Modern Humans by John F. Hoffecker

Author:John F. Hoffecker
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Columbia University Press

The Initial Upper Paleolithic

The core area for the IUP in Europe lies in Moravia and the Balkans. A group of major open-air sites and caves in these regions contain assemblages of stone artifacts that are very similar to those assigned to the IUP in the Levant and Central Asia. In the Balkans, specifically in Bulgaria, they include the caves of Bacho Kiro (Layer 11) and Temnata (Layer VI), and in Moravia (Czech Republic), they include the open-air sites of Brno-Bohunice and Stránská skála. Farther north, in southern Poland, is Dzierzyslaw I.73 The industry is known locally as the Bohunician (table 6.6 and figure 6.8).

The stone tools often were produced from Levallois blade cores with hard-hammer percussion and include many forms considered typical of Upper Paleolithic industries associated with modern humans (that is, end scrapers and simple burins), as well as Levallois points and side scrapers.74 Some assemblages also contain bifacial leaf-shaped points (more common in the northern sites). As with the IUP in the Levant, non-stone artifacts are extremely rare.75

The presence of bifacial leaf-shaped points in the Bohunician may be highly significant because similar points are found in another group of sites in Hungary (known locally as the Szeletian) that appear to be of comparable age. Many are caves in the Bükk Mountains that appear to have been occupied briefly—perhaps as short-term hunting camps.76 In addition to the points, the sites often contain typical Middle Paleolithic forms (for example, side scrapers). Rather than constituting a separate industry (and one often attributed to the Neanderthals), the Szeletian may simply represent a recurring set of artifacts made by the same people who made the Bohunician assemblages (a functional subset of the IUP).77

The IUP sites in central Europe date as early as the beginning of GI 12 (about 48,000 years ago), and some are associated with a buried soil that apparently formed during this warm interval.78 Other assemblages significantly postdate GI 12 and are associated with a younger soil that could have formed during GI 11. The IUP may have endured for more than 5,000 years.79

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