Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T02:14:05.586Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The emergence of bone-working and ornamental art in the Caucasian Upper Palaeolithic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Liubov V. Golovanova
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Prehistory, 14 Linia 3-11, St Petersburg 190034, Russia (Email: [email protected])
Vladimir B. Doronichev
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Prehistory, 14 Linia 3-11, St Petersburg 190034, Russia (Email: [email protected])
Naomi E. Cleghorn
Affiliation:
Department of Integrative Biology, 3060 Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA (Email: [email protected])

Abstract

New work from the Caucasus is revolutionising the timing and character of the shift from Neanderthals to early Modern humans in Eurasia. Here the authors reveal a powerful signal of that change from excavations at Mezmaiskaya: the abrupt appearance of a well-formed bone industry and ornaments.

Type
Research articles
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adler, D.S., Belfer-Cohen, A. & Bar-Yosef, O.. 2006. Between a rock and a hard place: Neanderthal-Modern human interactions in the southern Caucasus, in Conard, N.J. (ed.) When Neanderthals and Modern humans met: 89118. T¨ubingen: Kerns.Google Scholar
Adler, D.S., Bar-Yosef, O., Belfer-Cohen, A., Tushabramishvili, N., Boaretto, E., Mercier, N., Valladas, H. & Rink, W.J.. 2008. Dating the demise: Neanderthal extinction and the establishment of Modern humans in the southern Caucasus. Journal of Human Evolution 55: 817833.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amirkhanov, H.A. 1986. Verkhniy paleolit Prikuban’ya [The Upper Palaeolithic of the Kuban River]. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Amirkhanov, H.A. 1994. K probleme evolutcii i periodizatcii verhnego paleolita Zapadnogo Kavkaza [To a problem of evolution and periodisation of the Upper Palaeolithic of the western Caucasus]. Rossiiskaya Arheologiya 4: 924.Google Scholar
Bader, N.O. 1966. Razlichyia mejdu verkhnepaleoliticheskimi kul’turami Zakavkaz’ya i Blijnego Vostoka [Differences among the Upper Palaeolithic cultures of the Transcaucasus and Near East], in Merpert, N.Y.A. & Kojin, P.M. (ed.) Arheologiya Starogo i Novogo Sveta [Archaeology of the Old World and New World]: 135143. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O., Belfer-Cohen, A. & Adler, D.S.. 2006. The implications of the Middle–Upper Paleolithic chronological boundary in the Caucasus to Eurasian prehistory. Anthropologie 44(1): 4960.Google Scholar
Belfer-Cohen, A. & Goring-Morris, N.. 2007. The shift from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Upper Palaeolithic: Levantine perspectives, in Camps, M. & Szmidt, C. (ed.) The Mediterranean from 50,000 to 25,000 BP: turning points and new directions: 8797. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Blajko, A.V. 2001. Issledovanie Korotkoi pesheri na severo-zapadnom Kavkaze [The study of Korotkaya Cave in the north-western Caucasus]. Archaeological Discoveries 2000: 121122.Google Scholar
Formozov, A.A. 1959. Etnokulturnie oblasti na territorii Evropeiskoi chasti SSSR v kamennom veke [Ethno-cultural areas in the territory of the European part of the USSR in the Stone Age]. Moscow:Nauka.Google Scholar
Golovanova, L.V. 2000. Rubej srednego i pozdnego paleolita na sevarnom Kavkaze [The Middle–Upper Palaeolithic interface in the northern Caucasus]. Stratum plus 1: 158177.Google Scholar
Golovanova, L.V. & Doronichev, V.B.. 2003. The Middle Paleolithic of the Caucasus. Journal of World Prehistory 17(1): 71140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golovanova, L.V.Hoffecker, J.F., Nesmeyanov, S.A., Levkovskaya, G.M., Kharitonov, V.M., Romanova, G.P. & Svejenceve, Yu.. 1998. Un site micoquien Est-Europeen du caucase du Nord (R´esultats pr´eliminaires de l’´etude de la grotte Mezmaiskaya, les fouilles des ann´ees 1987-1993). L'Anthropologie 102(1): 4566.Google Scholar
Golovanova, L.V.Hoffecker, J.F., Kharitonov, V.M. & Romanova, G.P.. 1999. Mezmaiskaya cave: a Neanderthal occupation in the northern Caucasus. Current Anthropology 40(1): 7786.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golovanova, L.V., Cleghorn, N.E., Doronichev, V.B., Hoffecker, J.F., Burr, G.S. & Sulergizkiy, L.D.. 2006. The Early Upper Paleolithic in the northern Caucasus (new data from Mezmaiskaya Cave, 1997 excavation). Eurasian Prehistory 4(1-2): 4378.Google Scholar
Golovanova, L.V., Doronichev, V. & Cleghorn, N.. 2007. Getting back to basics: a response to Otte ‘Comments on Mezmayskaya’. Eurasian Prehistory 5(1): 131136.Google Scholar
Golovanova, L.V.Doronichev, V.B., Kulkova, M.A., Cleghorn, N. & Sapelko, T.V.. 2010. Significance of ecological factors in the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. Current Anthropology(accepted).Google Scholar
Kozlowski, J. 1998. The Middle and the Early Upper Paleolithic around the Black Sea, in Akazawa, T., Aoki, K. & Bar-Yosef, O. (ed.) Neandertals and Modern humans in Western Asia: 461482. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Leonova, N.B.Nesmeyanov, S.A., Vinogradova, E.A., Voeikova, O.A., Gvozdover, M.D., Min'kov, E.V., Spiridonova, E.A. & Sycheva, S.A.. 2006. Paleoecologiya Ravninnogo Paleolita (Na primere kompleksa verhnepaleoliticheskih stoyanok Kamennaya Balka v Severnom Priazov'e) [The palaeoecology of the Plains Palaeolithic (The Kamennaja Balka UpperPalaeolithic sites north of the Sea of Azov)]. Moscow: Nauchniy Mir.Google Scholar
Liubin, V.P. 1989. Paleolit Kavkaza [Palaeolithic of the Caucasus], in Boriskovsky, P.I. (ed.) Paleolit Kavkaza i Severnoi Azii [The Palaeolithic of the Caucasus and northern Asia]: 9142. Leningrad: Nauka.Google Scholar
Meshveliani, T. 1986. O rannem etape verhnego paleolita Zapadnoy Gruzii [About the early stage of the Upper Palaeolithic of western Georgia]. Trudi Gosudarstvennogo Muzeya Gruzii 1986: 116123.Google Scholar
Meshveliani, T., Djashli, T.K., Bar-Yosef, O. & Belfer-Cohen, A.. 2002. A renewed archaeological expedition in Dzudzuana (2000 results). Academia 3: 2931 (in Georgian).Google Scholar
Meshveliani, T., Bar-Yosef, O. & Belfer-Cohen, A.. 2004. The Upper Paleolithic in western Georgia, in Brantingham, P.J., Kuhn, S.L. & Kerry, K.W. (ed.) The Early Upper Paleolithic beyond Western Europe: 129143. Berkeley (CA): University of California Press.Google Scholar
Nioradze, M.G. & Otte, M.. 2000. Paleolithique superieur de Georgie. L'Anthropologie 104: 265300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zamiatnin, S.N. 1935. Novie dannie po paleolitu Zakavkaz'ya [New data on the Palaeolithic in the Transcaucasus]. Soviet Ethnography 2: 116123.Google Scholar