EUROPE BEFORE ROME

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EUROPE BEFORE ROME
A Site-by-Site Tour of the Stone,
Bronze, and Iron Ages

T. DOUGL A S PR ICE

1
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Price, T. Douglas (Theron Douglas)
Europe before Rome: a site-by-site tour of the stone, bronze, and iron ages / T. Douglas Price.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–991470–8
1. Antiquities, Prehistoric—Europe—Guidebooks.
2. Europe—Antiquities—Guidebooks. I. Title.
GN803.P757 2012
936 – dc23
2011044145

ISBN 978–0–19–991470–8

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
CON T EN T S

Biographical Note • ix

Preface • xi

C H APTE R ONE Frameworks for Europe’s Past

Geography and Environment • 2

Geology • 4

Past Climate • 6

Raw Materials • 7

Time and Chronology • 9

A Very Short History of European Archaeology • 11

C H APTE R TW O The First Europeans

Early Europeans • 15
Atapuerca, Spain, 1.3 Million Years Ago • 19

Boxgrove, England, 500,000 Years Ago • 25

Schöningen, Germany, 400,000 Years Ago • 28

Neanderthals • 32

Krapina, Serbia, 130,000 Years Ago • 34

Salzgitter-Lebenstedt, Germany, 55,000 Years Ago • 37

El Sidrón, Spain, 43,000 Years Ago • 40

Grotte du Renne, France, 40,000 Years Ago • 42

Vindija Cave, Croatia, 34,000 Years Ago • 45

Ancient DNA • 46

Neanderthal Diet • 47

Some Reflections • 49

C H APTE R THRE E The Creative Explosion

Origin and Spread of Modern Humans • 56

The Upper Paleolithic • 58 v

vi CONTENTS

Pestera cu Oase, Romania, 40,000 Years Ago • 60

Grotte Chauvet, France, 32,000 Years Ago • 62

Grande Grotte, Arcy-sur-Cure, France, 32,000 Years Ago • 67

Dolní Věstonice, Czech Republic, 27,500 Years Ago • 69

Grotte de la Vache, France, 14,000 Years Ago • 76

Gönnersdorf, Germany, 11,500 Years Ago • 80

Pincevent, France, 12,000 Years Ago • 87

Doggerland, North Sea, 11,000 BC • 91

The Last Hunters • 93

Franchthi Cave, Greece, 9000 BC • 95

Mount Sandel, Ireland, 7000 BC • 98

Moita do Sebastião, Portugal, 6000 BC • 101

Polderweg, Netherlands, 5500 BC • 104

Tybrind Vig, Denmark, 5000 BC • 109

Vedbæk, Denmark, 5000 BC • 114

Rock Art: Vingen, Norway, 5000 BC • 116

Some Reflections • 118

CH APT E R F OU R The First Farmers

The Origins and Spread of Agriculture • 124

Neolithic Cyprus • 127

Shillourokambos, Cyprus, 8200 BC • 129

Asprokremnos, Cyprus, 8800 BC • 130

Nea Nikomedeia, Greece, 6200 BC • 132

Lepenski Vir, Serbia, 6200 BC • 138

Vinča, Serbia, 5500 BC • 143

Rudna Glava, Serbia, 5000 BC • 148

Varna, Bulgaria, 4500 BC • 149

Passo di Corvo, Italy, 6000 BC • 152

Linearbandkeramik • 155

Vaihingen, Germany, 5300 BC • 159

Polished Flint Axes • 163

Spiennes, Belgium, 4400 BC • 165

La Draga, Spain, 5000 BC • 168

 CONTENTS vii

Arbon-Bleiche 3, Switzerland, 3384 BC • 171

Ötzi, Italy, 3300 BC • 178

The Megaliths of Western Europe • 182

Skara Brae, Orkney Islands, 3200 BC • 185

Stonehenge, England, 3100 BC • 191

Newgrange, Ireland, 3100 BC • 202

