolithic and Neolithic subsistence". Eur J Clin Nutr. 56 (12): 1270–78. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601646. PMID 12494313.
  62. ^ Johanson, Donald; Blake, Edgar (2006). From Lucy to Language: Revised, Updated, and Expanded. Berlin: Simon & Schuster. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-0743280648.
  63. ^ Hart, Donna; Sussman, Robert W. (2005). Man the Hunted. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-8133-3936-8.
  64. ^ Lovgren, Stefan (31 August 2005). "Chimps, Humans 96 Percent the Same, Gene Study Finds". National Geographic. Archived from the original on September 5, 2005. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
  65. ^ "Chimp hunting and flesh-eating".
  66. ^ "Chimpanzees 'hunt using spears'". BBC News. 22 February 2007.
  67. ^ "The Predatory Behavior and Ecology of Wild Chimpanzees". Archived from the original on 6 June 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  68. ^ Milton, Katharine (1999). "A hypothesis to explain the role of meat-eating in human evolution" (PDF). Evolutionary Anthropology. 8 (1): 11–21. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1520-6505(1999)8:1<11::AID-EVAN6>3.0.CO;2-M. S2CID 86221120.
  69. ^ Aiello, Leslie C.; Wheeler, Peter (1995). "The expensive-tissue hypothesis" (PDF). Current Anthropology. 36 (2): 199–221. doi:10.1086/204350. S2CID 144317407. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-05-17. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
  70. ^ Cordain, L. (2006). "Implications of Plio-Pleistocene Hominin Diets for Modern Humans" (PDF). In Ungar, P. (ed.). Early Hominin Diets: The Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 363–383. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 February 2008.
  71. ^ a b Dahlberg, Frances (1975). Woman the Gatherer. London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-02989-5.
  72. ^ Nature's Magic: Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind By Peter Corning
  73. ^ Laden G, Wrangham R (October 2005). "The rise of the hominids as an adaptive shift in fallback foods: plant underground storage organs (USOs) and australopith origins" (PDF). Journal of Human Evolution. 49 (4): 482–98. Bibcode:2005JHumE..49..482L. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2005.05.007. PMID 16085279. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 September 2008.
  74. ^ Wrangham RW, Jones JH, Laden G, Pilbeam D, Conklin-Brittain N (December 1999). "The Raw and the Stolen. Cooking and the Ecology of Human Origins". Current Anthropology. 40 (5): 567–94. doi:10.1086/300083. PMID 10539941. S2CID 82271116.[permanent dead link]
  75. ^ Yeakel JD, Bennett NC, Koch PL, Dominy NJ (July 2007). "The isotopic ecology of African mole rats informs hypotheses on the evolution of human diet" (PDF). Proc Biol Sci. 274 (1619): 1723–1730. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.0330. PMC 2493578. PMID 17472915. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 September 2008. Retrieved 10 August 2008.
  76. ^ Hernandez-Aguilar RA, Moore J, Pickering TR (December 2007). "Savanna chimpanzees use tools to harvest the underground storage organs of plants". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 104 (49): 19210–19213. doi:10.1073/pnas.0707929104. PMC 2148269. PMID 18032604.
  77. ^ Eaton, S. Boyd; Eaton III, Stanley B.; Sinclair, Andrew J.; Cordain, Loren; Mann, Neil J. (1998). Dietary intake of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids during the Paleolithic (PDF). World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics. Vol. 83. pp. 12–23. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.691.6953. doi:10.1159/000059672. ISBN 978-3-8055-6694-0. PMID 9648501. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 May 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2014. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  78. ^ Gowlet, J. A. J. (September 2003). "What actually was the stone age diet?" (PDF). Journal of Environmental Medicine. 13 (3): 143–147. doi:10.1080/13590840310001619338. Retrieved 4 May 2008.)
  79. ^ Diamond, Jared (1992). The third chimpanzee: the evolution and future of the human animal. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780060984038.
