Magdalenian

The Magdalenian (also Madelenian; French: Magdalénien) cultures are later

Magdalenian
cultures of the Upper Paleolithic in western Europe, dating from around 17,000 to
12,000 years ago.[1] It is named after the type site of La Madeleine, a rock shelter
located in the Vézère valley, commune of Tursac, in the Dordogne department of
France.

Originally termed L'âge du renne (the Age of the Reindeer) by Édouard Lartet and
Henry Christy, the first systematic excavators of the type site, in their publication of
1875, the Magdalenian is synonymous in many people's minds with reindeer
Geographical Western Europe
hunters, although Magdalenian sites also contain extensive evidence for the hunting
range
of red deer, horses, and other large mammals present in Europe toward the end of the
last ice age. The culture was geographically widespread, and later Magdalenian sites Period Upper Paleolithic
have been found from Portugal in the west to Poland in the east. It is the third epoch Dates c. 17,000 – c.
of Gabriel de Mortillet's cave chronology system, corresponding roughly to the Late 12,000 BP[1]
Pleistocene. Type site Abri de la Madeleine
Major sites Cave of Altamira,
Kents Cavern,
Contents Lascaux

Period biology Preceded by Solutrean

Duration Followed by Azilian, Ahrensburg

See also culture
References
External links

Period biology
The Magdalenian epoch was a long one, represented by numerous stations, whose contents show progress in the arts and general
culture. It was characterized by a cold and dry climate, the existence of humans in association with the reindeer, and the extinction of
the mammoth. The use of bone and ivory for various implements, already begun in the preceding Solutrian epoch, was much
increased, and the period is essentially a bone period. The bone instruments are quite varied: spear-points, harpoon-heads, borers,
hooks, and needles.

Most remarkable is the evidence La Madeleine affords of prehistoric art. Numbers of bones, reindeer antlers, and animal teeth were
found, with crude pictures carved or etched on them of seals, fishes, reindeer, mammoths, and other creatures. The best of these are a
mammoth engraved on a fragment of its own ivory; a dagger of reindeer antler, with a handle in form of a reindeer; a cave-bear cut
on a flat piece of schist; a seal on a bear's tooth; a fish drawn on a reindeer antler; and a complete picture, also on reindeer antler,
showing horses, an aurochs, trees, and a snake biting a man's leg. The man is naked, which, together with the snake, suggests a warm
climate in spite of the presence of the reindeer
.

The fauna of the Magdelenian epoch seems, indeed, to have included tigers and other tropical species side by side with reindeer, blue
foxes, Arctic hares, and other polar creatures. Magdelenian humans appear to have been of low stature, dolichocephalic, with a low
retreating forehead and prominentbrow ridges.

Duration
The culture spans from approximately 17,000 to 12,000 BP, toward the end of the
last ice age. The Magdalenian tool culture is characterised by regular blade
industries struck from carinated cores. Typologically, the Magdalenian is divided
into six phases which are generally agreed to have chronological significance. 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 (phase5) and biserial 'harpoons' (phase6) made of bone,
antler, and ivory.[2]

There is extensive debate about the precise nature of the earliest Magdalenian
assemblages, and it remains questionable whether the Badegoulian culture is, in fact,
the earliest phase of the Magdalenian. Similarly, finds from the forest of Beauregard
near Paris often have been suggested as belonging to the earliest Magdalenian.[3]
The earliest Magdalenian sites are all found in France. The Epigravettian is a similar
Magdalenian tools and weapons,
culture appearing at the same time. Its known range extends from southeast France
17,000–9,000 BCE, Abri de la
to the western shores of the Volga River, Russia, with a large number of sites in Madeleine, Tursac, Dordogne,
Italy. France

The later phases of the Magdalenian are also synonymous with the human re-
settlement of north-western Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum during the Late
Glacial Maximum. Research in Switzerland, southern Germany,[4] and Belgium [5] has
provided AMS radiocarbon dating to support this. Being hunter gatherers, Magdalenians
did not simply re-settle permanently in north-west Europe, however, as they often
followed herds and moved depending on seasons.