Los Millares, Spain, 3200 BC • 205

Hal Saflieni, Malta, 3600 BC • 209

Rock Art: Barranco de la Valtort,

Spain, 5500 BC • 212

Some Reflections • 215

C H APTE R FIVE Bronze Age Warriors

The Rise of Metals • 219

The Bronze Age in the Aegean • 221

Knossos, Crete, Greece, 3000 BC • 224

Akrotiri, Santorini, Greece, 1626 BC • 229

Mykene, Greece, 1600 BC • 233

Uluburun, Turkey, 1300 BC • 242

The Bronze Age North of the Alps • 244

Bell Beaker • 248

The Indo-Europeans • 250

Amesbury Archer, England, 2470 BC • 251

Poggiomarino, Italy, 1600 BC • 251

Croce del Papa, Italy, 2150 BC • 253

Nebra, Germany, 1600 BC • 256

Bronze Age Finds • 259

Su Nuraxi di Barumini, Sardinia, Italy, 1800 BC • 263

Borum Eshøj, Denmark, 1350 BC • 268

Bredarör, Sweden, 1000 BC • 275

Salcombe, England, 1000 BC • 276

Flag Fen, England, 1350 BC • 278

Rock Art: Tanum, Sweden, 1500 BC • 282

Some Reflections • 284

viii CONTENTS

CH APT E R SI X Centers of Power, Weapons of Iron

At the Edge of History • 287

The Celts • 291

The Germans • 292

The Scythians • 294

Making Iron • 295

Biskupin, Poland, 738 BC • 297

The Etruscans • 300

Necropoli della Banditaccia, Italy, 650 BC • 302

Hallstatt, Austria, 800 BC • 305

Hochdorf, Germany, 530 BC • 307

Vix, France, 480 BC • 311

Danebury, England, 550 BC • 315

Grauballe, Denmark, 300 BC • 319

Manching, Germany, 300 BC • 323

Maiden Castle, England, 43 BC • 325

Gournay-sur-Aronde, Ribemont-sur-Ancre, France, 260 BC • 329

Celtic Religion • 332

Some Reflections • 333

EPILOGUE Past and Present—Lessons from Prehistoric Europe

Europe before Rome • 338

Significance • 342

Relevance • 343

Preservation • 344

Appreciation • 345

Further Reading • 347

Picture Credits • 387

Index • 395
BIOGR A PHICA L NO T E

DOUG PRICE (Ph.D., 1975, University of Michigan) is Weinstein Professor of

European Archaeology Emeritus and former director of the Laboratory for
Archaeological Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where
he served on the faculty for more than thirty-seven years. He was also Sixth
Century Chair in Archaeological Science at the University of Aberdeen until
his retirement. His current research at the Laboratory for Archaeological
Chemistry concerns the use of strontium isotopes in human tooth enamel to
look at questions of prehistoric migration. The laboratory is involved in the
chemical analysis of ceramics, bone, soils, and other archaeological materials.
His archaeological fieldwork has focused on the beginnings of agriculture on
the island of Zealand, Denmark. He is the author or editor of more than 150
scientific articles and fifteen books, the most recent of which include Principles
of Archaeology (2006); An Introduction to Archaeological Chemistry (with
James Burton, 2010); Pathways to Power (edited with Gary Feinman, 2010);
The Origins of Agriculture: New Data, New Ideas (edited with Ofer Bar-Yosef,
2011), and Images of the Past 7th ed. (with Gary Feinman, 2012).

