# Cro-Magnon
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{{Short description|Earliest anatomically modern humans in Europe and West Asia}}
{{About||the site of the first discovered Cro-Magnons|Cro-Magnon rock shelter|other uses|Cro-Magnon (disambiguation)}}
{{good article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2025}}
[[File:Cro-Magnon 1.jpg|thumb|Skull of [Cro-Magnon 1](/source/Cro-Magnon_1)]]
'''Cro-Magnons'''{{refn|group=note|{{IPAc-en|audio=Cro-magnon.ogg|k|r|əʊ|ˈ|m|æ|n|j|ɒ|n}} {{respell|kroh|MAN|yon}} or {{IPAc-en|k|r|əʊ|ˈ|m|æ|ɡ|n|ə|n}} {{respell|kroh|MAG|nən}}, {{IPA|fr|kʁomaɲɔ̃|lang|small=no}}.}} or '''European early modern humans''' ('''EEMH''') were the first [early modern human](/source/early_modern_human)s (''Homo sapiens'') found in [Europe](/source/Europe) and [Siberia](/source/Siberia), continuously occupying the continent possibly from as early as 56,800 years ago. They interacted and interbred with the indigenous [Neanderthal](/source/Neanderthal)s (''H. neanderthalensis'') of Europe and Western Asia, who went extinct 35,000 to 40,000 years ago. Ancient DNA research indicates that the earliest modern humans in Europe during the Initial Upper Paleolithic (~45–40 kya) were part of the broader early expansion of Homo sapiens from Eurasia. Genetic data show that some early European individuals represent lineages that left little or no detectable ancestry in later European populations.
However, other lineages present in Europe by ~38–37 kya are genetically closer to later Upper Paleolithic Europeans. These surviving Upper Paleolithic populations contributed ancestry to Mesolithic European hunter-gatherers, including Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHG), who in turn form one of the principal ancestral components of present-day Europeans.
Rather than reflecting a separate later migration into Europe prior to the Neolithic, current evidence supports a model of early population structure followed by lineage extinction and survival within the initial Homo sapiens expansion from the continent. Cro-Magnons produced [Upper Palaeolithic](/source/Upper_Palaeolithic) cultures, the first major one being the [Aurignacian](/source/Aurignacian), which was succeeded by the [Gravettian](/source/Gravettian) by 30,000 years ago. The Gravettian split into the [Epi-Gravettian](/source/Epi-Gravettian) in the east and [Solutrean](/source/Solutrean) in the west, due to major climatic degradation during the [Last Glacial Maximum](/source/Last_Glacial_Maximum) (LGM), peaking 21,000 years ago. As Europe warmed, the Solutrean evolved into the [Magdalenian](/source/Magdalenian) by 20,000 years ago, and these peoples recolonised Europe. The Magdalenian and Epi-Gravettian gave way to [Mesolithic](/source/Mesolithic) cultures as big game animals were dying out, and the [Last Glacial Period](/source/Last_Glacial_Period) drew to a close.[{{cite journal |last1=Hajdinjak |first1=M. |year=2021 |title=Initial Upper Palaeolithic humans in Europe had recent Neanderthal ancestry |journal=[Nature](/source/Nature_(journal)) |volume=592 |pages=253–257 |doi=10.1038/s41586-021-03335-3|pmc=8026394 }}]
[{{cite journal |last1=Posth |first1=C. |year=2016 |title=Pleistocene mitochondrial genomes suggest a single major dispersal of non-Africans and a Late Glacial population turnover in Europe |journal=[Current Biology](/source/Current_Biology) |volume=26 |issue=6 |pages=827–833 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2016.01.037|hdl=2158/1029551 |hdl-access=free }}]
[{{cite journal |last1=Fu |first1=Q. |year=2016 |title=The genetic history of Ice Age Europe |journal=[Nature](/source/Nature_(journal)) |volume=534 |pages=200–205 |doi=10.1038/nature17993|pmc=4943878 }}]
[{{cite journal |last1=Lazaridis |first1=I. |year=2014 |title=Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans |journal=[Nature](/source/Nature_(journal)) |volume=513 |pages=409–413 |doi=10.1038/nature13673|arxiv=1312.6639 }}]
[{{cite journal |last=Villalba-Mouco |first=V. |year=2019 |title=Survival of Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer ancestry in the Iberian Peninsula |journal=Current Biology |volume=29 |issue=7 |pages=1169–1177 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.060}}] Upper Paleolithic West Eurasian populations contributed ancestry to later European hunter-gatherers and share deep genetic affinities with ancient Near Eastern populations, some of whose descendants later contributed to populations in West Asia and North Africa.
Cro-Magnons were generally more robust than most living populations, having larger brains, broader faces, more prominent [brow ridges](/source/brow_ridges), and bigger teeth. The earliest Cro-Magnon specimens also exhibit some features that are reminiscent of those found in Neanderthals. The first Cro-Magnons would have generally had darker skin tones than most modern Europeans and some West Asians and North Africans; [natural selection](/source/natural_selection) for lighter skin would not have begun until 30,000 years ago. Before the LGM, Cro-Magnons had overall low population density, tall stature similar to post-industrial humans, and expansive trade routes stretching as long as {{cvt|900|km}}, and hunted big game animals. Cro-Magnons had much higher populations than the Neanderthals, possibly due to higher fertility rates; [life expectancy](/source/life_expectancy) for both species was typically under 40 years. Following the LGM, population density increased as communities travelled less frequently (though for longer distances), and the need to feed so many more people in tandem with the increasing scarcity of big game caused them to rely more heavily on small or aquatic game ([broad spectrum revolution](/source/broad_spectrum_revolution)), and to more frequently participate in [game drive system](/source/game_drive_system)s and slaughter whole herds at a time. The Cro-Magnon arsenal included spears, [spear-thrower](/source/spear-thrower)s, [harpoon](/source/harpoon)s, and possibly [throwing stick](/source/throwing_stick)s and [Palaeolithic dog](/source/Palaeolithic_dog)s. Cro-Magnons likely commonly constructed temporary huts while moving around, and Gravettian peoples notably made large huts on the [East European Plain](/source/East_European_Plain) out of mammoth bones.
Cro-Magnons are well renowned for creating a diverse array of artistic works, including [cave painting](/source/cave_painting)s, [Venus figurine](/source/Venus_figurine)s, [perforated baton](/source/perforated_baton)s, animal figurines, and geometric patterns. They also wore decorative beads and plant-fibre clothes dyed with various plant-based dyes. For music, they produced [bone flutes](/source/bone_flutes) and whistles, and possibly also [bullroarer](/source/bullroarer)s, [rasps](/source/rasp_(music)), drums, [idiophone](/source/idiophone)s, and other instruments. They buried their dead, though possibly only people who had achieved or were born into high status.
The name "Cro-Magnon" comes from the five skeletons discovered by French palaeontologist [Louis Lartet](/source/Louis_Lartet) in 1868 at the [Cro-Magnon rock shelter](/source/Cro-Magnon_rock_shelter), [Les Eyzies](/source/Les_Eyzies), Dordogne, France, after the area was accidentally discovered while a road was constructed for a railway station. Remains of Palaeolithic cultures have been known for centuries, but they were initially interpreted in a [creationist](/source/creationist) model, wherein they represented [antediluvian](/source/antediluvian) peoples which were wiped out by the [Great Flood](/source/Great_Flood). Following the conception and popularisation of [evolution](/source/evolution) in the mid-to-late 19th century, Cro-Magnons became the subject of much [scientific racism](/source/scientific_racism), with early race theories allying with [Nordicism](/source/Nordicism) and [Pan-Germanism](/source/Pan-Germanism). Such [historical race concepts](/source/historical_race_concepts) were overturned by the mid-20th century.
==Chronology==
{{See also|Hominid dispersals in Europe}}
===Initial Upper Palaeolithic===
{{see also|Initial Upper Paleolithic|Proto-Aurignacian}}
When [early modern human](/source/early_modern_human)s (''Homo sapiens'') migrated onto the European continent, they interacted with the indigenous [Neandertal](/source/Neandertal)s (''Homo neanderthalensis'') that had already inhabited Europe for hundreds of thousands of years. In 2019, Greek palaeoanthropologist [Katerina Harvati](/source/Katerina_Harvati) and colleagues argued that two 210,000-year-old skulls from [Apidima Cave](/source/Apidima_Cave), Greece, represent modern humans rather than Neanderthals, indicating these populations have an unexpectedly deep history[{{cite journal |last=Harvati |first=K. |display-authors=et al. |title=Apidima Cave fossils provide earliest evidence of ''Homo sapiens'' in Eurasia |year= 2019 |journal=[Nature](/source/Nature_(journal)) |volume=571 |issue=7766 |pages=500–504 |doi=10.1038/s41586-019-1376-z |pmid=31292546 |s2cid=195873640 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/6646855 |hdl=10072/397334 |hdl-access=free }}]—but this was disputed in 2020 by French paleoanthropologist [Marie-Antoinette de Lumley](/source/Marie-Antoinette_de_Lumley) and colleagues.[{{cite journal|first1=M.-A.|last1=de Lumley|first2=G.|last2=Guipert|first3=H.|last3=de Lumley|author3-link=Henry de Lumley|first4=N.|last4=Protopapa|first5=T.|last5=Pitsios|year=2020|title=Apidima 1 and Apidima 2: Two anteneandertal skulls in the Peloponnese, Greece|journal=L'Anthropologie|volume=124|issue=1|article-number=102743|doi=10.1016/j.anthro.2019.102743|s2cid=216449347}}]
In [marine isotope stage](/source/marine_isotope_stage) 3, beginning about 60,000 years ago, there were rapid fluctuations between forestland and open steppeland.[
[[File:Bohunician scrapers.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|[Bohunician](/source/Bohunician) [scrapers](/source/scraper_(archaeology)) in the [Moravian Museum](/source/Moravian_Museum), Czech Republic]]
The earliest indication of [Upper Palaeolithic](/source/Upper_Palaeolithic) modern human migration into Europe is a series of modern human teeth with Neronian [industry](/source/Industry_(archaeology)) stone tools found at [Mandrin Cave](/source/Mandrin_Cave), [Malataverne](/source/Malataverne) in France, dated in 2022 to between 56,800 and 51,700 years ago. The Neronian is one of the many industries associated with modern humans classed as transitional between the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic.][{{cite journal|first1=L.|last1=Slimak|first2=C.|last2=Zanolli|first3=T.|last3=Higham|display-authors=et al.|year=2022|title=Modern human incursion into Neanderthal territories 54,000 years ago at Mandrin, France|journal=Science Advances|volume=8|issue=6|article-number=eabj9496 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.abj9496|pmid=35138885 |pmc=8827661 |bibcode=2022SciA....8J9496S }}] Beyond this there is the Balkan [Bohunician](/source/Bohunician) industry beginning 48,000 years ago, likely deriving from the Levantine [Emiran](/source/Emiran) industry;[{{cite journal|first=J. F.|last=Hoffecker|year=2009|title=The spread of modern humans in Europe|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=106|issue=38|pages=16040–16045|doi=10.1073/pnas.0903446106|pmc=2752585|pmid=19571003|bibcode=2009PNAS..10616040H|doi-access=free}}] the remains found in the cave {{ill|Ilsenhöhle|de}} in [Ranis](/source/Ranis), Germany, up to 47,500 years old;[{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Geoff M. |last2=Ruebens |first2=Karen |last3=Zavala |first3=Elena Irene |last4=Sinet-Mathiot |first4=Virginie |last5=Fewlass |first5=Helen |last6=Pederzani |first6=Sarah |last7=Jaouen |first7=Klervia |last8=Mylopotamitaki |first8=Dorothea |last9=Britton |first9=Kate |last10=Rougier |first10=Hélène |last11=Stahlschmidt |first11=Mareike |last12=Meyer |first12=Matthias |last13=Meller |first13=Harald |last14=Dietl |first14=Holger |last15=Orschiedt |first15=Jörg |last16=Krause |first16=Johannes |last17=Schüler |first17=Tim |last18=McPherron |first18=Shannon P. |last19=Weiss |first19=Marcel |last20=Hublin |first20=Jean-Jacques |last21=Welker |first21=Frido |title=The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old ''Homo sapiens'' at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany |journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution |date=31 January 2024 |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=564–577 |doi=10.1038/s41559-023-02303-6 |pmid=38297138 |doi-access=free |pmc=10927544 |bibcode=2024NatEE...8..564S }}] and the next-oldest fossils date to roughly 44,000 years ago in Bulgaria,[{{cite journal|first1=J.-J.|last1=Hublin|first2=N.|last2=Sirakov|display-authors=et al.|year=2020|title=Initial Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens from Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria|journal=Nature|doi=10.1038/s41586-020-2259-z|volume=581|issue=7808|pages=299–302|pmid=32433609|bibcode=2020Natur.581..299H|hdl=11585/770553 |s2cid=218592678|url=https://kar.kent.ac.uk/81524/1/Hublin%20et%20al%20_authors%20accepted.pdf}}] Italy,[{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1038/nature10617| pmid = 22048311| title = Early dispersal of modern humans in Europe and implications for Neanderthal behaviour| journal = Nature| volume = 479| issue = 7374| pages = 525–528| year = 2011| last1 = Benazzi | first1 = S. | last2 = Douka | first2 = K. | last3 = Fornai | first3 = C. | last4 = Bauer | first4 = C.C. | last5 = Kullmer | first5 = O. | last6 = Svoboda | first6 = J.Í. | last7 = Pap | first7 = I. | last8 = Mallegni | first8 = F. | last9 = Bayle | first9 = P. | last10 = Coquerelle | first10 = M. | last11 = Condemi | first11 = S. | last12 = Ronchitelli | first12 = A. | last13 = Harvati | first13 = K. | last14 = Weber | first14 = G.W. |bibcode = 2011Natur.479..525B | s2cid = 205226924}}] and Britain.[{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1038/nature10484| pmid = 22048314| title = The earliest evidence for anatomically modern humans in northwestern Europe| journal = Nature| volume = 479| issue = 7374| pages = 521–524| year = 2011| last1 = Higham | first1 = T. | last2 = Compton | first2 = T. | last3 = Stringer | first3 = C. | last4 = Jacobi | first4 = R. | last5 = Shapiro | first5 = B. | last6 = Trinkaus | first6 = E. | last7 = Chandler | first7 = B. | last8 = Gröning | first8 = F. | last9 = Collins | first9 = C. | last10 = Hillson | first10 = S. | last11 = O'Higgins | first11 = P. | last12 = Fitzgerald | first12 = C. | last13 = Fagan | first13 = M. |bibcode = 2011Natur.479..521H | s2cid = 4374023}}] It is unclear, while migrating westward, if they followed the [Danubian corridor](/source/Danubian_corridor) or went along the Mediterranean coast.[{{cite journal | doi = 10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.11.009 | volume=62 | title=A new chronostratigraphic framework for the Upper Palaeolithic of Riparo Mochi (Italy) | year=2012 | journal=Journal of Human Evolution | pages=286–299 | last1 = Douka | first1 = Katerina | last2 = Grimaldi | first2 = Stefano | last3 = Boschian | first3 = Giovanni | last4 = Angiolo | last5 = Higham | first5 = Thomas F. G.| issue=2 | pmid=22189428 | bibcode=2012JHumE..62..286D }}]
Initial Upper Paleolithic specimens such as those found at the [Bacho Kiro cave](/source/Bacho_Kiro_cave) and the [Peștera cu Oase](/source/Pe%C8%99tera_cu_Oase) sites were closer related to [Ancient East Eurasians](/source/Ancient_East_Eurasians). Those ancestors expanded from a population hub on the [Persian plateau](/source/Persian_plateau) 48,000 to 46,000 years ago, correlating with the dispersal of IUP-affiliated material culture. In Europe, the IUP-affiliated groups got largely absorbed by later expanding "West Eurasian" populations (>38,000 years ago) with UP-affiliated material culture, resulting in the formation of the [Aurignacian](/source/Aurignacian) material culture.[{{Cite journal |last1=Massilani |first1=Diyendo |last2=Skov |first2=Laurits |last3=Hajdinjak |first3=Mateja |last4=Gunchinsuren |first4=Byambaa |last5=Tseveendorj |first5=Damdinsuren |last6=Yi |first6=Seonbok |last7=Lee |first7=Jungeun |last8=Nagel |first8=Sarah |last9=Nickel |first9=Birgit |last10=Devièse |first10=Thibaut |last11=Higham |first11=Tom |last12=Meyer |first12=Matthias |last13=Kelso |first13=Janet |last14=Peter |first14=Benjamin M. |last15=Pääbo |first15=Svante |date=30 October 2020 |title=Denisovan ancestry and population history of early East Asians |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abc1166 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=370 |issue=6516 |pages=579–583 |doi=10.1126/science.abc1166 |pmid=33122380 |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription }}][{{Cite journal |last1=Vallini |first1=Leonardo |last2=Marciani |first2=Giulia |last3=Aneli |first3=Serena |last4=Bortolini |first4=Eugenio |last5=Benazzi |first5=Stefano |last6=Pievani |first6=Telmo |last7=Pagani |first7=Luca |date=7 April 2022 |title=Genetics and Material Culture Support Repeated Expansions into Paleolithic Eurasia from a Population Hub Out of Africa theory |journal=Genome Biology and Evolution |volume=14 |issue=4 |article-number=evac045 |doi=10.1093/gbe/evac045 |issn=1759-6653 |pmc=9021735 |pmid=35445261 |quote=The UP branch would have then emerged from a putative OoA population Hub well after 45 ka, a scenario that finds support in previous hypotheses on the appearance of UP techno-complexes (e.g. Aurignacian) in Europe, although the role of migrations and exchange between Europe, Western Asia, and the Levant is still debated (Conard 2002; Mellars 2006; Teyssandier 2006; Davies 2007; Hoffecker 2009; Le Brun-Ricalens et al. 2009; Nigst et al. 2014; Zilhão 2014; Hublin 2015; Bataille et al. 2020; Falcucci et al. 2020).}}][{{Cite journal |last1=Vallini |first1=Leonardo |last2=Zampieri |first2=Carlo |last3=Shoaee |first3=Mohamed Javad |last4=Bortolini |first4=Eugenio |last5=Marciani |first5=Giulia |last6=Aneli |first6=Serena |last7=Pievani |first7=Telmo |last8=Benazzi |first8=Stefano |last9=Barausse |first9=Alberto |last10=Mezzavilla |first10=Massimo |last11=Petraglia |first11=Michael D. |last12=Pagani |first12=Luca |date=25 March 2024 |title=The Persian plateau served as hub for Homo sapiens after the main out of Africa dispersal |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=15 |issue=1 |page=1882 |doi=10.1038/s41467-024-46161-7 |issn=2041-1723 |pmc=10963722 |pmid=38528002|bibcode=2024NatCo..15.1882V }}][{{Cite journal |last=Yang |first=Melinda A. |date=6 January 2022 |title=A genetic history of migration, diversification, and admixture in Asia |url=https://www.pivotscipub.com/hpgg/2/1/0001 |journal=Human Population Genetics and Genomics |language=en |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=1–32 |doi=10.47248/hpgg2202010001 |issn=2770-5005|doi-access=free }}]
Beginning about 38,000 years ago, the Proto-Aurignacian culture, the first widely recognised European Upper Palaeolithic culture, spread out across Europe, probably descending from the Near Eastern [Ahmarian](/source/Ahmarian).[Kathryn E. Fitzsimmons et al., The Campanian Ignimbrite Eruption: New Data on Volcanic Ash Dispersal and Its Potential Impact on Human Evolution, 2013 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065839][Giaccio, B. et al., High-precision 14C and 40Ar/39Ar dating of the Campanian Ignimbrite (Y-5) reconciles the time-scales of climatic-cultural processes at 40 ka. Sci Rep 7, 45940 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep45940] The Aurignacian culture rapidly replaced others across the continent.[ This wave of modern humans replaced Neanderthals and their [Mousterian](/source/Mousterian) culture,][{{cite journal|first1=T.|last1=Higham|first2=K.|last2=Douka|first3=R.|last3=Wood|display-authors=et al.|year=2014|title=The timing and spatiotemporal patterning of Neanderthal disappearance|journal=Nature|volume=512|issue=7514|pages=306–309|bibcode=2014Natur.512..306H|doi=10.1038/nature13621|pmid=25143113|hdl=1885/75138|s2cid=205239973|hdl-access=free}}] as well as IUP-affiliated cultures such as the [Châtelperronian](/source/Ch%C3%A2telperronian) culture.[{{Cite journal |last=Zwyns |first=Nicolas |date=20 June 2021 |title=The Initial Upper Paleolithic in Central and East Asia: Blade Technology, Cultural Transmission, and Implications for Human Dispersals |journal=Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology |language=en |volume=4 |issue=3 |article-number=19 |doi=10.1007/s41982-021-00085-6 |issn=2520-8217|doi-access=free |bibcode=2021JPalA...4...19Z }}] In the Danube Valley, Aurignacian sites are few and far between, compared to later traditions, until 35,000 years ago. From here, the "Typical Aurignacian" becomes quite prevalent, and extends until 29,000 years ago.[
===Gravettian===
{{Main|Gravettian}}
Gradually replaced by the [Gravettian](/source/Gravettian) culture, the close of the Aurignacian is poorly defined. "Aurignacoid" or "Epi-Aurignacian" tools are identified as late as 15,000 to 18,000 years ago.][{{cite journal|first=D.|last=Henry-Gambier|year=2002|title=The Cro-Magnon Human Remains (Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Dordogne): New information on their chronological position and cultural attribution|journal=Bulletins et mémoires de la Sociétéd'Anthropologie de Paris|volume=14|issue=1–2|url= http://journals.openedition.org/bmsap/459}}] It is also unclear where the Gravettian originated from as it diverges strongly from the Aurignacian (and therefore may not have descended from it).[ Nonetheless, genetic evidence indicates that not all Aurignacian bloodlines went extinct.][
Hypotheses for Gravettian genesis include evolution: in central Europe from the [Szeletian](/source/Szeletian) (which developed from the Bohunician) which existed 37,000 to 41,000 ago; or from the Ahmarian or similar cultures from the Near East or the Caucasus that existed before 40,000 years ago.][{{cite journal|first=J.|last=Svoboda|year=2007|title=The Gravettian on the Middle Danube|journal=Paleo|issue=19|page=204|doi=10.4000/paleo.607|doi-access=free}}] It is further debated where the earliest occurrence is identified, with the former hypothesis arguing for Germany about 37,500 years ago,[{{cite journal|first1=N.|last1=Bicho|first2=J.|last2=Cascalheira|first3=C.|last3=Gonçalves|year=2017|title=Early Upper Paleolithic colonization across Europe: Time and mode of the Gravettian diffusion|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=12|issue=5|article-number=e0178506|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0178506|pmc=5443572|pmid=28542642|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1278506B|doi-access=free}}] and the latter {{Interlanguage link|Buran-Kaya|ru|Буран-Кая}} III rockshelter in Crimea about 36,000 to 38,000 years ago.[{{cite journal|first1=S.|last1=Péan|first2=S.|last2=Puaud|display-authors=et al.|year=2013|title=The Middle to Upper Paleolithic Sequence of Buran-Kaya III (Crimea, Ukraine): New Stratigraphic, Paleoenvironmental, and Chronological Results|journal=Radiocarbon|volume=55|issue=2–3|doi=10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16379|doi-access=free}}] In either case, the appearance of the Gravettian coincides with a significant temperature drop.[ Also around 37,000 years ago, the founder population of all later early modern humans existed, and Europe would remain in genetic isolation from the rest of the world for the next 23,000 years.]
