Appearance, expansion and dilution of the Magdalenian civilization

Abstract

The Magdalenian constitutes a civilization in the full meaning of the term, with its unique metaphysics, social rules, exchanges codified with nature via its art and weaponry. Such coherence and strengths led to its demographic and territorial expansion into regions formerly considered “uninhabitable”. In these new, immense and constraining geographic zones, the Magdalenian culture became thin, less substantial, and other civilizations emerged from it (Creswellian, Hamburgian, Ahrensburgian, Tjongerian, Azilian). All foreshadow the end of the balanced relationship between humanity and nature, the domination of one over the other, and thus the end of the European Paleolithic.