The Gravettian Culture

for thousands of years modern humans had thrived in Europe after replacing and assimilating with the solemn neander tals they had spread far and wide inhabiting the endless Plains in the mountains that overlooked them herds of animals such as Horses woly rhinoceros and Mammoth had filled their stomachs while the everpresent threat of predators watched from afar these people were known as the or Nation a culture of hunter gatherers who dominated these lands though the climate was changed and their old way of life was no longer viable as grasslands turned to Tundra their old migration routes became

too desolate to support their bands they would have to adapt to the new frigid conditions as those who didn't faced immediate starvation but with their Innovative technology and cunning strategy they found out new ways to not only survive but to prosper in their glacial World welcome to the world of the upper Paleolithic a pivotal era in prehistory that saw our ancestors ERS break through many barriers on their way to dominance this documentary will cover the second major culture in Europe the gravettian culture it is part of a four-part series make sure to check out the

previous episode on the or nation and the two subsequent episodes when they are out so without further Ado let us learn about these Innovative survivors the gravettian culture was first identified at the site of fla graet in the southwestern French Department of dorone here the first tools characteristic of the gravettian were found and studied they found distinctive backed points tanked points and worked bone objects the finely made projectiles stood out from the other Paleolithic layers the tools characteristic of FL graet would turn out to be a continent wide phenomenon based on the place where the

culture was first discovered it would be named the gratian we would go on to learn that this culture was very significant and created complex artwork and displayed cultural sophistication far exceeding our expectations the gravettian culture formed around 33,000 years ago and would last until around 22,000 years ago to understand the gravettian we must first recap what happened at the end of the org Nation many org Nation bands especially in the South and West became adapted to their abundant local regions though Europe was becoming colder and drier from around 33,000 years ago on onward the ornation

culture would decline in population and range the origin of the gravettian lies in this period the researchers are not exactly sure where the culture first appeared a commonly suggested theory is a monocentric origin arguing that the origin of the gratian Techno complex is found in the middle danu Basin where radiocarbon date suggests that the earliest pavlovian a variant of the gravettian evolved from a unique Proto oration technology this Theory suggests that after the origin of the Techno complex in the middle danu Basin the early gravettian technology expanded into Poland the Moravian Basin Slovakia and to

Hungary it then spread from the danu Basin West to France and later to the Eastern river basins around the Black Sea and finally onto the Russian plane at the same time as the expansion to the Russian plane the gratian found its way into Iberia and all the way into the Levant this theory of expansion is supported by various forms of evidence but cannot entirely rule out the second theory of a polycentric origin It proposes that the various gravettian centers evolved independently from each other from earlier local Traditions such as the post mousterian Leaf Point industries

of the middle danu it proposes that various gravettian centers evolved independently from each other from earlier local traditions this may be supported by Leaf Point Industries the middle danu or an influence from the near East such as the amarian industry many re res archers accept this Theory due to the varying typo technological traditions of the gravettian populations throughout Europe suggesting a vast metaculture it is plausible that in Central and Eastern Europe the gratian originated from a single cultural center and migrating humans carried their equipment and traditions elsewhere however the cultures in Western Europe were not

simply replaced by the gravettian rather it seems the technology and culture spread to them this debate on the origin of the gravettian is still on going and we will likely learn more in the future genetic studies offer us a unique window to understand the origin of the gratian and its relations to the preceding orig naan culture the org naan populations before 37,000 years ago left little to no Trace in the genetics of the gravettian and certainly not in modern humans some of the oldest gravettian people to have their DNA studied come from the site of

DOL viche in southern Moravia modern day Czech Republic three of the inhabitants belong to the mitochondrial Hao group U and one belonged to the mitochondrial Hao group u8 these individuals form a genetic cluster which is clearly an admixture between Eastern and Western European lineages these lineages are known from the 34,000 yearold remains of the sunir individuals from Russia and the 35,000 Yee old goyet remains from Belgium however the vestan niche individuals show that they had a greater influence on the sunar individuals at approximately 64% while they shared a 36% Affinity with the goyet individuals this

essentially means that these gravettian people were more related to Eastern orian populations than they were to Western ones Western and Southwestern gravettian groups were genomically related and were derived more from the population from goyet in Belgium the cause of such a vast and Sudden Change in the genetics of these people as well as the archaeological record was almost certainly born from the deteriorating climate condition in Europe during the end of the org Nation it was the coldest time since modern humans were present in Europe the org Nation culture would survive in isolated regions for another

few thousand years but the gratian mostly replaced them by around 30,000 years ago in physical appearance gravettian people would have been relatively similar to orian people they were tall and relatively Slender the male height of the gratian culture ranged between 179 and 188 CM or 5' 10 in and 6'2 in tall the average height was 183.0 6.2 in tall this is exceptionally tall not only for prehistory but for any period of History interestingly the legacy of this height is still seen in parts of Europe today men from Bosnia and hovenia the Netherlands Croatia and Montenegro

are some of the world's tallest populations averaging around 1.84 M or 6t tall researchers found this interesting considering nutritional standards and socioeconomic conditions are suboptimal but populations are still exceptionally tall though the genetics behind their height is not entirely understood they found that their Hao group of IM 170 had something to do with the increased height Hao group I is thought to have originated in gravettian populations and about 20% of European men carry this paternal Hao group including myself though the men may have been tall the women were much shorter only standing 158 CM or

5'2 on average this is quite a large difference between the sexes in the modern day men are around 7% taller on average than women for the gravettian men appear to have been around 16% taller than the women the reason for such a difference in height is not fully understood but it may have had to do with their hunting strategies or sexual selection compared to modern humans gravettian males would have been relatively slender at between 67 and 73 kg or 148 to 161 lb though this sounds quite light we have to remember that these people lived

very physically demanding lives and would have had a higher ratio of lean muscle mass compared to most modern humans women on the other hand were slightly heavier in relation at an average weight of 54 kg or 119 lb this difference in weight is not as notable but it is interesting to note that women seem to have been fairly stocked and this may have been sexually selected for as we will talk about later cranial morphology analyses indicate homogeneity between ornation and gravettian populations as well as within the gravettian populations throughout Europe this could suggest that they

were possibly part of a metal population a large mating Network which allowed the flow of genes examinations of gravettian skulls reveal that high cheekbones were common among them like the orations of the past the gratian would have maintained relatively dark skin though it would have varied across their range we do not know exactly what the pigmentation of their skin would have looked like in life that we know it would have been darker on average than any modern European population they lack the AL responsible for lighter pigmentation which occurred only within the past 11 to 19,000

years genetic changes which produce lighter pigmentations started to rise only after around 30,000 years ago overall the gravettian would have been quite an interesting people look at they were tall relatively slender with high cheekbones and skin varying from Olive to Brown after their relatively abrupt appearance in Europe their technology and culture spread all over our evidence does suggest that their populations did replace some dying out oration ones so their influence appears to have been more cultural than genetic during the gratian long-distant trade networks would form allowing the spread of new Innovations and cultural ideas this

maybe why the gratian is considered a relatively unified culture during the oration the main population of Western and Central Europe was only around 1500 people this is incredibly low compared to almost any region on Earth today the emergence and proliferation of the gratian also saw the population increase to an average of 2,800 people that is nearly a twofold increase from the oration this would be notable on its own though it also happened while temperatures were decreasing popular centers which ornation people once frequented such as suabia and dorone experienced large population growth other areas which had

never been permanently settled were inhabited such as areas of Iberia northern France and the Carpathian Mountains though gravettian populations were much higher than or Nai or neandertal populations in an area as vast as Europe 2,800 people are virtually non-existent bands would have had to travel many days to Hope to see the smoke of a campfire in most areas I'm forever jealous that these people got to see the untouched beauty of Europe in all of its might though they would have seen a very different world than the one we see today even if there weren't houses

doting the landscape to understand what the environment of the gratian was like we must first gain a brief understanding about glacial periods we are currently in an interglacial period a warm period in which glaciers Retreat the last glacial period typically just referred to as the Ice Age ended around 11,500 years ago but it first started around 120,000 years ago during that long span the largest of glaciers ever expanded was between 26 to 20,000 years ago during the last glacial maximum or lgm for short during that long span the largest of glaciers ever expanded to was

between 26,000 to 20,000 years ago we refer to this period as the last glacial maximum or the lgm for short during the oration Europe was relatively warm for a glacial period though conditions began to decline in the organ likely ended because of it luckily the new gratian culture appeared around 33,000 years ago and seemed to thrive in these conditions the onset to the last glacial maximum would make things much colder this not only affected the need to stay warm but also the land itself when glaciers grow the sea level decreases and more land becomes available

in these areas the English Channel was simply a river while all the land surrounding it would have been productive grazing grounds in the summer this includes the now lost dogger land which was flanked by glaciers to the north the coastline almost everywhere extended much further especially in the modern Adriatic Sea which was mostly dry land though with all the land gained on the coast most of the Alps and the British Isles were under glaciers while Scandinavia was likely completely covered we must also keep in mind that areas near glacial fronts would have been quite Barren

most of central and Western Europe featured a step Tundra environment which was cold dry and mostly open though seemingly unproductive during the winter warmer months featured a limitless supply of grasses and other plants for massive herds of herbivores to devour reindeer muskog Sega Antelope horse step bison woolly rhinoceros and Woolly Mammoth thrive in large herds and smaller bands following these herds were cave Lions cave hyenas simitar cats wolves and other animals such as brown bears and Cave Bears to the South the environment was quite different with the influence of the Mediterranean Sea Ibex Shamy orox

straight tus elephants megalos seris leopard giant jaguar and bore found home in the mountains and lowlands of southern Europe the world of the gravettian certainly varied a lot from the warmer conditions of the early gratian to the apocalyptically cold conditions of the late gratian perhaps due to this the gravettian culture if you will was actually culturally diverse when I say gravettian culture I am more referring to the gravettian tool industry or techno complex an industry consists of a number of tools that are characteristic of the distinct culture the gravettian industry had a number of unique

tools made in a par way that easily distinguishes them from say the Ori or the later solutran so the term gratian is relatively broad within the gravettian industry are other variations based on location timing and Tool tradition we will talk about these cultural variations later on the gratian was of course an upper Paleolithic European culture and like the organ naations before them they heavily relied on blade core technology to make their stone tools blade core technology consists of taking long flakes off of a core to be considered a blade the flakes must be twice as