{{legend|#c54b00|[Solutrean](/source/Solutrean)}}
{{legend|#ca00b0|[Epigravettian](/source/Epigravettian)[
Consequently, large swathes of Europe were uninhabitable, and two distinct cultures emerged with unique technologies to adapt to the new environment: the [Solutrean](/source/Solutrean) in southwestern Europe, which invented brand new technologies, and the [Epigravettian](/source/Epigravettian) from Italy to the [East European Plain](/source/East_European_Plain), which adapted the previous Gravettian technologies. Solutrean peoples inhabited the [permafrost](/source/permafrost) zone, whereas Epigravettian peoples appear to have stuck to less harsh, seasonally frozen areas. Relatively few sites are known through this time.][{{cite journal|first1=W. E.|last1=Banks|first2=F.|last2=d'Errico|first3=A. T.|last3=Peterson|first4=M.|last4=Vanhaeren|year=2008|title=Human ecological niches and ranges during the LGM in Europe derived from an application of eco-cultural niche modeling|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|volume=35|issue=2|pages=481–491|doi=10.1016/j.jas.2007.05.011|bibcode=2008JArSc..35..481B |s2cid=53573967 |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00230115/file/JASC07-47.pdf}}]
The glaciers began retreating about 20,000 years ago, and the Solutrean evolved into the [Magdalenian](/source/Magdalenian), which would recolonise Western and Central Europe over the next couple thousand years.[ Starting during the [Older Dryas](/source/Older_Dryas) roughly 14,000 years ago, Final Magdalenian traditions appear, namely the [Azilian](/source/Azilian), [Hamburgian](/source/Hamburgian), and [Creswellian](/source/Creswellian).][{{cite journal|first1=J.|last1=Holzkämper|first2=I.|last2=Kretschmer|first3=A.|last3=Maier|display-authors=et al.|year=2013|title=The Upper-Late Palaeolithic Transition in Western Central Europe. Typology, Technology, Environment and Demography|journal=Archäologische Informationen|volume=36|pages=161–162|url=https://pure.au.dk/portal/files/79648443/Holzka_mper_et_al_AI36_161_186.pdf}}] During the [Bølling–Allerød warming](/source/B%C3%B8lling%E2%80%93Aller%C3%B8d_warming), Near Eastern genes began showing up in the indigenous Europeans, indicating the end of Europe's genetic isolation.[ Possibly due to the continual reduction of European big game, the Magdalenian and Epigravettian were completely replaced by the [Mesolithic](/source/Mesolithic) by the beginning of the Holocene.][{{cite journal|first1=K.|last1=Kitagawa|first2=M.-A.|last2=Julien|first3=O.|last3=Krotova|display-authors=et al.|year=2017|title=Glacial and post-glacial adaptations of hunter-gatherers: Investigating the late Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic subsistence strategies in the southern steppe of Eastern Europe|journal=Quaternary International|volume=465|issue=2018|pages=192–209|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2017.01.005|s2cid=134255621 }}]
===Mesolithic===
{{See also|Mesolithic Europe}}
Europe was repeopled entirely during the [Holocene climatic optimum](/source/Holocene_climatic_optimum) from 5-9000 years ago. Mesolithic [Western hunter-gatherer](/source/Western_hunter-gatherer)s (WHG) contributed significantly to the current European genome, alongside [Ancient North Eurasian](/source/Ancient_North_Eurasian)s (ANE), who descended from the Siberian [Mal'ta–Buret' culture](/source/Mal'ta%E2%80%93Buret'_culture)[ and [Caucasus hunter-gatherer](/source/Caucasus_hunter-gatherer)s (CHG). Most present-day Europeans have a 40–60% WHG ratio, and the 8000-year-old [Loschbour man](/source/Loschbour_man) seems to have had a similar genetic makeup. Near Eastern [Neolithic](/source/Neolithic) farmers, who split from western hunter-gatherers about 40,000 years ago, started to spread out across Europe by 8000 years ago, ushering in [Neolithic Europe](/source/Neolithic_Europe) with [Early European Farmers](/source/Early_European_Farmers) (EEF). EEF contribute about 30% of ancestry to present-day Baltic populations, and up to 90% in present-day Mediterranean populations. The latter may have inherited WHG ancestry via EEF introgression.][{{cite journal|first1=I.|last1=Lazaridis|first2=N.|last2=Patterson|display-authors=et al.|year=2014|title=Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans|journal=Nature|volume=513|issue=7518|pages=409–413|doi=10.1038/nature13673|pmid=25230663|pmc=4170574|arxiv=1312.6639|bibcode=2014Natur.513..409L}}][{{cite journal|author=Lipson |title=Parallel palaeogenomic transects reveal complex genetic history of early European farmers |journal=Nature |year=2017 |doi=10.1038/nature24476 |pmid=29144465 |pmc=5973800 |volume=551 |issue=7680 |pages=368–72|bibcode=2017Natur.551..368L }}]
The [Eastern hunter-gatherer](/source/Eastern_hunter-gatherer)s (EHG) population identified around the steppes of the [Ural](/source/Ural_(region))s also dispersed, and the [Scandinavian hunter-gatherer](/source/Scandinavian_hunter-gatherer)s appear to be a mix of WHG and EHG. Around 4500 years ago, the immigration of the [Yamnaya](/source/Yamnaya) and [Corded Ware](/source/Corded_Ware) cultures from the eastern steppes brought about [Bronze Age Europe](/source/Bronze_Age_Europe), the [Proto-Indo-European language](/source/Proto-Indo-European_language), and more or less the present-day genetic makeup of Europeans.[{{cite journal|first1=W.|last1=Haak|first2=I.|last2=Lazaridis|display-authors=et al.|year=2015|title=Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe|journal=Nature|volume=522|issue=7555|pages=207–211|doi=10.1038/nature14317|pmid=25731166|pmc=5048219|arxiv=1502.02783|bibcode=2015Natur.522..207H}}]
== Cro-Magnon rock shelter ==
{{Main|Cro-Magnon rock shelter}}
thumb|Abri de Cro-Magnon
In 1863, a railway was constructed leading to Les Eyzies, a hamlet in the commune of [Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil](/source/Les_Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil), Dordogne, southwestern France. In 1868, M. François Berthoumeyrou, a contractor, was commissioned to make a road along the railway connecting the new Les Eyzies train station.[{{Cite journal |last=Baker |first=John R. |date=1969 |title=The Cro-Magnon Discovery |journal=Man |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=135–136 |jstor=2799274 |issn=0025-1496}}] In March, the road workers dug up a [rock shelter](/source/rock_shelter), around {{cvt|10|m}} deep, on the left bank of the [Vézère](/source/V%C3%A9z%C3%A8re) river.[{{Cite journal |last1=Baker |first1=Jack |last2=Rigaud |first2=Solange |last3=Vanhaeren |first3=Marian |last4=d'Errico |first4=Francesco |date=2022 |title=Cro-Magnon personal ornaments revisited |url=http://journals.openedition.org/paleo/7180 |journal=Paléo |issue=32 |pages=40–72 |doi=10.4000/paleo.7180 |issn=1145-3370|doi-access=free |hdl=11250/3118184 |hdl-access=free }}] They found [flint](/source/flint) [stone tool](/source/stone_tool)s, animal bones, and human remains.[{{Cite journal |last=Movius |first=Hallam L. Jr |date=1969 |title=The abrí de Cro-Magnon, les Eyzies (Dordogne), and the probable Age of the contained burials on the basis of the evidence of the nearby Abrí Pataud |url=https://revistas.grancanaria.com/index.php/aea/article/view/210 |journal=Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos |language=es |volume=1 |issue=15 |pages=323–344 |issn=2386-5571}}][{{Cite book |last=Holliday |first=Trenton W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U_iZEAAAQBAJ |title=Cro-Magnon: The Story of the Last Ice Age People of Europe |date=18 July 2023 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-55577-7 |pages=12–20 |language=en}}] Berthoumeyrou ordered his men to halt the work and informed the government officials of the discovery. He also informed a local geologist, Abel Laganne, who recovered ornaments, more flints, and two human skulls.[{{Cite journal |last1=Henry-Gambier |first1=Dominique |last2=Nespoulet |first2=Roland |last3=Chiotti |first3=Laurent |date=2013 |title=An Early Gravettian cultural attribution for the human fossils from the Cro-Magnon rock shelter (Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Dordogne) |url=http://journals.openedition.org/paleo/2859 |journal=Paléo |issue=24 |pages=121–138 |doi=10.4000/paleo.2859 |issn=1145-3370|doi-access=free }}] He deliberated the discovery before the meeting of the [Society of Anthropology of Paris](/source/Society_of_Anthropology_of_Paris) on 21 May, the proceedings published in its journal ''Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris''.[{{cite journal |last=Lartet |first=L. |author-link=Louis Lartet |year=1868 |title=Une sépulture des troglodytes du Périgord (crânes des Eyzies) |trans-title=A grave of cave dwellers in Périgord (Les Eyzies skulls) |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/bmsap_0301-8644_1868_num_3_1_9547 |journal=Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris |language=fr |volume=3 |pages=335–349 |doi=10.3406/bmsap.1868.9547 |s2cid=88373270}}][{{Cite journal |last=Lartet |first=L. |author-link=Louis Lartet |date=2018 |orig-date=1868 |others=Translated by R. Nespoulet; D. Henry-Gambier |title=A troglodyte burial in the Périgord (the skulls of Les Eyzies) |journal=Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris |volume=30 |issue=3–4 |pages=121–128 |doi=10.3166/bmsap-2018-0029 |issn=0037-8984 |doi-access=free}}] He described the site as a cemetery and identified the humans as [cave dwellers](/source/cave_dwellers).[{{Cite journal |last=Baker |first=J. R. |date=1968 |title=Cro-Magnon man, 1868-1968 |url= |journal=Endeavour |volume=27 |issue=101 |pages=87–90 |doi=10.1016/0160-9327(68)90100-2 |issn=0160-9327 |pmid=4172878}}] The site is called ''Abri de Cro-Magnon'' (Cro-Magnon rock shelter), now recognised as a [UNESCO World Heritage Site](/source/UNESCO_World_Heritage_Site).[{{cite web |title=Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/85/ |access-date=9 October 2021 |website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre |publisher=United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization}}] ''Abri'' means "shelter" in French,{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} ''cro'' means "hole" in [Occitan](/source/Occitan_language),[{{cite web |url=http://www.etymologie-occitane.fr/2011/07/cros/|title=Cros |author=Geuljans, Robert |date=5 July 2011 |website=etymologie-occitane.fr |publisher=Dictionnaire Etymologique de la Langue D'Oc |access-date=2 February 2016 }}] and Magnon was the landowner.[{{cite web |url=http://donsmaps.com/cromagnon.html |title=The Cro-Magnon Shelter |last1=Hitchcock |first1=Don |date=3 January 2016 |website=Don's Maps: Resources for the study of Palaeolithic / Paleolithic European, Russian and Australian Archaeology / Archeology |access-date=2 February 2016 }}] The original human remains were brought to and preserved at the [National Museum of Natural History](/source/National_Museum_of_Natural_History%2C_France) in Paris.[{{Cite news |last=Paris |first=Adam Sage |date=29 November 2023 |title=Cro Magnon skull supports theory that human brains have begun to shrink |language=en |work=The Times |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/cro-magnon-skull-supports-theory-that-human-brains-have-begun-to-shrink-xjxmtsgdfvf |access-date=29 November 2023 |issn=0140-0460}}]
The number of individuals at the Cro-Magnon rock shelter has eluded scientists for over a century. The original workers reported that they found 15 skeletons.[{{Cite journal |last=Goudot |first=Patrick |date=2002 |title=The mandibular canal of the "old man" of Cro-Magnon: anatomical-radiological study |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1010518202902829 |journal=Journal of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=213–218 |doi=10.1054/jcms.2002.0282 |issn=1010-5182 |pmid=12231201|url-access=subscription }}] After complete analyses of individual bones by the early 2000s, it became generally agreed that the rock shelter contained 140 human remains from at least eight individuals: four adults and four infants.[{{Cite journal |last1=Knüsel |first1=Christopher J. |last2=Thibeault |first2=Adrien |last3=Villotte |first3=Sébastien |date=2023 |title=A cranial injury from the earliest Gravettian at the Cro-Magnon rock shelter (Vézère Valley, Dordogne, southwest France) |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |volume=177 |article-number=103329 |doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103329 |issn=1095-8606 |pmid=36870149|doi-access=free }}]
== Classification ==
[[File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17972406310).jpg|thumb|1916 reconstruction of {{nowrap|[Cro-Magnon 1](/source/Cro-Magnon_1)}}]]
Fossils and artifacts from the Palaeolithic had actually been known for decades, but these were interpreted in a [creationist](/source/creationist) model (as the [concept of evolution](/source/history_of_evolutionary_thought) had not yet been conceived). For example, the Aurignacian [Red Lady of Paviland](/source/Red_Lady_of_Paviland) (actually a young man) from South Wales was described by geologist Reverend [William Buckland](/source/William_Buckland) in 1822 as a citizen of [Roman Britain](/source/Roman_Britain). Subsequent authors contended the skeleton was either evidence of [antediluvian](/source/antediluvian) (before the [Great Flood](/source/Great_Flood)) people in Britain, or was swept far from the inhabited lands farther south by the powerful floodwaters. Buckland assumed the specimen was a woman because he was adorned with jewellery (shells, ivory rods and rings, and a wolf-bone skewer), and Buckland also stated (possibly in jest) the jewellery was evidence of [witchcraft](/source/witchcraft). Around this time, the [uniformitarianism](/source/uniformitarianism) movement was gaining traction, headed principally by [Charles Lyell](/source/Charles_Lyell), arguing that fossil materials well predated the [biblical chronology](/source/biblical_chronology).[{{cite journal|first=F. J.|last=North|year=1942|title=Paviland cave, the "Red Lady", the Deluge, and William Buckland|journal=Annals of Science|volume=5|issue=2|pages=91–128|doi=10.1080/00033794200201391}}]
Following [Charles Darwin](/source/Charles_Darwin)'s 1859 ''[On the Origin of Species](/source/On_the_Origin_of_Species)'', racial anthropologists and raciologists began splitting off putative species and subspecies of present-day humans based on unreliable and [pseudoscientific](/source/pseudoscientific) metrics gathered from [anthropometry](/source/anthropometry), [physiognomy](/source/physiognomy), and [phrenology](/source/phrenology) continuing into the 20th century.[{{rp|93–96}} This was a continuation of [Carl Linnaeus](/source/Carl_Linnaeus)' 1735 ''[Systema Naturae](/source/Systema_Naturae)'', where he invented the modern classification system, in doing so classifying humans as ''Homo sapiens'' with several putative [subspecies](/source/subspecies) classifications for different races based on [racist](/source/scientific_racism) behavioural definitions (in accord with [historical race concepts](/source/historical_race_concepts)): "''H. s. europaeus''" (European descent, governed by laws), "''H. s. afer''" (African descent, impulse), "''H. s. asiaticus''" (Asian descent, opinions), and "''H. s. americanus''" (Native American descent, customs).][{{cite web|first1=D. G.|last1=Notton|first2=C. B.|last2=Stringer|author2-link=Chris Stringer|year=2010|title=Who is the type of ''Homo sapiens''? |publisher=International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260337719}}] The racial classification system was quickly extended to fossil specimens, including both Cro-Magnons and the Neanderthals, after the true extent of their antiquity was recognised.[{{rp|110}} In 1869, Lartet had proposed the subspecies classification "''H. s. fossilis''" for the Cro-Magnon remains.][{{cite journal|year=2018|title=Knowing ourselves|journal=Nature Ecology and Evolution|volume=2|issue=10|pages=1517–1518|doi=10.1038/s41559-018-0675-3|pmid=30201965|s2cid=52180259|doi-access=free|bibcode=2018NatEE...2.1517. }}] Other supposed fossil human species included (among many others): "''H. pre-aethiopicus''" for a skull from Dordogne which had "Ethiopic affinities"; "''H. predmosti''" or "''H. predmostensis''" for a series of skulls from [Brno](/source/Brno), Czech Republic, purportedly transitional between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons;[{{rp|110–111}} ''H. mentonensis'' for a skull from [Menton](/source/Menton), France;][{{rp|88}} "''H. grimaldensis''" for [Grimaldi man](/source/Grimaldi_man) and other skeletons near Grimaldi, Monaco;][{{rp|55}} and "''H. aurignacensis''" or "''H. a. hauseri''" for the [Combe-Capelle](/source/Combe-Capelle) skull.][{{cite book|first=L.|last=Romeo|year=1979|title=Ecce Homo!: A Lexicon of Man|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|isbn=90-272-2006-9}}]{{rp|15}}
These fossil races, alongside [Ernst Haeckel](/source/Ernst_Haeckel)'s idea of there being backwards races which require further evolution ([social darwinism](/source/social_darwinism)), popularised the view in European thought that the civilised white man had descended from primitive, low browed ape ancestors through a series of savage races. Prominent brow-ridges were classified as an ape-like trait; consequently, Neanderthals (as well as [Aboriginal Australians](/source/Aboriginal_Australians)) were considered a lowly race.[{{rp|116}} These European fossils were considered to have been the ancestors to specifically living European races.][{{cite book|first=R.|last=McMahon|year=2016|title=The Races of Europe: Construction of National Identities in the Social Sciences, 1839-1939|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|doi=10.1057/978-1-137-31846-6|isbn=978-1-137-31846-6}}]{{rp|96}} Among the earliest attempts to classify Cro-Magnons was done by racial anthropologists [Joseph Deniker](/source/Joseph_Deniker) and [William Z. Ripley](/source/William_Z._Ripley) in 1900, who characterised them as tall and intelligent proto-[Aryan](/source/Aryan)s, superior to other races, who descended from Scandinavia and Germany. Further race theories revolved around progressively lighter, blonder, and superior races evolving in Central Europe and spreading out in waves to replace their darker ancestors, culminating in the "[Nordic race](/source/Nordic_race)". These aligned well with [Nordicism](/source/Nordicism) and [Pan-Germanism](/source/Pan-Germanism) (that is, [Aryan supremacy](/source/Aryan_supremacy)), which gained popularity just before [World War I](/source/World_War_I), and was notably used by the [Nazi](/source/Nazi)s to justify the conquest of Europe and the supremacy of the German people in [World War II](/source/World_War_II).[{{rp|203–205}} Stature was among the characteristics used to distinguish these sub-races, so taller Cro-Magnons such as specimens from the French Cro-Magnon, [Paviland](/source/Paviland), and Grimaldi sites were classified as ancestral to the "Nordic race", and smaller ones such as Combe-Capelle and [Chancelade man](/source/Chancelade_man) (both also from France) were considered the forerunners of either the "[Mediterranean race](/source/Mediterranean_race)" or "[Eskimo](/source/Eskimo)ids".][ The [Venus figurine](/source/Venus_figurine)s—sculptures of pregnant women with exaggerated breasts and thighs—were used as evidence of the presence of the "[Negroid race](/source/Negroid_race)" in Palaeolithic Europe, because they were interpreted as having been based on real women with [steatopygia](/source/steatopygia) (a condition which causes thicker thighs, common in the women of the [San people](/source/San_people) of Southern Africa) and the hairdos of some are supposedly similar to some seen in [Ancient Egypt](/source/Ancient_Egypt).][ By the 1940s, the [positivism](/source/positivism) movement—which fought to remove political and cultural bias from science and had begun about a century earlier—had gained popular support in European anthropology. Due to this movement and raciology's associations with Nazism, raciology fell out of practice.][{{rp|137}}
{{Gallery
| align=center
| mode=packed
| title= Early depictions of early modern humans
| File:Font-de-Gaume.jpg
| [Charles R. Knight](/source/Charles_R._Knight)'s 1920 reconstruction of Magdalenian painters at [Font-de-Gaume](/source/Font-de-Gaume), France
| File:Idealbild aus der Steinzeit - Höhlenbewohner (Darnaut).jpg
| [Hugo Darnaut](/source/Hugo_Darnaut)'s 1885 ''Ideal picture from the Stone Age''
| File:Каменный век (1).jpg
| [Viktor Vasnetsov](/source/Viktor_Vasnetsov)'s 1882–1885 ''Stone Age''