By the end of the Magdalenian, the lithic technology shows a pronounced trend toward
increased microlithisation. The bone harpoons and points have the most distinctive Magdalenian people dwelt not
chronological markers within the typological sequence. As well as flint tools, the just in caves, but also in tents
Magdalenians are best known for their elaborate worked bone, antler, and ivory that such as this one of Pincevent
(France) that dates to 12,000
served both functional and aesthetic purposes, including perforated batons. Examples of
years ago.
Magdalenian portable art include batons, figurines, and intricately engraved projectile
points, as well as items of personal adornment including sea shells, perforated carnivore
teeth (presumably necklaces), and fossils.

The sea shells and fossils found in Magdalenian sites may be sourced to relatively precise areas of origin, and so have been used to
support hypothesis of Magdalenian hunter-gatherer seasonal ranges, and perhaps trade routes. Cave sites such as the world-famous
Lascaux contain the best known examples of Magdaleniancave art. The site of Altamira in Spain, with its extensive and varied forms
of Magdalenian mobiliary art has been suggested to be an agglomeration site where many small groups of Magdalenian hunter-
gatherers congregated.[6]

In northern Spain and south-west France this tool culture was superseded by the Azilian culture. In northern Europe it was followed
by different variants of the Tjongerian techno-complex. It has been suggested that key Late-glacial sites in south-western Britain also
may be attributed to the Magdalenian, including the famous site ofKent's Cavern, although this remains open to debate.

Besides 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.

See also
Magdalenian Girl
 Swimming Reindeer
Art of the Upper Paleolithic
List of Stone Age art
Haplogroup I (Y-DNA)
Pre-Celtic

Preceded by Magdalenian Succeeded by

Solutrean 17,000–9,000 BP Azilian

References
Notes

1. Dates given vary somewhat:[1] (http://leseyzies-tourist.info/the-magdalenian)

, [2] (https://docs.google.com/viewer?a
=v&q=cache:p2Ij44q2MdAJ:www.uiowa.edu/~zooarch/HRAF%2520Magdalenian%2520171-190.pdf+&hl=en&gl=uk&
pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh9FW3bojwdYcn6x26IavNFZ6DMjiz_EXL1X4dCE3uhrrO6V -T6ogxHC6vMYvDMskzb9dBWJ
YYxK8oZCz6ACo174HLlQOhN0iXK_bA8hMRNoaRkDD5FFUk_fPOqa0t0nfNPjcQk&sig=AHIEtbQ2jEaiatrrKi4W2tR
d-R50o8Wupw), Britannica.
2. (Sonneville-Bordes & Perrot, 1954–56)
3. (Hemmingway 1980)
4. (Housley et al. 1997)
5. (Charles 1996)
6. (Conkey 1980)

Bibliography

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911).
"Madelenian" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 283–284.
Charles, R. (1996): Back into the North: the Radiocarbon evidence for the Human Recolonisation of the North
Western Ardennes after the Last Glacial Maximum. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 62: 1-17.
Conkey, M.J. (1980): The identification of prehistoric hunter-gatherer aggregation sites: the case of Altimira. Current
Anthropology 21: 609-630.
Hemingway, M.F. (1980): The Initial Magdalenian in France. British Archaeological Report s International Series 90. 2
Vols.
Housley, R.A, Gamble, C.S., Street, M. & Pettit, P. (1997): Radiocarbon Evidence for the Lateglacial Human
Recolonisation of Northern Europe. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 63.
Lartet, E & Christy, H. (1875): Reliquae Aquitanicae: being contributions to the archaeology of Périgord and adjoining
provinces of Southern France. Williams & Norgate. London.
Sonneville-Bordes, D. de & Perrot J. (1954–1956): Lexique typologique du Paléolithique supérieur . Bulletin de la
Société Préhistorique Française 51: 327-335, 52: 76-79, 53: 408-412, 53: 547-549.
Straus, Lawrence Guy (1992) : Iberia Before the Iberians. University of New Mexico Press.

External links
Encyclopedia of Prehistory article as PDF
pictures and description of the La Madeleine site[3]
Picture Gallery of the Paleolithic (reconstructional palaeoethnology)
, Libor Balák at the Czech Academy of Sciences,
the Institute of Archaeology in Brno, The Center for Paleolithic and Paleoethnological Research

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Magdalenian&oldid=873642100

"

This page was last edited on 14 December 2018, at 05:23(UTC).

Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of theWikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.