ix
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PR EFACE

I HAVE wanted to write this book for a number of years, but other demands,
duties, and procrastination got in the way. The delay was probably a good
thing. I recently retired as Weinstein Professor of European Archaeology at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison after thirty-seven years. I now have a little
more time to pursue my dreams and a bit more knowledge and experience
with which to do it.
I have been studying European archaeology since 1970. My Ph.D. focused
on the last hunter-gatherers in the Stone Age of the Netherlands. Since 1978
I have conducted archaeological surveys and excavations at a series of sites in
Denmark, focused on the last hunters and first farmers, driven by an interest
in the beginnings of agriculture.
I am currently an honorary professor in the Section for Prehistoric
Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics at
Aarhus University in Denmark. Other hats I have worn were as director of the
Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry in Madison and as Sixth Century
Chair in Archaeological Science at the University of Aberdeen. In the lab,
we analyze various archaeological materials to learn about their composition,
technology of manufacture, and place of origin. A major part of that research
in recent years has involved the use of isotopes to study questions about human
mobility in the past.
My career has taken me to a variety of archaeological places in Europe in
the last forty years. Research trips, conferences, and touring have allowed me
to visit many of the sites I write about here and to experience firsthand some
of the places, the finds, and the ambience.
It has been a remarkable journey and left indelible impressions of the abilities
and achievements of our distant relatives. It is a story I want to tell others, to
share some of the fascinating things that archaeologists have learned about our
past and about ourselves. Europe is an extraordinary place for archaeology, for
a number of reasons. Interest in the past arose early here and has continued,
in large part because of fascination with ancestors and the rise of nationalism.
A long history of research in Europe is accompanied by an exceptionally rich
body of evidence. The prehistory of Europe contains a long record of human
existence, beginning with our early and very different ancestors, culminating
in the achievements of Greece and Rome.
Our understanding of the archaeology of Europe has been almost completely
rewritten in the last twenty-five years with a series of major discoveries
from virtually every time period. Vibrant economic growth (until recently)
associated with the expansion of the European Union and the development xi
xii P RE FA C E

of infrastructure across the continent resulted in the revelation of many new

archaeological objects and places that have profoundly revised our picture
of the past. Chance finds and basic archaeological research—survey and
excavation—have also provided much new information. Ötzi the Iceman,
the renewed investigations at Stonehenge, the discoveries at Atapuerca, the
Bronze Age Pompeii at Croce de Papa . . . the list goes on and on. The finds and
discoveries about Europe’s past have more than doubled in the last two and
a half decades alone. This information is slowly becoming public; fascination
with the past can only be enhanced. These discoveries have essentially rewritten
large parts of European prehistory.
The archaeology of Europe then is a rich and fascinating body of things
and places and information. The path in this book winds through important
archaeological sites, the stepping stones through Europe’s past that have been
uncovered and investigated. There are tens of thousands of archaeological
places in Europe. I have included some of those that have provided major,
new, and exciting insights into Europe’s prehistory, both recent discoveries
and long-famous places. The focus is on archaeological sites, but there are also
important landscapes of features such as tombs and rock art. Shipwrecks are
exceptionally important archaeological sites as well.
This book then is about archaeological places. These places are ordered in a
series of chapters according to the archaeological divisions of time: the Stone
Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. To make sense of the time and significance
of these places, the chapters are introduced with some facts, thoughts, and
comments about the events that have made us more human and that mark
changes in society and behavior. The chapters end with an overview of the
time, some remaining questions, and a few controversies. The concluding
chapter is a brief essay on the relevance of archaeology and Europe’s past to
our lives and to the future.
Europe’s prehistory is an enormous subject and simply impossible to
review in anything other than an encyclopedic format. Th is book is not that.
There are tens of thousands of archaeological places in Europe, many more
than can be mentioned in this book. I have chosen a site-by-site approach
deliberately because I believe it is a more effective way to understand the past.
This format provides a better view of what archaeology is actually about and
leaves lasting impressions of places and things from the past. I believe that
detailed examination of these archaeological places carries more of the flavor
and excitement of the subject than a comprehensive survey of what is known.
There are many things I don’t write about, or note only in passing. There
are any number of specialist books on specific archaeological cultures, places,
and things that never appear in Europe before Rome. Selecting the sites and
places to include has not been easy. There is clearly emphasis on what I know
best and where I have been, and that means a bias toward western Europe.
In fact, for this book I have drawn the boundaries of Europe rather tightly;
Russia, Belarus, Moldova, and the Ukraine are not included. There are other
biases as well. Language is a barrier, and I have certainly spent more time
with information published in English. There are more pages and sites in the
 P RE FA C E xiii