| File:Каменный век. Пиршество.jpg
| [Viktor Vasnetsov](/source/Viktor_Vasnetsov)'s 1883 ''The Feast''
}}
==Demographics==
The beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic is thought to have been characterised by a major population increase in Europe, with the human population of western Europe possibly increasing by a factor of 10 in the Neanderthal/modern human transition.][{{cite journal|first1=P.|last1=Mellars|first2=J. C.|last2=French|year=2011|title=Tenfold population increase in Western Europe at the Neandertal-to-modern human transition|journal=Science|volume=333|issue=6042|pages=623–627|doi=10.1126/science.1206930|pmid=21798948|bibcode=2011Sci...333..623M|s2cid=28256970}}] The archaeological record indicates that the overwhelming majority of Palaeolithic people (both Neanderthals and modern humans) died before reaching the age of 40, with few elderly individuals recorded. It is possible the population boom was caused by a significant increase in fertility rates.[{{cite journal|first=E.|last=Trinkaus|author-link=Erik Trinkaus|year=2011|title=Late Pleistocene adult mortality patterns and modern human establishment|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=108|issue=4|pages=1267–1271|doi=10.1073/pnas.1018700108|pmc=3029716|pmid=21220336|bibcode=2011PNAS..108.1267T|doi-access=free}}]
A 2005 study estimated the population of Upper Palaeolithic Europe by calculating the total geographic area which was inhabited based on the archaeological record; averaged the population density of [Chipewyan](/source/Chipewyan), [Hän](/source/H%C3%A4n), [Hill people](/source/Hill_people), and [Naskapi](/source/Naskapi) Native Americans which live in cold climates and applied to this to Cro-Magnons; and assumed that population density continually increased with time calculated by the change in the number of total sites per time period. The study calculated that: from 30,000 to 40,000 years ago the population was roughly 1,700–28,400 (average 4,400); from 22,000 to 30,000 years ago roughly 1,900–30,600 (average 4,800); from 16,500 years to 22,000 ago roughly 2,300–37,700 (average 5,900); and 11,500 to 16,500 years ago roughly 11,300–72,600 (average 28,700).[{{cite journal|first1=J.-P.|last1=Bocquet-Appel|first2=P.-Y.|last2=Demars|first3=L.|last3=Noiret|first4=D.|last4=Dobrowsky|year=2005|title=Estimates of Upper Palaeolithic meta-population size in Europe from archaeological data|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|volume=32|issue=11|pages=1656–1668|doi=10.1016/j.jas.2005.05.006|bibcode=2005JArSc..32.1656B }}]
Following the LGM, Cro-Magnons are thought to have been much less mobile and featured a higher population density, indicated by seemingly shorter trade routes as well as symptoms of nutritional stress.[
==Biology==
===Physical attributes===
[[File:Abri Pataud - Protomagdalenian woman skull - 20090922.jpg|thumb|Skull of the [Abri Pataud](/source/Abri_Pataud) woman]]
[[File:Female face, ivory carving, Dolní Věstonice, Gravettian, 28 000 - 22 000 BP.jpg|thumb|Female face, carved ivory, [Dolní Věstonice](/source/Doln%C3%AD_V%C4%9Bstonice_(archaeological_site)), [Gravettian](/source/Gravettian), {{c.}} 26,000 BP]]
Cro-Magnons are physically similar to present-day humans, with a globular braincase, completely flat face, gracile brow ridge, and defined chin. However, the bones of Cro-Magnons are somewhat thicker and more robust.][{{cite journal|first=D. E.|last=Lieberman|year=1998|title=Sphenoid shortening and the evolution of modern human cranial shape|journal=Nature|volume=393|issue=6681|pages=158–162|doi=10.1038/30227|pmid=9603517|bibcode=1998Natur.393..158L|s2cid=4409749}}] The earliest Cro-Magnons often display features that are reminiscent of those seen in [Neanderthals](/source/Neanderthals).[{{cite book|first1=W. A.|last1=Haviland|first2=H. E L.|last2=Prins|first3=D.|last3=Walrath|first4=B.|last4=McBride|year=2010|title=Anthropology: The Human Challenge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LJ2DCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA204|publisher=Cengage Learning|pages=204–205, 212|isbn=978-0-495-81084-1}} p.204-205: "Conversely, the earliest anatomically modern human skulls from Europe often exhibit features reminiscent of Neanderthals (see Chapter 7). In addition, some typical Neanderthal features are found in diverse living populations such as Bushmen from Southern Africa, Finns and Saami from Scandinavia, and aborigines from Australia."] [Aurignacian](/source/Aurignacian)s in particular featured a higher proportion of traits somewhat reminiscent of Neanderthals, such as (though not limited to) a slightly flattened skullcap and consequent [occipital bun](/source/occipital_bun) protruding from the back of the skull (the latter could be quite defined). Their frequency significantly diminished in Gravettians, and in 2007, palaeoanthropologist [Erik Trinkaus](/source/Erik_Trinkaus) concluded these were remnants of Neanderthal introgression which were eventually bred out of the gene pool in his review of the relevant morphology.[{{cite journal|first=E.|last=Trinkaus|year=2007|title=European early modern humans and the fate of the Neandertals|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=104|issue=18|pages=7367–7372|doi=10.1073/pnas.0702214104|pmid=17452632|pmc=1863481|bibcode=2007PNAS..104.7367T|doi-access=free}}]
For 28 modern human specimens from 25,000 to 190,000 years ago, average brain volume was estimated to have been about {{cvt|1478|cc}}, and for 13 Cro-Magnons about {{cvt|1514|cc}}. In comparison, present-day humans average {{cvt|1350|cc}}, which is notably smaller. This is because the Cro-Magnon brain, though within the variation for present-day humans, exhibits longer average [frontal lobe](/source/frontal_lobe) length and taller [occipital lobe](/source/occipital_lobe) height. The [parietal lobe](/source/parietal_lobe)s, however, are shorter in Cro-Magnons. It is unclear if this could equate to any functional differences between present-day and early modern humans.[{{cite journal|first1=A.|last1=Balzeau|first2=D.|last2=Grimaud-Hervé|first3=F.|last3=Detroit|first4=R. L.|last4=Holloway|author4-link=Ralph Holloway|year=2013|title=First description of the Cro-Magnon 1 endocast and study of brain variation and evolution in anatomically modern ''Homo sapiens''|journal=Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d anthropologie de Paris|volume=25|issue=1–2|pages=11–12|doi=10.1007/s13219-012-0069-z|s2cid=14675512|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257799835}}]
In early Upper Palaeolithic western Europe (before the LGM), 20 men and 10 women were estimated to have averaged {{cvt|176.2|cm|ftin|sigfig=1}} and {{cvt|162.9|cm|ftin|sigfig=1}}, respectively. This is similar to post-industrial modern northern Europeans. In contrast, in a sample of 21 and 15 late Upper Palaeolithic western European men and women (after the LGM), the averages were {{cvt|165.6|cm|ftin|sigfig=1}} and {{cvt|153.5|cm|ft|sigfig=1}}, similar to pre-industrial modern humans. It is unclear why earlier Cro-Magnons were taller, especially considering that cold-climate creatures are short-limbed and thus short-statured to better retain body heat ([Allen's rule](/source/Allen's_rule)). This has variously been explained as: retention of a hypothetically tall ancestral condition; higher-quality diet and nutrition due to the hunting of megafauna which later became uncommon or extinct; functional adaptation to increase stride length and movement efficiency while running during a hunt; increasing territorialism among later Cro-Magnons reducing gene flow between communities and increasing [inbreeding](/source/inbreeding) rate; or statistical bias due to small sample size or because taller people were more likely to achieve higher status in a group before the LGM and thus were more likely to be buried and preserved.[{{cite journal|first1=V.|last1=Formicola|first2=M.|last2=Giannecchini|year=1998|title=Evolutionary trends of stature in Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic Europe|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|volume=36|issue=3|pages=319–333|doi=10.1006/jhev.1998.0270|pmid=10074386}}]
Prior to genetic analysis, it was generally assumed that Cro-Magnons, like present-day Europeans, were light skinned as an adaptation to better generate [vitamin D](/source/vitamin_D) from the less luminous sun farther north. However, of the three predominant genes responsible for lighter skin in present-day Europeans—[KITLG](/source/KITLG), [SLC24A5](/source/SLC24A5), and [SLC45A2](/source/SLC45A2)—the latter two, as well as the [TYRP1](/source/TYRP1) gene associated with lighter hair and eye colour, experienced [positive selection](/source/natural_selection) as late as 11,000 to 19,000 years ago during the Mesolithic transition.[{{cite journal|first1=M. E.|last1=Allentoft|first2=M.|last2=Sikora|year=2015|title=Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia|journal=Nature|volume=522|issue=7,555|pages=167–172|doi=10.1038/nature14507|pmid=26062507|bibcode=2015Natur.522..167A|s2cid=4399103|url=https://depot.ceon.pl/handle/123456789/13155}}][ Such a late timing was potentially caused by overall low population and/or low cross-continental movement required for such an adaptive shift in skin, hair, and eye colouration. However, KITLG experienced positive selection in Cro-Magnons (as well as East Asians) beginning approximately 30,000 years ago.][{{cite journal | last1 = Beleza | first1 = S. | display-authors = etal | year = 2012| title = The Timing of Pigmentation Lightening in Europeans | journal = Molecular Biology and Evolution | volume = 30 | pages = 24–35 | doi = 10.1093/molbev/mss207 | pmid = 22923467 | pmc = 3525146 }}][{{cite journal|first=E.R. |last=Jones |title=Upper Palaeolithic genomes reveal deep roots of modern Eurasians |journal=Nature Communications |volume=6 |article-number=8912 |year=2015 |doi=10.1038/ncomms9912|pmid=26567969 |pmc=4660371 |bibcode=2015NatCo...6.8912J }}]
===Genetics===
{{further|Genetic history of Europe}}
While anatomically modern humans have been present outside of Africa during some isolated time intervals potentially as early as 250,000 years ago,[{{cite journal | last1 = Posth | first1 = Cosimo | display-authors = etal | date = 4 July 2017 | title = Deeply divergent archaic mitochondrial genome provides lower time boundary for African gene flow into Neanderthals | journal = Nature Communications | volume = 8 | article-number = 16046 | doi = 10.1038/ncomms16046 | pmid = 28675384 | pmc = 5500885 | bibcode = 2017NatCo...816046P }}] present-day non-Africans descend from the [out of Africa](/source/recent_African_origin) expansion which occurred around 55,000 to 65,000 years ago. This movement was an offshoot of the rapid expansion within East Africa associated with [mtDNA haplogroup L3](/source/haplogroup_L3_(mtDNA)).[{{cite journal | last1 = Soares | first1 = P. | display-authors = etal | year = 2011| title = The Expansion of mtDNA Haplogroup L3 within and out of Africa | journal = Molecular Biology and Evolution | volume = 29 | issue = 3| pages = 915–927 | doi = 10.1093/molbev/msr245 | pmid = 22096215 | doi-access = free }}][{{Cite journal |last1=Higham |first1=Thomas F. G. |last2=Wesselingh |first2=Frank P. |last3=Hedges |first3=Robert E. M. |last4=Bergman |first4=Christopher A. |last5=Douka |first5=Katerina |date=11 September 2013 |title=Chronology of Ksar Akil (Lebanon) and Implications for the Colonization of Europe by Anatomically Modern Humans |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=8 |issue=9 |article-number=e72931 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0072931 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=3770606 |pmid=24039825 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...872931D|doi-access=free }}] [Mitochondrial DNA](/source/Mitochondrial_DNA) analysis places Cro-Magnons as the sister group to Upper Palaeolithic East Asian groups, divergence occurring roughly 50,000 years ago.[{{cite journal |vauthors=Maca-Meyer N, González AM, Larruga JM, Flores C, Cabrera VM |title=Major genomic mitochondrial lineages delineate early human expansions |journal=BMC Genet. |volume=2 |doi=10.1186/1471-2156-2-13 |pmid=11553319 |pmc=55343 |article-number=13|year=2001 |doi-access=free }}]
Initial genomic studies on the earliest Cro-Magnons in 2014, namely on the 37,000-year-old [Kostenki-14](/source/Kostenki-14) individual, identified three major lineages which are also present in present-day Europeans: one related to all later Cro-Magnons; a "[Basal Eurasian](/source/Basal_Eurasian)" lineage which split from the common ancestor of present-day Europeans and East Asians before they split from each other; and another related to a 24,000-year-old individual from the Siberian Mal'ta–Buret' culture (near [Lake Baikal](/source/Lake_Baikal)). Contrary to this, Fu et al. (2016), evaluating much earlier European specimens, including [Ust'-Ishim](/source/Ust'-Ishim_man) and [Oase-1](/source/Oase-1) from 45,000 years ago, found no evidence of a "Basal Eurasian" component to the genome, nor did they find evidence of Mal'ta–Buret' introgression when looking at a wider range of Cro-Magnons from the entire Upper Palaeolithic. The study instead concluded that such a genetic makeup in present-day Europeans stemmed from Near Eastern and Siberian introgression occurring predominantly in the Neolithic and the Bronze Age (though beginning by 14,000 years ago), but all Cro-Magnons specimens including and following Kostenki-14 contributed to the present-day European genome and were more closely related to present-day Europeans than East Asians. Earlier Cro-Magnons (10 tested in total), on the other hand, did not seem to be ancestral to any present-day population, nor did they form any cohesive group in and of themselves, each representing either completely distinct genetic lineages, admixture between major lineages, or have highly divergent ancestry. Because of these, the study also concluded that, beginning roughly 37,000 years ago, Cro-Magnons descended from a single founder population and were reproductively isolated from the rest of the world. The study reported that an Aurignacian individual from [Grottes de Goyet](/source/Goyet_Caves), Belgium, has more genetic affinities to the Magdalenian inhabitants of [Cueva de El Mirón](/source/El_Mir%C3%B3n_Cave), Spain, than to more or less contemporaneous eastern European Gravettians.[{{cite journal |doi=10.1126/science.aao1807 |pmid=28982795 |title=Ancient genomes show social and reproductive behaviour of early Upper Paleolithic foragers |journal=Science |volume=358 |issue=6363 |pages=659–662 |year=2017 |last1=Sikora |first1=Martin |last2=Seguin-Orlando |first2=Andaine |last3=Sousa |first3=Vitor C. |last4=Albrechtsen |first4=Anders |last5=Korneliussen |first5=Thorfinn |last6=Ko |first6=Amy |last7=Rasmussen |first7=Simon |last8=Dupanloup |first8=Isabelle |last9=Nigst |first9=Philip R. |last10=Bosch |first10=Marjolein D. |last11=Renaud |first11=Gabriel |last12=Allentoft |first12=Morten E. |last13=Margaryan |first13=Ashot |last14=Vasilyev |first14=Sergey V. |last15=Veselovskaya |first15=Elizaveta V. |last16=Borutskaya |first16=Svetlana B. |last17=Deviese |first17=Thibaut |last18=Comeskey |first18=Dan |last19=Higham |first19=Tom |last20=Manica |first20=Andrea |last21=Foley |first21=Robert |last22=Meltzer |first22=David J. |last23=Nielsen |first23=Rasmus |last24=Excoffier |first24=Laurent |last25=Mirazon Lahr |first25=Marta |last26=Orlando |first26=Ludovic |last27=Willerslev |first27=Eske |bibcode=2017Sci...358..659S |doi-access=free }}]}}[{{cite journal |last1=Seguin-Orlando |first1=A. |last2=Korneliussen |first2=T. S. |last3=Sikora |first3=M. |last4=Malaspinas |first4=A.-S. |last5=Manica |first5=A. |last6=Moltke |first6=I. |last7=Albrechtsen |first7=A. |last8=Ko |first8=A. |last9=Margaryan |first9=A. |last10=Moiseyev |first10=V. |last11=Goebel |first11=T. |last12=Westaway |first12=M. |last13=Lambert |first13=D. |last14=Khartanovich |first14=V. |last15=Wall |first15=J. D. |last16=Nigst |first16=P. R. |last17=Foley |first17=R. A. |last18=Lahr |first18=M. M. |last19=Nielsen |first19=R. |last20=Orlando |first20=L. |last21=Willerslev |first21=E. |title=Genomic structure in Europeans dating back at least 36,200 years |journal=Science |date=6 November 2014 |doi=10.1126/science.aaa0114 |volume=346 |issue=6213 |pages=1113–1118 |bibcode=2014Sci...346.1113S |pmid=25378462|s2cid=206632421 |url= https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/246496 }}] and matrilineal (from mother to child) [mt-DNA haplogroup](/source/mt-DNA_haplogroup) [N](/source/Haplogroup_N_(mtDNA)), [R](/source/Haplogroup_R_(mtDNA)), and [U](/source/Haplogroup_U_(mtDNA)).{{refn|group=note|Haplogroup N was found in two Gravettian-era fossils, Paglicci 52 Paglicci 12, and is widespread in Central Asia[{{cite journal |doi=10.1073/pnas.1130343100 |date=May 2003 |last1=Caramelli |first1=D. |last2=Lalueza-Fox |first2=C. |last3=Vernesi |first3=C. |last4=Lari |first4=M. |last5=Casoli |first5=A. |last6=Mallegni |first6=F. |last7=Chiarelli |first7=B. |last8=Dupanloup |first8=I. |last9=Bertranpetit |first9=J. |last10=Barbujani |first10=G. |last11=Bertorelle |first11=G. |title=Evidence for a genetic discontinuity between Neandertals and 24,000-year-old anatomically modern Europeans |volume=100 |issue=11 |pages=6593–6597 |pmid=12743370 |pmc=164492 |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |bibcode=2003PNAS..100.6593C |doi-access=free }}]}} Y-haplogroup IJ descended from Southwest Asia. [Haplogroup I](/source/Haplogroup_I-M170) emerged about 30,000 to 35,000 years ago, either in Europe or West Asia. Mt-haplogroup U5 arose in Europe just prior to the LGM, between 25,000 and 35,000 years ago.[ The 14,000-year-old Villabruna 1 skeleton from [Ripari Villabruna](/source/Ripari_Villabruna), Italy, is the oldest identified bearer of Y-haplogroup [R1b](/source/R1b) (R1b1a-L754* (xL389,V88)) found in Europe, likely brought in from eastern introgression.][ The Azilian "[Bichon man](/source/Bichon_man)" skeleton from the [Swiss Jura](/source/Swiss_Jura) was found to be associated with the WHG lineage. He was a bearer of Y-DNA haplogroup [I2a](/source/Haplogroup_I-M438) and mtDNA haplogroup U5b1h.][
Genetic evidence suggests early modern humans [interbred with Neanderthals](/source/Neanderthal_admixture). Genes in the present-day genome are estimated to have entered about 47,000 to 65,000 years ago, most likely [in West Asia](/source/Neanderthals_in_Southwest_Asia) soon after modern humans left Africa.][{{cite journal | last1 = Kuhlwilm | first1 = M. | last2 = Gronau | first2 = I. | last3 = Hubisz | first3 = M. J. | last4 = de Filippo | first4 = C. | last5 = Prado-Martinez | first5 = J. | last6 = Kircher | first6 = M. | display-authors = etal | year = 2016 | title = Ancient gene flow from early modern humans into Eastern Neanderthals | journal = Nature | volume = 530 | issue = 7591| pages = 429–433 | doi = 10.1038/nature16544 | pmid = 26886800 | pmc = 4933530 | bibcode = 2016Natur.530..429K }}][{{cite journal| last1=Sankararaman |first1=S. |last2=Patterson |first2=N. |last3=Li |first3= H. |last4=Pääbo |first4=S. |author-link4=Svante Pääbo |last5=Reich |first5=D. |last6=Akey |first6=J. M. |title=The Date of Interbreeding between Neandertals and Modern Humans |journal=PLOS Genetics |year=2012 |volume=8 |issue=10 |article-number=e1002947 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1002947 |pmid=23055938 |pmc=3464203 |bibcode=2012arXiv1208.2238S |arxiv=1208.2238 |doi-access=free }}] In 2015, the 40,000-year-old modern human [Oase 1](/source/Oase_1) was found to have had 6–9% ([point estimate](/source/point_estimate) 7.3%) Neanderthal DNA, indicating a Neanderthal ancestor up to four to six generations earlier, but this hybrid Romanian population does not appear to have made a substantial contribution to the genomes of later Europeans. Therefore, it is possible that interbreeding was common between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons which did not contribute to the present-day genome.[{{cite journal|first1=Q.|last1=Fu |first2=M.|last2=Hajdinjak |first3=O. T.|last3= Moldovan |first4=S.|last4=Constantin |first5=S.|last5= Mallick |first6=Pontus|last6=Skoglund |first7=N.|last7=Patterson |first8=N.|last8=Rohland |first9=I.|last9=Lazaridis |first10=B.|last10=Nickel |first11=B.|last11=Viola |first12=Kay|last12=Prüfer |first13=M.|last13=Meyer |first14=J.|last14=Kelso |first15=D|last15=Reich |first16=S.|last16=Pääbo|author-link16=Svante Pääbo|title=An early modern human from Romania with a recent Neanderthal ancestor|journal=Nature|year=2015|volume=524|issue=7564 |pages=216–219|doi=10.1038/nature14558|pmid=26098372 |pmc=4537386|bibcode=2015Natur.524..216F}}] The percentage of Neanderthal genes gradually decreased with time, which could indicate they were maladaptive and were selected out of the gene pool.[{{cite journal |last1=Fu |first1=Q. |last2=Posth |first2=C. |title=The genetic history of Ice Age Europe |journal=Nature |volume=534 |issue=7606 |pages=200–205 |year= 2016 |doi=10.1038/nature17993 |pmid=27135931 |pmc=4943878 |bibcode=2016Natur.534..200F}}]