long as they are wide blades are very useful because they come with a long sharp edge straight from the core they can be used right away as they are or Haled larger blades could be hafted right away as unifacial knives while smaller blades known as bladelets or microliths could be hafted together to form a composite tool these bladelets could simply be swapped out once one became dull or exhausted I find this method of utilizing Stone extremely interesting the possibilities with bladelets and microliths are Limitless small knives utilizing one microlith could function as a Swiss army

knife of the day a large composite dagger may have been useful for butchering game or for cutting up plant material projectiles could be tipped with a microlith and additional blades could be Haled onto its sides with very little effort three microliths could make an atlal Dart ready for the guts of a mammoth Mass producing arrows could be as simple as adding one microlith to the point though supporting blades always do look cooler microlith technology was already in use long before the gratian emerged so what did they do differently the Hallmark of the gratian was the

gratian point the gravettian point also known as a backed bladelet was a bladelet with a modified backing one Edge was left sharp and the other was made blunt the oldest points of this kind are 34,000 years old from Central Cal Europe by 32,000 years ago it was used all around Europe these points are literally characteristic of the gravettian though their exact function still remain somewhat enigmatic if these bladelets were used at the tip of javelins or atlal darts then why make one Edge blunt studies on these points suggest that they may have actually been Haled

onto the sides of larger composite projectiles this is supported by where analysis and breakage patterns on gravettian points this doesn't rule out the possibility that they were also used on the tips of projectiles larger blades such as this one may have formed a singular penetrating point such a weapon would be used for taking medium game as well as penetrating deeply into larger animals the site of less pressed tore in France preserves the remains of a possible composite bone and Stone Point 11 backed points were found in direct association with worked bone remains residue and wear

analysis in combination with experimental data support the hypoth ois that these remains represent a composite tool this evidence is fairly conclusive but the actual design of the projectile has remained enigmatic due to its poor preservation reconstructions featured in the study depict a bone fores shaft with back bladelets Haled laterally considering their size and morphology this is appropriate let's take a break from the video to talk about today's sponsor montley as some of you may know I've been learning Italian for a few years years and I can honestly say that it has been one of the

most fulfilling things I've ever done being able to communicate with someone in an entirely different tongue allows you to understand innumerable things about their culture and way of life but it is no easy task I have admittedly been lacking in my learning recently until I found mandley with mandley you'll have access to 41 foreign languages from 33 native languages resulting in a total of 1,320 language combinations if your mother tongue is Romanian and you want to learn English French or less popular languages such as farsley Catalan or Finnish you can do so with the modly

app their lessons are very informative and do not contain useless phrases but rather real world examples and in-depth explanations this is crucial to learn to actually use your language skills lessons and audio materials on mle are recorded with native speakers to ensure authenticity and correct accent formation another great feature of M is that you have the option to use it handsfree I enjoy learning while cooking up some Italian meals walking to class and while Flint napping mandley is currently hosting a summer sale providing a 96% discount for Lifetime access to all languages access this sale

through the link mandley doa2 huge thanks to mandley for sponsoring the channel and now let's get back to the video gravettian people also manufactured much larger tanged points they were made from large blades and were often unifacial in design meaning flakes were only taken off of one side of the point a variety of these points were used in specific regions during different periods of the gratian larger tanked points were only made in the Northwest while in the late gratian strange shoulder points were made by taking a flake off of the base some of these tanked

points are considered font Robert points these points were often fairly large featuring a sturdy Tang this of course would have helped half to them one font Robert Point even had traces of resin on its Tang much debate has been made over whether they tipped atlal darts thrusting Spears or knives some research suggest that they were used for a variety of purposes perhaps suggesting knife use though they may have been inspired by the aan Tang points made in Africa over 70,000 years ago which are thought to have been multi-purpose tools a study on the Abundant remains

found at Mia canal Belgium May support their use as projectile points among the 97 points studied 28 points in four distal fragments could reliably be identified as projectile points the study went further to identify What Might Have Been propelling these projectiles bows could be ruled out due to their size and Tang width by recreating these points and testing them with different systems they were able to compare their data to the points found at this site the characteristics of Tang brakes were most similar to the experimental example Les in which spear throwers were used to throw

projectiles into a resistant material such as a vertebrae or a scapula this connection was confirmed statistically while thrusting or throwing Spears were significantly different statistically though this may sound like we have these tank points all figured out some other studies do support their use as buterin tools the answer may be that they were used for various tasks the Australian aboriginals would hunt animals with their Lura points on the tips of their Spears and once the animal was killed they would often use the same point to butcher the animal these tanked points may have functioned in

much of the same way the more important thing that this study established was the presence of the spear thrower or at Ladle at around 31,000 years ago this pushed back direct evidence for the use of this technology by around 10,000 years spear throwers were probably used as far back as the early oration this device has received much less attention compared to the bow and arrow though both are highly significant they are both weapons of range that can be used in concealment they also Propel their projectiles at a high speed compared to hand thrown Spears both

of these factors allow Hunters to more effectively Target large dangerous game from a distance and small fast moving game the bow and arrow is another weapon system that is vastly superior to hand thrown or thrusted spears though it is not better than the at Ladle in every way it does Propel its projectiles faster and further while its ammunition is much easier to carry in large numbers some evidence evidence suggests that bow technology was present in Europe over 50,000 years ago and there is evidence from the org Nation bow technology appeared in Africa nearly a 100,000

years ago and may have spread with some populations Out of Africa or shortly after during the gratian it is generally acknowledged that bow technology was available and understood though not all groups may have utilized it the evidence is scarce though small Stone blades and Bone points May attest to the use of this technology though we could talk about their weapons all day we should briefly talk about their other Stone technology large blades could easily be turned into a variety of tools perhaps some of the most common were scrapers scrapers were primarily used for scraping flesh

off of heights this is essential to produce warm clothing that doesn't frot some scrapers may have been simply handheld While others were hafted to give the user more leverage and a better grip burns are another Stone tool that is commonly overlooked to make a burn a flake is taken laterally off of the side of a stone tool this creates a sturdy Square Edge perfect for working bone like the orgi people before them the gravettian heavily utilize bone for a variety of purposes most interesting perhaps were their bone points large bone points were carved from antler

in France Mammoth rib bones were favored in suabia and ivory was utilized on the Eastern Plains the split based Point design of the org Nation had disappeared while socketed or slant based points proliferated generally these points were longer and narrower than the points of the or Nation somewhere exceedingly long especially in Eastern Europe another peculiar weapon from which only one is known from this period was the Ooa Boomerang this weapon was made of mammoth ivory and is 70 CM or 28 in in length such a hefty weapon would have been proficient at targeting a variety

of smaller animals this may be the earliest Boomerang or throwing stick known from anywhere in the world however much older sticks made by neander TS were found at the shig in site throwing sticks or boomerangs were used on every continent in prehistory despite only being widely known from Australia they are great for killing smaller animals stunning larger animals or distracting animals a variety of other tools were made of bone in the gratian specific bones such as fibulas were often used for specific tools such as alls or barbs alls would have naturally been used in combination

with bone needles true eyed bone needles have a hole typically at their base which of course pulls some kind of cordage through materials the earliest eyed needles have been found in Africa dating to 61,000 years ago bone needles are typically quite delicate and don't often survive in the fossil record still many have been found in the gravettian period most of our examples come from the Eastern Plains though needles are known from a variety of sites as far as we know neander talls never used eyed needles and subsequently may have had relatively crude clothing even if

they did sew their garments eyed needles allow for the creation of significantly better clothing and they may have been one of the reasons the original waves of modern humans were more successful than the nander talls in addition to sewing implements we also find a variety of smoothers and Lis at their sites these tools are used to work animal hides to make them softer tougher and more waterproof interestingly neander TS did in fact use these tools as well though gravettian clothing has not directly survived in the archaeological record we do have a variety of indirect sources

suggesting it was quite complex I do not want to go too far into the art or the burials in this section though both of these forms of evidence display that complex beaded clothing was made some evidence suggest weaving technology While others display hats headbands and even undergarments and that brings us to another bone tool that they made perforated batons perforated batons have been objects of much mystery since their first discovery they're typically made from bone antler or Ivory and have one or more holes drilled into them their design varies quite widely as to the hypotheses

for their function the batons were originally thought to have been some kind of personal decoration for powerful individuals may be due to the fact that many have very interesting Engravings however the hole present in many of the these tools may have been used to straighten atlal Dart shafts other cultures use similar tools to straighten out their darts we marks on these artifacts vary though evidence supporting the straightening hypotheses is yet to be found a baton discovered at whole Fels had three holes in it and may have been used to create Rope Rope would have opened

a world of possibilities for these people we even have amazing evidence of the Rope Rec cordage these people made as seen by Impressions on ceramics numerous fiber cordage and textile Impressions have been found on fired clay fragments from Pavlov 1 in the Czech Republic analysis of these remains support the use of plant derived fiber for the production of a diverse array of implements such as textiles cordage and even netting additional evidence from Italy consists of stone tools which show clear signs that they were being used to process plant fiber this evidence opens our relatively narrow

ideas concerning the idea that upper othic cultures would have solely relied on animal hides for their clothing housing and a variety of other purposes the presence of netting technology suggests that fishing nets and other traps may have been used regularly for a variety of animals as I casually mentioned the pavlovian cretians were making Ceramics over 24,000 years ago Ceramics are one of the most significant inventions in prehistory they can allow for the storage of perishable items and the creation of cooking vessels the gravettian were the first to make Ceramics in the world but they didn't

actually utilize this technology for utilitarian purposes we have discovered over 10,000 ceramic fragments some were made into figurines and others are harder to understand they made their Ceramics with a type of wind blown silt mixed with water and put in a Kil two of these kils have been found and they reached between 500 800° C or 930 and 1470 de f that is a high enough temperature to melt a variety of metals but so far off from the melting point of copper bronze or iron the Ceramics they made were of quite low quality due to

the relatively low temperature as true ceramic is fired at 1160 C or 2100 de F still this evidence predates the next appearance of Ceramics in China by thousands of years ceramic was only ever made in pavlovian settlements the pavlovian as mentioned earlier were a subculture that appeared in the L corvan we'll talk much more in detail about them later an additional aspect of their technology that we should discuss was the use of stone drills the upper Paleolithic saw an abundance of artifacts with holes in them such as perforated batons beads and other jewelry almost any

