All,
The Journal of World Prehistory kindly provides free access to two important, lengthy, and well illustrated articles in its March 2003 issue. The Editors and the Publisher should be thanked for making these available to the entire community, and I don't doubt for a second that this will lead to interesting comments and discussions!
Jacques Cinq-Mars
d'Errico, Francesco, Christopher Henshilwood, Graeme Lawson, Marian Vanhaeren, Anne-Marie Tillier, Marie Soressi, Frédérique Bresson, Bruno Maureille, April Nowell, Joseba Lakarra, Lucinda Backwell, and Michèle Julien. 2003. Archaeological Evidence for the Emergence of Language, Symbolism, and Music–An Alternative Multidisciplinary Perspective. Journal of World Prehistory 17 (1): 1-70.
Copyright © 2003 Plenum Publishing Corporation
Abstract:
In recent years, there has been a tendency to correlate the origin of modern culture and language with that of anatomically modern humans. Here we discuss this correlation in the light of results provided by our first hand analysis of ancient and recently discovered relevant archaeological and paleontological material from Africa and Europe. We focus in particular on the evolutionary significance of lithic and bone technology, the emergence of symbolism, Neandertal behavioral patterns, the identification of early mortuary practices, the anatomical evidence for the acquisition of language, the development of conscious symbolic storage, the emergence of musical traditions, and the archaeological evidence for the diversification of languages during the Upper Paleolithic. This critical reappraisal contradicts the hypothesis of a symbolic revolution coinciding with the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe some 40,000 years ago, but also highlights inconsistencies in the anatomically–culturally modern equation and the potential contribution of anatomically “pre-modern” human populations to the emergence of these abilities. No firm evidence of conscious symbolic storage and musical traditions are found before the Upper Paleolithic. However, the oldest known European objects that testify to these practices already show a high degree of complexity and geographic variability suggestive of possible earlier, and still unrecorded, phases of development.
Keywords:
bone tools, symbolism, music, language, Neandertals
Golovanova, Liubov V. and Vladimir B. Doronichev. 2003. The Middle Paleolithic of the Caucasus. Journal of World Prehistory 17 (1): 71-140.
Copyright © 2003 Plenum Publishing Corporation
Abstract:
This paper presents a short review of the data and new approaches to Middle Paleolithic chronology and variability in the Caucasus. A climatostratigraphic scheme of the Caucasian Middle Paleolithic is proposed on the basis of the oxygen isotope stages. The authors attempt to identify tool types characteristic of the Caucasian Middle Paleolithic industries, as well as to reveal its development during more than 100,000 years. A new approach to treating Middle Paleolithic variability in the Caucasus recognizes three general cultural areas: (1) North Caucasian Micoquian in the Northwestern Caucasus; (2) Khostinian and several cultural entities possibly rooted in Levantine D (Djruchulian), Levantine B (Tskhinvali group), and Karain (?) Mousterian (Tskhaltsitela–Tsutskhvati group) in the South-central Great Caucasus; (3) Zagros Mousterian in the southernmost part of the Caucasus.
Keywords:
Caucasus, Middle Paleolithic, chronology, variability
PDF versions of the two articles can be downloaded by clicking
HERE.