[[File:Map of human fossils with an age of at least ~40,000 years that yielded genome-wide data and location of the Zlatý kůň fossil.webp|thumb|upright=1.5|Location of the [Zlatý kůň](/source/Zlat%C3%BD_k%C5%AF%C5%88) fossil with an age of at least ~40,000 years, that yielded genome-wide data[{{cite journal |last1=Prüfer |first1=Kay |last2=Posth |first2=Cosimo |title=A genome sequence from a modern human skull over 45,000 years old from Zlatý kůň in Czechia |journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution |date=June 2021 |volume=5 |issue=6 |pages=820–825 |doi=10.1038/s41559-021-01443-x |pmid=33828249 |pmc=8175239 |bibcode=2021NatEE...5..820P |language=en |issn=2397-334X}}]]]
Vallini et al. 2022 found that Europe was populated by three distinct lineages. The earliest inhabitants (represented by [Zlaty Kun](/source/Zlaty_Kun) ~50kya) split from the common Eurasian lineage before the divergence of Western and Eastern Eurasians, but after the divergence of the hypothetical Basal Eurasians. This earliest sample did not cluster with any modern human population, including Africans, and died out without leaving ancestry to modern peoples. The second wave associated with the [Initial Upper Paleolithic](/source/Initial_Upper_Paleolithic) wave (represented by [Bacho Kiro](/source/Bacho_Kiro_Cave) ~45kya) appeared to be more closely related to modern [East Asians](/source/East_Asians) and [Australasia](/source/Australasia)ns compared to Europeans, suggesting that this lineage split initially after the formation of Eastern Eurasians, and migrated instead northwestwards into Europe. The third wave associated with Ancient West Eurasians (represented by Kostenki14 and GoyetQ116-1 ~38kya) absorbed the preceding population of the second wave.[{{Cite journal |last1=Seguin-Orlando |first1=Andaine |last2=Korneliussen |first2=Thorfinn S. |last3=Sikora |first3=Martin |last4=Malaspinas |first4=Anna-Sapfo |last5=Manica |first5=Andrea |last6=Moltke |first6=Ida |last7=Albrechtsen |first7=Anders |last8=Ko |first8=Amy |last9=Margaryan |first9=Ashot |last10=Moiseyev |first10=Vyacheslav |last11=Goebel |first11=Ted |date=28 November 2014 |title=Genomic structure in Europeans dating back at least 36,200 years |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaa0114 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=346 |issue=6213 |pages=1113–1118 |doi=10.1126/science.aaa0114 |pmid=25378462 |bibcode=2014Sci...346.1113S |s2cid=206632421 |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription }}][{{Cite journal |last1=Vallini |first1=Leonardo |last2=Marciani |first2=Giulia |last3=Aneli |first3=Serena |last4=Bortolini |first4=Eugenio |last5=Benazzi |first5=Stefano |last6=Pievani |first6=Telmo |last7=Pagani |first7=Luca |date=1 April 2022 |title=Genetics and Material Culture Support Repeated Expansions into Paleolithic Eurasia from a Population Hub Out of Africa |journal=Genome Biology and Evolution |volume=14 |issue=4 |article-number=evac045 |doi=10.1093/gbe/evac045 |pmid=35445261 |pmc=9021735 |issn=1759-6653}}][{{Cite journal |last1=Hajdinjak |first1=Mateja |last2=Mafessoni |first2=Fabrizio |last3=Skov |first3=Laurits |last4=Vernot |first4=Benjamin |last5=Hübner |first5=Alexander |last6=Fu |first6=Qiaomei |last7=Essel |first7=Elena |last8=Nagel |first8=Sarah |last9=Nickel |first9=Birgit |last10=Richter |first10=Julia |last11=Moldovan |first11=Oana Teodora |last12=Constantin |first12=Silviu |last13=Endarova |first13=Elena |last14=Zahariev |first14=Nikolay |last15=Spasov |first15=Rosen |date=7 April 2021 |title=Initial Upper Palaeolithic humans in Europe had recent Neanderthal ancestry |journal=Nature |volume=592 |issue=7853 |pages=253–257 |doi=10.1038/s41586-021-03335-3 |issn=1476-4687 |pmc=8026394 |pmid=33828320|bibcode=2021Natur.592..253H }}] Villalba-Mouco et al. (2023) noted that this IUP-affiliated ancestry is either affiliated with East Asians or a "pan-Eurasian" population which pre-dated the split between European and Asian populations, but contributed significantly to the Tianyuan man, and less to GoyetQ116-1. The IUP-affiliated ancestry among GoyetQ116-1 can also be explained by Tianyuan-like geneflow, evident by "excess shared ancestry between Tianyuan and MLZ/Goyet Q116-1".[{{cite journal |last1=Villalba-Mouco|first1=Vanessa|last2=van de Loosdrecht|first2=Marieke S.|last3=Rohrlach|first3=Adam B.|last4=Fewlass|first4=Helen|last5=Talamo|first5=Sahra|last6=Yu|first6=He|last7=Aron|first7=Franziska|last8=Lalueza-Fox|first8=Carles|last9=Cabello|first9=Lidia|last10=Cantalejo Duarte|first10=Pedro|last11=Ramos-Muñoz|first11=José|last12=Posth|first12=Cosimo|last13=Krause|first13=Johannes|last14=Weniger|first14=Gerd-Christian|last15=Haak|first15=Wolfgang|date=April 2023|title=A 23,000-year-old southern Iberian individual links human groups that lived in Western Europe before and after the Last Glacial Maximum|journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution|volume=7|issue=4|pages=597–609|bibcode=2023NatEE...7..597V|doi=10.1038/s41559-023-01987-0|pmc=10089921|pmid=36859553}}][{{Cite journal |last=Bennett |first=E. Andrew |last2=Liu |first2=Yichen |last3=Fu |first3=Qiaomei |date=3 December 2024 |title=Reconstructing the Human Population History of East Asia through Ancient Genomics |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/reconstructing-the-human-population-history-of-east-asia-through-ancient-genomics/0524D629660B5E43FC7094C043D54C6A |journal=Elements in Ancient East Asia |language=en |doi=10.1017/9781009246675 |quote=A recent genomic study of several 45,000-year-old modern humans in Bacho Kiro Cave in eastern Europe has found these individuals to be genetically closer to modern humans found in East Asia than to those in Europe [...] The oldest ancestry similar to that found in modern Europeans does not appear in Europe until at least 37,000 years ago. This observation suggests that the inhabitants of East Asia may be more closely related to the initial migration waves of modern humans that first populated Eurasia.|doi-access=free }}]
Another West Eurasian-affiliated Upper Paleolithic culture was the [Gravettian](/source/Gravettian) industry, represented by the [Sungir](/source/Sungir), the [Vestonice](/source/Vestonice_cluster), and the Fournol clusters, with less or no IUP-affiliated ancestry (0–14%), possibly mediated indirectly via Aurignacian (Goyet-like) geneflow.[{{Cite journal |last=Yang |first=Jiaqi |last2=Iasi |first2=Leonardo N. M. |last3=Fu |first3=Qiaomei |last4=Cooke |first4=Niall P. |last5=Kelso |first5=Janet |last6=Peyrégne |first6=Stéphane |last7=Peter |first7=Benjamin M. |date=20 October 2025 |title=An early East Asian lineage with unexpectedly low Denisovan ancestry |url=https://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(25)01117-0 |journal=Current Biology |language=English |volume=35 |issue=20 |pages=4898–4908.e4 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2025.08.051 |issn=0960-9822 |pmid=41118724|doi-access=free }}]
The Gravettian and Aurignacian as well as the [Solutrean](/source/Solutrean) cultures would later give rise to the [Magdalenian](/source/Magdalenian) material culture, which subsequently became absorbed by the [Epigravettian](/source/Epigravettian) wave from Western Asia (Anatolia). In a genetic study published in ''[Nature](/source/Nature_(journal))'' in March 2023, the authors found that the ancestors of the [Western Hunter-Gatherer](/source/Western_Hunter-Gatherer)s (WHGs) were populations associated with the Epigravettian culture, which largely replaced populations associated with the Magdalenian culture about 14,000 years ago.[{{cite journal |vauthors=Posth C, Yu H, Ghalichi A, et al. |title=Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European Hunter-gatherers |journal=[Nature](/source/Nature_(journal)) |date=2023 |volume=615 |issue=2 March 2023 |pages=117–126 |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-05726-0 |pmid=36859578 |pmc=9977688 |bibcode=2023Natur.615..117P }}][{{cite news |title=Scientists Sequence Genomes of Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers from Different Eurasian Cultures |url=https://www.sci.news/genetics/ice-age-hunter-gatherers-11707.html |work=Sci.News |date=2 March 2023}}]
==Culture==
{{further|Art of the Upper Paleolithic|Paleolithic art|Paleolithic religion|Behavioural modernity}}
There is a notable technological complexification coinciding with the replacement of Neanderthals with Cro-Magnons in the archaeological record, and so the terms "Middle Palaeolithic" and "Upper Palaeolithic" were created to distinguish between these two time periods. Largely based on western European archaeology, the transition was dubbed the "Upper Palaeolithic Revolution," (extended to be a worldwide phenomenon) and the idea of "[behavioural modernity](/source/behavioural_modernity)" became associated with this event and early modern cultures. It is largely agreed that the Upper Palaeolithic seems to feature a higher rate of technological and cultural evolution than the Middle Palaeolithic, but it is debated if behavioural modernity was truly an abrupt development or was a slow progression initiating far earlier than the Upper Paleolithic, especially when considering the non-European archaeological record. Practices considered modern include: the production of [microlith](/source/microlith)s, the common use of bone and antler, the common use of grinding and pounding tools, high quality evidence of body decoration and figurine production, long-distance trade networks, and improved hunting technology.[{{cite journal|first=O.|last=Bar-Yosef|year=2002|title=The Upper Paleolithic Revolution|journal=Annual Review of Anthropology|volume=31|pages=363–369|doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085416|jstor=4132885}}][Bar-Yosef, O & Zilhão, J (eds) 2002: Towards a definition of the Aurignacian. Proceedings of the Symposium held in Lisbon, Portugal, 25–30 June. ''Trabalhos de Arqueologia'' no 45. 381 pp. [http://www.bris.ac.uk/archanth/staff/zilhao/ta452006.pdf PDF]] In regard to art, the Magdalenian produced some of the most intricate Palaeolithic pieces, and they even elaborately decorated normal, everyday objects.[
===Hunting and gathering===
Palaeolithic peoples are typically characterised as having had a meat-heavy diet, with an emphasis on big prey items, although foodprints such as dental macrowear show that their diets varied greatly depending on geography; high latitude populations in boreal forests and mammoth steppes did heavily subsist on meat, but Mediterranean populations ate extremely diverse arrays of both plants and animals.][{{Cite journal |last1=Fiorenza |first1=Luca |last2=Benazzi |first2=Stefano |last3=Tausch |first3=Jeremy |last4=Kullmer |first4=Ottmar |last5=Bromage |first5=Timothy G. |last6=Schrenk |first6=Friedemann |date=18 March 2011 |editor-last=Rosenberg |editor-first=Karen |title=Molar Macrowear Reveals Neanderthal Eco-Geographic Dietary Variation |url=https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0014769 |journal=[PLOS ONE](/source/PLOS_ONE) |language=en |volume=6 |issue=3 |article-number=e14769 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0014769 |doi-access=free|issn=1932-6203 |pmc=3060801 |pmid=21445243 |access-date=21 March 2026 |via=PLOS ONE}}] The LGM extirpated most European megafauna ([Quaternary extinction event](/source/Quaternary_extinction_event)), and similarly post-LGM peoples tend to have a higher rate of nutrient-deficiency-related ailments, including a reduction in average height. Probably due to the contraction of habitable territory, these bands were subsisting on a much broader food range of plants, smaller animals, and aquatic resources ([broad spectrum revolution](/source/broad_spectrum_revolution)).[
Historically, [ethnographic](/source/ethnographic) studies on hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies have long placed emphasis on [sexual division of labour](/source/sexual_division_of_labour) and most especially the hunting of big game by men. This culminated in the 1966 book ''[Man the Hunter](/source/Man_the_Hunter)'', which focuses almost entirely on the importance of male contributions of food to the group. As this was published during the second-wave feminism movement, this was quickly met with backlash from many female anthropologists. Among these was Australian archaeologist [Betty Meehan](/source/Betty_Meehan) in her 1974 article ''Woman the Gatherer'', who argued that women play a vital role in these communities by gathering more reliable food plants and small game, as big game hunting has a low success rate. The concept of "Woman the Gatherer" has since gained significant support.][{{cite book|first=K.|last=Sterling|year=2014|chapter=Man the Hunter, Woman the Gatherer? The Impact of Gender Studies on Hunter-Gatherer Research (A Retrospective)|title=The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199551224.013.032|isbn=978-0-19-955122-4}}]
====Prey items====
It has typically been assumed that Cro-Magnons closely studied prey habits in order to maximise return depending on the season. For example, large mammals (including [red deer](/source/red_deer), horses, and [ibex](/source/ibex)) congregate seasonally, and [reindeer](/source/reindeer) were possibly seasonally plagued by insects rendering fur sometimes unsuitable for hideworking.[ In particularly southwestern France, Cro-Magnons depended heavily upon reindeer, and so it is hypothesised that these communities followed the herds, with occupation of the [Perigord](/source/Perigord) and the [Pyrenees](/source/Pyrenees) only occurring in the summer.][{{cite journal|first1=P. G.|last1=Bahn|year=1977|title=Seasonal migration in South-west France during the late glacial period|journal=[Journal of Archaeological Science](/source/Journal_of_Archaeological_Science)|volume=4|issue=3|pages=245–257|doi=10.1016/0305-4403(77)90092-9|bibcode=1977JArSc...4..245B }}] Epi-Gravettian communities, especially, generally focused on hunting one species of large game, most commonly horse or bison.[
There is much evidence that Cro-Magnons, especially in western Europe following the LGM, corralled large prey animals into natural confined spaces (such as against a cliff wall, a cul-de-sac, or a water body) in order to efficiently slaughter whole herds of animals ([game drive system](/source/game_drive_system)). They seem to have scheduled mass kills to coincide with migration patterns, in particular for red deer, horses, reindeer, [bison](/source/bison), [aurochs](/source/aurochs), and ibex, and occasionally [woolly mammoth](/source/woolly_mammoth)s.][{{cite journal|first=L. G.|last=Straus|year=1993|title=Upper Paleolithic Hunting Tactics and Weapons in Western Europe|journal=Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association|volume=4|issue=1|pages=83–93|doi=10.1525/ap3a.1993.4.1.83}}] Game drive systems became especially popular following the LGM, possibly an extension of increasing food return.[
There are also multiple examples of consumption of seasonally abundant fish, becoming more prevalent in the mid-Upper-Palaeolithic.][{{cite journal|first1=I.|last1=Zohar|first2=T.|last2=Dayan|first3=M.|last3=Goren|first4=D.|last4=Nadel|first5=I.|last5=Hershkovitz|year=2018|title=Opportunism or aquatic specialization? Evidence of freshwater fish exploitation at Ohalo II- A waterlogged Upper Paleolithic site|journal=[PLOS ONE](/source/PLOS_ONE)|volume=13|issue=6|article-number=e0198747|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0198747|pmc=6005578|pmid=29912923|bibcode=2018PLoSO..1398747Z|doi-access=free}}] Nonetheless, Magdalenian peoples appear to have had a greater dependence on small animals, aquatic resources, and plants than predecessors, probably due to the relative scarcity of European big game following the LGM ([Quaternary extinction event](/source/Quaternary_extinction_event)).[{{cite journal|first1=S.|last1=El Zaatari|first2=J.-J.|last2=Hublin|year=2014|title=Diet of upper paleolithic modern humans: Evidence from microwear texture analysis|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|volume=153|issue=4|pages=570–581|doi=10.1002/ajpa.22457|pmid=24449141|doi-access=free}}]
It is possible that human activity, in addition to the rapid retreat of favourable steppeland, inhibited recolonisation of most of Europe by megafauna following the LGM (such as mammoths, [woolly rhinoceros](/source/woolly_rhinoceros)es, [Irish elk](/source/Irish_elk), and [cave lions](/source/Panthera_spelaea)), in part contributing to their extinction which occurred by the beginning of or well into the Holocene depending on the species.[{{cite journal|first1=A. J.|last1=Stuart|first2=A. M.|last2=Lister|year=2007|title=Patterns of Late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions in Europe and northern Asia|journal=Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg|volume=259|issue=259|pages=289–299|url=http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/140/1409657808.pdf}}]
====Plant items====
Most [archaeobotanical](/source/archaeobotanical) studies on Pleistocene plant gathering and processing techniques focus on the end of the Paleolithic as precursors to agriculture in the Neolithic. While [isotopic studies](/source/isotope_analysis_in_archaeology) indicate nearly all nutritional requirements of Palaeolithic populations may have been mostly satisfied by meat, similar to [Inuit cuisine](/source/Inuit_cuisine), the issue of offsetting [protein poisoning](/source/protein_poisoning) (nitrogen overloading) by eating fatty foods ([blubber](/source/blubber) most especially in the Inuit diet) becomes problematic in more temperate climates with leaner prey. The isotopic score for Palaeolithic peoples are comparable to Inuit with a diet comprising 1–4% plant components, but also to [Onge](/source/Onge) from the tropical [Andaman Islands](/source/Andaman_Islands), Paraguayan [Aché](/source/Ach%C3%A9), [Arnhem Land](/source/Arnhem_Land) Aboriginals, and Venezuelan [Hiwi](/source/Hiwi_people) whose diets comprise up to 25% plant components. Thus, the importance of plants may have varied greatly depending on local climatic conditions.[{{cite book|last=Jones|first=M.|year=2009|chapter=Moving North: Archaeobotanical Evidence for Plant Diet in Middle and Upper Paleolithic Europe|title=The Evolution of Hominin Diets|series=Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology |pages=171–180|doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-9699-0_12|isbn=978-1-4020-9698-3 }}]
The Palaeolithic archaeobotanical record outside Europe (especially in the Middle East) shows these peoples were capable of processing an ample range of plant resources, in the 20,000-year-old Israeli [Ohalo II](/source/Ohalo_II) site as many as 150 types of seeds, fruits, nuts, and starches. There are several European Mediterranean cave sites dating to near the end of the Palaeolithic which suggest the inhabitants were harvesting [acorn](/source/acorn), [almond](/source/almond), [pistacia](/source/pistacia), [hawthorn](/source/Crataegus), [wild pear](/source/Pyrus_pyraster), [blackthorn](/source/blackthorn), [rosehip](/source/rosehip), [sorbus](/source/sorbus), and [grape](/source/grape). Multiple German sites bear evidence of [wild cherry](/source/Prunus_avium), [blackberry](/source/blackberry), [dewberry](/source/dewberry), and [raspberry](/source/raspberry) consumption. The Palaeolithic archaeobotanical record becomes sparser farther north, but [water caltrop](/source/water_caltrop) and [water lily](/source/Nymphaeaceae) tubers are consumed at least in the northern European Mesolithic. It is unclear to what extent they would process or pretreat otherwise inedible plants which require multiple steps (such as a combination of fermenting, grinding, boiling, etc.).[
====Weaponry====
[[File:20220427_164743_Arkeologi_Museoa_of_Bilbao.jpg|thumb|Magdalenian bone barbed point from [Cueva de Santimamiñe](/source/Santimami%C3%B1e), in [Bilbao](/source/Bilbao) Archaeology Museum]]