stone flake can be used to hand drill items simply applying pressure Inward and turning a stone Implement will bore out a hole in almost any substance including softer Stones Flint in general is around seven on on the Mo's hardness scale meaning they could have made holes in most of the substances they encountered the holes we see in the gravettian and even oration suggest that more complex Stone drills may have been used Stone drill bits were likely Haled allowing the users to twist them much faster and more precisely more complicated designs may have been spun much

faster with bow drills or pump drills these designs can not only be used to drill precise holes but also for starting fires fire Mak in the upper Paleolithic was an essential skill sites from this period often contain many hearths suggesting that fire creation was present even during the time of the neander TS fires appear to have been created pyite found on Flint tools suggest that some neander talls knew how to make fire by striking pyite and Flint together it is unknown if this technology was known in the gratian though other methods may have been used

friction devices have likely existed long into Antiquity though since these devices are often made of wood or other perishable materials the evidence May no longer exist since we know that they made holes in bone Ivory and antler these people were almost certainly aware of the heat they created from friction I imagine that friction devices were commonly employed to start fires whether from a bow drill like device or even a fire plow another technology that is often overlooked regarding ancient humans was the appearance of man's best friend the domestication of the dog was one of the

most important advancements that occurred during the Stone Age it is not exactly known when dogs were first domesticated or when the process of domestication allowed us to actually harness some of the abilities of these animals the process may have actually begun in the oration or even earlier genetics of modern and ancient dogs suggest that actual domesticated dogs did not appear until around 20,000 years ago though this naturally means that the process of domestication would extend further into preh history the remains of a canid discovered in the AL time mountains stating to 33,000 years ago is

considered to have been a dog lineage derived from a population of small wolves that had now gone extinct in the Goya caves of Belgium a dog light Cranium was found dating to 31,6 180 years ago it was initially thought to have been a domesticated dog though the mitochondrial DNA suggests that it was part of an extinct Side branch a mandible and maxilla found at the prominent gravettian site of keni has been proposed to have been a dog The Remains date between 33,000 and 26,000 years ago meaning that the gravettian here may have utilized actual domesticated

dogs another gravettian site named PR mosty from the Czech Republic found multiple dog-like skulls ceremonially buried around humans there is some more evidence from Siberia from this period that is not cretan though it does support the idea that around 30,000 years ago dogs were domesticated to a significant extent even if they belong to now extinct side branches or were a lot more wolf-like than my Labrador though evidence of dogs during this period is still heavily debated it appears that dogs were used to some extent considering the gravettian world was vast and relatively fragmented at times

it can be assumed that some groups are not very familiar with dogs While others would have had them sleeping in their tents dogs can be used for a vast variety of things which help both the human Masters and their dog contemporaries they can be used to help hunt animals big and small their excellent noses allow them to track animals and their natural pack instincts allow them to harass and distract large game animals while human Hunters deliver the final blow this form of hunting is often employed when hunting dangerous animals in the modern day such as

mountain lions or even Bears dogs are also exceptionally useful for defending campsites or kill sites though their barking may sound trivial at times to us it is used to a great extent to intimidate other predatory animals perhaps their most overlooked ability is their use for transportation some are simply strapped with items while others are fitted with devices called Travoy or even small sleds dogs were often used for transportation in open or winter environments by indigenous societies it is quite possible that dogs were being used in gratian times to transport goods and possibly even people the

use of dogs in indigenous societies is often associated with the dependence on meat to some extent dogs typically need to eat animal products to survive and they are quite good at helping humans obtain them this brings us to our next topic what did people eat during the gravettian the diet of the gratian people is inherently tied to their way of life and is therefore fundamental to our knowledge of these people animals provided these people with basic materials for food shelter clothing and even fuel from what they ate what kept them warm and what they depicted

in their art we know that animals dominated every facet of their lives the ethnographic record shows that Hunter gather societies occupying cold climates heavily relied on animal Foods animals composed up to 95% of total energy intake in some of these societies gravettian people lived a nomadic way of life they seasonally followed herds of animals but they also used the land to their advantage sites suggest that they chose to inhabit regions with hills and valleys which focused pre populations in a cave in southern Italy a strategic settlement has been found located in a small Valley this

seems unremarkable until we consider that large glaciers nearby would have forced migrating prey to ponder through this tight Valley this would have allowed these people to exploit large numbers of prey without walking and having to waste energy migrating themselves similar settlements meant to intercept migrating prey have been found elsewhere including in Greece a discussion of their hunting strategies must inherently include discussion of their Weaponry we have talked briefly about the benefit of the atlal or a spear thrower the evidence from Belgium suggests that both backed bladelets and tanked points were being used on the tips

of atlal darts to hunt large game the final assemblages at the site include reindeer horse orox and also small game other points across Western and Eastern Europe suggest that large animals were often targeted with these weapons the eth graphic record displays that the atlal was an extremely versatile weapon it could be used as an individual Ambush weapon employing blinds or cover it was often used in a small group of hunters who were aided by several beaters who would drive the game towards the hunters the Persistence of atlal technology in the Arctic until relatively recently attests

to its usefulness in cold environments perhaps based on its versatility as mentioned earlier in the video the gravettian world was large and the animal present in the ecosystem varied significantly groups living in Iberia may have been quite unfamiliar with the ecosystems in other regions such as the Alps or the Eastern Plains in general medium to large animals were favored in some areas that meant reindeer horse and bison while in others it meant Ibex and orox small game also appears to have been an important part of their diet in the Northwest reindeer horse and bison were

relied upon in Iberia small animals mostly hairs were captured in the hundreds in gravettian sites in general small animals were hunted frequently more so than the or Nation this would have offered a consistent food supply rather than the feast famine pattern of large game Hunters animals such as hair Fox and wolf may have provided some meat their fur is extremely insulating and useful for garments such as gloves hats and hoods the cut marks that we find particularly on small Critters such as Wolverines rabbits and foxes suggest that their fur was being prioritized they may have

even made large composite jackets as well as smaller garments the killing of entire herds of animals occurred as far back as the orc nation and continued on in the gravettian evidence from various sites suggests that these Mass killing events were highly planned and even scheduled along migration routes animals such as Horses reindeer Red Deer and ibac all appear to have been targeted in this way these hunts would have been chaotic though their success is a testament to their strategic skills the targeting of even more dangerous prey occurred in various regions carnivores of all kinds are

found at their sites including foxes wolves cave Lions step bears cave bears cave hyenas and homotherium it is likely that these people regularly interacted with these animals many of the remains of cave lions Wolverines and wolves display cut marks that suggest their hides are being carefully removed in one piece their meat would have been eaten and we know that they turn their bones into tools and their teeth into ornaments the frequency of the remains of even large carnivores at their sight suggests that these Hunters were capable of hunting even the largest and most dangerous carnivores

of their time at the cave of whole Fels cup marks on bare remains indicate that they were being exploited for at least 5,000 years between the end of the org nation and the emergence of the gratian cut marks on the skull and elements such as the hands indicate that their skin was being cut from the body perhaps to be made into shelter or clothing their long bones were being smashed to extract their energy-rich marrow charred bones also display that Bare Bones were being used as fuel for their fires perhaps the most significant Discovery from the

cave During the gravettian period is a 28,000 year-old cave be vertebrae with a flint projectile lodged in it the projectile hit the bear on its right flank penetrated into bone and broke off this shot alone would not have killed the animal but cut marks around the bone display that these Hunters were eventually Victorious this blow was likely meant for the lungs while the bear was likely laying down or henting probably the latter bears are of course much easier to hunt while hibernating though they are still capable of causing injury or death if not dispatched quick

enough juvenile bear remains found at whole Fells with cut marks may suggest suest that they were often targeted targeting bears in the winter would have been an excellent source of fat meat fur and to get rid of those pesky adversaries who take up valuable cave space and become quite dangerous when spring comes around unfortunately Cave Bears would actually go extinct during the gravettian Cave Bears were herbivores and the deteriorating climate of the last glacial maximum was detrimental to their populations plant productivity decreased and Summers were short which meant that these Bears had to hybernate for

most of the Year during the last glacial maximum this made them susceptible to attack for most of the Year Cave Bears appear to have gone extinct in the region of swabia due to human competition and would eventually go extinct entirely around 25,000 years ago though we all miss the Plante eating Cave Bears it is hard not to think of how great these Hunters must have been to have regularly targeted such animals Central and Eastern Europe were home to a slightly different environment than further into Western Europe the vast plains here had large populations of reindeer

horses bison and much larger populations of Mammoth woolly mammoths were some of the most dominant animals of the glacial world but they weren't Invincible a variety of gravettian sites preserve evidence that is highly indicative of direct Mammoth hunting the oldest unequivocal evidence of Mammoth hunting during the gravettian has been found at the site of crack house bitza in Poland the site contains thousands of stone artifacts and the remains of over 100 woolly mammoths dating to between 24 and 25,000 years ago 50% of the sight's shouldered points and backed blades have traces of haline and impact

damage one Mammoth rib even has a fragment of a flint Point embedded in it the Stone Point made it all the way through the Hair Skin fat and deep into the rib though the point may have missed its intended target other projectiles likely hit their mark we know this since the wound showed no signs of healing before the Beast died considering that 50% of the projectiles at the site show signs of impact damage and we have a mammoth bone with a projectile located directly in it this is about as good as evidence gets of direct

hunting by studying the mortality profile of these Mammoth remains they were able to determine some pretty amazing things the local Mammoth population appears to have lost many individuals from certain Mammoth age classes animals between 7 and 12 and between 25 and 42 were unexpectedly low for a mammoth population their bones also display pathologies associated with dietary deficiencies it has been hypothesized that intense hunting pressure and the already poor health of the mammoths led to these great beasts becoming vulnerable allowing for opportunistic killing this site may give us a window into the ultimate extinction of the

woolly mammoth the climate changed much more drastically at the end of the place to scene and in combination with human hunting seems to have been the cause of the woolly BEAST's Extinction people are naturally quite skeptical about the ability of Paleolithic humans who have hunted beasts as big as mammoths though studies on contemporary indigenous peoples clearly show that Hunters armed with thrusting Spears and javelins are certainly capable of taking down even bull African bush elephants in some cases a singular Hunter would sneak beneath an elephant and with one thrust and the animal's life shortly there

