Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents Summary for Volumes 1, 2 and 3
- Contents
- Volume 1 Maps
- Volume 2 Maps
- Volume 3 Maps
- About the Contributors
- Volume 1
- Volume 2
- Volume 3
- VII. Western and Central Asia
- VIII. Europe and the Mediterranean
- 3.17 Early Palaeolithic Europe
- 3.18 Europe and the Mediterranean: DNA
- 3.19 The Upper Palaeolithic of Europe
- 3.20 Upper Palaeolithic Imagery
- 3.21 Early Food Production in Southeastern Europe
- 3.22 Early Food Production in Southwestern Europe
- 3.23 Hunters, Fishers and Farmers of Northern Europe, 9000–3000 bce
- 3.24 The Aegean
- 3.25 Post-Neolithic Western Europe
- 3.26 The Later Prehistory of Central and Northern Europe
- 3.27 The Post-Neolithic of Eastern Europe
- 3.28 The Classical World
- 3.29 Europe and the Mediterranean: Languages
- Index
- References
3.17 - Early Palaeolithic Europe
from VIII. - Europe and the Mediterranean
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents Summary for Volumes 1, 2 and 3
- Contents
- Volume 1 Maps
- Volume 2 Maps
- Volume 3 Maps
- About the Contributors
- Volume 1
- Volume 2
- Volume 3
- VII. Western and Central Asia
- VIII. Europe and the Mediterranean
- 3.17 Early Palaeolithic Europe
- 3.18 Europe and the Mediterranean: DNA
- 3.19 The Upper Palaeolithic of Europe
- 3.20 Upper Palaeolithic Imagery
- 3.21 Early Food Production in Southeastern Europe
- 3.22 Early Food Production in Southwestern Europe
- 3.23 Hunters, Fishers and Farmers of Northern Europe, 9000–3000 bce
- 3.24 The Aegean
- 3.25 Post-Neolithic Western Europe
- 3.26 The Later Prehistory of Central and Northern Europe
- 3.27 The Post-Neolithic of Eastern Europe
- 3.28 The Classical World
- 3.29 Europe and the Mediterranean: Languages
- Index
- References
Summary
Life in Early Palaeolithic Europe was significantly different from that in the Upper Palaeolithic after the first Anatomically Modern Humans had entered the continent. For almost two million years the continent had been occupied by hominins different from us. These ancestral populations adapted to, and learned to cope with, entirely different climatic and environmental conditions within Europe’s constantly changing geography. The hominins established culture and a way of life, both of which changed through time, increasing their own influence on the environment. They were highly knowledgeable and became skilled and experienced hunters, well equipped for life in Ice Age Europe (Fig. 3.17.1). However, they also remained entirely different from Modern Humans.
Initial African Exodus
Early hominin presence in Europe can be traced back for almost 2 million years, with the Dmanisi hominin fossils found in the Georgian Transcaucasus, well dated to c. 1.77 million years, at the base of an archaic Eurasian branch. Although the four hominin skulls and the four mandibles found at the site in close association with simple Oldowan (“mode 1”) lithic artifacts display great morphological heterogeneity (Rightmire et al. 2006; Lordkipanidze et al. 2007), the entire fossil assemblage may belong to a single, highly sexually dimorphic species that “preserves several affinities with Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis”, known from African sites in the interval >2.0–1.6 million years, “foretelling the emergence of Homo ergaster” (Tattersall 2007: 1648; cf. Gabounia et al. 2002: 245; Fig. 3.17.1) as well as that of Homo erectus in Eastern Asia (Vekua et al. 2002).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World Prehistory , pp. 1703 - 1746Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014
References
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