Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-hgkh8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T10:07:23.131Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Populations headed south? The Gravettian from a palaeodemographic point of view

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2017

Andreas Maier*
Affiliation:
Institute of Prehistory, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Kochstrasse 4/18, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
Andreas Zimmermann
Affiliation:
Institute of Prehistory, University of Cologne, Weyertal 125, 50923 Cologne, Germany
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: and.maier@fau.de)

Abstract

The Gravettian is known for its technological innovations and artisanal craftwork. At the same time, continued climatic deterioration led to the coldest and driest conditions since the arrival of Homo sapiens sapiens in Europe. This article examines the palaeodemographic development and provides regionally differentiated estimates for both the densities and the absolute numbers of people. A dramatic population decline characterises the later part of the Gravettian, while the following Last Glacial Maximum experienced consolidation and renewed growth. The results suggest that the abandonment of the northern areas was not a result of migration processes, but of local population extinctions, coinciding with a loss of typological and technological complexity. Extensive networks probably assured the maintenance of a viable population.

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

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

Bicho, N., Marreiros, J., Cascalheira, J., Pereira, T. & Haws, J.. 2015. Bayesian modeling and the chronology of the Portuguese Gravettian. Quaternary International 359–60: 499509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.04.040 Google Scholar
Binford, L.R. 2001. Constructing frames of reference: an analytical method for archaeological theory building using hunter-gatherer and environmental data sets. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Björck, S., Walker, M.J.C., Cwynar, L.C., Johnsen, S., Knudsen, K.-L., Lowe, J.J., Wohlfahrt, B. & INTIMATE Members. 1998. An event stratigraphy for the Last Termination in the North Atlantic region based on the Greenland ice-core record: a proposal by the INTIMATE group. Journal of Quaternary Science 13: 283–92. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1417(199807/08)13:4<283::AID-JQS386>3.0.CO;2-A Google Scholar
Bocquet-Appel, J.-P. & Demars, P.-Y.. 2000. Population kinetics in the Upper Palaeolithic in Western Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 27: 551–70. https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1999.0471 Google Scholar
Bocquet-Appel, J.-P., Demars, P.-Y., Noiret, L. & Dobrowsky, D.. 2005. Estimates of Upper Palaeolithic meta-population size in Europe from archaeological data. Journal of Archaeological Science 32: 1656–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2005.05.006 Google Scholar
Bosselin, B. & Djindjian, F.. 1994. La chronologie du Gravettien français. Préhistoire Européenne 6: 77115.Google Scholar
Clark, P.U., Dyke, A.S., Shakun, J.D., Carlson, A.E., Clark, J., Wohlfarth, B., Mitrovica, J.X., Hostetler, S.W. & McCabe, A.M.. 2009. The Last Glacial Maximum. Science 325: 710–14. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1172873 Google Scholar
Collard, M., Vaesen, K., Cosgrove, R. & Roebroeks, W.. 2016. The empirical case against the ‘demographic turn’ in Palaeolithic archaeology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 371: article no. 20150242. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0242 Google Scholar
Djindjian, F., Kozłowski, J. & Otte, M.. 1999. Le Paléolithique supérieur en Europe. Paris: Armand Colin.Google Scholar
Fagan, W.F. & Holmes, E.E.. 2006. Quantifying the extinction vortex. Ecology Letters 9: 5160.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fišáková, M.N. 2013. Seasonality of Gravettian sites in the Middle Danube Region and adjoining areas of Central Europe. Quaternary International 294: 120–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.08.017 Google Scholar
French, J.C. & Collins, C.. 2015. Upper Palaeolithic population histories of southwestern France: a comparison of the demographic signature of 14C date distributions and archaeological site counts. Journal of Archaeological Science 55: 122–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2015.01.001 Google Scholar
