Download Europe: Beginning to 8000 BC

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Europe: Beginning to 8000 B.C.
∗
Jack E. Maxeld
This work is produced by OpenStax-CNX and licensed under the
†
Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0
1 EUROPE
We have mentioned earlier that one of the oldest skeletons of homo erectus is one from Swanscombe, England,
found with simple tools made of int pebbles and associated with elephants' vertebrae. Continental examples
of a somewhat similar man have been found at Heidelberg and recently not far from Budapest. At the early
state of the nal glaciation (Wurm glacier), perhaps 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, there were wedge-shaped
stones, axes and spears made in central Europe. This was the time of Neanderthal man, who apparently
has no direct descendants today and who represented an evolutionary development of primitive man which
for some unknown reason came to a dead end and disappeared. He used pointed scrapers, triangular knife
blades, ceremonial burials and heated shelters as well as bone needles. Europe seemed to be the home
of these men, although some have been identied in other areas. The archaeologists call their culture the
"Mousterian" after Mousteir, France, the location of the original nds. Theirs was a reindeer-dependent
culture, in which men used "kits" of some sixty-three dierent tools. They were basically cave dwellers,
particularly in Spain and France. At this time there was a land bridge from England to France and the
glacier covered the northern half of the British Isles and all Scandinavia, northern continental Europe and
parts of Russia. The Black Sea, as mentioned earlier, was small and a fresh water lake that at some time
was connected to the great sea extending through the Caspian to the Aral. H.G. Wells (Ref. 2291 ) thought
that this great sea might have been connected to the Arctic, but modern thought makes it a northern arm
of Tethys. (Ref. 2292 , 1003 )
In the Lower Paleolithic Age back as far as 100,000 years ago there were ake tools of the Clactonian
Culture and later the Acheulian Culture in Britain. There was some occupation in the Upper Paleolithic
in perhaps about 12,000 B.C. and this homo sapiens culture which followed the Neanderthal Mousterian,
showed an increased tool "kit" with ninety-three types of chipped stone tools, besides a large group of bone
tools. Between 30,000 and 10,000 B.C. most of central and western Europe was probably uninhabitable
because of cold and ice, except in the summer, but the waters of the Atlantic and its more southern latitude
gave southwestern France respite from the cold and thus was a favorite place for the Paleolithic hunter. Early
man here was a killer of game and part-time cannibal. In the "sh gorge" of the Dordogne region of France
there appeared, about 25,000 B.C., short, baited toggles with tines attached,- the rst sh hooks.
About 15,000 years ago huge herds of ruminant animals roamed the plains of central and Western Europe
and they were most useful to early man as sources of meat, clothes, tent fabrics and frames and even as fuel
∗ Version
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† http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
1 "A Comprehensive Outline of World History: Bibliography", reference [229]
<http://cnx.org/content/m17805/latest/#twotwonine>
2 "A Comprehensive Outline of World History: Bibliography", reference [229]
<http://cnx.org/content/m17805/latest/#twotwonine>
3 "A Comprehensive Outline of World History: Bibliography", reference [100]
<http://cnx.org/content/m17805/latest/#onezerozero>
http://cnx.org/content/m17845/1.2/
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(animal fat). The mammoth was hunted particularly in southern Russia and Czechoslovakia. Early man was
already divided into subcultures in the Upper Paleolithic level with a Perigordian (Chatelperronian) level
appearing as the earliest in western Europe about 35,000 B.C.; a Gravettian in Czechoslovakia about 27,000
B.C. (extending into southern Russia); and the Aurignacian culture of the Cro-Magnon man at 32,000 B.C.
in Europe proper. The latter may, however, have originated in the Near East. Strangely marked bones
and stones found all over in these periods and extending up to the Mesolithic period of the post-ice age
have recently been interpreted as notational, probably related to tabulation of the lunar periodicity, and
indicating skill and intelligence and sophistication, as we have previously mentioned.
