Upper Paleolithic (SW France and N Spain)

Homo sapiens sapiens

….had “grown into” a wide variety of local habitats throughout theOld World by cultural adaptation.

Upper Paleolithic Sequence in Southwestern France and Northern Spain

Magdalenian 15,000-10,000BC

Chatelperronian 38,000-28,500BC

Aurignacian 28,500-22,000BC

Gravettian 22,000-18,000BC

Solutrean 18,000-15,000BC

By 40,000 Years Ago….

Altamira

Lascaux

Solutrian Laurel-leaf Points“Venus” figurines

Burins

Backed blades

Venus of WillendorfChatelperronian tools

Lascaux - southwestern France

In this panel of Back-to Back Bison, reserves around the limbs in the background, distortion of shapes, choice of surface, symmetrical composition, are all used to create a three dimensional effect...

Upper Paleolithic Art (ca. 12, 000 BP)

Altamira - northern Spain

Upper Paleolithic Art (ca. 12, 000 BP)

In this representation of a horse, red is ocher, black charcoal. Undulations in cave wall and ceiling were incorporated in the composition of the paintings.

Summary of Early Fossil EvidenceThis chart shows rough sequence of fossil hominids.

10,000BP ------------------------------Homo sapiens (full culture, worldwide distribution)

100,000BP ----------------------------Homo sapiens (Neandertal, et al.)

1mBP ----------------------------------Homo erectus (Radiation thru Old World)

2mBP ----------------------------------Homo habilis (Earliest Culture?)

3mBP ----------------------------------Australopithecus var. (Fully bipedal)

4mBP ----------------------------------Ardipithecus ramidus (Earliest hominines?)

5mBP ----------------------------------

Paleoindians:Early Human Occupation of the New World

Early Human Occupation of the New World

Earliest Evidence

Lewisville Initial radiocarbon dates >27000BPNow thought to be more recent, date was partly contaminated by lignite.

Meadowcroft Shelter Southwestern Pennsylvania13,500 – 17,500BP

Monte Verde Dated over 14,000BPSouthern Chile

Early Human Occupation of the New WorldPaleoindian Period

Earliest Well Documented Evidence

Clovis Complex

Throughout the New World, best known in SW United States.

Clovis Fluted PointsMammoth remainsCarbon dated at ca. 11,500BP

Folsom Complex

Folsom Fluted PointsCarbon dated at ca. 10,000 BPAssociated with now extinct bison

Red jasper Clovis specimen from the Fenn Cache,

(Utah agate, provenience unknown)

CLOVIS POINTS

EAST WENATCHEE CLOVIS SITE---WASHINGTON STATE

Excavations at Cactus Hill, which lies along the Nottoway River 45 miles south of Richmond, VA, began in 1993. The upper level, radiocarbon dated to 10,920 years ago, contained Clovis-style spear points. The lower level, radiocarbon dated to 15,070 years ago, yielded stone points and other implements without Clovis features.

Early Human Occupation of the New World

Conventional archeology has held to the Bering theory.   But according to a new theory first proposed by Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley, the continent's first inhabitants may have crossed the Atlantic slightly more than 18,000 years ago from the Iberian Peninsula - the area that encompasses Spain, Portugal and southwestern France. Belonging to a group known as the Solutreans, the pre-modern explorers are believed to have originally settled along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, according to the researchers. Over the next six millennia, their hunting and gathering culture may have spread as far as the American deserts and Canadian tundra, and perhaps into South America.

Evidence suggesting a Solutrean origin of Clovis http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/arctic/html/dennis_stanford.html

Lithic technology…bifacial flaking, exotic material, caches w/red ochre

Solutrean Laurel-leaf Point Clovis Fluted Point

Possible maritime route

Physical characteristics… i.e. Kennewick

DNA…?

Early Human Occupation of the New World

Kennewick Man - ????????On July 28, 1996, two men watching the annual hydro boat races at Columbia Park in Kennewick, Washington, accidentally found part of a human skull on the bottom of the Columbia River about ten feet from shore. Later, deliberate searches turned up a nearly complete male skeleton that is now known as Kennewick Man.