after in others traps such as pits were used to immobilize the animals before finishing them off by hand we do have evidence of pits being used to hunt mammoths though way later in the Americas perhaps we should look for this evidence in the archaeological record of Europe when considering the Undisputed evidence of elephant hunting in the modern day with only thrusting Spears and javelins it should be no surprise that we find a good amount of evidence of Mammoth hunting from the Paleolithic sapiens were directly hunting mammoths even 45,000 years ago in Siberia a study analyzing

the carbon and nitrogen of gratine individuals from Burn Kaaya in Crimea established that a large part of their diet came from Mammoth meat the study was not able to determine whether the meat was simply scavenged or hunted though considering our evidence both were possible at the site of pavl 1 the remains of 56 reindeer seven Mammoth four bear 10 horse 192 hair 27 grous 57 wolves 123 Fox and 10 Wolverines were found though these numbers may sound like mammoths were only a small part of their diet when considering how big mammoths are they may have

actually provided the majority of sustenance at this site the killing of a mammoth provided a group an unparalleled amount of food and raw materials in a mammoth depending on its size there were anywhere between 3 to 10 million calories in an entire deer there are only about 150,000 that means in one Mammoth there is as much sustenance as anywhere between 20 to 70 deer yes I know these calculations are not precise but when thinking about eating mammoth you must remember that they would have also had a lot of valuable fat as well as massive nutritional

organs to survive in the last glacial period you would have had to burn a lot of calories contemporary hunter gatherers living in similarly cold environments are known to eat over 3 kg or 6.5 lb of meat and fat each day that is around 5,500 calories lean reindeer are not always enough to meet these requirements though it may sound gross a mammoth's brain would have weighed as much as 13 lbs not to mention how much marrow filled their bones and fat around their body during the last glacial period long-term food storage would have also been fairly

easy considering the whole world as a freezer mammoths provided much more more than just food though a single Mammoth hide could become a shelter with a few Lodge poles their hides could be turned into bedding garments or even eaten by hungry dogs or starving siblings their bones and ivory were also useful for making deadly spear points and for constructing shelters as we will mention later when discussing the hunting of mammoths during the gratian it is important to mention that virtually all of our evidence comes from Eastern Europe and much of it is attributed to the

pavlovian of the gratian culture in other areas and cultural variants their diets varied considerably remains of gravettian people living in coastal areas such as Italy and Wales have revealed about 20 to 30% of their diet came from Marine Resources around the Mediterranean these people were focusing on shellfish and fish while on the Atlantic coasts seals were favored though just because a population lived near the coast did not necessarily mean they liked Seafood some populations in Iberia ate almost no fish or shellfish instead they relied on terrestrial sources of food this is interesting considering that even

neander tals living in Iberia were known to consume large amounts of shellfish though the gravettian were exceptional Hunters they're also very Adept at Gathering plants don't have bones and therefore are usually hard to find physical evidence of in the fossil record though by studying the chemical composition of the bones of gravettian people we can see that they they did indeed eat their fair share of veggies even the remains at bur and Kaaya who were eating mammoth regularly also ate a good deal of plant material some plants may have even been seasonally important to their caloric

needs remains of charred plants have been found in various Hearts suggesting that they were being cooked some of the most interesting evidence of any food that these people were eating was flow in Italy the roots of cattails and acorns were being ground up into coarse flour around 10 sites across Europe show evidence that tubers and seeds were also being ground up and grinding stones from other sites suggest that flower was being made fairly often the flow may have been turned into simple bread or mixed into some kind of GRL by processing these food sources before

consumption they became much easier to digest and therefore provided significantly more energy much of our evidence for the production of flow comes from pavlovian sites such as do vestan and Pavlov some may naturally speculate that these people were practicing agriculture though our evidence does not support this Europe was very cold during this time not even our modern varieties of cold resistant crops would have survived during the last glacial maximum though true agriculture did not develop during the gratian it at least looked like these populations were on a similar path of development gravettian diets were much

more diverse than any people living in Europe before them they were able to extract much more calories and resources out of the landscape this allowed their populations to grow significantly larger than the prior org naations or neander tals surviving during the last glacial period not only requires abundant food and fire but also insulating shelter as mentioned previously in the org Nation documentary The org naations used many open a sites as well as caves the organ culture existed during a warmer period which allowed them to Camp outdoors in relatively simple campsites only the coldest times of

winter would have required a rock shelter or cave to seek protection unfortunately for the gravettian the world was becoming much colder and simple campsites would have not have been warm enough for most of the Year rock shelters as well as the mouths of caves were certainly utilized but so were much more complex shelters on the open Plains of Central Europe the gravettian cultural variant known as the pavlovian created very complex shelters they were the Mammoth Hunters of the step and their houses reflected this they created some of the most complex shelters found in the entire

upper Paleolithic these shelters were absolutely stunning in some of these sites hundreds or even thousands of Mammoth bones were used to create massive structures the pavlovian culture existed mostly in the relatively small area referred to as Moravia which is located in the modern country of the Czech Republic two very important sites did right next to each other Pavlov and DOL Nesta nit the name Pavlov coming from the nearby Village would be used to name the gratian variant the pavlovian both of these sites contained campgrounds which were once located less than a day's walk from the

Scandinavian ice sheet such close proximity to the ice sheet meant that they lived in very cold step Tundra conditions this was difficult to live in though it was the ideal conditions for grazing animals such as reindeer and Mammoth which passed through in the summer the pavlovian hunters were able to obtain massive amounts of food during the summer and Autumn hunts which allowed them to stay put for most of the year due to the hostile environment and lack of local caves the inhabitants of this site had to create complex structures to survive the paav site and

site of DOL vestan both contain mammoth bone structures the walls were mostly made of Mammoth bones and their bases were partially sunk into the ground this was accomplished by digging directly into the soil large Mammoth bones such as tusks ribs jaws and shoulder blades were used as sturdy frames though long gone now large Mammoth hides likely covered these shelters and Protected Their inhabitants large circular pits in and outside of these structures were filled with bones and artifacts the assemblages have been interpreted as storage pits their contents vary quite largely some were filled with raw materials

for bone and ivory tools artistic supplies such as red ochre and probably also food though food may have been kept inside of the shelter to prevent scavengers from getting a hold of it these Mammoth toins would have taken a lot of time and effort to construct researchers have hypothesized that they were used for the harshest parts of winter perhaps for several months at a time these people may have been semi-sedentary perhaps due to their ability to take down mammoths the site of prosi one located in the modern Czech Republic contains the bones of over a

thousand mammoths most most of the remains came from young females which were easier to take down than mature individuals an estimated 4,000 canid bones were also found at the site most of them belonged to wolves though others were much more like dogs some of the doglike remains are associated with burials suggesting that they were in fact domesticated the presence of so many canids associated with Mammoth remains suggests that dogs may have been used to hunt The Woolly creatures the dogs may have been used to constantly harass the mammoths and distract them while the real damage

came from our projectiles however these dogs also could have been used as food don't forget that horses were originally cattle before we learned to ride them however if they were hunting mammoths this would have provided these people with abundant food materials and even fuel for their fires the hunting of mammoths and perhaps dog cattle may have allowed these people to stay put for months a luxury almost no one had in the Paleolithic since the discovery of these mammoth structures they have typically been interpreted as shelters though some evidence suggest that they could have had a

more nuanced purpose not all these structures are the same some were clearly lived in for long periods of time While others appear to have been frequented much less at the Russian site of Udin noo Mammoth structures from 18,000 years ago revealed some interesting things only two out of the five Mammoth structures actually had hards in them since these were constructed during the last glacial maximum it is highly unlikely that people would have lived in a structure without a hearth to stay warm the researchers argue that these structures may have not been structures at all but

ritualized mittens a mid is basically a waste pile and a ritualized mid is a mid that has some significance to a culture basically the idea is that after a mammoth was killed its bones may have been discarded in a way that these people found respectful that may have been by arranging them in a certain way and at the Udin o site the bones may have been partially buried it is important to mention that this site is from a few thousand years after the gratian and even if this site did contain ritualized mittens we do not

know if this was true for any gravettian site as far as we know the pavlovian gravettian did live in their Mammoth structures though these sites do have other ritualized aspects for example the site of costen 11 contains a dwelling made of Mammoth bones that was 12.5 M or 40 ft in diameter the remains of at least 64 separate mammoths were used to make these structures the structure is so large that it may actually represent a meeting point or a place of worship all of the mammoth dwelling sites I have mentioned were made by the pavlovian

cultural variant as you may have begun to understand they were quite special they appear to have been proficient Mammoth Hunters who made many advancements including the creation of Ceramics and the creation of complex structures so they also created a variety of stunning art they used textiles and they consumed plant flow the pavlovian were one of a variety of cultural variants that appeared during the cretian other cultures include the costen dvo culture of Western Russia and the ban of France despite the uniqueness of some of the gravettian subcultures they all belong to a relatively unified culture

throughout Europe longdistance trade networks existed and cultural elements did spread shells found in Central Europe were TR over 800 km from the Mediterranean similarly ivory from Central and Eastern Europe was found in Italy where no mammoths existed the highquality stone found at corvan sites frequently traveled over 100 km and sometimes as much as 300 km the transport of jewelry and other symbolic objects across such a vast distance suggests that they were about as important as toolstone for some of these people finally it is the part of the video where we get to talk about the

art that these people made Paleolithic artwork is not only extremely fascinating but also immensely beautiful it is often considered in high regard by modern artists due to its raw and natural qualities these people didn't simply get some paint at the store and doodle something they saw on television every material they worked with had to be directly harvested and everything they depicted came from a Time devoid of civilization this however is not to say that they didn't have strict tabos about the creation of their art when researching contemporary indigenous societies one of the first things that

you will notice is that these cultures often have very strict rules about countless aspects of Life often animals must be killed butchered cooked and consumed in very specific ways that might differ significantly even in neighboring tribes the existence of the hundred or even thousands of taboos in a culture are often due to their mythology or religion my point is it is a misconception that hunter gatherers are simply ill mannered and have no concept of modesty in reality they often have very strict rules regarding countless aspects of their lives and we simply fail to put them

