Social Landscapes of the Late Palaeolithic: Marking Meaning in the Magdalenian

Abstract

Landscape archaeologies that pay attention to cultural importance of place have become increasingly common in recent years in many parts of the world. However, these approaches have largely failed to make inroads into Pleistocene European hunter–gatherer archaeology. This is partly due to a focus on economics, survival, and neo-liberal assumptions of ‘efficiency’ in early modern human behaviour. With evidence of lithic use drawn from cave sites, survey, and open-air excavation, I argue that Upper Paleolithic hunter–gatherers left clues to the importance of certain places in the landscape. Lithic tools in particular have been undervalued for their symbolic meaning, which goes well beyond style and ethnicity models. Raw material has been seen as evidence of mobility and trade, but possible cultural motives behind material choices have been downplayed or ignored.

Homes for Hunters? Exploring the Concept of Home at Hunter-Gatherer Sites in Upper Paleolithic Europe and Epipaleolithic Southwest Asia

“…In fact, so many locations attested multiple visits and revisits over the millennia that we have referred to them as persistent places or "places of many generations" (Conkey, Dietrich, and Lacombe 2003). The site of Peyre Blanque thus can be situated in a wider landscape of human presence than had it been discovered without the context of this landscape archaeology survey project (Sterling 2014). As we propose below, there may well be evidence for linkages across the landscape between Peyre Blanque and the cave art site of Marsoulas some 12 km to the west.…”

On Rehumanizing Pleistocene People of the Western Hemisphere

“…Similarly, archaeologists working with materially limited records in Paleolithic Eurasia have pushed the humanizing envelope in ways that could clearly inspire PaleoIndigenous archaeology. Archaeologists including Meg Conkey (e.g., Maher and Conkey 2019), Clive Gamble (e.g., 2004), and Colin Renfrew (e.g., 2009) have long led the way in this regard, and others (e.g., Sterling 2014; Stiner 2017) have followed suit. In the titles of just the five aforecited works, for example, the words “home,” “social,” “spiritual,” “meaning,” and “love” appear, signaling those researchers' intentions to delve well beyond the techno-environmental lives of Paleolithic Europeans in directions I would love to see peopling scholarship go.…”

The end of the Ice Age in southern Europe: Iberian images in the Palaeolithic to Post-Palaeolithic transition

“…This is especially true of the depopulation hypothesis in southern Europe, regarding the precise areas where climate first improved and created optimal conditions for the expansion of easily-hunted woodland species and plants, which provided more food options (Fernandez López de Pablo et al 2019). The population at outdoor sites (Araújo 2003;Fernández López de Pablo et al 2011;Angevin 2012;Schwendler 2012;Dumarçay & Caron 2010;Peeters & Momber 2014;Canals et al 2014;Naudinot et al 2014;Sterling 2015;Vialou 2015;Jones 2016;Bergadà et al 2018), as well as the number of graphic representations with territorial impact (Bahn 1982;Conkey 1990;Mangado et al 2010;Gárate Maidagán et al 2015;Ruiz-Redondo 2016;Fuentes 2017;Man-Estier & Paillet 2019;Fuentes et al 2019), increased during the Magdalenian. Funerary sequences that, at some sites, reach the 8 th millennium BP should also be considered in this context (Gibaja et al 2012(Gibaja et al , 2015Fernández López de Pablo et al 2013;Grünberg 2016;Peyroteo 2016;Bicho et al 2016;Orschiedt 2018;Bueno Ramírez et al 2018;Domingo et al 2018;Sparacello et al 2018;Zagorska et al 2018).…”