9 Th e Global Expansion of Homo sapiens and Th eir Technology
The remains of ancient people who looked more like
contemporary Europeans than Neandertals were first
discovered in 1868 at Les Eyzies in France, in a rock
shelter together with tools of the Upper (late) Paleo-
lithic. Consisting of eight skeletons, they are commonly
referred to as Cro-Magnons, after the rock shelter in
which they were found. The name was extended to thir-
teen other specimens recovered between 1872 and 1902
in the caves of southwestern France and, since then, to
other Upper Paleolithic skeletons discovered in other
parts of Europe.
Because Cro-Magnons were found with Upper Paleo-
lithic tools and seemed responsible for the production
of impressive works of art, they were seen as particularly
clever when compared with the Neandertals. The idea
that Neandertals were dimwitted comfortably supported
the prevailing stereotype of their supposedly brutish ap-
pearance. Their Mousterian tools were interpreted as
evidence of cultural inferiority. Hence, Cro-Magnons
were regarded as an anatomically modern people with
a superior culture sweeping into Europe and replacing
a primitive local population. This idea mirrored the
European conquest of other parts of the world during
the colonial expansion that was concurrent with the
discovery of these fossils.
With the invention of reliable dating techniques in
the 20th century, we now know that many Neandertal
specimens of Europe and the later Cro-Magnon speci-
mens date from different time periods. The Middle
Paleolithic Mousterian technology is associated with
earlier fossil specimens, Upper Paleolithic technology
and art with later fossil specimens. Perhaps the most
Eurocentric aspect of all is that historically this discus-
sion focused on the European fossil evidence instead of
incorporating evidence from throughout the globe. Re-
cent fossil evidence for early anatomical modernity in
Africa, evidence of regional continuity from Asia, and
associated genetic studies allow paleoanthropologists
to develop more comprehensive theories for the origins
of modern humans.Upper Paleolithic Peoples:
The First Modern Humans
What do we mean by modernity? Paleoanthropologists
look at both skull shape of and cultural practices. But still
this is a difficult designation to make. While Cro-Magnons
resemble later populations of modern Europeans—in
braincase shape, high broad forehead, narrow nasal open-
ings, and common presence of chins—their faces were
on average shorter and broader than those of modernIn the novel and movie Clan
of the Cave Bear, the ana-
tomically modern heroine is
depicted as a tall blonde
beauty while Neandertals are
depicted as dark and sloppy.
These images conform both
to the stereotypes about Ne-
andertals and aesthetic stan-
dards in the Western dominant
culture.
© Jonesfilm/Warner Bros./The Kobal CollectionUpper Paleolithic The last part (10,000 to 40,000 years ago)
of the Old Stone Age, featuring tool industries characterized by
long slim blades and an explosion of creative symbolic forms.
Cro-Magnon A European of the Upper Paleolithic after
about 36,000 years ago.