into perspective when trying to understand the culture of the gravettian it is clear that art was very important to these people art typically provides no discernable survivalism transporting shells and making bone figurines the most most basic evidence that can be interpreted as art from the Paleolithic were pigments as I've mentioned many times in this channel the pigment red ochre was very significant in neandertals early humans and certainly the cretians red ochre is found at many sites and its use and burial will be discussed later red ochre is still used around much of the world as

medicine sunscreen and mosquito repellent other pigments including charcoal and manganese oxide were utilized p may have even been used for dying clothing or painting the body the Australian aboriginals have amazingly intricate rituals regarding the painting of the body and so do many other indigenous groups we can imagine elaborate coretan burials that included the painting of the body and the face the next form of art more accurately personal adornment is jewelry as I stressed in the last episode jewelry can mean much much more than something that you just wear that you find interesting or cool think

of a wedding ring that little piece of metal and fine Stone can stand for one of the most important things in life even giving a loved one a piece of jewelry is still an extremely important practice of reassuring social bonds and showing affection when we look at gravettian jewelry it is important to understand that these objects likely stood for something much more significant than their material composition like the oration animal teeth were very common items to be turned into jewelry at face value it is pretty easy to understand why one would wear such an item

the canines of predators are intrinsically symbols of the power and ferocity of these beasts the teeth of Cave Bear cave lion wolf fox and more were turned into necklaces these carnivores are all very different and they likely symbolize different things to these people the bear K9 may have given the wearer strength while the lion or Fox may have symbolized cunning or swiftness of course these are just some ideas the ideas around these objects may have been much more nuanced bone and ivory beads became much more common in the gratian and appear to have had significant

value creating a bead out of bone or Ivory is a difficult time intensive process you must acquire the material cut away a section shape it drill a hole in the center and shape it some more multiple beads could be worked together at a time though much of the shaping would have been done by rubbing individual beads against an abrasive Stone hundreds and even thousands of these beads have been found at various sites typically at burials the creation of that many beads would have taken an enormous amount of time we will talk more about it when

we discuss their burials from their burials it is also clear that some of these bone beads were sewn directly on clothing from the hat or Hood all the way down to the toes beads were sewn on it is unclear if beads were mainly used in a ceremonial context such as burial though it is probable that they had some degree of ornamentation on their everyday clothes the presence of beading on clothing may have signified important things such as social status or age perhaps beads were given to individuals every year to signify their age or perhaps a

hunter could earn beads by killing an animal many have speculated that beads were worn by Shaman or dancers to create noise or Rhythm during ceremonies besides beads a wide array of other jewelry was made by the gravettian the jewelry varied pretty greatly from region to region so we will talk about the jewelry found in Northwestern Europe first here animal teeth dominate their jewelry with Fox being a particular favorite along with them bone and ivory rings and diadems were common diadems are objects of personal adornment that appear to have been worn on the head they may

be more accurately called headbands and may have been used to hold back the hair in southern Europe Ivory jewelry was quite rare since mamas did not live there instead the teeth of Red Deer and B Vines were favored perhaps the best evidence of jewelry and personal adornment from the gratian comes from Central and Eastern European sites the pavlovian site of DOL Nesta nit preserved a wide variety of bone and ivory Rings bracelets headbands discs pendants and diems the remains of what have been interpreted as necklaces have been found some elements feature animal teeth though shells

are are also common some of the shells came from the actual Seashore which is over 400 km or 250 mi from the site this is of course quite the distance and the shells may have been very valuable items for trading the rest of the shells found at the site actually come from the nearby Jurassic Limestone Hills the shells are notably duller and wider due to their much older age than the shells harvested from the shore Tusk shells or tooth shells were prominent at the site these shells are long and cylindrical which is great for stringing

onto a necklace native peoples from North America commonly used and still use these shelves for their jewelry at the same site peculiar pendants which appear to resemble owls have been found a singular owl was depicted in the oration area at chave in France in British and Japanese societies the owl is often seen as a wise creature though when Romanian and some Canadian First Nations peoples culture owls represent imminent death some indigenous people believed that hearing an owl call your name meant death was near the creation of owl pendants at DOL vestan likely meant something entirely

different considering they were probably worn they may have been positive symbols one of the most interesting objects found at DOL vestan is an engraved mammoth tusk that has been interpreted as a map it appears to be depicting the deja River as at meanders surrounded by goalies and Rocky Peaks a half circle inside of another Circle appears to depict the home or camp that these Hunters were staying at this object is the oldest known map and is extremely unique a relatively similar engrav Tusk from the nearby site of prosy depicted something much different named the Venus

of Prost this enigmatic figure has attracted much speculation this supposedly female figurine is made up of a variety of geometric shapes the head is represented with a triangle while clear breasts and a lower half can be seen another engraving on a mammoth limb bone from the same site clearly depicted the same idea the site of prosi was used as a quarry for wind blown sand and Limestone but also to make medicine called spodi from burned bone the site may have been a healing site with ritual significance perhaps the Venus was connected to the wider culture

of healing the concept of the Venus appears to have originated in Upper Paleolithic Europe with the orasan culture though only a few examples of venuses can be found in figurines or cave art from the org Nation the gratian on the other hand was full of Venus depictions mainly as figurines depictions of women in general are often referred to as fuses from this culture in gravettian art women vastly outnumber the depictions of men they were often depicted in figurines but also in beads and in cave art there are far too many examples to cover thoroughly but

I'll mention a few prominent ones the Venus of Willendorf is probably the most famous upper Paleolithic figurine of all time it is rather large for Venus and is mostly complete it was found in Austria and dated to the late gratian around 25,000 years ago the statuette depicts a rather large female with no feet tiny arms and a strange head covering this covering has been interpreted as some kind of beaded head covering some kind of textile or just braided hair the lack of a face is an interesting aspect to note the Venus figurines of costen are

relatively similar to the Venus of Willendorf though their face appears to be showing beneath their hair their hair actually seems to have been cut into bangs but it is difficult to tell these examples are also unique in that they appear to have some kind of clothing around the back and chest the Venus of DOL vestan from the aformentioned site is unique because it was made of fired clay in 2004 the fingerprint of a child between 7 to 15 was found on the figurine the researchers doubt this individual sculpted the whole thing themselves another Venus from

vestan was carved of Ivory and just deps the head of a woman the hair suggests that a top knot may have been worn this is something that reoccurs in pavlovian art and may have been common at their settlements the Venus of brass and poy is similar in that it only preserves the head as well as a unique hairstyle the hair appears to have been braided though perhaps a woven headdress was being worn the French Venus of Les pug was carved from Ivory and has quite a unique western style the figurines from bosi caves of Italy

preserve some of the most unique of the period most of the figurines were carved from various types of stone I'm honestly quite surprised I have not seen any of these figurines used as evidence on some random conspiracy page because they are so strange the strangest one nicknamed The Double Venus displays a woman connected to some kind of serpent snake likee creature the back of their heads are connected likely to attach it to a necklace this pendant is not all that strange considering that human animal hybrids were commonly depicted in the oric nation and must have

had some mythological meaning another Venus shows a two-headed woman while a strange carved disc also seems reptile likee unfortunately the archaeological context of this site has been Disturbed so it is unclear how old these figurines actually are but they are often attributed to the gratian the Russian site of garino preserves eight Venus figurines including a very unique double Venus it appears that it was never completed due to a fracture developing during manufacturer the head-to-head nature of the the artifact has caused some to speculate that it may be related to the burial at sunar as we

will talk about later one of the most unique depictions of a Venus from this period is the Venus of lucel from Southern France this engraving depicts a naked woman holding a bison horn long ago it was covered in red ochre it has been speculated that the color and number of notches in the horn may represent the number of menstrual cycles in a year or the number of days from menstration to ovulation a few other Engravings have been found at lucel one shows a similar scene of a woman holding a horn another depicts what may be

a male and female copulation scene or perhaps a birthing scene other carvings of venuses and volvas were made but there were also some Engravings of males one appears to have depicted a half naked man in a coat of some sort though we don't really know what he was up to another nicknamed the hunter depicts a naturalistic image of a male who may have been in a spear unfortunately we are unable to tell given the state of preservation I have a feeling this was a really cool image during its day this finally brings us to our

interpretations of these artifacts what was their purpose and more importantly what was their meaning ever since their Discovery many interpretations have been put forward they have long been seen as symbols of fertility or possibly some sort of deity the consistency and design of these figures throughout a wide region and over a long period of time suggest that they represent an archetype of a female Supreme Creator another popular hypothesis is that stone age women actually used them as mirrors researchers suggested that because of the way these figures are depicted such as the large breasts and lack

of feet and faces these statues were made by women looking at their own bodies women during the period would have not have had access to mirrors but still would have wanted to look at themselves and compare themselves to others as humans naturally do this hypothesis also provides an explanation as to why many of the Venus figurines do not have faces and their arms and legs are proportionately smaller than their chest and lower halves though the idea has been critiqued since these people could have looked into puddles or at ice to see their Reflections this is

an interesting idea considering that these figurines were likely made by women an interpretation that I am quite fond of correlates with the very cold climate of the time Johnson ated all 2020 found a correlation between an increase in distance from glacial fronts and a decrease in obesity of the figurines meaning that figurines closer to colder glacial conditions appear to have idealized heavier women in their art pregnant women need between 300 to 500 more calories a day while a similar amount is needed for women who are breastfeeding this caloric stress is put on top of people

living in very cold environments who would have already needed an enormous amount of calories just to live in order to birth and raise healthy children overnourished women may have been seen as the ideal in these conditions many of us are in a society of such plenty now that this may come across as unusual though for hunter gatherers being overweight is often sought after even think about malnourished peasants and fat Kings it is amazing that just by looking at these figurines we can identify such a relationship even if the explanation of these figurines did have to

who with calories that doesn't mean other symbolic interpretations didn't go along with them it has been hypothesized that these objects may have been used in some sort of marriage ceremony these figurines may have been made to inaugurate the relationship though we do not know how relationships may have functioned at this time individuals may have had exclusive relationships another modern interpretation is that they were given from women to girls to help teach them about pregnancy and other aspects of Womanhood some figurines do seem to display different stages of pregnancy perhaps supporting this idea on the complete

