12.1: Culture/Behavior
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Early Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) arose and lived during the latter part of the Pleistocene Epoch, which was characterized by intermittent glacial and interglacial periods. They ventured into northern latitudes by ~50 kya and stayed and survived in extreme conditions during the period prior to, during, and after the last glacial maximum. Populations that stayed in Africa and other warm regions would certainly have continued with life as usual in the absence of climatic upheaval.
Until the advent of agriculture and the beginning of the modern geological epoch (i.e., the Holocene) approximately 10 kya, humans were mobile to semi-sedentary foragers. They exploited whatever flora and fauna were native and available in the various regions they inhabited and colonized, from mastodons in the far north to wallabies in the far south of the Old World. We really do not need to discuss much about how AMH made a living because we have living and historic examples in the ethnographic record to show us how people lived and adapted, even to environmental extremes, from the cold of the Arctic to the deserts of the world.
We know that ~30 kya, a warming trend occurred that lasted several thousand years. As glacial ice retreated, prime grazing land opened and spread from Spain to Siberia. As large game expanded their geographical range, so did humans and other predators. Human population numbers increased as groups spread throughout the habitable landmass. However, as the last glacial maximum approached, ice reclaimed the land and humans were once again restricted in their range and movements.
public domain.
The vegetation map (Figure above) shows what the world was like beginning about 20 kya (thousand years ago), during the last glacial maximum. By that time, AMH were living in Africa, Eurasia, island chains southeast of Asia, and Australia and the surrounding islands. A short time later, they ventured into the New World.
We certainly know that early humans had spoken language, and it would have facilitated their survival via group memory and tradition as well as problem-solving. They were qualitatively different than the Neanderthals, and their modes of communication were likely more advanced. Modern languages can be traced, showing their spread and evolution over time and geographic space. Some of the symbols that have survived from Paleolithic times, such as dots, dashes, and hand-prints, may have conveyed information. The same may be said for depictions of animals, humans, and hunting on cave walls (see below).
We have a record of Stone Age populations whose way of life disappeared within my lifetime, such as Australian Aborigines and Amazonian Indians. Like modern foragers, population density would have been low, and life ranged from easy to hard, depending on the availability of resources, seasons, and climatic patterns and disasters. One estimate of mortality rates has 50% of people dying before 20 years of age, few females living beyond 30, and only 12% living beyond the age of 40.
Culture/ Behavior
Beginning ~25 kya, a cultural and symbolic explosion is evident in the archaeological record of Western Europe, possibly in response to the increasingly cold temperatures, such as if they spent more time inside caves or were performing rituals aimed at increasing their survival. The Cro-Magnon/ Aurignacian people are known for their cave art and sculptures (see Figure). The Figure illustrates the incredible number of sites where early AMH art has been found. There are 150 sites in southwest France alone.
Common cave art themes are fauna; hunting; hands; dots and lines; some humans; and the occasional human costumed as an animal and sometimes dancing, such as “The Sorcerer” (see Figures). Men appear alone or in groups, but women are never pictured alone. Drawings of male and female genitalia are reported from multiple sites.
A famous Spanish cave site is Altamira (15 kya) (see Figure below). The cave is about one kilometer long (Chivers, 2004) and contains polychromatic renderings of large mammals, especially bison, and human hand prints.
It is of interest that some of the most magnificent animal art is located in the most acoustically resonant areas within caves. It conjures images of our ancestors having special ceremonies or gatherings. Some musical instruments have survived in the form of bone flutes, percussion instruments, and a possible lithiphone (a stone xylophone). Their music would have been amplified, and with the addition of flickering flames, the wall images would have seemingly come alive!
AMH invented pottery, with the earliest evidence being fired-clay animals from the Czech Republic. The most famous sculptures are the Venus figurines (i.e. fertility goddesses) that have been found from Western Europe to Siberia. They are usually clay or stone depictions (also wood, bone, and ivory) of obese women with pronounced breasts and buttocks. They were originally thought to have been produced by men for fertility purposes.
A more recent interpretation is that they were self-sculptures by women. That may explain why they were usually faceless and why body parts closest to the eyes were large and disproportionate compared with their tiny feet. Another idea suggests their use as obstetrical aids. Other sculptures were created via bas-relief on walls and rocks, which involves carving some dimensionality into the façade (see the Venus of Laussel, Figure), and there were also engraved tools, jewelry, and so forth.
In addition to murals and sculptures, early humans also decorated their tools and bodies. Ocher is found in burials and was likely used to color the body, just as seen in many modern indigenous groups. Depending on the mineral composition, ocher is found in a variety of colors: yellow, orange, rust, brown, etc. They also made and wore jewelry and decorated their clothes with beads. At the Sungir site near Moscow (see more in section on burial practices), two children and an old man were buried in garments that were covered with thousands of ivory beads, thought to have taken an hour each to produce.
The earliest intentional burials that have been discovered for AMH are from the Middle East and dated to 120–80 kya. As mentioned, they not only buried their dead but also included grave goods and decorated the bodies in ritual fashion. Some Paleolithic cultures cremated remains. Mass burials have been found at some sites. Burial practices included placing the body in a flexed position, as the Neanderthals did, or supine and, in a few instances, covered with a slab of rock.
Two interesting burials were found at Italian and Russian sites. At the site of Grotte des Enfants, Italy, two youngsters were decorated with hundreds of shells and pierced animal teeth. At the famous site of Sungir near Moscow, three interesting burials were found. In one grave, a nine-year-old and a twelve- or thirteen-year-old were buried together. They were flanked by two mammoth bone spears.
The tusks would have had to have been boiled in a pit of water, using hot rocks, in order to straighten them. Ten thousand beads were sewn to their clothes, and the bodies were decorated with hundreds of perforated fox canines (remember that each fox has only four large canines!), carved ivory animals, pins, and pendants. They were placed on a bed of ocher. A 40-year-old man was also honored in death. His clothes were also decorated with thousands of beads, and he wore ivory bracelets. He too was placed on a bed of ocher.