Neolithic chapter than the others, no doubt a reflection of my own interests

in the origins of agriculture. My geographic bias is even more pronounced. I
have spent more than thirty years studying the Stone Age of Denmark and
remain fascinated by the archaeology of Scandinavia. There are eight sites each
from Germany and England, seven from France, six from Italy and Denmark,
five from Spain, and four from Greece. The remaining countries have three or
fewer.
I take a somewhat cautious approach to archaeological finds and interpretations
of the past. Controversial or unverified finds and findings are generally not
included in this book. I hesitate to put in print “spectacular” discoveries that later
turn out to be fraudulent or too eagerly interpreted; there are already too many
examples in the archaeological literature. To make the chapters more of a narrative
and less of an academic text, I have avoided certain formalities. Complicated
militarylike maps with large arrows stretching across the continent and verbose
tables combining time, geography, and culture history have been used to describe
European prehistory for many years. These are not used here, for the most part.
I have not provided detailed chronologies and culture histories of Europe’s
prehistory. There must be 10,000 named archaeological cultures in Europe.
The terminology is often more confusing than clarifying. The Early Neolithic
in southeastern Europe, for example, is called Starçevo/Vinça in Serbia,
Karanovo in Bulgaria, Gumelniţa in Romania, and Körös in Hungary—
different terms for what is largely the same phenomenon. My emphasis is
on broader patterns of change and less on the details that can be found
in reference books. I have not included citations for information and facts
within sentences. I mention some of the scholars involved in the various
investigations described herein. Relevant literature is arranged by chapter at
the end of the book.
I put emphasis on illustration. Every figure in a book should easily be worth
a thousand, hopefully more, words. I have chosen the photos, plans, maps, and
drawings with care. I very much hope they will provide you with pleasure and
enlightenment in your passage through this book.
Archaeology is the study of past human behavior. I have also tried to place
less emphasis on artifacts and more on the varied evidence for changes in
behavior and society that took place in the past. That evidence comes from a
wide variety of archaeological information—structures, animal bones, plant
remains, site distributions, exotic materials, among other things—in addition
to the artifacts themselves. My goal is to provide a clear overview of what is
happening across more than one million years of Europe’s past.
I frequently write about “our ancestors” in this book, and I want to be clear
that I refer not to Europeans, or any other specific group of people. One of the
things I have learned from archaeology is that we are one, all part of humanity.
Archaeology allows us to see our place in the diversity of human societies and
gain some appreciation for how much alike, in fact, we all are. Archaeology
is the history of us. Perhaps more than any other field of study, archaeology
tells us that we are all members of the human family, traveling together on a
miraculous journey through time.
xiv P RE FA C E

