UPPER PALEOLITHIC CULTURE

==Culture== Anatomically modern humans (''Homo sapiens'') emerged about 200,000 years ago in Africa. Although these humans were modern in anatomy, their culture had changed very little and they still used the same crude stone tools as the Neanderthals and ''erectus''. [image:http://i.imgur.com/jvjXdOz.png?2] During a period called the upper palaeolithic (between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago) there was a cultural explosion. Our ancestors enveloped a complex language, music and art. Tool kits became extremely sophisticated, using a wider variety of raw materials such as bone and antler. There was a rapid emergence of different tools, such as projectile points, knife blades, darts, harpoons, fishing hooks and drilling and piercing tools. Each of these tools is clearly designed for a different purpose; making clothing, engraving, sculpting, etc. Finer, more sophisticated tools emerged such as threaded needles, rope and the oil lamps. [image:http://i.imgur.com/yvOZgoY.png] Tools also started to show greater ingenuity, such as the atlatl (throwing stick) below, which greatly increases the range of a spear. Note how this tool has multiple parts and how different materials were used (a composite tool). [image:http://i.imgur.com/M8vzIPs.png?1] More sophisticated tool manufacturing techniques such as the punch blade method (illustrated below) emerged. Around 45,000 years ago, ''Homo sapiens'' (Cro-magnons) took this technology with them into Europe. Their population exploded and and this most likely was at least partially responsible for the disappearance of the Neanderthals. [image:http://i.imgur.com/pHtWRjs.png?1] Other artifacts including fine artwork, in the form of decorated tools, beads, ivory carvings of humans and animals, clay figurines, instruments, and spectacular cave paintings started to develop during this period too. The development of art is evidence of higher order thinking and symbolism. Tools were no longer being made or improved through trial and error, but by design. Art and symbolism represents a new-found ability to imagine things other than are. Note the large proportions of the female figurine. This may represent early man's 'ideal' women (her size being an indication of success / social standing). The Upper Paleolithic has the earliest known evidence of organized settlements, in the form of camp sites, some with storage pits. These were often located in narrow valley bottoms, possibly associated with hunting of passing herds of animals. Some sites may have been occupied year round, though more commonly they appear to have been used seasonally; peoples moved between the sites to exploit different food sources at different times of the year. This represents a shift towards living in larger, more complex social groups that occupied a single location for longer periods of time. This was made possible through trade which enabled ''Homo sapiens'' to source exotic raw materials from far off places. Trade would have provided a more varied and reliable source of food.