Paleolithic culture behind the veil of chronology

Abstract

Though different techniques such as 14C and U/Th series disequilibrium have been used to date Paleolithic art, most of them are associated with methodological problems that are linked to causes of error that are not taken into account or are underestimated. Once these difficulties are acknowledged, the next step in an archeological investigation entails new methodological questions. How is it possible to found archeological reasoning and to build anthropological models for prehistoric societies in the absence of a precise chronometer?In this paper, I discuss how the precise situation of events in their contemporary backdrop is crucial when we intend to examine the reciprocal influences of human groups with their neighbors in the constitution of cultural networks. Difficulties are particularly acute for the Early Upper Paleolithic and the Aurignacian because our time assessment is particularly weak for this period. This results in a loose time estimation, which leads us to consider events that took place during several millennia as if they were simultaneous.The period between the arrival of Anatomically Modern Humans in Europe and the extinction of Neanderthals is particularly problematic because it is exactly during this time that representational art appeared and became a major cultural trait in Paleolithic societies until the end of the last glaciation. Examples are taken from the Swabian Jura, Eastern Europe (Kostenki, Sungir) and Southern Europe (Isturitz, Chauvet) to illustrate the dangers of premature interpretations behind the veil of a loose chronology.