Upper Paleolithic Art 215tool kits was greater than ever before. Thus it is really im-
possible to speak of a single Upper Paleolithic culture even
in Europe, a relatively small and isolated region compared
to Asia and Africa. For foot nomads, it was a formidable
challenge to travel outside the region. Geologic features
such as mountain ranges, oceans, and glaciers isolated
groups of people from each other.
To understand the Upper Paleolithic, one must con-
sider the many different traditions that made it possible for
people to adapt ever more specifically to the various envi-
ronments in which they were living. Just how proficient
people had become at securing a livelihood is indicated
by bone yards containing thousands of animal skeletons.
At Solutré in France over a period of many years, for ex-
ample, Upper Paleolithic hunters killed 10,000 horses; at
Predmosti in the Czech Republic, they were responsible
for the deaths of 1,000 mammoths. The favored big game
of European hunters, however, was reindeer, which they
killed in even greater numbers.Upper Paleolithic Art
Although tools and weapons demonstrate the ingenuity of
Upper Paleolithic peoples, artistic expression provides the
best evidence of their creativity. Some have argued that
artistic expression was made possible by a newly evolved
biological ability to manipulate symbols and make im-
ages. However, the modern-sized brains of archaic Homo
sapiens and increasingly compelling evidence of the pres-
ence of language or behaviors involving symbolism—such
as burials—undercut this notion. Like agriculture, which
came later (see Chapter 10), the artistic explosion may
have been no more than a consequence of innovations
made by a people who had the capacity to make them for
tens of thousands of years already.
In fact, just as many of the distinctive tools that were
commonly used in Upper Paleolithic times first appear in
the Middle Paleolithic, so too do objects of art. In South-
west Asia, a crude figurine of volcanic tuff is some 250,000
years old.^31 While some scholars contest whether this was
carved, those who believe it is state that it indicates that
people had the ability to carve all sorts of things from
wood, a substance easier to fashion than volcanic tuff but
rarely preserved for long periods of time. Furthermore,
ochre “crayons” from Middle Paleolithic contexts in vari-
ous parts of the world must have been used to decorate
or mark. In southern Africa, for example, regular use of
yellow and red ochre goes back 130,000 years, with somethat the effective killing distance of a spear when used
with a spear-thrower is between 18 and 27 meters as op-
posed to significantly less without.^29
Killing distance can be safely shortened when the kill
is assured. The use of poison on spear tips, as employed by
contemporary hunters such as the Hadza of Tanzania, will
decrease the risk to a hunter at shorter range. It is not clear
from the archaeological record when this innovation be-
gan, although the invention of tiny sharp stone blades for
dart tips to provide a vehicle for poison delivery is clear.
The earliest examples of these “microliths” began during
the Upper Paleolithic in Africa, but did not become wide-
spread until the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age, as will be
described in detail in Chapter 10.
Another important innovation, net hunting, appeared
some time between 22,000 and 29,000 years ago.^30 Knot-
ted nets, made from the fibers of wild plants such as hemp
or nettle, left their impression on the clay floors of huts
when people walked on them. When the huts later burned,
these impressions, baked into the earth, provide evidence
that nets existed. Their use accounts for the high number
of hare, fox, and other small mammal and bird bones at
archaeological sites. Like historically known and con-
temporary net hunters, such as the Mbuti of the Congo,
everyone—men, women, and children—probably partici-
pated, frightening animals with loud noises to drive them
to where hunters were stationed with their nets. In this way,
large amounts of meat could be amassed without requiring
great speed or strength on the part of the hunters.
A further improvement of hunting techniques came
with the invention of the bow and arrow, which appeared
first in Africa, but not until the end of the Upper Paleo-
lithic in Europe. The greatest advantage of the bow is
that it increases the distance between hunter and prey.
Beyond 24 meters (79 feet), the accuracy and penetration
of a spear thrown with a spear-thrower are not very good,
whereas even a poor bow will shoot an arrow further, with
greater accuracy and penetrating power. A good bow is ef-
fective even at nearly 91 meters (300 feet). Thus hunters
were able to maintain more distance between themselves
and dangerous prey, dramatically decreasing the risk to
the hunter of being seriously injured by an animal fighting
for survival as well as reducing the chance of startling an
animal and triggering its flight.
Upper Paleolithic peoples not only had better tools but
also a greater diversity of tool types than earlier peoples.
The highly developed Upper Paleolithic kit included tools
for use during different seasons, and regional variation in
(^29) Frayer, D. W. (1981). Body size, weapon use, and natural selection in the
European Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic. American Anthropologist 83, 58.
(^30) Pringle, H. (1997). Ice Age communities may be earliest known net hunt-
ers. Science 277, 1203.^31 Appenzeller, T. (1998). Art: Evolution or revolution? Science 282, 1452.