Lion drawings from the Chauvet Cave, 37,000 to 33,500 years old, and a map of Aurignacian sites.
Geographical range
Eurasia
Period
Upper Paleolithic
Dates
c. 43,000 – c. 28,000 BP[1][2]
Type site
Aurignac
Preceded by
Ahmarian, Châtelperronian
Followed by
Gravettian, Mal'ta–Buret' culture
Defined by
Breuil and Cartailhac, 1906[3]
See also: Prehistoric Europe
The expansion of early modern humans from the Levant where the Levantine Aurignacian stage has been identified.
The Aurignacian (/ɔːrɪɡˈneɪʃən/) is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with Early European modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the Levant, where the Emiran period and the Ahmarian period form the first periods of the Upper Paleolithic, corresponding to the first stages of the expansion of Homo sapiens out of Africa.[4] They then migrated to Europe and created the first European culture of modern humans, the Aurignacian.[5]
The Proto-Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian stages are dated between about 43,000 and 37,000 years ago. The Aurignacian proper lasted from about 37,000 to 33,000 years ago. A Late Aurignacian phase transitional with the Gravettian dates to about 33,000 to 26,000 years ago.[6][5]
The type site is the Cave of Aurignac, Haute-Garonne, south-west France. The main preceding period is the Mousterian of the Neanderthals.
One of the oldest examples of figurative art, the Venus of Hohle Fels, comes from the Aurignacian or Proto-Gravettian and is dated to between 40,000 and 35,000 years ago (though now earlier figurative art may be known, see Lubang Jeriji Saléh). It was discovered in September 2008 in a cave at Schelklingen in Baden-Württemberg in western Germany. The German Lion-man figure is given a similar date range.
A "Levantine Aurignacian" culture is known from the Levant, with a type of blade technology very similar to the European Aurignacian, following chronologically the Emiran and Early Ahmarian in the same area of the Near East, and also closely related to them.[7] The Levantine Aurignacian may have preceded European Aurignacian, but there is a possibility that the Levantine Aurignacian was rather the result of reverse influence from the European Aurignacian: this remains unsettled.[8]
^Milisauskas, Sarunas (2012-12-06). European Prehistory: A Survey. Springer. ISBN 9781461507512.
^Shea, John J. (2013-02-28). Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Near East: A Guide. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139619387.
^H. Martin (1906). "Industrie Moustérienne perfectionnée. Station de La Quina (Charente)". Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique de France (in French). 3 (6): 233–239. doi:10.3406/bspf.1906.7784. JSTOR 27906750.(subscription required)
^Klein, Richard G. (2009). The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins. University of Chicago Press. p. 610. ISBN 9780226027524.
^ abWood, Bernard, ed. (2011). "Aurignacian". Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Human Evolution. John Wiley. ISBN 9781444342475.
^Hoffecker, JF (September 2009). "Out of Africa: modern human origins special feature: the spread of modern humans in Europe". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 106 (38): 16040–5. Bibcode:2009PNAS..10616040H. doi:10.1073/pnas.0903446106. PMC 2752585. PMID 19571003..
Jacobi, R.M.; Higham, T.F.G.; Haesaerts, P.; Jadin, I.; Basell, L.S. (2010). "Radiocarbon chronology for the Early Gravettian of northern Europe: new AMS determinations for Maisières-Canal, Belgium". Antiquity. 84 (323): 26–40. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00099749. S2CID 163089681.
^Shea, John J. (2013). Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Near East: A Guide. Cambridge University Press. pp. 150–155. ISBN 9781107006980.
^Williams, John K. (2006). "The Levantine Aurignacian: a closer look" (PDF). Lisbon: Instituto Português de Arqueologia (Trabalhos de Arqueologia Bar-Yosef O, Zilhão J, Editors. Towards a Definition of the Aurignacian. 45): 317–352.
The Aurignacian (/ɔːrɪɡˈneɪʃən/) is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with Early European modern humans (EEMH) lasting from...
The Levantine Aurignacian (35,000-29,000 BP, calibrated, 32,000-26,000 BP, non-calibrated) is an Upper Paleolithic culture of the Near-Eastern Levant...
followed by the Aurignacian. The origins of this culture can be located in Eastern Europe, in what is now Bulgaria (proto-Aurignacian) and Hungary (first...
(BP) and thought to be related to Levantine Emiran and younger European Aurignacian cultures. The word "Ahmarian" was adopted from the archaeological site...
archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic that succeeded the Aurignacian circa 33,000 years BP. It is archaeologically the last European culture...
sculptor. The earliest undisputed examples of sculpture belong to the Aurignacian culture, which was located in Europe and southwest Asia and active at...
and later the Levantine Aurignacian culture (formerly called Antelian), still of Levalloise tradition but with some Aurignacian influences. According to...
relates the European Châtelperronian. But the Aurignacian complex (Protoaurignacian and Early Aurignacian) with its famous Cave art seems to correspond...
dated to between 42,000 and 40,000 years ago, belonging to the early Aurignacian, at the very beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, which is associated...
as early as c. 300,000–200,000 BP. The main following period is the Aurignacian (c. 43,000–28,000 BP) of Homo sapiens. The culture was named after the...
Bibcode:2017QuInt.433...45M. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.10.002. Typical Aurignacian items were found in Cantabria (Morín, El Pendo, El Castillo), the Basque...
Germany, the artifacts are authentic products of the Aurignacian archaeological culture. The Aurignacian flutes were created between 43,000 and 35,000 years...
Paleolithic Levantine Aurignacian (formerly called Antelian) period throughout the Levant. By the end of the Levantine Aurignacian, gradual changes took...
differ greatly from the Aurignacian artifacts. The Kebaran is preceded by the final phase of the Upper Paleolithic Levantine Aurignacian (also known as the...
and some of these were similar to the distinctive nosed profile of the Aurignacian burins. Baradost is one of the mountains in the Zagros Mountains in Iraq...
were produced in small quantities much earlier by Neanderthals. The Aurignacian culture seems to have been the first to rely largely on blades. The use...
February 2015. Conard, Nicholas (2009). "A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany". Nature. 459 (7244): 248–252...
oldest depiction of a human being (Venus of Hohle Fels), beginning of the Aurignacian. Löwenmensch figure created in Hohlenstein-Stadel, one of the earliest...
ago, in the form of notched bones found in the context of the European Aurignacian to Gravettian and in Africa's Late Stone Age. The so-called Wolf bone...
M.; Hedges, R.E.M. (2011). "Franchthi Cave revisited: the age of the Aurignacian in south-eastern Europe". Antiquity Magazine: 1133. Eugene N. Borza (1992)...
– 11.5 ka ago). The first phase of Aurignacian or Mode 4, sometimes called archaic Aurignacian or proto-Aurignacian, is contemporary with late Châtelperronian...
from the population represented by Goyet Q116-1, associated with the Aurignacian culture of about 35,000 BP, from the Goyet Caves in modern Belgium. The...
evidence of three prehistoric hominid cultures: Mousterian, Uluzzian and Aurignacian. Additionally, the cave has some of the oldest cave art that has been...
sub-categories. The oldest undisputed figurative art appears with the Aurignacian, about 40,000 years ago, which is associated with the earliest presence...
at Mount Dajt comprise bone and stone tools similar to those of the Aurignacian culture. The Neolithic era in Albania began around 7000 BCE and is evidenced...
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