Gilpin, M.E. & Soulé, M.E.. 1986. Minimum viable populations: processes of extinction, in Soulé, M.E. (ed.) Conservation biology: the science of scarcity and diversity: 19–34. Sunderland: Sinauer Associates.Google Scholar
Haesaerts, P. & Teyssandier, N.. 2003. The Early Upper Palaeolithic occupations of Willendorf II (Lower Austria): a contribution to the chronostratigraphic and cultural context of the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic in Central Europe, in Zilhão, J. & d'Errico, F. (ed.) The chronology of the Aurignacian and of the transitional technocomplexes: dating, stratigraphies, cultural implications. Proceedings of Symposium 6.1 of the XIV Congress of the UISPP (University of Liège, Belgium, September 2–8, 2001) (Trabalhos de Arqueologia 33): 133–51. Lisbon: Instituto Português de Arqueologia.Google Scholar
Henrich, J. 2004. Demography and cultural evolution: why adaptive cultural processes produced maladaptive losses in Tasmania. American Antiquity 69: 197–214. https://doi.org/10.2307/4128416 Google Scholar
Hey, J. 2005. On the number of new world founders: a population genetic portrait of the peopling of the Americas. PLoS Biology 3: 965–75. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0030193 Google Scholar
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: 2640. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00099749 Google Scholar
Jaubert, J. 2008. L’«art» pariétal gravettien en France: éléments pour un bilan chronologique. Paleo 20: 439–74.Google Scholar
Jöris, O. & Weninger, B.. 2004. Coping with the cold: on the climatic context of the Moravian Mid Upper Palaeolithic, in Svoboda, J. & Sedláčková, L. (ed.) The Gravettian along the Danube (Dolní Vĕstonice Studies 11): 5770. Brno: Academy of Science of the Czech Republic.Google Scholar
Klaric, L. 2008. Anciennes et nouvelles hypothèses d'interprétation du gravettien moyen en France: la question de la place des industries à burins du Raysse au sein de la mosaïque gravettienne. Paleo 20: 2342.Google Scholar
Kozłowski, J.K. 2015. The origin of the Gravettian. Quaternary International 359–60: 318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.03.025 Google Scholar
Kretschmer, I., Maier, A. & Schmidt, I.. 2016. Probleme und mögliche Lösungen bei der Schätzung von Bevölkerungsdichten im Paläolithikum, in Kerig, T., Nowak, K. & Roth, G. (ed.) Alles was zählt . . . Festschrift für Andreas Zimmermann (Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie 285): 4758. Bonn: Habelt.Google Scholar
Maier, A. & Zimmermann, A.. 2016. CRC806-E1 Gravettian-sites database V-20160219. CRC806-database. https://doi.org/10.5880/SFB806.18 Google Scholar
Maier, A., Lehmkuhl, F., Ludwig, P., Melles, M., Schmidt, I., Shao, Y., Zeeden, Ch. & Zimmermann, A.. 2016. Demographic estimates of hunter-gatherers during the Last Glacial Maximum in Europe against the background of palaeoenvironmental data. Quaternary International 425: 4961. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.04.009 Google Scholar
Mix, A.C., Bard, E. & Schneider, R.. 2001. Environmental processes of the ice age: land, oceans, glaciers (EPILOG). Quaternary Science Reviews 20: 627–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(00)00145-1 Google Scholar
Mussi, M., Cinq-Mars, J. & Bolduc, P.. 2000. Echoes from the mammoth steppe: the case of the Balzi Rossi, in Roebroeks, W., Mussi, M., Svoboda, J. & Fennema, K. (ed.) Hunters of the golden age. The Mid Upper Palaeolithic of Eurasia 30,000–20,000 BP: 105–24. Leiden: University of Leiden.Google Scholar
Noiret, P. 2004. Le Paléolithique supérieur de la Moldavie. L'Anthropologie 108: 425–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anthro.2004.10.003 Google Scholar
Noiret, P. 2009. Le Paléolithique supérieur de Moldavie (ERAUL 121). Liège: Université de Liège.Google Scholar
Nuzhnyi, D.Y. 2009. The industrial variability of the eastern Gravettian assemblages of Ukraine. Quartär 56: 159–74.Google Scholar
Otte, M. & Noiret, P.. 2007. Le Gravettien du nord-ouest de l'Europe. Paleo 19: 243–55.Google Scholar
Pettitt, P. & White, M.. 2012. The British Palaeolithic: human societies at the edge of the Pleistocene world. London & New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Posth, C., Renaud, G., Mittnik, A., Drucker, D.G., Rougier, H., Cupillard, Ch., Valentin, F., Thevenet, C., Furtwängler, A., Wissing, Ch., Francken, M., Malina, M., Bolus, M., Lari, M., Gogli, E., Capecchi, G., Crevecoeur, I., Beauval, C., Flas, D., Germonpré, M., van der Plicht Cottiaux, J.R., Gély, B., Ronchitelle, A., Wehrberger, K., Grigorescu, D., Svoboda, J., Semal, P., Caramelli, D., Bocherens, H., Harvati, K., Conard, N., Haak, W., Powell, A. & Krause, J.. 2016. Pleistocene mitochondrial genomes suggest a single major dispersal of non-Africans and a Late Glacial population turnover in Europe. Current Biology 26: 17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.01.037 Google Scholar