  80. ^ a b Russell, Sharman Apt (2006). Hunger an unnatural history. Basic books. ISBN 978-0-465-07165-4.[permanent dead link] p. 2
  81. ^ a b c Jared Diamond. "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race". Discover. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  82. ^ Milton, Katharine (2002). "Hunter-gatherer diets: wild foods signal relief from diseases of affluence (PDF)" (PDF). In Ungar, Peter S.; Teaford, Mark F. (eds.). Human Diet: Its Origins and Evolution. Westport, CN: Bergin and Garvey. pp. 111–22. ISBN 978-0-89789-736-5.
  83. ^ Larsen, Clark Spencer (1 November 2003). "Animal source foods and human health during evolution". Journal of Nutrition. 133 (11, Suppl 2): 3893S – 97S. doi:10.1093/jn/133.11.3893S. PMID 14672287.
  84. ^ Cordain L, Eaton SB, Sebastian A, Mann N, Lindeberg S, Watkins BA, O'Keefe JH, Brand-Miller J (2005). "Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century". The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 81 (2): 341–354. doi:10.1093/ajcn.81.2.341. PMID 15699220.
  85. ^ Thorburn AW, Brand JC, Truswell AS (1 January 1987). "Slowly digested and absorbed carbohydrate in traditional bushfoods: a protective factor against diabetes?". The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 45 (1): 98–106. doi:10.1093/ajcn/45.1.98. PMID 3541565.
  86. ^ Kaplan, Hillard; Hill, Kim; Lancaster, Jane & Hurtado, A. Magdalena (2000). "A Theory of Human Life History Evolution: Diet, Intelligence and Longevity" (PDF). Evolutionary Anthropology. 9 (4): 156–85. doi:10.1002/1520-6505(2000)9:4<156::AID-EVAN5>3.0.CO;2-7. S2CID 2363289. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
  87. ^ Caspari, Rachel & Lee, Sang-Hee (27 July 2004). "Older age becomes common late in human evolution". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101 (20): 10895–900. doi:10.1073/pnas.0402857101. PMC 503716. PMID 15252198.
  88. ^ Lev, Efraim; Kislev, Mordechai E.; Bar-Yosef, Ofer (March 2005). "Mousterian vegetal food in Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel". Journal of Archaeological Science. 32 (3): 475–84. Bibcode:2005JArSc..32..475L. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2004.11.006.
  89. ^ Revedin, Anna; Aranguren, B.; Becattini, R.; Longo, L.; Marconi, E.; Lippi, M.M.; Skakun, N.; Sinitsyn, A.; et al. (2010). "Thirty thousand-year-old evidence of plant food processing". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 107 (44): 18815–19. Bibcode:2010PNAS..10718815R. doi:10.1073/pnas.1006993107. PMC 2973873. PMID 20956317.
  90. ^ Lindeberg, Staffan (June 2005). "Palaeolithic diet ("stone age" diet)". Scandinavian Journal of Food & Nutrition. 49 (2): 75–77. doi:10.1080/11026480510032043.
  91. ^ Academic American Encyclopedia By Grolier Incorporated (1994). Academic American Encyclopedia By Grolier Incorporated. University of Michigan: Grolier Academic Reference.; p 61
  92. ^ a b Kiefer, Thomas M. (Spring 2002). "Anthropology E-20". Lecture 8 Subsistence, Ecology and Food production. Harvard University. Archived from the original on 10 April 2008. Retrieved 11 March 2008.
  93. ^ Snir, Ainit; Nadel, Dani; Groman-Yaroslavski, Iris; Melamed, Yoel; Sternberg, Marcelo; Bar-Yosef, Ofer; Weiss, Ehud (2015-07-22). "The Origin of Cultivation and Proto-Weeds, Long Before Neolithic Farming". PLOS ONE. 10 (7): e0131422. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1031422S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0131422. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 4511808. PMID 26200895.