For weapons, Cro-Magnons crafted spearpoints using predominantly bone and antler, possibly because these materials were readily abundant. Compared to stone, these materials are compressive, making them fairly shatterproof.][ These were then [hafted](/source/hafting) onto a shaft to be used as [javelin](/source/javelin)s. It is possible that Aurignacian craftsmen further hafted bone barbs onto the spearheads; however, firm evidence of such technology is recorded earliest 23,500 years ago, and does not become more common until the Mesolithic.][{{cite journal|first1=A.|last1=Tomasso|first2=V.|last2=Rots|first3=L.|last3=Purdue|first4=S.|last4=Beyries|year=2018|title=Gravettian weaponry: 23,500-year-old evidence of a composite barbed point from Les Prés de Laure (France)|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|volume=100|pages=158–175|doi=10.1016/j.jas.2018.05.003|bibcode=2018JArSc.100..158T |s2cid=133924944|url=https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/gravettian-weaponry(17aeb14b-6e11-4f42-b8ea-d5989443e18f).html}}] Aurignacian craftsmen produced [lozenge](/source/Lozenge_(shape))-shaped (diamond-like) spearheads. By 30,000 years ago, spearheads were manufactured with a more rounded-off base, and by 28,000 years ago spindle-shaped heads were introduced.[
During the Gravettian, spearheads with a [bevel](/source/bevel)led base were being produced. By the beginning of the LGM, the [spear-thrower](/source/spear-thrower) was invented in Europe, which can increase the force and accuracy of the projectile.][{{cite journal|first=H.|last=Knecht|year=1994|title=Late Ice Age Hunting Technology|journal=Scientific American|volume=271|issue=1|pages=82–87|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0794-82|jstor=24942770|bibcode=1994SciAm.271a..82K}}] A possible [boomerang](/source/boomerang) made of mammoth tusk was identified in Poland (though it may have been unable to return to the thrower), and dating to 23,000 years ago, it would be the oldest known boomerang.[{{cite journal|first1=P.|last1=Valde-Nowak|first2=A.|last2=Nadachowski|first3=M.|last3=Wolsan|year=1987|title=Upper Palaeolithic boomerang made of a mammoth tusk in south Poland|journal=Nature|volume=329|issue=6138|pages=436–438|doi=10.1038/329436a0|bibcode=1987Natur.329..436V|s2cid=4361636}}]
Stone spearheads with leaf- and shouldered-points become more prevalent in the Solutrean. Both large and small spearheads were produced in great quantity, and the smaller ones may have been attached to projectile [darts](/source/dart_(missile)). [Archery](/source/Archery) was possibly invented in the Solutrean, though less ambiguous bow technology is first reported in the Mesolithic.[
Bone technology was revitalised in the Magdalanian, and long-range technology as well as [harpoon](/source/harpoon)s become much more prevalent. Some harpoon fragments are speculated to have been [leister](/source/leister)s or [trident](/source/trident)s, and true harpoons are commonly found along seasonal [salmon](/source/salmon) migration routes.][
{{multiple image
| align = center
| File:Fleche Font Robert 231.4 (3).jpg
| Gravettian point
| File:Punta solutrense.gif
| Solutrean point
| File:Spear thrower carved as a mammothDSCF6961.jpg
| Butt-end of the Magdalenian [mammoth spear thrower](/source/mammoth_spear_thrower)
| File:Speerschleuder LaMadeleine.jpg
| Butt-end of the Magdalenian creeping hyena spear thrower
| File:Flickr - Wikimedia France - MDL.99.8.10.jpg
| Magdalenian harpoon tip
}}
===Society===
====Social system====
{{See also|Feminist archaeology}}
[[File:Venus of Impudique - 1.jpg|thumb|The first Venus discovered, the "[Vénus impudique](/source/V%C3%A9nus_impudique)" ("immodest Venus"), possibly of a young girl][]]
As opposed to the [patriarchy](/source/patriarchy) prominent in historical societies, the idea of a prehistoric predominance of either [matriarchy](/source/matriarchy) or [matrifocal](/source/matrifocal) families (centred on motherhood) was first supposed in 1861 by legal scholar [Johann Jakob Bachofen](/source/Johann_Jakob_Bachofen). The earliest models of this believed that [monogamy](/source/monogamy) was not widely practiced in ancient times—thus, the paternal line was resultantly more difficult to keep track of than the maternal—resulting in a [matrilineal](/source/matrilineal) (and matriarchal) society. Matriarchs were then conquered by patriarchs at the dawn of civilisation. The switch from matriarchy to patriarchy and the hypothetical adoption of monogamy was seen as a leap forward.][ However, when the first Palaeolithic representations of humans were discovered, the so-called Venus figurines—which typically feature pronounced breasts, buttocks, and vulvas (areas generally sexualised in present-day Western Culture)—they were initially interpreted as pornographic in nature. The first Venus discovered was named the "[Vénus impudique](/source/V%C3%A9nus_impudique)" ("immodest Venus") by the discoverer [Paul Hurault, 8th Marquis de Vibraye](/source/Paul_Hurault%2C_8th_Marquis_de_Vibraye), because it lacked clothes and had a prominent vulva.][ The name "[Venus](/source/Venus_(mythology))", after the [Roman](/source/Roman_mythology) goddess of beauty, in itself implies an erotic function. Such a pattern in the representation of the human form led to suggestions that human forms were generally pornography for men, meaning men were primarily responsible for artwork and craftsmanship in the Palaeolithic whereas women were tasked with child rearing and various domestic works. This would equate to a patriarchal social system.][{{cite journal | first=J.| last=Marler| year=2006| title=The Myth of Universal Patriarchy: A Critical Response to Cynthia Eller's ''Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory''| journal=Feminist Theology| volume=14| issue=2| pages=173–179| doi=10.1177/0966735006059510| s2cid=145417508}}]
The Palaeolithic matriarchy model was adapted by prominent communist [Friedrich Engels](/source/Friedrich_Engels), who instead argued that women were robbed of power by men due to economic changes which could only be undone with the adoption of communism ([Marxist feminism](/source/Marxist_feminism)). The former sentiment was adopted by the [first-wave feminism](/source/first-wave_feminism) movement, who attacked the patriarchy by making Darwinist arguments of a supposed natural egalitarian or matrifocal state of human society instead of patriarchal, as well as interpreting the Venuses as evidence of [mother goddess](/source/mother_goddess) worship as part of some [matriarchal religion](/source/matriarchal_religion). Consequently, by the mid-20th century, the Venuses were primarily interpreted as evidence of some Palaeolithic fertility cult. Such claims died down in the 1970s as archaeologists moved away from the highly speculative models produced by the previous generation. Through the [second-wave feminism](/source/second-wave_feminism) movement, the prehistoric matriarchal religion hypothesis was primarily propelled by Lithuanian-American archaeologist [Marija Gimbutas](/source/Marija_Gimbutas). Her interpretations of the Palaeolithic were notably involved in the [Goddess movement](/source/Goddess_movement).[{{cite journal| first=C.| last=Eller| year=2005| title=The Feminist Appropriation of Matriarchal Myth in the 19th and 20th Centuries| journal=History Compass| volume=179| pages=1–10| doi=10.1111/j.1478-0542.2005.00179.x}}] Equally ardent arguments against the matriarchy hypothesis have also been prominent, such as American religious scholar Cynthia Eller's 2000 ''[The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory](/source/The_Myth_of_Matriarchal_Prehistory)''.[
Looking at the archaeological record, depictions of women are markedly more common than of men. In contrast to the commonplace Venuses in the Gravettian, Gravettian depictions of men are rare and contested, the only reliable one being a fragmented ivory figurine from the grave of a [Pavlovian](/source/Pavlovian_culture) site in Brno, Czech Republic (it is also the only statuette found in a Palaeolithic grave). 2-D Magdalenian engravings from 11,000 to 15,000 years ago do depict males, indicated by an erect penis and facial hair, though profiles of women with an exaggerated buttock are much more common.][ There are less than 100 depictions of males in the Cro-Magnons archaeological record (of them, about a third are depicted with erections.)][ On the other hand, most individuals which received a burial (which may have been related to social status) were men.][ Anatomically, the robustness of limbs (which is an indicator of strength) between Cro-Magnon men and women were consistently not appreciably different from each other. Such low levels of [sexual dimorphism](/source/sexual_dimorphism) through the Upper Pleistocene could potentially mean that [sexual division of labour](/source/sexual_division_of_labour), which characterises historic societies (both agricultural and hunter-gatherer), only became commonplace in the Holocene.][
====Trading====
[[File:Perforated Homalopoma sanguineum.png|thumb|Perforated ''[Homalopoma sanguineum](/source/Homalopoma_sanguineum)'' shells (top and underside views) from Poiana Cireşului, Romania, sourced at least {{cvt|900|km}} away][]]
The Upper Palaeolithic is characterised by evidence of expansive trade routes and the great distances at which communities could maintain interactions. The early Upper Palaeolithic is especially known for highly mobile lifestyles, with Gravettian groups (at least those analysed in Italy and Moravia, Ukraine) often sourcing some raw materials upwards of {{cvt|200|km}}. However, it is debated if this represents [sample bias](/source/sample_bias), and if western and northern Europe were less mobile. Some cultural practices such as creating Venus figurines or specific burial rituals during the Gravettian stretched {{cvt|2000|km}} across the continent.][ Genetic evidence suggests that, despite strong evidence of cultural transmission, Gravettian Europeans did not introgress into Siberians, meaning there was a movement of ideas but not people between Europe and Siberia.][ At the 30,000-year-old Romanian Poiana Cireşului site, perforated shells of the ''[Homalopoma sanguineum](/source/Homalopoma_sanguineum)'' sea snail were recovered, which is significant as it inhabits the Mediterranean at nearest {{cvt|900|km}} away.][{{cite journal|first1=E.-C.|last1=Nitu|first2=M.|last2=Cârciumaru|first3=A.|last3=Nicolae|first4=O.|last4=Cîrstina|first5=F. I.|last5=Lupu|first6=M.|last6=Leu|year=2019|title=Mobility and social identity in the Mid Upper Paleolithic: New personal ornaments from Poiana Cireșului (Piatra Neamț, Romania)|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=14|issue=4|article-number=e0214932|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0214932|pmid=31017924|pmc=6481798|bibcode=2019PLoSO..1414932N|s2cid=131777991|doi-access=free}}] Such interlinkage may have been an important survival tool, with the steadily deteriorating climate. Given low estimated population density, this may have required a rather complex, cross-continental social organisation system.[
By and following the LGM, population densities are thought to have been much higher with the marked decrease of habitable lands, resulting in more regional economies. Decreased land availability could have increased travel distance, as habitable refugia may have been few and far between, and increasing population density within these few refugia would have made long-distance travel less economic. This trend continued into the Mesolithic with the adoption of [sedentism](/source/sedentism).][{{cite journal|first=B. M.|last=Holt|year=2003|title=Mobility in Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic Europe: Evidence from the lower limb|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|volume=122|issue=5|pages=200–215|doi=10.1002/ajpa.10256|pmid=14533179}}] At [Ekain](/source/Ekain), Basque Country, the inhabitants were using the locally rare manganese mineral [groutite](/source/groutite) in their paintings, which they possibly mined out of the cave itself. Nonetheless, there is some evidence of long-distance Magdalenian trade routes. For example, at Lascaux, a painting of a bull had remnants of the [manganese](/source/manganese) mineral [hausmannite](/source/hausmannite), which can only be manufactured in heat in excess of {{cvt|900|C}}, which was probably impossible for Cro-Magnons; this means they likely encountered natural hausmannite which is known to be found {{cvt|250|km}} away in the Pyrenees. Unless there was a hausmannite source much closer to Lascaux which has since been depleted, this could mean that there was a local economy based on manganese ores.[{{cite book|first1=E.|last1=Chalmin|first2=F.|last2=Farges|first3=C.|last3=Vignaud|first4=J.|last4=Susini|title=AIP Conference Proceedings|year=2007|chapter=Discovery of Unusual Minerals in Paleolithic Black Pigments from Lascaux (France) and Ekain (Spain)|volume=882|pages=220–222|publisher=The 13th International Conference on X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS13)|doi=10.1063/1.2644480}}] Based on the distribution of Mediterranean and Atlantic seashell jewellery even well inland, there may have been a network during the Late Glacial Interstadial (14 to 12,000 years ago) along the rivers [Rhine](/source/Rhine) and [Rhône](/source/Rh%C3%B4ne) in France, Germany, and Switzerland.[
====Housing====
[[File:Molí del Salt slab.png|thumb|13,800-year-old slab from [Molí del Salt](/source/Mol%C3%AD_del_Salt), Spain, with engravings speculated to be huts][]]
Cro-Magnon cave sites quite often feature distinct spatial organisation, with certain areas specifically designated for specific activities, such as hearth areas, kitchens, butchering grounds, sleeping grounds, and trash pile. It is difficult to tell if all material from a site was deposited at about the same time, or if the site was used multiple times.][ Cro-Magnons are thought to have been quite mobile, indicated by the great lengths of trade routes, and such a lifestyle was likely supported by the constructions of temporary shelters in open environments, such as huts. Evidence of huts is typically associated with a hearth.][
Magdalenian peoples, especially, are thought to have been highly migratory, following herds while repopulating Europe, and several cave and open-air sites indicate the area was abandoned and revisited regularly. The 19,000-year-old Peyre Blanque site, France, and at least the {{cvt|260|km2}} area around it may have been revisited for thousands of years.][{{cite journal|first1=L. A.|last1=Maher|first2=M.|last2=Conkey|year=2019|title=Homes for Hunters? Exploring the Concept of Home at Hunter-Gatherer Sites in Upper Paleolithic Europe and Epipaleolithic Southwest Asia|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=60|issue=1|pages=107–110|doi=10.1086/701523|s2cid=151151148|url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9nt6f73n}}] In the Magdalenian, stone lined rectangular areas typically {{cvt|6–15|m2}} were interpreted as having been the foundations or flooring of huts. At Magdalenian [Pincevent](/source/Pincevent), France, small, circular dwellings were speculated to have existed based on the spacing of stone tools and bones; these sometimes featured an indoor hearth, work area, or sleeping space (but not all at the same time). A 23,000-year-old hut from the Israeli [Ohalo II](/source/Ohalo_II) was identified as having used grasses as flooring or possibly bedding, but it is unclear if Cro-Magnons also lined their huts with grass or instead used animal pelts.[{{cite journal|first1=D.|last1=Nadel|first2=E.|last2=Weiss|first3=O.|last3=Simchoni|display-authors=et al.|year=2004|title=Stone Age hut in Israel yields world's oldest evidence of bedding|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=101|issue=17|pages=6821–6826|doi=10.1073/pnas.0308557101|pmid=15090648|pmc=404215|doi-access=free}}] A 13,800-year-old slab from [Molí del Salt](/source/Mol%C3%AD_del_Salt), Spain, has 7 dome-shaped figures engraved onto it, which are postulated to represent temporary dome-shaped huts.[{{cite journal|first1=M.|last1=García-Diez|first2=M.|last2=Vaquero|year=2015|title=Looking at the Camp: Paleolithic Depiction of a Hunter-Gatherer Campsite|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=10|issue=12|article-number=e0143002|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0143002|pmid=26629824|pmc=4668041|bibcode=2015PLoSO..1043002G|s2cid=16299376|doi-access=free}}]
[[File:Mammoth House (Replica).JPG|thumb|Reconstruction of a mammoth hut from [Mezhyrich](/source/Mezhyrich), Ukraine]]
Over 70 dwellings constructed by Cro-Magnons out of mammoth bones have been identified, primarily from the Russian Plain,[ possibly semi-permanent hunting camps.][{{cite book |author= Pidoplichko, I. H. |title= Upper Palaeolithic dwellings of mammoth bones in the Ukraine: Kiev-Kirillovskii, Gontsy, Dobranichevka, Mezin and Mezhirich |publisher= J. and E. Hedges |location= Oxford |year= 1998 |isbn=0-86054-949-6 }}] They seem to have built [tipi](/source/tipi)s and [yaranga](/source/yaranga)s.[ These were typically constructed following the LGM after 22,000 years ago by Epi-Gravettian peoples;][ the earliest hut identified comes from the Molodova I site, Ukraine, which was dated to 44,000 years ago (making it possible it was built by Neanderthals).][{{cite journal|last1=Demay|first1=L.|last2=Péan|first2=S.|last3=Patou-Mathis|first3=M.|title=Mammoths used as food and building resources by Neanderthals: Zooarchaeological study applied to layer 4, Molodova I (Ukraine)|journal=Quaternary International|year=2012|volume=276–277|pages=212–226|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2011.11.019|bibcode=2012QuInt.276..212D|hdl=2268/190618|url=http://orbi.ulg.ac.be/bitstream/2268/190618/1/Demay%20et%20al%2c%202012%20Molodova.pdf}}] Typically, these huts measured {{cvt|5|m}} in diameter, or {{cvt|4x6|m}} if oval shaped. Huts could get as small as {{cvt|3x2|m}}.[ One of the largest huts has a diameter of {{cvt|12.5|m}}—a 25,000-year-old hut identified in Kostenki, Russia—and was constructed out of 64 mammoth skulls, but given the little evidence of occupation, this is postulated to have been used for food storage rather than as a living space.][{{cite journal|first1=A. J. E.|last1=Pryor|first2=D. G.|last2=Beresford-Jones|first3=A. E.|last3=Dudin|display-authors=et al.|year=2020|title=The chronology and function of a new circular mammoth-bone structure at Kostenki 11|journal=Antiquity|volume=94|issue=374|pages=323–341|doi=10.15184/aqy.2020.7|doi-access=free|hdl=10871/37941|hdl-access=free}}] Some huts have burned bones, which has typically been interpreted as bones used as fuel for fireplaces due to the scarcity of firewood, and/or disposal of waste. A few huts, however, have evidence of wood burning, or mixed wood/bone burning.[
Mammoth hut foundations were generally made by pushing a great quantity of mammoth skulls into the ground (most commonly, though not always, with the tusks facing up to possibly be used as further supports), and the walls by putting into the ground vertically [shoulder blade](/source/shoulder_blade)s, [pelvis](/source/pelvis)es, [long bone](/source/long_bone)s, jaws, and the spine. Long bones were often used as poles, commonly placed on the end of another long bone or in the cavity of where tusk used to be.][ Foundation may have extended as far as {{cvt|40|cm}} underground. Generally, multiple huts were built in a locality, placed {{cvt|1|–|20|m|ft|sigfig=1}} apart depending on location. Tusks may have been used to make entrances, skins pulled over for roofing,][{{cite book | last1 = Lister | first1 = A. | last2 = Bahn| first2 = P.| title = Mammoths – Giants of the Ice Age| publisher = Frances Lincoln | year = 2007 | edition = 3 | pages=128–132| isbn = 978-0-520-26160-0 | oclc= 30155747}}] and the interior sealed up by [loess](/source/loess) dug out of pits. Some architectural decisions seem to have been purely for aesthetics, best seen in the 4 Epi-Gravettian huts from [Mezhyrich](/source/Mezhyrich), [Mezine](/source/Mezine), Ukraine, where jaws were stacked to create a [chevron](/source/chevron_(insignia)) or zigzag pattern in 2 huts, and long bones were stacked to create horizontal or vertical lines in respectively 1 and 2 huts. The chevron was a commonly used symbol on the Russian Plain, painted or engraved on bones, tools, figurines, and mammoth skulls.[{{cite journal|first=L.|last=Iakovleva|year=2015|title=The architecture of mammoth bone circular dwellings of the Upper Palaeolithic settlements in Central and Eastern Europe and their socio-symbolic meanings|journal=Quaternary International|volume=359–360|pages=324–334|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2014.08.050|bibcode=2015QuInt.359..324I}}]
