Epigravettian

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Epigravettian
Europe20000ya.png
European LGM refuges, c. 20,000 BP
   Solutrean    Epigravettian
Alternative namesTardigravettian
Geographical range Southern and Eastern Europe
PeriodLate Upper Paleolithic
Dates~21,000 – 10,000 cal. BP [1]
Type site None (because likely a continuation of the Gravettian)
Major sites Paglicci, Arene Candide, Riparo Tagliente  [ de ], Dolní Věstonice
Preceded by Gravettian
Followed by Magdalenian, Mesolithic cultures
Defined by Georges Laplace  [ fr ], 1958 (broader-than-modern meaning) [2] Broglio, Laplace et al., 1963 (modern meaning, as “Tardigravettiano”) [3]

The Epigravettian (Greek: epi "above, on top of", and Gravettian) was one of the last archaeological industries and cultures of the European Upper Paleolithic. It emerged after the Last Glacial Maximum around ~21,000 cal. BP or 19,050 BC. It succeeds the Gravettian culture in Italy. Initially named Tardigravettian (Late Gravettian) in 1964 by Georges Laplace in reference to several lithic industries found in Italy, [4] it was later renamed in order to better emphasize its independent character.

Contents

Three subphases, the Early Epigravettian (20,000 to 16,000 BP), the Evolved Epigravettian (16,000 to 14,000 BP) and the Final Epigravettian (14,000 to 8,000 BP), have been established, that were further subdivided and reclassified. [5] [6] [7] In this sense, the Epigravettian is simply the Gravettian after ~21,000 BP,[ is this date calibrated? ] when the Solutrean had replaced the Gravettian in most of France and Spain.

Several Epigravettian cultural centers have developed contemporaneously after 22,000 years BP in Europe. These range across southern, central and most of eastern Europe, including southwestern France, Italy, Southeast Europe, the Caucasus, Ukraine and Western Russia to the banks of the Volga River.

Its lithic complex was first documented at numerous sites in Italy. Great geographical and local variability of the facies is present, however all sites are characterized by the predominance of microliths, such as backed blades, backed points, and bladelets with retouched end. [8]

The Epigravettian is the last stage of the Upper Paleolithic succeeded by Mesolithic cultures after 10,000 BP. [9]

In a genetic study published in Nature in May 2016, the remains of an Epigravettian male from Ripari Villabruna in Italy were examined. He carried the paternal haplogroup R1b1 and the maternal haplogroup U5b. An Epigravettian from the Satsurblia Cave in Georgia, who was examined in a previous study, has been found to be carrying the paternal haplogroup J1 and the maternal haplogroup K3. [10]

Analysis of Epigravettian producing individuals in Italy indicates that they not closely related to earlier Gravettian-producing inhabitants of the peninsula, and instead belong to the Villabruna genetic cluster. This group is more closely related to ancient and modern peoples in the Middle East and the Caucasus than earlier European Cro-Magnons. Epigravettian peoples belonging to the Western Hunter Gatherer genetic cluster expanded across Western Europe at the end of the Pleistocene, largely replacing the producers of the Magdalenian culture that previously dominated the region. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mesolithic</span> Prehistoric period, second part of the Stone Age

The Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously, especially for outside northern Europe, and for the corresponding period in the Levant and Caucasus. The Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It refers to the final period of hunter-gatherer cultures in Europe and the Middle East, between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic Revolution. In Europe it spans roughly 15,000 to 5,000 BP; in the Middle East roughly 20,000 to 10,000 BP. The term is less used of areas farther east, and not at all beyond Eurasia and North Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solutrean</span> Archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic

The Solutrean industry is a relatively advanced flint tool-making style of the Upper Paleolithic of the Final Gravettian, from around 22,000 to 17,000 BP. Solutrean sites have been found in modern-day France, Spain and Portugal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aurignacian</span> Upper Paleolithic culture of Europe

The Aurignacian is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with Early European modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the Levant, where the Emiran period and the Ahmarian period form the first periods of the Upper Paleolithic, corresponding to the first stages of the expansion of Homo sapiens out of Africa. They then migrated to Europe and created the first European culture of modern humans, the Aurignacian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gravettian</span> Archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic

The Gravettian was an archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic that succeeded the Aurignacian circa 33,000 years BP. It is archaeologically the last European culture many consider unified, and had mostly disappeared by c. 22,000 BP, close to the Last Glacial Maximum, although some elements lasted until c. 17,000 BP. In Spain and France, it was succeeded by the Solutrean and by the Epigravettian in Italy, the Balkans, Ukraine and Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magdalenian</span> Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic cultures

The Magdalenian cultures are later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in western Europe. They date from around 17,000 to 12,000 years ago. It is named after the type site of La Madeleine, a rock shelter located in the Vézère valley, commune of Tursac, in France's Dordogne department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Azilian</span> Mesolithic industry of the Franco-Cantabrian region

The Azilian is a Mesolithic industry of the Franco-Cantabrian region of northern Spain and Southern France. It dates approximately 10,000–12,500 years ago. Diagnostic artifacts from the culture include projectile points, crude flat bone harpoons and pebbles with abstract decoration. The latter were first found in the River Arize at the type-site for the culture, the Grotte du Mas d'Azil at Le Mas-d'Azil in the French Pyrenees. These are the main type of Azilian art, showing a great reduction in scale and complexity from the Magdalenian Art of the Upper Palaeolithic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Paleolithic</span> Subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age

The Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago, according to some theories coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity in early modern humans, until the advent of the Neolithic Revolution and agriculture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetic history of Europe</span>

The genetic history of Europe includes information around the formation, ethnogenesis, and other DNA-specific information about populations indigenous, or living in Europe.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cro-Magnon</span> Earliest anatomically modern humans in Europe

Cro-Magnons or European early modern humans (EEMH) were the first early modern humans to settle in Europe, migrating from western Asia, continuously occupying the continent possibly from as early as 56,800 years ago. They interacted and interbred with the indigenous Neanderthals of Europe and Western Asia, who went extinct 40,000 to 35,000 years ago. The first wave of modern humans in Europe left no genetic legacy to modern Europeans; however, from 37,000 years ago a second wave succeeded in forming a single founder population, from which all subsequent Cro-Magnons descended and which contributes ancestry to present-day Europeans. Cro-Magnons produced Upper Palaeolithic cultures, the first major one being the Aurignacian, which was succeeded by the Gravettian by 30,000 years ago. The Gravettian split into the Epi-Gravettian in the east and Solutrean in the west, due to major climatic degradation during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), peaking 21,000 years ago. As Europe warmed, the Solutrean evolved into the Magdalenian by 20,000 years ago, and these peoples recolonised Europe. The Magdalenian and Epi-Gravettian gave way to Mesolithic cultures as big game animals were dying out and the Last Glacial Period drew to a close.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ripari Villabruna</span> Cave and archaeological site in Italy

Ripari Villabruna is a small rock shelter in northern Italy with mesolithic burial remains. It contains several Cro-Magnon burials, with bodies and grave goods dated to 14,000 years BP. The site has added greatly to the understanding of the mesolithic development of medical and religious practises in early human communities.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satsurblia Cave</span> Cave and archaeological site in Georgia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western hunter-gatherer</span> Archaeogenetic name for an ancestral genetic component

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern hunter-gatherer</span> Archaeogenetic name for an ancestral genetic component

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References

  1. Cyril Montoya. "Apport de l'analyse technique à la compréhension de l'évolution des groupes humains épigravettiens d'Italie Nord Orientale: la production lithique de l'US 15a-65 du Riparo Dalmeri" (PDF). Université de Provence. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 7, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  2. G. Laplace. "Recherches sur l'origine et l'évolution des complexes leptolithiques. Le problème des Périgordiens I et II et l'hypothèse du synthétotype aurignaco-gravettien. Essai de typologie analytique". Quaternaria (in French). 4: 133–164.
  3. A. Broglio; G. Laplace; F. Zorzi. "I depositi quaternari di Ponte di Veia. Le industrie". Memorie del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona (in Italian). 11: 325–367.
  4. Laplace, Georges (1964). "Les subdivisions du Leptolithique italien. Étude de typologie analytique". Bullettino di Paletnologia Italiana. 73: 25–63.
  5. Margherita Mussi (11 April 2006). Earliest Italy: An Overview of the Italian Paleolithic and Mesolithic. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 238–. ISBN   978-0-306-47195-7.
  6. Giulia Ricci, Margarita Vadillo Conesa, Fabio Martini (2019). "Through diachronic discontinuities and regionalization: The contribution of the analysis of the lithic industries from Grotta della Serratura (Strata 10-9) in the definition of Epigravettian in the southern Italian peninsula". Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 24: 175–191. Bibcode:2019JArSR..24..175R. doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.11.038 .{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. "Epigravettian". Archaeology Wordsmith. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  8. Keiko Kitagawa, Marie-Anne Julien, Oleksandra Krotova, Alexander A. Bessudnov, Mikail V. Sablin, Dmytro Kiosak, Natalia Leonova, Boris Plohenko, Marylene Patou-Mathis. "Glacial and post-glacial adaptations of hunter-gatherers: Investigating the late Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic subsistence strategies in the southern steppe of Eastern Europe" (PDF). Unite Histoire Naturelle de l’Homme Prehistorique, Sorbonne Universités. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 7, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. Zdenka Nerudova. "ON SITE SETTLEMENT ACTIVITIES: THE EXAMPLE OF THE EPIGRAVETTIAN SITE OF BRNO-ŠTÝŘICE III (CZECH REPUBLIC)" (PDF). Moravian Museum, Anthropos Institute, Brno. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  10. Fu 2016.
  11. Posth, C., Yu, H., Ghalichi, A. (2023). "Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers". Nature . 615 (2 March 2023): 117–126. Bibcode:2023Natur.615..117P. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-05726-0. hdl: 10256/23099 . PMID   36859578.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. Farbstein, Rebecca; Radić, Dinko; Brajković, Dejana; Miracle, Preston T. (24 July 2012). "First Epigravettian Ceramic Figurines from Europe (Vela Spila, Croatia)". PLOS ONE. 7 (7): e41437. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...741437F. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0041437 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   3404104 . PMID   22848495.

Sources