opposite end of the spectrum some have hypothesized that men or angsty teens used them for a different purpose this interpretation has become quite frowned upon in recent years though it is important to take into account all possibilities though we may never fully understand what these figurines were used for or what they meant they were clearly important for these long lost people the topic of venuses opens the wider discussion of of male and female Dynamics during the Paleolithic across societies the power dynamics between men and women vary quite widely most tend to be patriarchal though matriarchal

societies do exist in the modern day and have in the past when considering the Paleolithic many assume that physical strength and hunting prowess made men the undeniable rulers over their submissive counterparts this idea leaves out much of what we actually know about the Paleolithic and Hunter gather of societies in general the gravettian and org naations were not simply cavemen looking for their next meal they were complex people with cultural values and understandings that remain enigmatic to US during the upper Paleolithic there does appear to have been a sexual division of labor though to what degree

is not fully understood men and women from the gratian have similar leg bone strength and the Symmetry between their arms suggest that they were doing many of the same activities an important aspect to look at when considering the power dynamics between men and women is food contribution perhaps aligning with stereotypes men and hunter gatherer societies typically hunt the larger animals while women mostly gather among a vast variety of other tasks in contemporary hunter gatherer societies the percentage of food contributed by the males or females typically provides their respective sex more power meaning forging more the

food gives women more power while successful male Hunters gain men more prestige in many contemporary hunter gatherer societies the males are often not as successful as you might think and end up eating forged meals colder climates especially arctic ones often heavily rely on meat consumption perhaps giving more power to the males though at least in innuit communities women actually share an equal influence of power this is due to the vast number of responsibilities that they are tasked with they must care for the young take care of the home gather food hunt small animals cook and

prepare food and perhaps most importantly of all create and repair clothing in the far north clothing is extremely important a hunter could not hope to kill an animal without help from the woman's needle considering that upper Paleolithic cultures share many parallels with traditional Inuit culture it is possible that women did enjoy their fair share of power the representation of women in their artwork as overweight may suggest that they even given preferential access to food perhaps only some women such as those who were pregnant or those who were Shaman were afforded this luxury with our evidence

it is difficult to understand what the power dynamics between men and women would have been during the gratian I hope I at least open your mind to possibilities beyond the typical Trope surrounding hunter gatherers further evidence of the culture of these people comes from the vast variety of other figurines found at their sites one of the most interesting is the male figurine of a marionette from berno this object was found in a grave and is the only male figurine known from the period unlike the Venus figurines it was made of multiple pieces and had articulating

limbs it may have been attached to strings to make it act out lifik scenes or it may have just been a doll perhaps with clothing interestingly the Inu made similar figurines which functioned as dolls or toys perhaps this figurine could have simply been a toy it also makes you wonder how many of these figurines were made in the Paleolithic that have simply decomposed or have been lost over time we really are seeing just the tip of the iceberg in the archaeological record we will also mention this figurine later when we discuss the burial It's associated

with besides human figurines many animal figurines and artwork are known from gravettian sites like the prior oration period powerful animals were often depicted in gratian art Lions Bears bines rhinos and mammoths arec at the Russian site of keni a large variety of animal heads were carved from Ivory it is unclear if they were part of larger figurines they appear to be Bears or lions a number of Mammoth figurines with their classic domed heads were also depicted hundreds of miles away at the Pavlov site lions and Mammoth were also commonly carved the leaping lioness of Pavlov

is an interesting full body carving of a FID that appears to have been stalking or pouncing some of the most fascinating animal figurines were the ones found at the pavlovian site of DOL vestan as mentioned earlier primitive Ceramics were made at this site many fragments of animal figurines have been found Bears rhinocerous Lions horse reindeer and Mammoth were all depicted a figurine that originated at DOL viche made it all the way to lower Austria 100 km away this tells us that some figurines were brought with hunters or even traded many of the figurines were damaged

from Sudden temperature changes it has been speculated that this may have been done deliberately during ceremonies the figurines may have been broken first and then thrown into a fire as part of a hunting ritual this image of zidanic buan depicts just that considering that the animals they made in these figurines were all prey animals of these people it may have been part of some kind of hunting ritual all the way in Western Russia a gravettian site at the town of zaris May preserve similar evidence supporting ritual destruction of art an amazing bison statuette made from

a mammoth tusk was found buried here it was painted with a thick coat of red ochre scratched with a sharp object the legs were broken off and then it was put in a pit researchers have hypothesized that this figurine was broken and discarded in a magic hunting right the legs may have been broken off to prevent the real bison from running away supporting this idea is the fact that the Bison figurine depicted is a young female young females would have been much easier to hunt than other demographics this figurine belonged to the costeno culture a

cultural variant of the lake retan which lived in Western Russia we have covered pretty much all of the artistic objects made by these people except for musical instruments the voice was almost certainly the first instrument and it is possible that other species of humans use their voices to sing songs or create some kind of primitive music true instruments such as flutes did not appear until around the upper Paleolithic they were present in the orig nation and appear to have been significant to their culture similarly the gravettian made many flutes and they're often associated with other

ritual items upper Paleolithic flutes typically consist of a hollow bone with holes drilled into them the creation of flutes inherently suggests that some kind of music was being created and played music is a very important part of most cultures and often goes far beyond just Pleasant noises in contemporary indigenous societies music is often used to heal or to Ward away bad energies or Spirits the gravettian may have used flutes alongside other instruments in special rituals items that have been interpreted as drumsticks have been found at gravettian sites drums are typically made of perishable materials and

thus it is not unusual that we do not have direct evidence of them however drums are commonly used in shamanistic rituals and it is possible that they accompanied flutes during origination times another instrument we do know that some gravettian used was the bll roarer a bll roarer is a musical instrument to communicate over long distances it is attached to a string and swung in a circle this produces a roaring vibration noise that can be heard over long distances the aboriginals famously use these instruments in rituals and to communicate over the vast landscape of the Outback

across almost all Aboriginal cultures bull roarers are only used by initiated men an uninitiated man woman or child can be put to death for using the device while Outsiders that hear the noise can also be killed it is a truly sacred instrument for the aboriginals and such connotations could have gone along with the bull rollers used in gravettian times whistles were another musical instrument that have been found at cretian sites these instruments can also be called tools cons considering that they have been used to great effect in many applications they may have been used to

help coordinate hunts as well as during cultural events overall musical instruments were quite important to gravettian people for communication and for socialization another thing important to these people were caves caves have been lived in by homins for millions of years they provide shelter and comfort in a world that is often anything but earlier humans appear to have lived in caves quite often while upper Paleolithic humans appear to have commonly utilized both caves and open air sites during the upper Paleolithic caves began to mean something more they were places of culture mysterious passageways that were to

be explored decorated and venerated the org Nation had already ventured deep into many famous caverns to produce extraordinary things and the gravettian carried on this trend the gravettian even developed a specialized technology to explore caves Stone oil lamps these objects were not made of Napp Stone but were rather a variety of softer Stones which could be carved they were used to burn oil probably animal fat oil burns a lot cleaner than say a wooden torch or fire pretty useful when you want to breathe clean air when you're deep into a cave cave art was mainly

practiced in Southwest Europe during the gratian this makes sense considering that Eastern Europe doesn't have as many caves dating Cav art directly to the can be pretty difficult because most cart has not been objectively dated and other sites need to be retested still we know of at least 17 sites in Spain Portugal France and Italy from the gratian hand stencils or hand paintings are found at many of these sites these are simply made by blowing pigment over the hand which creates a negative handprint or by dipping your hand in pigment you can create a positive

handprint handprints are found on caves and rocks around the world and are still made by some tribes the gravettian continued on this trend though they do seem to have made their modifications various sites show that handprints were being made missing fingers gargas cave has a vast array of these prints some are missing segments of fingers While others are missing multiple entire fingers gargo cave has a total of 231 handprints of this number only 10 are fully intact while 144 are missing some part of their fingers and others cannot be fully identified many of these hands

belong to the same individuals though it is thought around 40 to 50 different individuals made them in total there is no scientific consensus regarding the cause of the missing digits some have argued that no digits were even missing and that the fingers were just being bent to portray some kind of symbolism or even communication upper Paleolithic people almost certainly had some form of sign language of important gestures made with their hands these handprints may have simply been a form of communication that was immortalized on the caves walls others have suggested that the fingers were indeed

amputated for shamanistic or ritual reasons digits may have been removed during a ride of Passage or during the mourning of a loved one similar practices have been observed in the Don tribe of Papua New Guinea after the passing of a loved one relatives are often expected to they cut off the top part of their fingers as a sign of respect losing a relative to them literally means losing a piece of themselves it is certainly possible that gravettian people of this area had similar practices the last idea is that the fingers were either deformed by a

disease or were taken off by frostbite I find frostbite as unlikely as upper Paleolithic people seem to have been able to ward off this injury quite effectively it would be very odd if this many individuals lost their fingers simply from the cold a handful of diseases could have also been responsible for the missing digits we may never know what these prints meant to their people but they are another fantastic odity from the period besides handprints the gravettian of Western Europe also made plenty of cave paintings most of this art was made in the southwest of

France such as at the cave of pesar here many images were made on the walls of the 2 km long cave the most famous were the two spotted horses the dark color of the horses was made mainly from manganese oxide the strange coloration is not one seen in Wild Horses though DNA analysis of ancient horses in 2011 found that some Pline horses were indeed spotted other images in the cave include bison orox and mammoths most of these paintings are outlines but as you can see with this Mammoth they're still quite beautiful this painting preserves a

lifelike po posture of a powerful male orox another image which can only be seen in this replica depicted what appears to be a northern pike painted in red Oaker I really like Pike being a motan and all so this has to be one of my favorite images from the period perhaps one of the most significant images from this cave consists of a seemingly wounded man full of Spears next to an enigmatic figure it's difficult to say what exactly this image represents though it is not the only wounded man from the gratian the nearby kunac caves

have a number of interesting depictions of animals but more importantly two more wounded men inside the body of a megal ceris image the outline of a man with three Spears in his back was depicted another wounded man from the site depicts much of the same thing except this man has Spears in his upper body and abdomen as well these three depictions are some of the only evidence for violence that we have from the upper Paleolithic it is it's pretty clear that these images represent the killing of an individual whether the slain individuals were part of

their group or a neighboring group we do not know the image may not even represent an actual event it could have just been from the imagination since we have a lot of other art to talk about we will save the discussion of violence for when we finally get to burials shave cave contains beautiful works of art that dat to the ornation period though we know some gretti actually got to see these beautiful images the visitors left hearths smoke stains on the ceiling and the footprints of a child and what appears to have been a dog