====Dogs====
{{Main|Paleolithic dog}}
[[File:Journal.pone.0022821.g001.png|thumb|Skull of the 33,000-year-old [Altai dog](/source/Altai_dog) from Siberia; it is not ancestral to any modern dog.[]]
At some point in time, Cro-Magnons [domesticated the dog](/source/origin_of_the_domestic_dog), probably as a result of a [symbiotic](/source/Mutualism_(biology)) hunting relationship. DNA evidence suggests that present-day dogs split from wolves around the beginning of the LGM. However, potential [Palaeolithic dog](/source/Palaeolithic_dog)s have been found preceding this—namely the 36,000-year-old [Goyet dog](/source/Paleolithic_dog) from Belgium and the 33,000-year-old [Altai dog](/source/Altai_dog) from Siberia—which could indicate there were multiple attempts at domesticating European wolves.][{{cite journal | last1=Thalmann | first1=O. | last2=Shapiro | first2=B. | last3=Cui | first3=P. | last4=Schuenemann | first4=V. J. | last5=Sawyer | first5=S. K.|display-authors=et al. |year=2013 | title=Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of Ancient Canids Suggest a European Origin of Domestic Dogs | journal=Science | volume=342 | issue=6160 | pages=871–874 | doi=10.1126/science.1243650 | pmid=24233726 | bibcode=2013Sci...342..871T | s2cid=1526260 }} refer Supplementary material Page 27 Table S1] These "dogs" had a wide size range, from over {{cvt|60|cm|ft|0}} in height in eastern Europe to less than 30–45 cm (1 ft–1 ft 6 in) in central and western Europe,[{{cite journal|first1=M.-P.|last1=Horard-Herbin|first2=A.|last2=Tresett|first3=J.-D.|last3=Vigne|year=2014|title=Domestication and uses of the dog in western Europe from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age|journal=Animal Frontiers|volume=4|issue=3|pages=23–24|doi=10.2527/af.2014-0018|s2cid=72062079|doi-access=free}}] and {{cvt|32–41|kg}} in all of Europe. These "dogs" are identified by having a shorter snout and skull, and wider palate and braincase than contemporary wolves. Nonetheless, an Aurignacian origin for domestication is controversial.[
At the 24,000 to 27,000 year old Předmostí site, Czech Republic, 3 "dogs" were identified with their skulls perforated (probably to extract the brain), and 1 had a mammoth bone in its mouth. The discoverers interpreted this as a burial ritual.][{{cite journal|first1=M.|last1=Germonpré|first2=M.|last2=Lázničková-Galetová|first3=M. V.|last3=Sablinc|year=2012|title=Palaeolithic dog skulls at the Gravettian Předmostí site, the Czech Republic|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|volume=39|issue=1|pages=184–202|doi=10.1016/j.jas.2011.09.022|bibcode=2012JArSc..39..184G }}] The 14,500-year-old [Bonn-Oberkassel dog](/source/Origin_of_the_domestic_dog) from Germany was found buried alongside a 40-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman, as well as traces of red [hematite](/source/hematite), and is genetically placed as an ancestor to present-day dogs. It was diagnosed with [canine distemper virus](/source/canine_distemper_virus) and probably died between 19 and 23 weeks of age. It would have required extensive human care to survive without being able to contribute anything, suggesting that, at this point, humans and dogs were connected by emotional or symbolic ties rather than purely materialistic personal gain.[{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.jas.2018.01.004|title=A new look at an old dog: Bonn-Oberkassel reconsidered|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|volume=92|pages=126–138|year=2018|last1=Janssens|first1=Luc|last2=Giemsch|first2=Liane|last3=Schmitz|first3=Ralf|last4=Street|first4=Martin|last5=Van Dongen|first5=Stefan|last6=Crombé|first6=Philippe|bibcode=2018JArSc..92..126J |hdl=1854/LU-8550758|url=https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8550758|hdl-access=free}}]
The exact utility of these proto-dogs is unclear, but they may have played a vital role in hunting, as well as domestic services such as transporting items or guarding camp or carcasses.[{{cite journal|first=K. D.|last=Lupo|year=2017|title=When and where do dogs improve hunting productivity? The empiricalrecord and some implications for early Upper Paleolithic prey acquisition|journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology|volume=47|pages=139–151|doi=10.1016/j.jaa.2017.05.003|doi-access=free}}]
===Art===
When examples of Upper Palaeolithic art were first discovered in the 19th century in the form of engraved objects, they were assumed to have been "art for art's sake" as Palaeolithic peoples were widely conceived as having been uncultured savages. This model was primarily championed by French archaeologist [Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet](/source/Louis_Laurent_Gabriel_de_Mortillet). Then, detailed paintings found deep within caves were discovered, the first being [Cueva de Altamira](/source/Cueva_de_Altamira), Spain, in 1879. The "art for art's sake" model came apart by the turn of the century as more examples of cave art were found in hard-to-reach places in western Europe such as Combarelles and Font-de-Gaume, for which the idea of it being simply a leisure activity became increasingly untenable.[
====Cave art====
{{See also|Cave painting}}
Cro-Magnons are well known for having painted or engraved geometric designs, hand stencils, plants, animals, and seemingly human/animal hybrid creatures on cave walls deep inside caves. Typically the same species are represented in caves which have such art, but the total number of species is quite numerous, and namely includes creatures such as mammoths, bison, lions, bears, and ibex. Nonetheless, some caves were dominated by certain forms, such as [Grotte de Niaux](/source/Cave_of_Niaux) where over half of the animals are bison. Images could be drawn on top of one another.][{{cite book|first=J.|last=Clottes|year=2016|title=What Is Paleolithic Art?: Cave Paintings and the Dawn of Human Creativity|publisher=University of Chicago Press|pages=7–19|isbn=978-0-226-18806-5}}] Landscapes were never depicted, with the exception of a supposed depiction of a volcanic eruption at [Chauvet-Pont d'Arc](/source/Chauvet_Cave), France, dating to 36,000 years ago.[{{cite journal|first1=S.|last1=Nomade|first2=D.|last2=Genty|first3=R.|last3=Sasco|display-authors=et al.|year=2016|title=A 36,000-Year-Old Volcanic Eruption Depicted in the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave (Ardèche, France)?|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=11|issue=1|article-number=e0146621|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0146621|pmc=4706433|pmid=26745626|bibcode=2016PLoSO..1146621N|doi-access=free}}] Cave art is found in dark cave recesses, and the artists either lit a fire on the cave floor or used portable stone lamps to see. Drawing materials include black [charcoal](/source/charcoal) and red and yellow ochre crayons, but they, along with a variety of other minerals, could also be ground into powder and mixed with water to create paint. Large, flat rocks may have been used as [palettes](/source/palette_(painting)), and brushes may have included reeds, bristles, and twigs, and possibly a blowgun was used to spray paint over less accessible areas.[{{cite book|first=F. S.|last=Kleiner|year=2016|title=Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective|volume=I|publisher=Cengage Learning|page=20|isbn=978-1-305-63394-0}}] Hand stencils could either be made by holding the hand to the wall and spitting paint over it (leaving a [negative image](/source/negative_image)) or by applying paint to the hand and then sticking it to the wall. Some hand stencils are missing fingers, but it is unclear if the artist was actually missing the finger or simply excluded it from the stencil. It has generally been assumed that the larger prints were left by men and the smaller ones by boys, but the exclusion of women entirely may be improbable.[{{cite journal|first=D.|last=Snow|year=2006|title=Sexual Dimorphism in Upper Palaeolithic Hand Stencils|journal=Antiquity|volume=80|issue=308|pages=390–404|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00093704|s2cid=16301395|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265233516}}] Though many hypotheses have been proposed for the symbolism of cave art, it is still debated why these works were created in the first place.[
One of the first hypotheses regarding their symbolism was forwarded by French religious historian [Salomon Reinach](/source/Salomon_Reinach) who supposed that, because only animals were depicted on cave walls, the images represented [totem veneration](/source/totemism), in which a group or a group member identifies with a certain animal associated with certain powers, and honours or respects this animal in some way such as by not hunting it. If this were the case, then Cro-Magnons communities within a region would have subdivided themselves into, for example, a "horse clan", a "bison clan", a "lion clan", and so forth. This was soon contested as some caves contain depictions of animals wounded by projectiles, and generally multiple species are represented.][
In 1903, Reinach proposed that the cave art represented [sympathetic magic](/source/sympathetic_magic) (between the painting and the painting's subject), and by drawing an animal doing some kind of action, the artist believed they were exerting that same action onto the animal. That is, by being the master of the image, they could master the animal itself. The hunting magic model—and the idea that art was magical and utilitarian in Cro-Magnons society—gained much popularity in the following decades. In this model, herbivorous prey items were depicted as having been wounded prior to a hunt in order to cast a spell over them; some animals were incompletely depicted to enfeeble them; geometric designs were traps; and human/animal hybrids were sorcerers dressed as animals to gain their power, or were gods ruling over the animals. Many animals were depicted as completely healthy and intact, and sometimes pregnant, which this model interprets as fertility magic to promote reproduction; however, if the animal was a carnivore, then this model says that the depiction served to destroy the animal. By the mid-20th century, this model was being contested because of how few depictions of wounded animals exist; the collection of consumed animal bones in decorated caves often did not match types of animals depicted in terms of abundance; and the magic model does not explain hand stencils.][
Following the 1960s, begun by German-American art historian [Max Raphael](/source/Max_Raphael), the study of cave art took on a much more statistical approach, analysing and quantifying items such as the types and distribution of animals depicted, cave topography, and cave wall morphology. Based on such structuralist tests, horses and bovines seem to have been preferentially clustered together typically in a central position, and such binary organisation led to the suggestion that this was sexual symbolism, and some animals and iconography were designated by Cro-Magnons as either male or female. This conclusion has been heavily contested as well, due to the subjective definition of association between two different animals, and the great detail the animals were depicted in, permitting sexual identification (and further, the hypothesis that bison were supposed to be feminine contradicts the finding that many are male).][
Also in the late 20th century, with the popularisation of the hypothesis that Cro-Magnons practised [shamanism](/source/shamanism), the human/animal hybrids and geometrical symbols were interpreted within this framework as the visions a shaman would see while in a [trance](/source/trance) ([entoptic phenomena](/source/entoptic_phenomena_(archaeology))). Opponents mainly attack the comparisons made between Palaeolithic cultures and present-day shamanistic societies for being in some way inaccurate.][ In 1988, archaeologists [David Lewis-Williams](/source/David_Lewis-Williams) and Thomas Dowson suggested trances were induced by hallucinogenic plants containing either [mescaline](/source/mescaline), [LSD](/source/LSD), or [psilocybin](/source/psilocybin); but there is no evidence Cro-Magnons purposefully ate them.][{{cite journal|first=E.|last=Guerra-Doce|year=2014|title=Psychoactive Substances in Prehistoric Times: Examining the Archaeological Evidence|journal=Time and Mind|volume=8|issue=1|page=97|doi=10.1080/1751696X.2014.993244|s2cid=161528331}}]
{{Gallery
|align=center
|mode=packed
|File:Cueva el Castillo 12.jpg|Proto-Aurignacian dots and lines from [Cueva del Castillo](/source/Cave_of_El_Castillo), Spain
|File:18 PanneauDesLions(PartieDroite)BisonsPoursuivisParDesLions.jpg|Aurignacian lions, rhinos, and bison at [Chauvet Cave](/source/Chauvet_Cave), France
|File:Manos de Gargas (Francia).png|Gravettian hand stencils from [Grottes de Gargas](/source/Caves_of_Gargas), France
|File:Ciervo herido.gif|Solutrean wounded deer from Peña de Candamo, Spain
|File:Bisons Tuc d'Audoubert Musée d'Archéologie Nationale 01042018.jpg|Magdalenian bison clay sculptures at [Tuc d'Audoubert](/source/Tuc_d'Audoubert), France
|File:Lascaux II.jpg|Magdalenian horses at [Lascaux](/source/Lascaux), France
}}
====Portable art====
{{Main|Portable art}}
Venus figurines are commonly found associated with Cro-Magnons and are the earliest well-acknowledged representation of human figures. These are most frequently found in the Gravettian (notably in the French Upper [Périgordian](/source/P%C3%A9rigordian), the Czech Pavlovian, and West Russian [Kostenkian](/source/Venus_figurines_of_Kostenki)) most dating from 23,000 to 29,000 years ago. Almost all Venuses depict naked women, and are generally hand-held sized. They feature a downturned head, no face, thin arms which end at or cross over voluminous breasts, rotund buttocks, a distended abdomen (interpreted as pregnancy), tiny and bent legs, and pegged or unnaturally short feet. Venuses vary in proportions which may represent limitations using certain materials over others, or intentional design choices.[ Eastern European Venuses seem to have more of an emphasis on the breasts and stomach, whereas western European ones emphasise the hips and thighs.][
The earliest interpretations of the Venuses believed these were literal representations of women with [obesity](/source/obesity) or [steatopygia](/source/steatopygia) (a condition where a woman's body stores more fat in the thighs and buttocks, making them especially prominent).][ Another early hypothesis was that [ideal womanhood](/source/ideal_womanhood) for Cro-Magnons involved obesity, or that the Venuses were used by men as erotica due to the exaggeration of body parts typically sexualised in Western culture (as well as the lack of detail to individualising traits such as the face and limbs). Extending present-day Western norms to Palaeolithic peoples was contested, and a counter interpretation is that either Venuses were mother goddesses, or that Cro-Magnons believed depictions of things had [magical](/source/magic_(supernatural)) properties over the subject, and that such a depiction of a pregnant woman would facilitate fertility and fecundity. This is also contested as it assumes women are only thought of in terms of child rearing.][{{cite journal|first=L.|last=McDermott|year=1996|title=Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=37|issue=2|pages=231–235|doi=10.1086/204491|jstor=2744349|s2cid=144914396}}][{{cite book|first=M. W.|last=Conkey|year=2005|chapter=Mobilizing Ideologies: Paleolithic "Art," Gender Troubles, and Thinking About Alternatives|title=Women In Human Evolution|editor-first=L.|editor-last=Hager|publisher=Routledge|isbn=1-134-84010-1}}]
{{Gallery
|align=center
|mode=packed
|File:VenusHohlefels2.jpg|35,000-year-old [Venus of Hohle Fels](/source/Venus_of_Hohle_Fels) from Germany
|File:Venus of Willendorf - All sides.jpg|30,000-year-old [Venus of Willendorf](/source/Venus_of_Willendorf) from Austria
|File:Venus 3 from Kostenki RU.jpg|25,000-year-old Venus from [Kostenki](/source/Venus_figurines_of_Kostenki), Russia
|File:Venus de Lespugue (replica).jpg|25,000-year-old [Venus of Lespugue](/source/Venus_of_Lespugue) from France
|File:Vestonicka venuse edit.jpg|Gravettian [Venus of Dolní Věstonice](/source/Venus_of_Doln%C3%AD_V%C4%9Bstonice) from Czech Republic
}}
Cro-Magnons also carved [perforated baton](/source/perforated_baton)s out of horn, bone, or stone, most commonly through the Solutrean and Magdalenian. Such batons disappear from the archaeological record at the Magdalenian's close. Some batons seem phallic in nature. By 2010, about 60 batons had been hypothesised to be representations of penises (all with erections), of which 30 show decoration, and 23 are perforated. Several phallic batons are depicted as [circumcised](/source/circumcised) and seemingly bearing some ornamentation such as piercings, [scarification](/source/scarification), or tattooing. The purpose of perforated batons has been debated, which suggestions for spiritual or religious purposes, ornamentation or status symbol, currency, drumsticks, tent holders, weaving tools, spear straighteners, spear throwers, or dildos. Unperforated phallic batons, measuring just a few centimetres long to up to {{cvt|30|cm}}, were interpreted as sex toys quite early on.[{{cite journal|first1=J. C.|last1=Angulo|first2=M.|last2=García-Díez|first3=M.|last3=Martínez|year=2010|title=Phallic Decoration in Paleolithic Art: Genital Scarification, Piercing and Tattoos|journal=Journal of Urology|volume=186|issue=6|pages=2498–2503|doi=10.1016/j.juro.2011.07.077|pmid=22019163}}]
{{Gallery
|align=center
|mode=packed
|File:Lovci mamutu stylized figure.jpg|Phallus from Czech Republic
|File:Phallus von Schelklingen 2.jpg|Aurignacian phallus from [Hohle Fels](/source/Hohle_Fels), Germany
|File:Phallic object from Dordogne.jpg|Aurignacian phallus from [Castel Merle](/source/Castel_Merle), France
|File:Perforated baton with low relief horse.jpg|Magdalenian perforated baton with a horse [relief](/source/relief) from L'[Abri de la Madeleine](/source/Abri_de_la_Madeleine), France
|File:Baton Lartet MHNT PRE .2010.0.1.2 Seul noir.jpg|Magdalenian perforated baton with an engraving from L'[Abri de la Madeleine](/source/Abri_de_la_Madeleine), France
|File:Bâton de commandement-MAHG A-8816-P8050505-black.jpg|Magdalenian perforated baton from [Veyrier](/source/Veyrier), Switzerland
}}
Depictions of animals were commonly produced by Cro-Magnons. As of 2015, as many as 50 Aurignacian ivory figurines and fragments have been recovered from the German [Swabian Jura](/source/Swabian_Jura). Of the discernible figures, most represent mammoths and lions, and a few horses, bison, possibly a rhino, waterfowl, fish, and small mammals. These sculptures are hand-sized and would have been portable works, and some figurines were made into wearable pendants. Some figurines also featured enigmatic engravings, dots, marks, lines, hooks, and criss-cross patterns.[{{cite journal|first=H.|last=Floss|year=2015|title=The Oldest Portable Art: the Aurignacian Ivory Figurines from the Swabian Jura (Southwest Germany)|journal=Palethnologie|issue=7|doi=10.4000/palethnologie.888|doi-access=free}}]
{{Gallery
|align=center
|mode=packed
|File:MUT-9846.jpg|Aurignacian horse sculpture from [Vogelherd Cave](/source/Vogelherd_Cave), Germany
|File:MUT127054.jpg|Aurignacian lion sculpture from [Vogelherd Cave](/source/Vogelherd_Cave), Germany
|File:KM - Altsteinzeit Mammut.jpg|26,000-year-old mammoth carving from [Predmosti](/source/P%C5%99edmost%C3%AD_u_P%C5%99erova_(archaeological_site)), Czech Republic
|File:GLAM Ice Age 238.jpg|13,000-year-old [Swimming Reindeer](/source/Swimming_Reindeer) sculpture from L'[Abri Bruniquel](/source/Bruniquel_Cave), France
}}
Cro-Magnons also made purely symbolic engravings. There are several plaques of bone or antler (referred to as polishers, spatulas, palettes, or knives) which feature series of equidistantly placed notches, most notably the well-preserved 32,000-year-old Blanchard plaque from L'[Abri Blanchard](/source/Abri_Blanchard), France, which features 24 markings in a seemingly serpentine pattern. The discoverer, British palaeontologist [Thomas Rupert Jones](/source/Thomas_Rupert_Jones), speculated in 1875 this was an early counting system for tallying items such as animals killed, or some other notation system. In 1957, Czech archaeologist [Karel Absolon](/source/Karel_Absolon) suggested they represent [arithmetic](/source/arithmetic). In 1972, Marshack postulated they may be calendars.[{{cite journal|first=A.|last=Marshack|author-link=Alexander Marshack|year=1972|title=Cognitive Aspects of Upper Paleolithic Engraving|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=13|issue=3–4|pages=445–477|doi=10.1086/201311|jstor=2740829|s2cid=144984607}}] Also in 1972, Marshack identified 13,000 to 15,000 year old Magdalenian plaques bearing small, abstract symbols seemingly into organised blocks or sets, which he interpreted as representing an early writing system.[{{cite journal|first=A.|last=Marshack|author-link=Alexander Marshack|year=1972|title=Upper Paleolithic Notation and Symbol|journal=Science|volume=178|issue=4063|pages=817–828|doi=10.1126/science.178.4063.817|pmid=17754789|bibcode=1972Sci...178..817M}}]
