News from the European Gravettian

[aggsbach]

Dear All,

An wonderful special issue of the journal "paleo" is dealing in extenso with the European gravettian and can be downloaded here :

http://paleo.revues.org/index411.html

Spécial table ronde (1ère partie) : Le Gravettien : entités régionales d'une paléoculture européenne, Les Eyzies, juillet 2004

Enjoy!
Johannes

[trehinp]

Thanks a lot Johanes.

Some great papers in this special issue on the Gravettian.

Lots of reading in perspective...

Paul

[aggsbach]

Paul,

I was impressed by the wealth of data that are available for the Gravettian of the Kostenki area. And I have learned from the contibution of  Swoboda that a discussion about the origin of the Gravettien should take into account that  there are techno/typological relationships of the  the Gravettian of Europe with blade industries with pointed blades, bladelets, and backed elements (the Ahmarian, Lagaman and Dabban), starting about 10 ky earlier in the eastern Mediterranean. The time period between 30000 and 40000 BP  may be  overbridged by an early leptololithic industry from Kozarnika cave (layer VII). This industry, including microblades, backed blades and points recalling the el-Wad type, is dated as early as 39 ky – 36 ky BP (Tsanova 2006).
 
Best Regards
Johannes

[trehinp]

Indeed Johannes,

This is a great collection of papers with superb analysis of the lithic industries of various Gravettians sites.

From my point of view it is however too bad that the editorial team decided not to address the artistic side of the Gravettian culture.

Deux domaines des activités humaines à forte connotation symbolique ont été l’objet de synthèses spécifiques : les pratiques funéraires et l’art pariétal. Les nombreux travaux consacrés récemment à l’art mobilier gravettien nous ont dispensé d’une révision supplémentaire.
Jean-Philippe Rigaud, p. 11-12(paragraph 6 of the introduction)

I think that it would have been extremely interesting to establish some links, if indeed they existed though, between refining lithic industries and the production of refined mobiliary art in various European places.

Thanks again for having shared with us this great information source.

Paul

[E.P. Grondine]

Paul,

I was impressed by the wealth of data that are available for the Gravettian of the Kostenki area. And I have learned from the contibution of  Swoboda that a discussion about the origin of the Gravettien should take into account that  there are techno/typological relationships of the  the Gravettian of Europe with blade industries with pointed blades, bladelets, and backed elements (the Ahmarian, Lagaman and Dabban), starting about 10 ky earlier in the eastern Mediterranean. The time period between 30000 and 40000 BP  may be  overbridged by an early leptololithic industry from Kozarnika cave (layer VII). This industry, including microblades, backed blades and points recalling the el-Wad type, is dated as early as 39 ky – 36 ky BP (Tsanova 2006).
 
Best Regards
Johannes

Thanks. Those el-Wad dates pretty well put an end to a southern Anatolian origin for microblades. They would also put an end to an Asian origin, at least for the time being, but we'll have to see what comes out of future Asian excavations before closing this off entirely.

E.P. Grondine
Man and Impact in the Americas
Man and Impact in the Americas

[aggsbach]

In addition a publication about the Pavlov VI site (not a palimpest but a sigle activity unit consisting of a roasting pit at the centre of an area 5m across). Although the main task was the processing of two mammoths, there were numerous other wild animals in the assemblage. The occupants used flint knives, made bone tools and modelled in baked clay – on which they left their fingerprints, along with imprints of reindeer hair and textiles will be published by J Swoboda in the forthcoming Aniquity- joural.

And for people who are interested in the renewed excations in Krems (infant burials from the pavlovian) a paper ( in german) is now available focusing on raw material procurment of the site and also on  the sites history in the context of the eastern gravettien:

http://othes.univie.ac.at/2572/

Enjoy
Johannes