The 50m Long Trail of footprints show that a boy around 10 years old walked alongside a large canid by closely analyzing the canid prints it appears that it may have been a dog though there is no consensus on this it is quite interesting to imagine just a boy and his dog exploring this cave all those years ago like I said the gravettian do not appear to have painted anything of their own in the cave they merely enjoyed the art that was already there there are not very many other sites with impressive cretti and paintings though

many do include elaborate Engravings during the gratian Engravings were actually more common than paintings at rodor Cave many Engravings were made over a relatively short period of time the cave consists of 100 50 Engravings of animal figurines of this number almost half are horses while a third were deer and the rest were various animals including mammoths and felids there were also many handprints and geometric marks and symbols including 30 circles and over 600 vertical lines at the nearby kusac cave around 150 Engravings of animals and some humans can be found 71 bison 24 mammoths 18

horses and a few Ibex and rhinoceros were engraved the mammoths were given much of the attention compared to other animals with hair clearly being depicted seven human females were also engraved they appear to resemble the proportions of other Venus esque artwork another interesting point about this cave is that researchers found evidence that the gravettian artists were actually wearing Footwear while moving through the cave though we know that they must have worn something on their feet in the winter this is some of the oldest evidence of Footwear another cave containing corvan Works known as CER cave

is actually mostly underwater the only entrance is 37 M or 121 ft under the sea divers must swim through 175 M or 570 ft tunnel to reach the main chamber of the cave during the pine the sea level was much lower and the cave was not under water unfortunately 80% of the cave has been submerged at one point or another d much of the artwork though still nearly a 100 of the paintings date to the gratian while the rest appears to date to the solutran many handprints and animal paintings are found at the cave these

include the regular cast of characters like horses Ibex deer and pison but also some marine animals such as seals great ox and some jellyfish there are some anthropomorphic symbols as well as a killed man then graving appears to show a man with his skull crushed by a spear head this may suggest that he was a victim of a murder or an execution another beautiful engraving can be found at the site of auu Po which translates to fish Rock shelter the engraving of a beautiful fish was carved into the ceiling the fish is a meter long

and appears to depict a salmon fishing was likely an important activity in the area and the shelter may have been used seasonally for fishing funny enough thieves had once tried to steal the engraving though they were thed at the last moment I really wish I could go back in time and fish in Ice Age Europe this fish looks absolutely beautiful the most abundant Engravings of the period come from the Kaa Valley of Portugal over 5,000 Engravings of animal figures were carved on Boulders and rock walls over a period of several thousand years here horses bow

Vines humans and Abstract Figures were all carved these Engravings are hard to date since they cannot be carbon dated though the earliest Engravings dates to between 20 to 22,000 years ago Engravings kept being made on these rocks throughout subsequent periods all the way up to the 20th century the COA Valley appears to have been used for fishing by early Europeans so the vast amount of horses and bines may suggest that these people were also hunting in the area rock art is very interesting though due to its exposure to the elements it is often damaged or

completely destroyed over time we can imagine that much of the art made on outside surfaces or near the shore is no longer viewable I could talk about their art all day but it is time to move on and talk about another thing that made them human their practice of burial the gravettian were some of the first people to create elaborate burials for their loved ones the practice of burial May date back hundreds of thousands of years even possibly to other species of humans it is thought that some nander tall populations bury they're dead but mostly

after around 100,000 years ago some of the earliest evidence of burial in our species comes from right around 100,000 years ago in Africa this may support the idea that homo sapiens were burying each other occasionally before we migrated around the world the people of the oration culture appear to have left most of their dead unburied but during the gratian burial became much more common more than 50 gravettian burials have been found with some being extraordinarily seate Italy is home to 17 of these burials one of which has attracted a lot of attention the burial discovered

in the cave of AR candid on the liuan coast is one of the most fascinating of the entire Paleolithic here a young man was elaborately buried with beaded clothing and many grave Goods he has been nicknamed The Prince of arand or prpe the young prince this is of course because of the extremely rich set of grave Goods buried with him he was around 15 years old at his time of death 23,500 years ago he died from a fatal injury to his jaw and shoulder it has been hypothesized that a bear or big cat was responsible

for his demise during his burial yellow ochre was sprinkled on the ground before his body was placed on top of it he was wearing a fine hat made of hundreds of shells and deer canines while he was also wearing mammoth ivory pendants next to him were four deer anair batons and in his hand he was holding a magnificent Flint Blade the blade is 23 cm or 9.1 in in length making such a blade is quite a difficult task and to add to this the blade was made of French Flint quite a ways away from his

burial being the fan that I am I had a replica of his blade made out of French Flint from German Flint Napper Elena moose like the blade of el pipe I do not plan to use it but a blade of this size would have been quite useful and I can see why they thought it was best to bury the poor guy holding such a tool the prince's bones revealed that he was quite athletic he had very strong arms especially his right arm which was likely used for throwing projectiles his legs show that he ran often

and walked fast distances isotope analysis showed that he had a meat heavy diet and around 20 to 30% of it was made up of fish and mollusks the prince of arand did must have been a valued person in his community due to his lavish Burial at such an age it is likely that he was a shaman or leader though we do not know for sure perhaps he was a young Shaman or the son of one another nearby Burial at L de cavon contains a woman buried with a similar headdress this headdress was made up of

over 300 shells and around 35 canine teeth from Deer Flint blades were found around her and ochre also covered the entire grave moving to Southern Italy in the region of puya many extraordinary burials have been found Ladon dii or the lady of vuni is a burial of a 20-year-old woman and her unborn child some researchers have speculated that the young woman may have died from a clamps a condition which causes seizures in pregnant women this condition is rare but mainly occurs in younger women supporting the hypothesis that this condition killed her it is clear that

her death affected the people around her as her grave had a plethora of grave goods and she wore a shell cap interestingly these shell caps may have been what was depicted in some Venus figurines honestly I'm starting to want to be buried in a shell Cap Italy has many more important burials but I think it is time to move to Central Europe the most impressive cretian burials can be found in Central Europe the pavlovian Grans in particular had quite Rich burials there are around 35 individuals known from burials in Moravia dated to between 27 and

25,000 years ago from this six individuals are from burial context 20 are from partial skeletal remains from Disturbed burials and the rest are fragmentary and isolated Remains The fragmentary Remains may have been the result of Mortuary activities compared to our abundance of fragmentary human remains the actual burial of complete bodies are fairly rare in the past lovian many of these remains show signs of burning as well at the sight of D Vesta nit one we find a single elaborate burial an adult female was placed in a shallow grave with five Fox and sizers in her

right hand and other Fox bones were buried alongside her she appears to have been wrapped in some kind of textile and covered in red ochre she was covered in dirt and two Mammoth shoulder blades were placed on top of her cve the remains of of 19 infants and other adults were also found at the site though it is unknown if they were actually buried at the site of DOL vestan a 2 a single and triple burial has been found the triple burial consists of three young adults laid side by side in a shallow crave two

of the individuals were males though the female in the center had a number of health issues and deformities including a shortened femur deformed upper arm curvature of the spine and dental problems all of the individuals were buried wearing a headdress or mask covered in red ochre and two of them were further decorated with Ivory pendants and canine teeth Flint tools including a knife was found in the grave as well some evidence suggests that a wooden structure was lit on fire above the individuals and later covered in dirt this burial is particular considering three young adults

were buried all at once did they happen to all die in the same place at the same time we don't know it is possible that one of the individuals died naturally and the others were killed and buried along with them there are examples throughout history of individuals in relationships joining their deceased loved ones in death willingly or unwillingly the historical practice of Sati in Hindu communities consists of a widow sacrificing herself to die next to her deceased husband some did this by sitting at top the funeral P of their husband While others were buried alive

with their loved one in the case of the triple burial we definitely should not assert that these three individuals had any kind of specific relationship however the presence of three young adults in one burial is peculiar and it is possible that one or more of these individuals was buried before their time was up another Burial at do vestan 2 consisted of an elderly male placed in a shallow grave with 123 stone tools three Fox canines and what appears to have been a headdress covered in red ochre the site of prosi also in Moravia contains a

mass burial pit of around 20 individuals dated to between 27,000 and 26,000 years ago most remains were fragmentary the oldest individuals two males were between 35 to 40 years and 40 to 50 years old the youngest were three infants less than a year old the grave pit also contained seven children younger than 10 years old two female adolescents and six individual ual less than 30 years old in the pits stone tools shells and ivory carvings have been found also found in the pit were the remains of animals such as Mammoth reindeer Fox horse wolf bear

Wolverine hair and carnivore canines of the wolf remains three of the skulls have been proposed as Paleolithic dogs their skulls differed from wolves in being shorter and having larger brain cases one of the skulls was buried with a bone carefully placed in its mouth analysis of these remains suggest that their diets differed drastically from wild wolves the evidence suggests that these skulls may represent some of the earliest domesticated dogs in the fossil record the remains in the mass grave pit were not buried at the same time instead it was a location of repeated burials some

remains appear to have been buried articulated While others were thrown in separately interestingly no evidence of ochre was found in the pit another site in the Czech Republic named berno 2 contains one of the most interesting burials of the Paleolithic here it appears a shaman was buried his grave was richly adorned with many animal bones such as Mammoth tusks and rhinoceros ribs but also Stone discs and tools that may have been used for Flint napping he was wearing a hat made of around 600 shell and other beaded clothing perhaps the most amazing Discovery from the

site was the figurine that we mentioned earlier this figurine was truly a work of art for the period another important point to mention is that this man suffered from excruciating lifelong pain in his hands and legs he endured paletis an inflammation of the periosteum a tough membrane made up of fibrous connective tissue that envelops all bone surfaces such a painful condition may have led to him becoming a shaman in one way or another I should mention that we do not know for sure if he played this role in his community though the abundance of artifacts

do suggest it one artifact which has been interpreted as a drumstick appears to have been broken ceremonially before being thrown into his grave of course this is just an interpretation and not fact though it is very interesting to consider despite the brutal pain this man endured he lived to around 50 years old which is extremely old for the time his skull shows cuts which may have stemmed from the ritual removal of the Flesh and skin after death why they may have done this we don't quite know though this practice has been carried out by many

cultures and even different human species moving to Austria we find a single and double burial of infants between 26 to 27,000 years ago in the double burial the two children were both aged around 9 to 10 months and were placed and covered with ochre and a mammoth scapula the infants were side by side in a flex position with their heads oriented to the north mammoth ivory beads were also found in the grave which were probably connected by a string the second individual burial was a child not older than 3 months old and the grave was

placed 1 meter north of the double burial the child was also flexed but its head was oriented towards the South and covered in ochre the ochre was probably on a shroud in which the infant was wrapped and secured by a mammoth ey free pin the positioning of the two burials are similar to the sunar child burials though we may never know why these infants passed we can clearly tell that their loved ones were devastated by their loss the complex ritual elements to their burial may have been a coping mechanism which helped them grieve through these