Czech archaeologist Bohuslav Klíma speculated a complex engraving on a mammoth tusk he discovered in the Gravettian Pavlov site, Czech Republic, as being a map, showing a meandering river centre-left, a mountain centre-right, and a living grounds at the centre indicated by a double circle. A few similar engravings have been identified across Europe (in particular the Russian Plain), which he also postulated were maps, plans, or stories.[{{cite journal|first=J.|last=Svoboda|year=2017|title=On landscapes, maps and Upper Paleolithic lifestyles in the central European corridor: The images of Pavlov and Předmostí|journal=Veleia|volume=34|issue=1|pages=67–74|doi=10.1387/veleia.18074|doi-access=free|hdl=10810/37322|hdl-access=free}}]
{{Gallery
|align=center
|mode=packed
|File:Engraved plaque from Lartet.jpg|Aurignacian plaque from L'[Abri Lartet](/source/Abri_Lartet), France
|File:Blanchard plaque.jpg|Aurignacian plaque from [Castel Merle](/source/Castel_Merle), France
|File:Engraving on a mammoth tusk, map, Gravettian, 076872 cropped.jpg|Engraved "map" on a Gravettian mammoth tusk
|File:Examples of supposed Magdalenian writing on bony substances Wellcome M0015751.jpg|Various Magdalenian plaques with "writing"
}}
====Body art====
thumb|Reconstruction of a decorated Cro-Magnon man
Cro-Magnons are commonly associated with large pieces of pigments ("crayons"), namely made of red [ochre](/source/ochre). For Cro-Magnons, it is typically assumed that ochre was used for some symbolic purposes, most notably for cosmetics such as body paint. This is because ochre in some sites had to be imported from very long distances, and it is also associated with burials. It is unclear why they specifically chose red ochre instead of other colours. In terms of [colour psychology](/source/colour_psychology), popular hypotheses include the putative "[female cosmetic coalitions](/source/female_cosmetic_coalitions)" hypothesis and the "[red dress effect](/source/red_dress_effect)". It is also possible that ochre was chosen for its utility, such as an ingredient for adhesives, hide tanning agent, insect repellent, sunscreen, medicinal properties, dietary supplement, or as a soft hammer.[{{cite journal|first1=S.|last1=Wolf|first2=R.|last2=Dapschauskas|display-authors=et al.|year=2018|title=The Use of Ochre and Painting During the Upper Paleolithic of the Swabian Jura in the Context of the Development of Ochre Use in Africa and Europe|journal=Open Archaeology|volume=4|issue=1|pages=185–205|doi=10.1515/opar-2018-0012|s2cid=195827025|doi-access=free}}] Cro-Magnons appear to have been using grinding and crushing tools to process ochre before applying it to the skin.[
In 1962, French archaeologists Saint-Just and Marthe Péquart identified bi-pointed needles in the Magdalenian [Le Mas-d'Azil](/source/Le_Mas-d'Azil), which they speculated might have been used in tattooing.][{{cite book|first=A.|last=Deter-Wolf|year=2013|chapter=The Material Culture and Middle Stone Age Origins of Ancient Tattooing|title=Tattoos and Body Modifications in Antiquity|publisher=Chronos Verlag|pages=17–18|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275023614}}] Hypothesised depictions of penises from most commonly the Magdalenian (though a few dating back to the Aurignacian) appear to be decorated with tattoos, scarification, and piercings. Designs include lines, plaques, dots or holes, and human or animal figures.[
====Clothing====
{{Main|Prehistory of nakedness and clothing}}
Cro-Magnons produced beads, which are typically assumed to have been attached to clothing or portable items as body decoration. Beads had already been in use since the Middle Palaeolithic, but production dramatically increased in the Upper Palaeolithic. It is unclear why communities chose specific raw materials over other ones, and they seem to have upheld local bead making traditions for a very long time.][{{cite journal|first1=M.|last1=Vanhaeren|first2=F.|last2=d'Errico|year=2006|title=Aurignacian ethno-linguistic geography of Europe revealed by personal ornaments|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|volume=33|issue=8|pages=1105–1128|doi=10.1016/j.jas.2005.11.017|bibcode=2006JArSc..33.1105V }}] For example, Mediterranean communities used specific types of marine shells to make beads and pendants for more than 20,000 years; and central and western European communities often used pierced animal (and less commonly human) teeth.[ In the Aurignacian, beads and pendants were being made of shells, teeth, ivory, stone, bone, and antler; and there are a few examples of use of fossil materials including a [belemnite](/source/belemnite), [nummulite](/source/nummulite), [ammonite](/source/ammonite), and [amber](/source/amber). They may have also been producing ivory and stone rings, [diadem](/source/diadem)s, and [labret](/source/labret)s. Beads could be manufactured in numerous different styles, such as conical, elliptical, drop-shaped, disc-shaped, ovoid, rectangular, trapezoidal, and so on.][ Beads may have been used to facilitate social communication, to display the wearer's socio-economic status, as they could have been capable of communicating labour costs (and thereby, a person's wealth, energy, connections, etc.) simply by looking at them.][{{cite journal|first1=S. L.|last1=Kuhn|first2=M. C.|last2=Stiner|year=2007|title=Paleolithic Ornaments: Implications for Cognition, Demography and Identity|journal=Diogenes|volume=214|issue=2|pages=40–48|doi=10.1177/0392192107076870|s2cid=146555925}}] The distribution of ornaments on buried Gravettian individuals, and the likeliness that most of the buried were dressed with whatever they were wearing upon death, indicates that jewellery was primarily worn on the head as opposed to the neck or the torso.[
{{Gallery
|align=center
|mode=packed
|File:NHM - Lautsch Kette.jpg|Aurignacian chain made of bear, horse, elk, and beaver teeth
|File:Brillenhoehle Blaubeuren Schmuckanhaenger Tafel17.jpg|Gravettian ivory chain
|File:MAMUZ - Schneckenkette Hundssteig.jpg|Gravettian ''[Tritia neritea](/source/Tritia_neritea)'' shell chain
|File:Oso garma.jpg|Magdalenian bear pendant made out of a deer rib
}}
The Gravettian [Dolní Věstonice](/source/Doln%C3%AD_V%C4%9Bstonice_(archaeological_site)) I and III and [Pavlov](/source/D%C4%9Bv%C3%ADn_in_Moravia_(Pavlov_Hills)) I sites in [Moravia](/source/Moravia), Czech Republic, yielded many clay fragments with textile impressions. These indicate a highly sophisticated and standardised textile industry, including the production of: single-ply, double-ply, triple-ply, and braided string and cordage; knotted nets; [wicker](/source/wicker) baskets; and woven cloth including simple and diagonal [twine](/source/twine)d cloth, [plain woven](/source/plain_weave) cloth, and [twill](/source/twill)ed cloth. Some cloths appear to have a design pattern. There are also [plaited](/source/straw_plaiting) items which may have been baskets or mats. Due to the wide range of textile [gauges](/source/gauge_(knitting)) and [weave](/source/Weaving)s, it is possible they could also produce wall hangings, blankets, bags, shawls, shirts, skirts, and sashes. These people used plant rather than animal fibres,][ possibly [nettle](/source/nettle), [milkweed](/source/milkweed), [yew](/source/yew), or [alder](/source/alder) which have historically been used in weaving. Such plant fibre fragments have also been recorded at the Russian Kostenki and [Zaraysk](/source/Zaraysk) as well as the German [Gönnersdorf](/source/G%C3%B6nnersdorf) site.][
The inhabitants of [Dzudzuana Cave](/source/Dzudzuana_Cave), Georgia, appear to have been staining [flax](/source/flax) fibres with plant-based dyes, including yellow, red, pink, blue, turquoise, violet, black, brown, gray, green, and khaki.][{{cite journal |author= Kvavadze E |title= 30,000-year-old wild flax fibers |journal= Science |volume= 325 |issue= 5946 |page= 1359 |date= September 2009 |pmid= 19745144 |doi= 10.1126/science.1175404 | bibcode = 2009Sci...325.1359K |author2= Bar-Yosef O |author3= Belfer-Cohen A |display-authors= 3 |last4= Boaretto |first4= E. |last5= Jakeli |first5= N. |last6= Matskevich |first6= Z. |last7= Meshveliani |first7= T. |s2cid= 206520793 |url= http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4270521 |url-access= subscription }} [http://worldtextile.aimoo.com/ Supporting Online Material]] The emergence of textiles in the European archaeological record also coincides with the proliferation of the [sewing needle](/source/sewing_needle) in European sites. Ivory needles are found in most late Upper Palaeolithic sites, which could correlate to frequent sewing, and the predominance of small needles (too small to tailor clothes out of hide and leather) could indicate work on softer woven fabrics or accessory stitching and embroidery of leather products.[
There is some potential evidence of simple [loom](/source/loom) technology. However, these have also been interpreted as either hunting implements or art pieces. Rounded objects made of mammoth [phalanges](/source/phalanges) from Předmostí and [Avdeevo](/source/Avdeevo), Russia, may have been [loom weight](/source/loom_weight)s or human figures. Perforated, washer-like ivory or bone discs from across Europe were potentially [spindle whorl](/source/spindle_whorl)s. A foot-shaped piece of ivory from [Kniegrotte](/source/Kniegrotte), Germany, was possibly a comb or a decorative pendant.][ On the basis of wearing analyses, Cro-Magnons are also speculated to have used net spacers or [weaving stick](/source/weaving_stick)s. In 1960, French archaeologist Fernand Lacorre suggested that perforated batons were used to spin cordage.][{{cite book|first1=O.|last1=Soffer|first2=J. M.|last2=Adovasio|year=2010|chapter=The Roles of Perishable Technologies in Upper Paleolithic Lives|title=The Magdalenian Household: Unraveling Domesticity|publisher=SUNY Press|pages=237–242|isbn=978-1-4384-3368-4}}]
{{Gallery
|align=center
|mode=packed
|File:Gavaudun face.jpg|Aurignacian [hide scraper](/source/scraper_(archaeology)) from [Gavaudun](/source/Gavaudun), France
|File:Poinçon sur os abrasé MHNT Gargas.jpg|Two Gravettian awls
|File:Stone annulus, Gravettian, 076848.jpg|Washer-like stone disc from [Předmostí](/source/P%C5%99edmost%C3%AD_u_P%C5%99erova_(archaeological_site)), Czech Republic
|File:Aiguille os 246.1 Perspective.jpg|Magdalenian bone needle from [Gourdan-Polignan](/source/Gourdan-Polignan), France
}}
Some Venuses depict hairdos and clothing worn by Gravettian women. The [Venus of Willendorf](/source/Venus_of_Willendorf) seems to be wearing a cap, possibly woven fabric or made from shells, featuring at least seven rows and an additional two half-rows covering the nape of the neck. It may have been made starting at a knotted centre and spiraling downward from right to left, and then [backstitch](/source/backstitch)ing all the rows to each other. The Kostenki-1 Venus seems to be wearing a similar cap, though each row seems to overlap the other. The [Venus of Brassempouy](/source/Venus_of_Brassempouy) seems to be wearing some nondescript open, twined hair cover. The engraved [Venus of Laussel](/source/Venus_of_Laussel) from France seems to be wearing some headwear with rectangular gridding, and could potentially represent a [snood](/source/snood_(headgear)). Most East European Venuses with headwear also display notching and checkwork on the upper body which are suggestive of [bandeau](/source/bandeau)x (a strip of cloth bordering around the tops of the breasts) with some even featuring straps connecting it to around the neck; these seem to be absent in western European Venuses. Some also wear belts: in eastern Europe, these are seen on the waist; whereas in central and western Europe they are worn on the low hip. The [Venus of Lespugue](/source/Venus_of_Lespugue) seems to be wearing a plant fibre string skirt comprising 11 cords running behind the legs.[{{cite journal|first1=O.|last1=Soffer|first2=J. M.|last2=Adovasio|first3=D. C.|last3=Hyland|year=2000|title=The "Venus" Figurines: Textiles, Basketry, Gender, and Status in the Upper Paleolithic|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=41|issue=4|pages=512–521|doi=10.1086/317381|s2cid=162026727|url=https://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/current/venus1.pdf}}][
{{Gallery
|align=center
|mode=packed
|File:Venus von Willendorf 01.jpg|[Venus of Willendorf](/source/Venus_of_Willendorf) wearing a cap
|File:Venus of Brassempouy.jpg|[Venus of Brassempouy](/source/Venus_of_Brassempouy) wearing a hair cover
|File:Venus-de-Laussel-vue-generale-noir.jpg|[Venus of Laussel](/source/Venus_of_Laussel) wearing a [snood](/source/snood_(headgear))
|File:Kostenki I Venus.jpg|A [Venus from Kostenki](/source/Venus_figurines_of_Kostenki) showing a [bandeau](/source/bandeau) with straps
|File:Vénus de Lespugue Gravettien Musée de l'Homme 04022018 3.jpg|[Venus of Lespugue](/source/Venus_of_Lespugue) wearing a skirt
}}
====Music====
{{Main|Prehistoric music}}
[[File:Flauta paleolítica.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Replica of an [Aurignacian](/source/Aurignacian) [bone flute](/source/bone_flute) from [Geissenklösterle](/source/Geissenkl%C3%B6sterle), Germany]]
[[File:Isturitzeko_flauta_(Soinuenea,_JMBA_Bilduma_1506).webm|thumb|Music played with a replica of the 33,000-year-old [Izturitz flute](/source/Izturitz_flute) found in the [Isturitz and Oxocelhaya caves](/source/Isturitz_and_Oxocelhaya_caves)]]
Cro-Magnons are known to have created [flutes](/source/Paleolithic_flutes) out of hollow bird bones as well as mammoth ivory, first appearing in the archaeological record with the Aurignacian about 40,000 years ago in the German Swabian Jura. The Swabian Jura flutes appear to have been able to produce a wide range of tones. One virtually complete flute made of the [radius](/source/radius_(bone)) of a [griffon vulture](/source/griffon_vulture) from Hohle Fels measures {{cvt|21.8|cm}} in length and {{cvt|0.8|cm}} in diameter. The bone had been smoothed down and was pierced with holes. These finger holes exhibit cut marks, which could indicate the exact placement of these holes was specifically measured to create [concert pitch](/source/concert_pitch) (that is, to make the instrument in [tune](/source/musical_tuning)) or a [scale](/source/scale_(music)). The part near the elbow joint had two V-shaped carvings, presumably a mouthpiece. Ivory flutes would have required a great time investment to make, as it requires more skill and precision to craft compared to a bird bone flute. A section of ivory must be sawed off to the correct size, cut in half so it can be hollowed out, and then the two pieces have to be refitted and stuck together by an adhesive in an air-tight seal.][ Cro-Magnons also created bone whistles out of deer phalanges.][
Such sophisticated music technology could potentially speak to a much longer musical tradition than the archaeological record indicates, as modern hunter-gatherers have been documented to create instruments out of: more biodegradable materials (less likely to fossilise) such as reeds, gourds, skins, and bark; more or less unmodified items such as horns, [conch shell](/source/conch_shell)s, logs, and stones; and their weapons, including spear thrower shafts or boomerangs as [clapstick](/source/clapstick)s, or a hunting bow.][
[[File:Musical instruments of prehistory.jpg|thumb|Potential Cro-Magnon musical instruments: [bone flute](/source/bone_flute) (left), whistle (centre), [idiophone](/source/idiophone) (bottom), and [bullroarer](/source/bullroarer) (top)]]
It is speculated that a few Cro-Magnon artefacts represent [bullroarer](/source/bullroarer)s or percussion instruments such as [rasps](/source/rasp_(music)), but these are harder to prove.][{{cite journal|first=A.|last=Killin|year=2018|title=The origins of music: Evidence, theory, and prospects|journal=Music and Science|volume=1|pages=5–7|doi=10.1177/2059204317751971|s2cid=165905083|doi-access=free|hdl=1885/162771|hdl-access=free}}] One probable bullroarer is identified at [Lalinde](/source/Lalinde), France, dating to 12,000 to 14,000 years ago, measuring {{cvt|16|cm}} long and decorated with geometric incisions. In the mammoth-bone houses at Mezine, Ukraine, an {{cvt|80x20|cm}} thigh-bone, a {{cvt|53x50|cm}} jawbone, a {{cvt|57x63|cm}} shoulder blade, and a {{cvt|63x43|cm}} pelvis of a mammoth bear evidence of paint and repeated percussion. These were first proposed by archaeologist Sergei Bibikov to have served as drums, with either a reindeer antler or mammoth tusk fragment also found at the site being used as a drum stick, though this is contested. Other European sites have yielded potential [percussion mallet](/source/percussion_mallet)s made of mammoth bone or reindeer antler. It is speculated that some Cro-Magnons marked certain sections of caves with red paint which could be struck to produce a note that would resonate throughout the cave chamber, somewhat like a [xylophone](/source/xylophone).[{{cite book|editor1-first=S.|editor1-last=De Angeli|editor2-first=A. A.|editor2-last=Both|editor3-first=S.|editor3-last=Hagel|editor4-first=P.|editor4-last=Holmes|editor5-first=R. J.|editor5-last=Pasalados|editor6-first=C. S.|editor6-last=Lund|year=2018|chapter=Primordial Sounds|title=Music and Sounds in Ancient Europe|publisher=European Music Archaeology Project|isbn=978-88-904555-3-7|url=http://www.emaproject.eu/images/stories/exhibition/catalogue/EMAP_ENG_catalogue}}]
===Language===
The early modern human vocal apparatus is generally thought to have been the same as that in present-day humans, as the present-day variation of the [FOXP2](/source/FOXP2) gene associated with the neurological prerequisites for speech and language ability seems to have evolved within the last 100,000 years,[ and the modern human [hyoid bone](/source/hyoid_bone) (which supports the tongue and facilitates speech) evolved by 60,000 years ago demonstrated by the Israeli [Skhul and Qafzeh humans](/source/Skhul_and_Qafzeh_hominins).][{{cite journal|first1=B.|last1=Arensburg|first2=A. M.|last2=Tillier|first3=B.|last3=Vandermeersch|first4=H.|last4=Duday|first5=L. A.|last5=Schepartz|first6=Y.|last6=Rak|year=1989|title=A Middle Palaeolithic human hyoid bone|journal=Nature|volume=338|issue=6218|pages=758–760|doi=10.1038/338758a0|pmid=2716823|bibcode=1989Natur.338..758A|s2cid=4309147}}] These indicate Upper Palaeolithic humans had the anatomical basis for language and the same range of potential [phoneme](/source/phoneme)s (sounds) as present-day humans.[{{cite journal|first=P.|last=Lieberman|author-link=Philip Lieberman|year=2007|title=The Evolution of Human Speech: Its Anatomical and Neural Bases|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=48|issue=1|pages=39–66|doi=10.1086/509092|s2cid=28651524}}]
Though Cro-Magnon languages likely contributed to present-day languages, it is unclear what early languages would have sounded like because words denature and are replaced by entirely original words quite rapidly, making it difficult to identity language [cognate](/source/cognate)s (a word in multiple different languages which descended from a common ancestor) which originated before 5,000 to 9,000 years ago. Nonetheless, it has been controversially hypothesised that Eurasian languages are all related and form the "[Nostratic languages](/source/Nostratic_languages)" with an early common ancestor existing just after the end of the LGM. In 2013, evolutionary biologist [Mark Pagel](/source/Mark_Pagel) and colleagues postulated that among "Nostratic languages", frequently used words more often have speculated cognates, and that this was evidence that 23 identified words were "ultraconserved" and supposedly changed very little in use and pronunciation, descending from a common ancestor about 15,000 years ago at the end of the LGM.[{{cite journal|first1=M.|last1=Pagel|author1-link=Mark Pagel|first2=Q. D.|last2=Atkinson|first3=A. S.|last3=Calude|first4=A.|last4=Meade|year=2013|title=Ultraconserved words point to deep language ancestry across Eurasia|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=110|issue=21|pages=8471–8476|doi=10.1073/pnas.1218726110|pmid=23650390|pmc=3666749|bibcode=2013PNAS..110.8471P|doi-access=free}}] Archaeologist Paul Heggarty said that Pagel's data was subjective interpretation of supposed cognates, and the extreme volatility of sound and pronunciation of words (for example, [Latin](/source/Latin) [ˈakʷã] (aquam) "water" → French [o] (eau) in just 2,000 years) makes it unclear if cognates can even be identified that far back if they do indeed exist.[{{cite journal|first=P.|last=Heggarty|year=2013|title=Ultraconserved words and Eurasiatic? The "faces in the fire" of language prehistory|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=110|issue=35|page=E3254|doi=10.1073/pnas.1309114110|pmid=23918403|pmc=3761561|bibcode=2013PNAS..110E3254H|s2cid=205264098|doi-access=free}}]