It was after Neanderthal man, which is after 35,000 years ago, that clothing and ornamentation can be
identied. The best example of the use of beads sewn on clothing comes from Russia, where a skeleton was
accompanied by shells about the head, chest and on the legs, suggesting trousers. On the steppes, where
wood was in short supply, many huts were made from the tusks and bones of mammoth, which also formed
the major meat supply in Eastern Europe 25,000 years ago.
Two categories of European art are recognized, a mobile or home art (decorated tools, small carvings,
etc.) and then the xed works of caves and rock paintings, engravings and sculptures. The earliest art
dates to the upper Paleolithic, between ten and thirty thousand years ago. The most developed art was in
the so-called Magdalenian era, with the famous cave paintings of Spain and France, of which more than a
hundred have been found, perhaps representing a period of over 20,000 years. The pigments used appear to
be red and yellow ochre, manganese or carbon for black and china clay for white. Some of the color may
have been mixed with fat and the paint was applied by nger, chewed sticks or fur for brushes. The high
quality of this art, of essentially the same degree of excellence as that of today 4 is further evidence that
man of that day had the same brain and intellectual potential as today.
A short glacial period between 9,000 and 8,000 B.C. reached its peak in less than a century and disappeared rapidly, but for several hundred years the forests of England, West Germany and the Low Countries
had a climate with tundras, howling winds and drifting snow. By about 8,000 B.C. shing nets from twisted
bers or thongs had been invented. Turnips, onions and large radishes date back to prehistoric times. Ireland
was probably uninhabited until about 8,000 B.C. The earliest inhabitants of southern Scandinavia entered
between 12,000 and 8,000 B.C. following after the retreating ice, and forming primitive hunting communities.
(Ref. 85 , 2266 , 2117 , 458 , 1309 , 13610 , 8811 )
Forward to Europe: 8000 to 5000 B.C.12
Choose Dierent Region
1. Intro to Era13
2. Africa14
3. America15
4 This is Arnold Toynbee's opinion. (Ref. 220 (<http://cnx.org/content/m17805/latest/#twotwozero>))
5 "A Comprehensive Outline of World History: Bibliography", reference [8]
<http://cnx.org/content/m17805/latest/#eight>
6 "A Comprehensive Outline of World History: Bibliography", reference [226]
<http://cnx.org/content/m17805/latest/#twotwosix>
7 "A Comprehensive Outline of World History: Bibliography", reference [211]
<http://cnx.org/content/m17805/latest/#twooneone>
8 "A Comprehensive Outline of World History: Bibliography", reference [45]
<http://cnx.org/content/m17805/latest/#fourve>
9 "A Comprehensive Outline of World History: Bibliography", reference [130]
<http://cnx.org/content/m17805/latest/#onethreezero>
10 "A Comprehensive Outline of World History: Bibliography", reference [136]
<http://cnx.org/content/m17805/latest/#onethreesix>
11 "A Comprehensive Outline of World History: Bibliography", reference [88]
<http://cnx.org/content/m17805/latest/#eighteight>
12 "Europe: 8000 to 5000 B.C." <http://cnx.org/content/m17860/latest/>
13 "Beginning to 8000 B.C." <http://cnx.org/content/m17804/latest/>
14 "Africa: Beginning to 8000 B.C." <http://cnx.org/content/m17770/latest/>
15 "America: Beginning to 8000 B.C." <http://cnx.org/content/m17803/latest/>
http://cnx.org/content/m17845/1.2/
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5.
6.
7.
8.
Central and Northern Asia16
The Far East17
The Indian Subcontinent18
The Near East19
Pacic20
16 "Central and Northern Asia: Beginning to 8000 B.C." <http://cnx.org/content/m17843/latest/>
17 "The Far East: Beginning to 8000 B.C." <http://cnx.org/content/m17927/latest/>
18 "The Indian Subcontinent: Beginning to 8,000 B.C." <http://cnx.org/content/m17963/latest/>
19 "The Near East: Beginning to 8000 B.C." <http://cnx.org/content/m17999/latest/>
20 "The Pacic: Beginning to 8000 B.C." <http://cnx.org/content/m18031/latest/>
http://cnx.org/content/m17845/1.2/
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