![]() In northern Europe it was followed by variants of the Tjongerian techno-complex. In northern Spain and south-west France this tool culture was superseded by the Azilian culture. The sea shells and fossils found in Magdalenian sites may be sourced to relatively precise areas and have been used to support hypotheses of Magdalenian hunter-gatherer seasonal ranges, and perhaps trade routes. As well as flint tools, Magdalenians are known for their elaborate worked bone, antler and ivory that served both functional and aesthetic purposes, including perforated batons. The bone harpoons and points have the most distinctive chronological markers within the typological sequence. As hunter gatherers, Magdalenians did not re-settle permanently in northwest Europe, instead following herds and seasons.īy the end of the Magdalenian epoch, lithic technology shows a pronounced trend toward increased microlithisation. The later phases of Magdalenian culture are contemporaneous with the human re-settlement of north-western Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum during the Late Glacial Maximum. ![]() Its known range extends from southeast France to the western shores of the Volga River, Russia, with many sites in Italy. The Epigravettian is a similar culture appearing at the same time. The earliest Magdalenian sites are in France. Similarly, finds from the forest of Beauregard near Paris have been suggested as belonging to the earliest Magdalenian. ![]() ĭebate continues about the nature of the earliest Magdalenian assemblages, and it remains questionable whether the Badegoulian culture is the earliest phase of Magdalenian culture. Magdalenian people dwelt in tents such as this one of Pincevent (France) that dates to 12,000 years ago. The earliest phases are recognised by the varying proportion of blades and specific varieties of scrapers, the middle phases marked by the emergence of a microlithic component (particularly the distinctive denticulated microliths), and the later phases by the presence of uniserial (phase 5) and biserial 'harpoons' (phase 6) made of bone, antler and ivory. The Magdalenian epoch is divided into six phases generally agreed to have chronological significance (Magdalenian I through VI, I being the earliest and VI being the latest). Magdalenian tool culture is characterised by regular blade industries struck from carinated cores. The culture spans from approximately 17,000 to 12,000 BP, toward the end of the most recent ice age. Magdalenian humans appear to have been of short stature, dolichocephalic, with a low retreating forehead and prominent brow ridges. The fauna of the Magdalenian epoch seems to have included tigers and other tropical species along with reindeer, arctic foxes, arctic hares, and other polar creatures. Bone instruments are quite varied: spear-points, harpoon-heads, borers, hooks and needles. The use of bone and ivory as implements, begun in the preceding Solutrean epoch, increased, making the period essentially a bone period. It was characterized by a cold and dry climate, humans in association with the reindeer, and the extinction of the mammoth. The Magdalenian epoch is represented by numerous sites, whose contents show progress in arts and culture. It is the third epoch of Gabriel de Mortillet's cave chronology system, corresponding roughly to the Late Pleistocene.īesides La Madeleine, the chief stations of the epoch are Les Eyzies, Laugerie-Basse, and Gorges d'Enfer in the Dordogne Grotte du Placard in Charente and others in south-west France. ![]() The culture was geographically widespread, and later Magdalenian sites stretched from Portugal in the west to Poland in the east, and as far north as France, the Channel Islands, England, and Wales. The Magdalenian epoch is associated with reindeer hunters, although Magdalenian sites contain extensive evidence for the hunting of red deer, horses, and other large mammals present in Europe toward the end of the last glacial period. They conducted the first systematic excavations of the type site, publishing in 1875. Édouard Lartet and Henry Christy originally termed the period L'âge du renne (the Age of the Reindeer). It is named after the type site of La Madeleine, a rock shelter located in the Vézère valley, commune of Tursac, in France's Dordogne department. They date from around 17,000 to 12,000 years ago. The Magdalenian cultures (also Madelenian French: Magdalénien) are later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in western Europe. ![]()
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