I want to gratefully acknowledge the many individuals and institutions that

have assisted in one way or another with this volume. A book is never just the
work of a single author. Contributions come in many forms—photographs,
copies of articles, advice, information, editing, fact checking, oral traditions,
permissions, contacts—and from many organizations and people. Sincere and
heartfelt thanks to Pedro Alvim, Niels H. Andersen, Søren H. Andersen, David
Anthony, Juan Luis Arsuaga, Pauline Asingh, Françoise Audouze, Dominique
Baffier, José M. Bermúdez de Castro, Nuno Bicho, Herve Bocherens, Karen
M. Boe, Dusan Boriç, Gerhard Bosinski, Dory Brown, Jean-Louis Brunaux,
Miha Budja, Jill Capps, Eudald Carbonell, Nick Card, Ian Cartwright, Bob
Chapman, John Chapman, Carolyn Chenery, Daniel Cilia, John Coles, Barry
Cunliffe, Andras Czene, Francine David, William Davies, Mauro Antonio
Di Vito, James Enloe, Berit Eriksen, Jane Evans, Joseph Fenwick, Fiamma
Fulgenzi, Anders Fischer, Andrew Fitzpatrick, Harry Fokkens, David Frayer,
Vince Gaffney, Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser, Anne Birgitte Gebauer,
Patrice Gérard, Mircea Gherase, Michel Girard, Detlef Groenenborn, Jean
Guilaine, Attila Gyucha, Fredrik Hallgren, Svend Hansen, Debi Harlan,
Knut Helskog, Don Hitchcock, Jan Holmes, Mads Holst, Noah V. Honch,
Mary Jackes, Stefanie Jacomet, Simon James, Michele Julien, Adrie Kennis,
Richard Klein, Jan Kolen, Rüdiger Krause, Kristian Kristiansen, Lucy
Kubiak-Marten, Rudolf Kuper, Lars Larsson, Walter Leitner, Domingo Leiva,
Urs Leuzinger, Johan Ling, Leendert Louwe Kooijmanns, Trond Lødøen,
Blaine Maley, Torben Malm, Sturt Manning, Sarah McClure, Vincent
Megaw, Egil Mikkelsen, Nicky Milner, Gerhard Milstreu, Michèle Monnier,
Elisa Naumann, Tamara Norton, Welmoed Out, Mike Parker Pearson, Bill
Parkinson, Clemens Pasda, Stig A. Schack Pedersen, Catherine Perlés, Andrea
Pessina, Wojciech Piotrowski, Mike Pitts, B. W. Roberts, Antonio Rosas,
Peter Rowley-Conwy, Hannes Schroeder, Helga Schütze, Michel Sheridan,
Adam Stanford, Jiří Svoboda, Josep Tarrús, Nenad Tasić, Thomas Terberger,
Hartmut Thieme, Julian Thomas, Carlos Tornero, Robert Tykot, Antonis
Vasilakis, Jean-Denis Vigne, Boudewijn Voormolen, Randy White, Caroline
Wickham-Jones, Andrea Zeeb-Lanz, Joao Zilhao, and the University of
Wisconsin-Madison InterLibrary Loan Department. Their help and generosity
with advice, information, or illustrations is greatly appreciated and witness to
the collegial rapport among archaeologists. I have undoubtedly missed a few
names—my apologies in advance. You are much appreciated in spite of my
fallible memory.
Several folks expended their time and energy, and probably their patience,
reading and checking various chapters for me—Peter Bogucki, Mike Galaty,
Jonathan Haws, Mike Jochim, Tina Thurston, Peter Wells, and Peter
Woodman. I am filled with thanks and overwhelmed by the kind help of these
friends and colleagues. I should also state immediately, according to protocol,
that any errors or omissions are my responsibility alone.
My good friend Peter Woodman and I have traveled together to a number
of the places in this book; those have been delightful journeys, and I hope they
continue for many years. Thanks for your company, Peter! I would also like to
 P RE FA C E xv

extend my appreciation to the founder of and contributors to Wikipedia for

several of the maps and illustrations in this volume. Such communal sharing
of resources is truly commendable. In turn, my editor at Oxford University
Press, Stefan Vranka, lent a guiding hand that has been an important part of
the project and made the editorial connection for this book a pleasure. Sarah
Pirovitz at Oxford has also provided much appreciated editorial assistance
herding all the details. The copy editor, Thomas Finnegan, did a really excellent
job fine-tuning my prose.
I would like to gratefully acknowledge the hospitable support of the
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which made 2010 a very good year
in which to write this book. The Carlsberg Foundation has made available a
delightful home for my wife and me in their Akademi in Copenhagen, where
most of this was written. It is not possible to adequately express my gratitude
to these foundations.
Archaeology is a passion. I decided to become an archaeologist when I was
ten years old, standing in front of an ancient Roman tomb along a roadside in
northeastern Spain. This passion has focused on Europe for the last forty years.
This book is dedicated to another major passion—Anne Birgitte Gebauer—
without whom life could not be so sweet.