Premo, L.S. & Kuhn, S.L.. 2010. Modeling effects of local extinctions on culture change and diversity in the Paleolithic. PLoS ONE 5: e15582. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015582 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rasmussen, S.O., Andersen, K.K., Svensson, A.M., Steffensen, J.P., Vinther, B.M., Clausen, H.B., Siggard-Andersen, M.-L., Johnsen, S.J., Larsen, L.B., Dahl-Jensen, D., Bigler, M., Röthlisberger, R., Fischer, H., Goto-Azuma, K., Hansson, M.E. & Ruth, U.. 2006. A new Greenland ice core chronology for the last glacial termination. Journal of Geophysical Research 111: 116. https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006079 Google Scholar
Richerson, P.J., Boyd, R. & Bettinger, R.L.. 2009. Cultural innovations and demographic change. Human Biology 81: 211–35. https://doi.org/10.3378/027.081.0306 Google Scholar
Riede, F. 2009. The loss and re-introduction of bow-and-arrow technology: a case study from the Northern European Late Paleolithic. Lithic Technology 34: 2745. https://doi.org/10.1080/01977261.2009.11721072 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rigaud, J.-P. 2008. Les industries lithiques du Gravettien du nord de l'Aquitaine dans leur cadre chronologique. Paleo 20: 149–66.Google Scholar
Roebroeks, W., Hublin, J. & McDonald, K.. 2011. Continuities and discontinuities in Neandertal presence: a closer look at northwestern Europe, in Ashton, N., Lewis, S.G. & Stringer, C. (ed.) The ancient human occupation of Britain: 113–23. Amsterdam: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-53597-9.00008-X Google Scholar
Shennan, S. 2001. Demography and cultural innovation: a model and its implications for the emergence of modern human culture. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 11: 516. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774301000014 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, C.M. 2014. Estimation of a genetically viable population for multigenerational interstellar voyaging: review and data for project Hyperion. Acta Astronautica 97: 1629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2013.12.013 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soffer, O. 2000. Gravettian technologies in social contexts, in Roebroeks, W., Mussi, M., Svoboda, J. & Fennema, K. (ed.) Hunters of the golden age: the Mid Upper Palaeolithic of Eurasia 30,000–20,000 BP: 5975. Leiden: University of Leiden.Google Scholar
Soffer, O. & Adovasio, J.M.. 2004. Textiles and Upper Paleolithic lives: a focus on the perishable and the invisible, in Svoboda, J. & Sedláčková, L. (ed.) The Gravettian along the Danube (Dolní Vĕstonice Studies 11): 270–82. Brno: Academy of Science of the Czech Republic.Google Scholar
Straus, L.G. 2000. The 1991–1993 excavations by the University of New Mexico and Liège, in Straus, L.G., Otte, M. & Haesaerts, P. (ed.) La station de l'Hermitage à Huccorgne (ERAUL 94): 6995. Liège: Université de Liège.Google Scholar
Surovell, T.A. & Brantingham, P.J.. 2007. A note on the use of temporal frequency distributions in studies of prehistoric demography. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 1868–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2007.01.003 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svoboda, J. 2007. The Gravettian on the Middle Danube. Paleo 19: 203–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Traill, L.W., Brook, B.W., Frankham, R.R. & Bradshaw, C.J.A.. 2010. Pragmatic population visibility targets in a rapidly changing world. Biologist Conservation 143: 2834. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2009.09.001 Google Scholar
Vaesen, K. 2012. Cumulative cultural evolution and demography. PLoS ONE 7: e40989. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0040989 Google Scholar
Valde-Nowak, P., Nadachowski, A. & Wolsan, M.. 1987. Upper Palaeolithic boomerang made of a mammoth tusk in south Poland. Nature 329: 436–38. https://doi.org/10.1038/329436a0 Google Scholar
Weninger, B., Jöris, O. & Danzeglocke, U.. 2012. CalPal-2007. Cologne radiocarbon calibration and palaeoclimate research package. Available at: http://www.calpal.de/ (accessed 9 November 2016).Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Maier and Zimmermann supplementary material

Maier and Zimmermann supplementary material

Download Maier and Zimmermann supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 669.7 KB