===Religion===
{{Main|Palaeolithic religion}}
====Shamanism====
Several Upper Palaeolithic caves feature depictions of seemingly part-human, part-animal chimaeras (typically part bison, reindeer, or deer), variously termed "anthropozoomorphs", "[therianthropes](/source/shapeshifting)", or "sorcerers". These have typically been interpreted as being the centre of some shamanistic ritual, and to represent some cultural revolution and the origins of [subjectivity](/source/subjectivity).[{{cite journal|first=K.|last=Yusoff|year=2015|title=Geologic subjects: nonhuman origins, geomorphic aesthetics and the art of becoming inhuman|journal=Cultural Geographies|volume=22|issue=3|page=386|doi=10.1177/1474474014545301|jstor=26168658|bibcode=2015CuGeo..22..383Y |s2cid=147208415}}] The oldest such cave drawing has been identified at the 30,000-year-old [Chauvet Cave](/source/Chauvet_Cave), where a figure with a bison upper body and human lower body was drawn onto a stalactite, facing a depiction of a vulva with two tapering legs.[{{cite book|first=R. D.|last=Guthrie|year=2005|title=The Nature of Paleolithic Art|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=0-226-31126-0}}]{{rp|208–209}} The 17,000-year-old Grotte de Lascaux, France, has a seemingly dead bird-human hybrid between a rhino and a charging bison, with a bird on top of a pole placed near the figure's right hand.[ A bird on a stick is used as a symbol of mystical power by some modern shamanistic cultures who believe that birds are [psychopomp](/source/psychopomp)s, and can move between the land of the living and the land of the dead. In these cultures, they believe the shaman can either transform into a bird or use a bird as a [spirit guide](/source/spirit_guide).][ The 14,000-year-old [Grotte des Trois-Frères](/source/Cave_of_the_Trois-Fr%C3%A8res), France, features 3 sorcerers. The so-called "[The Dancing Sorcerer](/source/The_Sorcerer_(cave_art))" or "God of Les Trois Frères" seems to bear human legs and feet, paws, a deer head with antlers, a fox or horse tail, a beard, and a flaccid penis, interpreted as dancing on all-fours. Another smaller sorcerer with a bison head, human legs and feet, and upright posture stands above several animal depictions, and is interpreted as holding and playing a musical bow to herd all the animals. The third sorcerer has a seemingly bison upper body and human lower body with testicles and an erection.][{{cite book|first=E. V.|last=Walter|year=1988|title=Placeways: A Theory of the Human Environment|publisher=UNC Press Books|pages=89–94|isbn=0-8078-4200-1}}][
Some drawn human figures feature lines radiating out. These are generally interpreted as wounded people, with the lines representing pain or spears, possibly related to some initiation process for shamans. One such "wounded man" at [Grotte de Cougnac](/source/Grotte_de_Cougnac), France, is drawn on the chest of a red Irish elk. A wounded sorcerer with a bison head is found at the 17,000-year-old [Grotte de Gabillou](/source/Grotte_de_Gabillou).][{{cite book|first=D.|last=Lewis-Williams|author-link=David Lewis-Williams|year=2004|title=The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art|chapter=Cave and Conflict|publisher=Thames & Hudson|isbn=0-500-77044-1}}][{{cite book|first=A.|last=Stone|year=2003|chapter=The Prehistory of Shamanism|title=Explore Shamanism|publisher=Heart of Albion|isbn=1-872883-68-0}}] Some caves featured "vanquished men", lying presumably dead at the foot of generally a bull or bear.[
For tangible art, the early Aurignacian Hohlenstein-Stadel, Swabian Jura, has yielded the famous [lion-human](/source/lion-human) sculpture. It is {{cvt|30|cm}} tall, which is much larger than the other Swabian Jura figurines. A possible second lion-human was also found in the nearby [Hohle Fels](/source/Hohle_Fels). An ivory slab from Geissenklösterle has a carved [relief](/source/relief) of a human figure with its arms raised in the air wearing a hide, the "[worshipper](/source/Adorant_from_the_Gei%C3%9Fenkl%C3%B6sterle_cave)".][ A 28,000-year-old "puppet" was identified at Brno, Czech Republic, consisting of an isolated head piece, torso piece, and left arm piece. It is presumed that the head and torso were connected by a rod, and the torso and arm by some string allowing the arm to move. Because it was found in a grave, this is speculated to have belonged to a shaman for use in rituals involving the dead.][{{cite journal|first=T.|last=Taylor|year=2011|title=The Brno Effect: From Culture to Mind|journal=Journal of World Prehistory|volume=24|issue=2/3|pages=218–222|doi=10.1007/s10963-011-9052-8|jstor=41289970|s2cid=143890919}}] A 14,000-year-old large stone from [Cueva del Juyo](/source/Cueva_del_Juyo), Spain, seems to have been carved to be the conjoined face of a man on the right and a big cat on the left (when facing it). The man half seems to feature a moustache and a beard. The cat half (either a leopard or a lion) has slanting eyes, a snout, a fang, and spots on the muzzle suggestive of whiskers.[
{{Gallery
|align=center
|mode=packed
|File:The Sorcerer cave art. Sketch of Breuil's drawing. Photograph. Wellcome M0008769.jpg|The [Dancing Sorcerer](/source/The_Sorcerer_(cave_art)) from [Grotte des Trois-Frères](/source/Cave_of_the_Trois-Fr%C3%A8res)
|File:Illustration of Homme masque en Bison jourant de la flute Wellcome M0004767.jpg|Sorcerer from [Grotte des Trois-Frères](/source/Cave_of_the_Trois-Fr%C3%A8res) with a musical bow
|File:Gabillou Sorcier.png|The wounded sorcerer from Grotte de [Gabillou](/source/Gabillou)
|File:Lascaux 01.jpg|The vanquished bird-headed man from [Lascaux](/source/Lascaux)
|File:Loewenmensch2.jpg|The [lion-human](/source/lion-human) from [Hohlenstein-Stadel](/source/Hohlenstein-Stadel)
|File:Male figurine, mammoth ivory, Anthropos, Brno, 187999.jpg|The male puppet from [Brno](/source/Brno)
|File:Adorant, Geisenklösterle, Blaubeuren-Weiler, Alb-Donau-Kreis, Aurignacian culture, 35,000 to 45,000 years old, ivory - Landesmuseum Württemberg - Stuttgart, Germany - DSC02709.jpg|The [worshipper](/source/Adorant_from_the_Gei%C3%9Fenkl%C3%B6sterle_cave) from [Geissenklösterle](/source/Geissenkl%C3%B6sterle)
}}
Spanish archaeologists Leslie G. Freeman and Joaquín González Echegaray argued that Cueva del Juyo was specifically modified to serve as a sanctuary site to carry out rituals. They said the inhabitants dug out a triangular trench and filled it with offerings including ''[Patella](/source/Patella_(gastropod))'' ([limpet](/source/limpet)s), the [common periwinkle](/source/common_periwinkle) (a [sea snail](/source/sea_snail)), pigments, the legs and jaws (possibly with meat still on them) of red and roe deer, and a red deer antler positioned upright. The trench and offerings were then filled in with dirt, and a seemingly flower-like arrangement of bright cylindrical pieces of red, yellow, and green pigments was placed on top. This was then buried with clay, stone slabs, and bone spearpoints. The clay shell was covered by a {{cvt|900|kg}} slab of limestone supported by large flat stones. Somewhat similar structures associated with some representation of a human have also been found elsewhere in Magdalenian Spain, such as at [Entrefoces](/source/Entrefoces) rock shelter, [Cueva de la Garma](/source/La_Garma_cave_complex) or [Cueva de Praileaitz](/source/Praileaitz_Cave), [Errallako Koba](/source/Errallako_Koba), and [Isturitz and Oxocelhaya caves](/source/Isturitz_and_Oxocelhaya_caves) in the Basque Country.][{{cite journal|first=P.|last=Arias|year=2009|title=Rites in the dark? An evaluation of the current evidence for ritual areas at Magdalenian cave sites|journal=World Archaeology|volume=41|issue=2|pages=262–294|doi=10.1080/00438240902843964|s2cid=161323031|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249007150}}]
====Mortuary practices====
Cro-Magnons buried their dead, commonly with a variety of symbolic grave goods as well as red ochre, and multiple people were often buried in the same grave.[ However, the archaeological record has yielded few graves, less than 5 preserved per millennium, which could indicate burials were seldom given. Consequently, it is unclear if they represent isolated burials or form a much more generalised mortuary tradition.][ Across Europe, some graves contained multiple individuals, in this case most often featuring both sexes.][
Most burials are dated to the Gravettian (most notably 29,000 to 31,000 years ago) and towards the end of the Magdalenian (from 11,000 to 14,000 years ago). None are identified during the Aurignacian. Gravettian burials seem to differ from post-LGM ones. The former ranged across Europe from Portugal to Siberia, whereas the latter conspicuously restricted to Italy, Germany, and southwest France. About half of buried Gravettians were infants, whereas infant burials were much less common post-LGM, but it is debated if this was due to social differences or infant mortality rates. Graves are also commonly associated with animal remains and tools, but it is unclear if this was intentional or was coincidentally a part of the filler. They are much less common post-LGM, and post-LGM graves are more commonly associated with ornaments than Gravettian graves.][{{cite book|first1=J.|last1=Riel-Salvatore|first2=C.|last2=Gravel-Miguel|year=2013|chapter=Upper Paleolithic mortuary practices in Eurasia: A critical look at the burial record|title=The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial|editor1-first=S.|editor1-last=Tarlow|editor2-first=L. N.|editor2-last=Stutz|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-956906-9|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259744010}}]
The most lavish Palaeolithic burial is a grave from the Gravettian of [Sungir](/source/Sungir), Russia, where a boy and a girl were placed crown-to-crown in a long, shallow grave, and adorned with thousands of perforated ivory beads, hundreds of perforated [arctic fox](/source/arctic_fox) canines, ivory pins, disc pendants, ivory animal figurines, and mammoth tusk spears. The beads were a third the size of those found with a man from the same site, which could indicate these small beads were specifically designed for the children.[{{cite journal|first=V.|last=Formicola|year=2015|title=From the Sunghir Children to the Romito Dwarf: Aspects of the Upper Paleolithic Funerary Landscape|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=48|issue=3|doi=10.1086/517592|s2cid=141943948}}] Only two other Upper Palaeolithic graves were found with grave goods other than personal adornment (one from [Arene Candide](/source/Arene_Candide), Italy, and Brno, Czech Republic), and the grave of these two children is unique in bearing any functional implements (the spears) as well as a bone from another individual (a partial femur). The 5 other buried individuals from Sungir did not receive nearly as many grave goods, with one seemingly given no formal treatment whatsoever.[{{cite journal|first1=E.|last1=Trinkaus|author1-link=Erik Trinkaus|first2=A. P.|last2=Buzhilova|year=2018|title=Diversity and differential disposal of the dead at Sunghir|journal=Antiquity|volume=92|issue=361|pages=7–21|doi=10.15184/aqy.2017.223|doi-access=free}}] However, most Gravettian graves feature few ornaments, and the buried were probably wearing them before death.[
Due to such rich material culture and the marked difference of treatment between different individuals, it has been suggested that these peoples had a complex society beyond band level, and with social class distinction. In this model, young individuals given elaborate funerals were potentially born into a position of high status.][ However, about 75% of Cro-Magnon skeletons were men, which sharply contrasts with the predominance of depictions of women in art.][ Because of the great amount of time, labour, and resources all these grave goods would have required, it has been hypothesised that the grave goods were made long in advance of the ceremony. Because of such planning for multiple burials as well as their abundance in the archaeological record, the seemingly purposeful presence of both sexes, and an apparent preference for individuals with some congenital disorder][ (about a third of identified burials][), it is generally speculated that these cultures practiced [human sacrifice](/source/human_sacrifice) either in fear, disdain, or worship of those with abnormal features, like in many present-day and historical societies.][ Intricate funerals, in addition to evidence of shamanism and ritualism, has also provoked hypotheses of the belief of an [afterlife](/source/afterlife) by Cro-Magnons.][{{cite journal|first=Simona|last=Petru|date=29 December 2018|title=Identity and Fear – Burials in the Upper Palaeolithic|journal=Documenta Praehistorica|volume=45|pages=6–13|doi=10.4312/dp.45.1|doi-access=free}}]
{{Gallery
|align=center
|mode=packed
|File:Sunghir-tumba paleolítica.jpg|Grave from [Sungir](/source/Sungir)
|File:Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution (1909) (14592689010).jpg|Grave from [Combe-Capelle](/source/Combe-Capelle), France
|File:PSM V05 D660 The fossil man of menthone.jpg|Grave from [Menton](/source/Menton), France
|File:Grimaldi Man.jpg|Grave from [Grimaldi](/source/Grimaldi_man), Italy
}}
==== Cannibalism ====
The earliest evidence of [skull cup](/source/skull_cup)s, and thus ritual cannibalism, comes from the Magdalenian of [Gough's Cave](/source/Gough's_Cave), England. Further concrete evidence of such rituals does not appear until after the Palaeolithic. The Gough's Cave cup seems to have followed a similar method of [scalping](/source/scalping) as those from Neolithic Europe, with incisions being made along the midline of the skull (whereas the Native American method of scalping involved a circular incision around the crown). Earlier examples of non-ritual cannibalism in Europe do not seem to have followed the same method of defleshing.[{{cite journal|first1=F.|last1=Marginedas|first2=A.|last2=Rodríquez-Hidalgo|display-authors=et al.|year=2020|title=Making skull cups: Butchering traces on cannibalised human skulls from five European archaeological sites|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|volume=114|article-number=105076|doi=10.1016/j.jas.2020.105076|bibcode=2020JArSc.114j5076M |s2cid=213625841}}] At least 1 skull cup was transported from a different site. In addition, Gough's Cave also yielded a human radius with a zig-zag engraving. Compared to other artefacts in the cave or common to the Magdalenian period, the radius was modified quite little, with the engraving probably quickly etched on (indicated by scrape marks not recorded on any other Magdalenian engraving), and the bone broken and discarded soon thereafter. This may indicate the bone's only function was as a tool in some cannibalistic and/or funerary ritual, rather than being prepared to be carried around by the group as an ornament or tool.[{{cite journal|first1=S. M.|last1=Bello|first2=R.|last2=Wallduck|first3=S. A.|last3=Parfitt|first4=C. B.|last4=Stringer|author4-link=Chris Stringer|year=2017|title=An Upper Palaeolithic engraved human bone associated with ritualistic cannibalism|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=12|issue=8|article-number=e0182127|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0182127|pmid=28792978|pmc=5549908|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1282127B|doi-access=free}}]
{{Gallery
|align=center
|mode=packed
|File:Skull cup.jpg
|Human [skull cup](/source/skull_cup) from [Gough's Cave](/source/Gough's_Cave), England
|File:Engraved radius Gough’s Cave.png
|Engraved human [radius](/source/radius_(bone)) from [Gough's Cave](/source/Gough's_Cave), England
}}
==In media==
[[File:The Grisly Folk and Their War With Men--illus 2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Cro-Magnons tribe in [H. G. Wells](/source/H._G._Wells)' ''[The Grisly Folk](/source/wikisource%3AThe_Grisly_Folk_and_Their_War_With_Men)'']]
The "[caveman](/source/caveman)" [archetype](/source/archetype) is quite popular in both literature and visual media and can be portrayed as highly muscular, hairy, or [monstrous](/source/monster), and to represent a wild and animalistic character, drawing on the characteristics of a [wild man](/source/wild_man). Cavemen are often represented in front of a cave or fighting a dangerous animal; wielding stone, bone, or wooden tools usually for combat; and dressed in an exposing fur cloak. Men often are depicted with unkempt, unstyled, shoulder-length or longer hair, usually with a beard. Cavemen first appeared in visual media in [D. W. Griffith](/source/D._W._Griffith)'s 1912 ''Man's Genesis'', and among the first appearances in fictional literature were [Stanley Waterloo](/source/Stanley_Waterloo)'s 1897 ''[The Story of Ab](/source/The_Story_of_Ab)'' and [Jack London](/source/Jack_London)'s 1907 ''[Before Adam](/source/Before_Adam)''.[{{cite journal|first=J. C.|last=Berman|year=1999|title=Bad Hair Days in the Paleolithic: Modern (Re)Constructions of the Cave Man|journal=American Anthropologist|volume=101|issue=2|pages=288–304|doi=10.1525/aa.1999.101.2.288|jstor=683202|doi-access=free}}]
Cavemen have also been popularly portrayed (inaccurately) as confronting dinosaurs, first done in Griffith's 1914 ''[Brute Force](/source/Brute_Force_(1914_film))'' (the sequel to ''Man's Genesis'') featuring a ''[Ceratosaurus](/source/Ceratosaurus)''.[{{cite book |last=Glut |first=D. F. |author-link=Donald F. Glut |author2=Brett-Surman, M. K. |year=1997 |chapter=Dinosaurs and the media |title=The Complete Dinosaur |publisher=Indiana University Press|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780253333490/page/676 |page=676 |isbn=0-253-33349-0}}] Cro-Magnons are also portrayed interacting with Neanderthals, such as in [J.-H. Rosny](/source/J.-H._Rosny)'s 1911 ''[Quest for Fire](/source/The_Quest_for_Fire)'', [H. G. Wells](/source/H._G._Wells)' 1927 ''[The Grisly Folk](/source/wikisource%3AThe_Grisly_Folk_and_Their_War_With_Men)'', [William Golding](/source/William_Golding)'s 1955 ''[The Inheritors](/source/The_Inheritors_(Golding_novel))'', [Björn Kurtén](/source/Bj%C3%B6rn_Kurt%C3%A9n)'s 1978 ''[Dance of the Tiger](/source/Dance_of_the_Tiger)'', [Jean M. Auel](/source/Jean_M._Auel)'s 1980 ''[Clan of the Cave Bear](/source/Clan_of_the_Cave_Bear)'' and her ''[Earth's Children](/source/Earth's_Children)'' series, and [Elizabeth Marshall Thomas](/source/Elizabeth_Marshall_Thomas)' 1987 ''Reindeer Moon'' and its 1990 sequel ''The Animal Wife''. Cro-Magnons are generally portrayed as superior in some way to Neanderthals which allowed them to take Europe.[{{cite journal|first=J. R. R.|last=Drell|year=2000|title=Neanderthals: a history of interpretation|journal=Oxford Journal of Archaeology|volume=19|issue=1|pages=1–24|doi=10.1111/1468-0092.00096|s2cid=54616107}}]
==See also==
* {{Annotated link|Châtelperronian}}
* {{Annotated link|Early modern human}}
* {{Annotated link|History of Indigenous Australians}}
* {{Annotated link|Mal'ta–Buret' culture}}
* {{Annotated link|Peopling of the Americas}}
* {{Annotated link|Women in prehistory}}
== Explanatory notes ==
{{Reflist|group=note}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline |Cro-Magnon fossils}}
{{Human Evolution}}
{{Prehistoric technology}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Cro-Magnons
Category:Peopling of Europe
*
Category:Early modern humans
Category:Paleoanthropology
Category:Articles containing video clips
---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Cro-Magnon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cro-Magnon) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cro-Magnon?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.