Carlsberg Akademi
Copenhagen 2011
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CH A P T ER ONE

Frameworks for Europe’s Past

Geography and environment
Geology
Past climate
Raw materials
Time and chronology
A very short history of European archaeology

THIS BOOK is about the prehistoric archaeology of Europe—the lives and

deaths of peoples and cultures—about how we became human; the rise of
hunters; the birth and growth of society; the emergence of art; the beginnings
of agriculture, villages, towns and cities, wars and conquest, peace and
trade—the plans and ideas, achievements and failures, of our ancestors across
hundreds of thousands of years. It is a story of humanity on planet Earth.
It’s also about the study of the past—how archaeologists have dug into the
ground, uncovered the remaining traces of these ancient peoples, and begun
to make sense of that past through painstaking detective work.
This book is about prehistoric societies from the Stone Age into the Iron Age.
The story of European prehistory is one of spectacular growth and change. It
begins more than a million years ago with the first inhabitants. The endpoint
of this journey through the continent’s past is marked by the emergence of the
literate societies of classical Greece and Rome.
Because of a long history of archaeological research and the richness of
the prehistoric remains, we know more about the past of Europe than almost
anywhere else. The prehistory of Europe is, in fact, one model of the evolution
of society, from small groups of early human ancestors to bands of hunter-
gatherers, through the arrival of the first farmers to the emergence of
hierarchical societies and powerful states in the Bronze and Iron Ages.
The chapters of our story are the major ages of prehistoric time (Stone,
Bronze, and Iron). The content involves the places, events, and changes of
those ages from ancient to more recent times. The focus of the chapters is on
exceptional archaeological sites that provide the background for much of this
story. Before we can begin, however, it is essential to review the larger context
in which these developments took place.
This chapter is concerned with the time and space setting of the archaeology
of Europe. Specifically, I discuss the continent: its geography, environment, 1
2 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

and climate. I examine the concept of time as archaeologists and geologists

use it to organize and understand the past. I review the history of archaeology
in Europe for some perspective on how archaeologists view and explore the
past. With this background, we can turn to the arrival of the first human
inhabitants, in Chapter 2.

GEOGR A PH Y A ND EN V IRONMEN T
Maybe the easiest way to first consider the geography of Europe is in two
parts: north and south of the Alps. The Alps and the highlands to their east
and west stand as a substantial barrier to movement. Of course olive oil,
wine consumption, renowned cuisines, and darker complexions contrast
dramatically with butter, beer, and pale blonds, but other distinctions between
the Mediterranean south and the colder north are significant—and have been
for millennia. Technologies and lifestyles differ. Europe was (and is) two
contrasting places between north and south.
The movement of trade goods, resources, people, and ideas across the
Alpine wall was very limited until the Bronze Age. The relatively calm waters
of the Mediterranean made travel by sea preferable. Southern Europe—
particularly southeastern Europe—is also closer to southwest Asia, the region
sometimes called the Near East, where the origins of agriculture and the rise
of cities heralded major transformations in human society. Environmentally,
southeastern Europe is not greatly different from Anatolia and parts of the Near
East. Fundamental changes in food production and the organization of society
spread first from the Near East to southeastern Europe. Major civilizations in
Europe—Minoan, Mykenean (also written Mycenaean), Athenian Greece,
and the Roman Empire—appeared first in the south along the Mediterranean
and had profound influences across the remainder of the continent.
Technically speaking, Europe is not a continent, but a peninsula or
subcontinent of the Eurasian landmass, joined completely with Asia (Fig.
1.1). However, for historic reasons—largely because European cartographers
defined many of the earth’s landforms—it is usually treated as a separate
continent. Europe is really a collection of peninsulas. The largest of these is
Scandinavia to the north, demarcated by the Baltic Sea. Three other large
peninsulas—Iberia, Italy, and the Balkans—extend from the mainland south
into the Mediterranean. Europe is also islands—large ones, notably Britain
and Ireland, Sardinia and Corsica, Sicily and Crete—and smaller ones in
the Aegean, western Mediterranean, Baltic, and elsewhere. A consequence of
the peninsular nature of the European continent is the enormous extent of
coastline, an estimated 37,000 km (23,000 mi) in length, roughly equivalent
to the circumference of the earth.
The Ural Mountains are conventionally taken as the eastern border of
Europe. For the purposes of this book, however, the eastern boundary has
been moved to the west and excludes Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and points east
in the discussion. The south of Europe is bounded by the Mediterranean and
 F R AME WO RKS FO R EURO PE’S PA ST 3