  94. ^ "First evidence of farming in Mideast 23,000 years ago: Evidence of earliest small-scale agricultural cultivation". ScienceDaily. Archived from the original on 23 April 2022. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
  95. ^ Jaouen, Klervia; et al. (19 February 2019). "Exceptionally high δ15N values in collagen single amino acids confirm Neandertals as high-trophic level carnivores". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 116 (11): 4928–4933. Bibcode:2019PNAS..116.4928J. doi:10.1073/pnas.1814087116. PMC 6421459. PMID 30782806.
  96. ^ Yika, Bob (19 February 2019). "Isotopes found in bones suggest Neanderthals were fresh meat eaters". Phys.org. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  97. ^ Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (19 February 2019). "Neanderthals' main food source was definitely meat – Isotope analyses performed on single amino acids in Neanderthals' collagen samples shed new light on their debated diet". Science Daily. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  98. ^ Wilford, John Noble (18 October 2007). "Key Human Traits Tied to Shellfish Remains". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 March 2008.
  99. ^ "African Bone Tools Dispute Key Idea About Human Evolution". National Geographic News. Archived from the original on January 17, 2006.
  100. ^ a b Bahn, Paul (1996) "The atlas of world archeology" Copyright 2000 The Brown Reference Group PLC
  101. ^ Tim D. White (2006). Once were Cannibals. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-74269-4. Retrieved 2008-02-14. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  102. ^ Owen, James. "Neandertals Turned to Cannibalism, Bone Cave Suggests". National Geographic News. Archived from the original on December 8, 2006. Retrieved 3 February 2008.
  103. ^ a b c d e f Narr, Karl J. "Prehistoric religion". Britannica online encyclopedia 2008. Archived from the original on 9 April 2008. Retrieved 28 March 2008.
  104. ^ Pathou-Mathis, M. (2000). "Neanderthal subsistence behaviours in Europe". International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. 10 (5): 379–395. doi:10.1002/1099-1212(200009/10)10:5<379::AID-OA558>3.0.CO;2-4.
  105. ^ "Prehistoric Dining: The Real Paleo Diet". National Geographic. 22 April 2014. Archived from the original on 4 August 2017. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
  106. ^ a b Nancy White. "Intro to archeology The First People and Culture". Introduction to archeology. Archived from the original on 2012-10-09. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
  107. ^ Urquhart, James (8 August 2007). "Finds test human origins theory". BBC News. Retrieved 20 March 2008.
  108. ^ a b c Christopher Boehm (1999) "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" pp. 198–208 Harvard University Press
  109. ^ a b c Henahan, Sean. "Blombos Cave art". Science News. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  110. ^ Christopher Boehm (1999) "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" p. 198 Harvard University Press
  111. ^ a b Gutrie, R. Dale (2005). The Nature of Paleolithic art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-31126-5. pp. 420-22
  112. ^ a b c Ehrenreich, Barbara (1997). Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-8050-5787-4. p. 123
  113. ^ a b Kelly, Raymond (October 2005). "The evolution of lethal intergroup violence". PNAS. 102 (43): 15294–98. Bibcode:2005PNAS..10215294K. doi:10.1073/pnas.0505955102. PMC 1266108. PMID 16129826.
  114. ^ Kelly, Raymond C. Warless societies and the origin of war. Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2000.
  115. ^ Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1848). The Communist Manifesto. London. pp. 71, 87. ISBN 978-1-59986-995-7.[permanent dead link]
  116. ^ Rigby, Stephen Henry (1999). Marxism and History: A Critical Introduction. Manchester University Press. pp. 111, 314. ISBN 0-7190-5612-8.
