Cro-Magnon Europe

GES-121

 

 

Europe was a very different world during the last ice age.

 

The Ice Sheets


            Scandinavian Ice Sheet

            Barents Sea Ice Sheet

            Kara Sea Ice Sheet

            Alpine ice mass

 

Review Concepts


            Domes are topographic highs on ice sheets with ice flow radially outward. Domes are connected by divides. A flowline represents the theoretical path a piece of ice would take as it journeys from its origin to the edge of the ice sheet. Ice sheets come in two types - marine-based and terrestrial.

 

Scandinavian Ice Sheet


            4.5 million square kilometers, extending to 52 S

Covered all of Scandinavia, Finland, northern Germany, Denmark, Poland, Baltic States, northeastern Russia

 

            North margin - convergent with Barents Sea Ice Sheet

            South and east margins - ended on land, marked by moraines and ice-dammed lakes

            West margin - convergent with ice cap over Britain (at maximum), ended in ocean

 

Baltic Ice Lake - freshwater lake that formed after retreat of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet north across the Baltic

 

Barents Sea Ice Sheet


            Existence wasn't proven until relatively late; centered over the continental shelf - a                         marine-based ice sheet

            Relative sea-level curves and isobases of uplift were key in proving its former existence

Relative sea-level curves show the amount of rise in the land (isostatic rebound) relative to the rise in sea level. The land was rising due to rebound, but the sea also was rising due to eustatic (global) sea-level change. Isobases connect points of equal relative sea-level change. The highest isobases, representing the greatest rebound, generally mark the center of the ice sheet where ice is thickest.

 

            South margin - merged with Scandinavian Ice Sheet

            East margin - merged with Kara Sea Ice Sheet

            North and west - ended in ocean


Kara Sea Ice Sheet

            Another marine-based ice sheet

 

Alpine ice mass  - Switzerland

           

Sea Level

            120 m lower than today at LGM

            dry land between England and France, Italy and Sicily

 

Vegetation and Climate Zones

Polar desert - frigid and dry, katabatic winds, cover sands, loess, ventifacts, little vegetation

            tundra - treeless plain, sparse vegetation, grasses, mosses, permafrost

            steppe - dry grassland

 

            No real trees north of Alps, trees mostly confined to Mediterranean region

            10 to -15 C colder in winter

 

Mammals

            high diversity and unique combinations due to compressed climate and vegetation zones

 

            Arctic species - muskox, reindeer, wolverine, arctic fox

            temperate species - red deer, aurochs, boar, wolf, bear

            tropical species - hyena, leopard, lion

            steppe species - saiga antelope, horse, bison

            mountain species - ibex, chamois

            megafauna - mammoth, woolly rhino, Irish elk         

 

The Arrival of Modern Humans

            ~40,000 yr ago - arrival of Cro-Magnons in Europe

            Discovered 1868 in Cro-Magnon rock shelter, France

Europe already populated with Neanderthals; two populations coexisted for as much as 10,000 years, then the Neanderthals were either wiped out or they were assimilated.

 

Arrival of modern humans produced widespread changes in European culture

 

Settlement Patterns

Settlements were much larger than those of earlier populations and there were more of them

            Large concentration along the Mediterranean coast - but present all over Europe

            Rock shelters, caves, open-air camps

On eastern plains, some settlements had long houses with multiple hearths; other houses were made of mammoth bones

 

            Hunting Patterns

Specialized in large, migratory animals; concentrated their settlements along migration paths

 

Technology

            Used new blade technology for producing tools

            Invented spear thrower, needles, and other tools

 

Rise of Art

            Early stage - cave paintings with sexual or fertility themes, hand stencils, dots and lines

            ~23-29 ka - Venus figurines

            <23 ka - widespread cave paintings of animals

            Also large amounts of portable art are associated with Cro-Magnons, including jewelry

 

            90% of known cave paintings are from the south of France and northern Spain.

            largely portrays animals, specifically game animals

            humans rarely portrayed

           

            reasons for cave art not well understood

            1) hunting magic?

            2) record of events?

            3) ritualistic rites of passage?

 

End of the Paleolithic

            The end of the ice age brought about a change in the European environment which would have affected Cro-Magnon people. Europe became forested, which caused a sharp reduction in the number and size of herds of migratory animals. The number of settlement sites dropped and their size also seems to have been smaller. Cave painting ended.