Hard Times moving East to the Russian step we find more extraordinary evidence from a variety of sites the sunar site in Western Russia particularly Graves 1 and two have been described as the most spectacular of any gravettian burial grave 1 consisted of an adult male while Grave 2 consisted of two children buried Head to Head both of the children appear to have been buried together perhaps suggesting sacrifice the children both had physical disabilities including bowed legs and their teeth show that they may have gone through periods of starvation they may have died of natural causes

though some sort of sacrifice is not out of the question both grave 1 and two were buried with some of the most elaborate grave Goods ever found in a place to scene burial over 13,000 Ivory beads have been found in the graves just to manufacture this many beads would have taken an estimated 10,000 hours the beads appear to have been strung together likely onto clothing from burial one we can clearly see where the beads were sewn on 3,000 beads covered his arms chest waist and legs he wore a beaded hat containing pierced Fox teeth and

a necklace made of shist the two children from baral 2 had far more grave Goods around 10,000 Ivory beads and 16 mammoth ivory Spears were found among other Goods the spears are particularly interesting one was over 2 m or 6 1/2 ft in length and weighed around 20 kg or 44 lb it was made from a mammoth tusk that was straightened and carved the Tusk that this spear must have been carved from must have been massive and probably relatively straight before they started working on it although they could have straightened it with the use of

hot springs or other methods given the tremendous weight and bulk it would have not have been very practical for hunting it was likely entirely symbolic other more manageable Spears found in the grave would have been more useful as hunting equipment though none of them appear to have ever been used along with the spears mammoth ivory discs were placed such a shape would have been difficult to carve they may have been mounted in wooden shafts perhaps allowing feathers to have been tied to them a few animal pendants or figurines were also buried with them likely representing

horses strange pin-shaped objects found along the waist of the two boys may have held some kind of clothing or cloak around the waist similar objects have been found at other sites both Graves 1 and two were covered in red ochre Grave 2 even contained the femur of an adult that was filled with red ochre perhaps used as a container it is clear that red ochre was very significant to their culture as it was for so many others throughout the world one of the reasons that this site is so interesting is because it further shows that

burials during this time were socially complex some individuals were lavishly buried with thousands of beads While others got a few Fox teeth or nothing at all this suggests that individuals Within These bands held different positions of power and Prestige even some children and infants were buried with many Goods long before they would have even provided others with food or skilled labor this suggests that some children may have been born into a higher position than others perhaps the children of Shaman or great hunters were born into a form of nobility at the very least these burials

tell us that their culture included a high degree of social complexity the last thing to mention about sunar is the possible evidence for violence in grave 1 the individual in this burial has a fatal perimortem sharp trauma in his first thoracic vertebrae this wound likely killed the already old man though we do not know how it was caused it very well may have been a hunting accident though interpersonal violence cannot be dismissed the fact that they elaborately buried him in is not very consistent with murder this example is the only evidence of violence thus far

from the cretian I touched upon this topic last video in the orc Nation but I will reiterate that violence does not appear to have been very common in the early upper Paleolithic this would change as it got warmer and population started to settle down though at least as far as our evidence goes we hardly find any evidence of violence between or even within groups another site with burials that deserves a mention would be ganki ganki is a wonderful site as we have mentioned in detail and the burials found here are some of the oldest in

Europe if you watch the last video on the org Nation you may remember that burial was not practiced during this period ferary practices likely existed but burial is just one funerary practice the organ naations may have left their dead out in the open similar to Sky burials that still happen today in Tibet when we look at Western gravettian sites burials appear quite rare fragmentary remains at French sight suggest that many individuals may have been left unburied a site in modern-day whales contains some of our only evidence of gravettian burial from Western Europe here the red

Lady of pavlin was found the remains were discovered in the early 1800s and were originally identified as a female from the Roman age due to the Shell jewelry found alongside it in fact the red Lady of pavin was a male dating to 33,000 years ago the oldest burial in Western Europe The Remains gained quite a bit of Interest perhaps because they were heavily stained with red ochre the body was placed in an extended position presumably lying on its left side in a shallow grave he was dressed in elaborate clothing probably a parka and leggings with

shells and ivory Rings sewn onto them large herbivores were placed in the burial and a large Mammoth skull with tusks placed in the proximity of the burial was probably part of funerary activities overall this site displays that the practice of burial was developed over 33,000 years ago even all the way in the northern corner of the gravettian domain another burial in modern-day Portugal attests to this here A 4 to 5-year-old child was found buried in a rock shelter dating to around 25,000 years ago the child was wrapped in an ochre stained shroud and placed in

a shallow GR in an extended position lying on its left side it had a necklace with shell pendants and a headdress with four red deer canines there were also animals placed in the grave with a child a juvenile rabbit and two male deer pelvises though separated by thousands of miles and years we still see relatively similar practices at this site overall burial became a very important aspect of gravettian culture throughout their existence we see that at the beginning of the upper Paleolithic burial is rare If Not absent entirely then simple burials appear and gradually get

more and more elaborate as time goes on this practice of burial would continue throughout subsequent periods and our modern-day practices may even be connected to these gravettian in some abstract way towards the end of gravettian times the climate was becoming much colder the gravettian had lived through colder times than their ornation predecessors but little did they know they were nearing the last glacial maximum the coldest time during the last ice age or the glacial period to be more precise the last glacial period started around 100 to 120,000 years ago and only ended around 11,000 years

ago the last glacial maximum is simply the time in which glaciers reach their fullest extent this also coincides with some of the coldest temperatures of the upper Paleolithic the lowest temperatures of the late gratian were as low as 28° C or 82° F colder than any other upper Paleolithic period this was caused by declining solar insulation meaning less sunlight was reaching the Earth in turn making it colder this affected plants vegetation and animals negatively especially in Northern latitudes the declin in environmental conditions and the available food resources consequently affected the hunter gatherer communities and resulted

in the sharp decline of these populations the population of cretti in Europe decreased by around 60% during this time from Britain even to Southern Germany we find no evidence of late gravettian camps and hardly anyone even lived along the danu while the Northern areas became gradually colder Southern areas such as canabria or the Balkans witness alternating humidity rather than temperature oscillations while the early gratian was a culturally Rich period with high technological standards the lake gratian became impoverished with the breakdown of Northern populations it was long considered that these populations in the northern latitudes migrated

southwards during this period as the climatic conditions worsened likely to find refugium in areas less affected such as the Balkans or the Iberian Peninsula however the scenario of the breakdown and Extinction of these Northern hunter gatherer communities are more plausible now and the populations already living in southern areas survive this period this population Decline and low number of people also resulted in the breakdown of longdistance communic ations and information flow of earlier metapopulations and resulted in the emergence of localized social network systems with distinctive Regional cultural characteristics and the loss of cultural complexity the gravettian

period would come to an end around 20 to 24,000 years ago though the great unified culture of the gravettian was gone the survivors went on to form new cultures the breakdown of the meta population during the lake Redan led to two separate populations in Europe during the last maximum one population east of the elps and one population west of the elps separated by an area of a th000 km where almost no sites are reported these two populations were adapted to different environments the Western population adapted to cold temper conditions while the Eastern adapted to cold

environments and more open Landscapes with rising in constant temperatures and increasing solar insulation areas of Europe once glaciated became much more inhabitable the cultures which descend from the gratian may have had some contact throughout the last glacial maximum though they would remain quite distinct the populations living in Eastern and Southeastern Europe maintained many gravettian cultural elements and became known as the epigravettian culture the epig gratian differed from the gravettian in that they lacked shouldered points and gravettian points looking much further east we see that the gravettian cultural influence spread well into Siberia after gravettian times

the malta culture made Venus and animal figurines along with similar tools as gravettian groups it was thought that this culture migrated from Eastern Europe during the gratian but a recent genetic study has found that they had no connection to the gratian vestin cluster it seems that the gravettian culture spread to these people rather than the people themselves in Southwestern Europe the hunter gather a culture which follow the gratian was the Proto soluton between 24 and 22 Kya followed by the solut between 22 to 19 Kya soluchan sites are found in southern France Spain and Portugal

during a relatively short time period the solutran culture would develop Stone tool technology to some of its most advanced states with their famous Laura Leaf baces but also with the other points they made their name is often tied to the peopling of the Americas though most Scholars agree that this is unwarranted we will finally go over the solutran hypothesis in the next video in this series I have gotten comment for years the gravettian culture formed during an extremely unforgiving time though their world was colder and more challenging than the one of their orc Nation predecessors

they managed to drastically increase their population and develop a thriving culture with their new Innovative technology and imaginative symbolic elements they were able to survive for thousands of years they were some of the most successful of the European upper Paleolithic and should be remembered as Innovative survivors I myself carry the I Hao Group which originated with cretian hunters in Eastern Europe though this is an admittedly distant connection I'm quite happy to know my ancestors were hunting mammoths at some point this is the second episode in my series about the European upper Paleolithic next I will

cover the saluton and epigravettian cultures and then the series will end with an episode about the magdalenian both of these episodes may be a little shorter than this behem myth of a video though I am quite excited to talk about the amazing artwork weapons and culture from these times if you enjoy long documentaries on ancient people check out the prior episode I made in this series or any other videos I've made thanks for watching if you have made it this far in the video comment Mammoth meat so I can see who really watched this video

to the end add a question to it and I will hopefully answer it don't forget to like And subscribe as well this has been your host North too and I hope to see you again soon