  117. ^ Christopher Boehm (1999) "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" p. 192 Harvard university press
  118. ^ a b Stefan Lovgren. "Sex-Based Roles Gave Modern Humans an Edge, Study Says". National Geographic News. Archived from the original on December 10, 2006. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
  119. ^ Stavrianos, Leften Stavros (1991). A Global History from Prehistory to the Present. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-357005-2. the sexes were more equal during Paleolithic millennia than at any time since. p. 9
  120. ^ a b Museum of Antiquites web site Archived 2007-11-21 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved February 13, 2008.
  121. ^ a b c Tedlock, Barbara. 2005. The Woman in the Shaman's Body: Reclaiming the Feminine in Religion and Medicine. New York: Bantam.
  122. ^ Jonathan Amos (2004-04-15). "Cave yields 'earliest jewellery'". BBC News. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
  123. ^ Hillary Mayell. "Oldest Jewelry? "Beads" Discovered in African Cave". National Geographic News. Archived from the original on April 16, 2004. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
  124. ^ "Human Evolution," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007 Archived 2009-10-31 at the Wayback Machine Contributed by Richard B. Potts, B.A., Ph.D.
  125. ^ a b Robert G. Bednarik. "Beads and the origins of symbolism". Archived from the original on 2018-10-26. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  126. ^ Klein, Richard G. (22 March 2002). The Dawn of Human Culture. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-25252-2.
  127. ^ a b c d "Paleolithic Art". Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2007. Archived from the original on 14 March 2008. Retrieved 20 March 2008.
  128. ^ a b c Clottes, Jean. "Shamanism in Prehistory". Bradshaw foundation. Archived from the original on 30 April 2008. Retrieved 11 March 2008.
  129. ^ a b McDermott, LeRoy (1996). "Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines". Current Anthropology. 37 (2): 227–275. doi:10.1086/204491. JSTOR 2744349. S2CID 144914396.
  130. ^ R. Dale Guthrie, The Nature of Paleolithic Art. University of Chicago Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-226-31126-5. Preface.
  131. ^ Stone, Merlin (1978). When God Was a Woman. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-15-696158-5.
  132. ^ Gimbutas, Marija (1991). The Civilization of the Goddess. HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 978-0062508041.
  133. ^ Bücher, Karl. Trabajo y ritmo [Work and rhythm] (in Spanish). Madrid: Biblioteca Científico-Filosófica.
  134. ^ Darwin, Charles (May 1998). The origin of man. Edimat books, S.A. ISBN 84-8403-034-2.
  135. ^ Nelson, D.E., Radiocarbon dating of bone and charcoal from Divje babe I cave, cited by Morley, p. 47
  136. ^ "About OriginsNet by James Harrod". Originsnet.org. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  137. ^ "Appendices for chimpanzee spirituality by James Harrod" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 May 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  138. ^ a b Fallio, Vincent W. (2006). New Developments in Consciousness Research. New York: Nova Publishers. pp. 98–109. ISBN 978-1-60021-247-5.
  139. ^ "Oldowan Art, Religion, Symbols, Mind by James Harrod". Originsnet.org. Archived from the original on 10 March 2010. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  140. ^ Wunn, Ina (2000). "Beginning of Religion". Numen. 47 (4): 434–435. doi:10.1163/156852700511612.
  141. ^ Robbins, Lawrence H.; Campbell, Alec C.; Brook, George A.; Murphy, Michael L. (June 2007). "World's Oldest Ritual Site? The "Python Cave" at Tsodilo Hills World Heritage Site, Botswana" (PDF). NYAME AKUMA, the Bulletin of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (67). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 1 December 2010.
  142. ^ Steven Mithen (1996). The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-05081-1.
  143. ^ Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, "Women in the Stone Age Archived 2010-08-01 at the Wayback Machine", in the essay "The Venus of Willendorf" . Retrieved March 13, 2008.
  144. ^ "Upper Paleolithic Art, Religion, Symbols, Mind By James Harrod". Originsnet.org. Archived from the original on 2010-03-08. Retrieved 2010-01-31.