the western shores by the Atlantic and North Sea. Iceland is often included Fig. 1.1.
as part of Europe by geographers but is not a concern here because its first The outline and
inhabitants, the Vikings, did not arrive until the ninth century A D , much too topography of Europe.

late in our story.

Major rivers of Europe include the Danube, Rhine, and Rhône, all
originating within 150 km (100 mi) of one another in and around the Alps.
The Danube, the longest, starts in the Black Forest of Germany and flows
across Central and Eastern Europe, entering the Black Sea at the Romanian-
Bulgarian border. On the way, the Danube runs through Austria, Slovakia,
Hungary, Croatia, and Serbia. The Rhine flows north from Switzerland
between Germany and France and empties into the North Sea in the southern
Netherlands. The Rhône rises in a Swiss glacier and runs through southern
France to the Mediterranean. These rivers act as corridors, cutting across the
continent. Other important rivers from west to east are the Shannon, Thames,
Tagus, Seine, Loire, Po, Elbe, Oder, and Vistula.
4 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Europe at present is made up of about fifty countries, monarchies, and

dependencies (a number that changes frequently), not including Russia,
Belarus, Ukraine, and points east. The total landmass is just over 6 million
km2, with a population of 600 million people. In comparison, the continental
United States is about 8 million km2 and holds about 300 million people.
The largest country in Europe (outside of Russia and the Ukraine) is France,
about the same size as the state of Texas. Distances across Europe are not great.
London to Paris is about the same as New York to Washington, 325 km (200
mi). Oslo to Rome is ca. 2,000 km (1,250 mi), the same as Boston to Miami.
If you ask most people where a line drawn straight east from New York
City would intersect the continent, they will often say England or France. In
fact that line from New York City crosses the coast of Portugal and runs near
Madrid, Rome, and Istanbul. Europe is much further to the north than the
continental United States. The northern part of Europe (northern Norway,
Sweden, and Finland) lies north of the Arctic Circle, like the northern third
of Alaska.
The climate of Europe is more temperate, however, than other regions at
similar latitudes. The Gulf Stream provides for a milder and damper climate,
warming the waters of Europe’s west coast, as well as the prevailing westerly
winds that blow across the continent. Average annual temperatures are
higher than should be expected given the northern latitude of the continent.
Temperatures increase from north to south and west to east in Europe and
range from arctic to subtropical, but extremes are rare and observed only at
the margins of the continent. For the most part, temperate best describes the
climate. Of course, climate has changed substantially in Europe over the last
million years, and these changes are part of the context of human evolution.
More details on Europe’s past climate appear in a section below.

GEOL OGY
The varied landforms of Europe, a contrast of mountains and plains, are a
reflection of its geology. Southern Europe is more mountainous than the north,
which, except for the Scottish Highlands and Scandinavian Mountains, is
largely lowlands. Other major mountain ranges are the Pyrenees, the Alps,
the Ore Mountains, the Carpathians, the Dinaric Alps, the Apennines, and
the Balkans. The North European Plain defines northern Europe south of
Scandinavia, stretching from the English Channel to the Russian marshes.
The Po River plain and the Hungarian Basin are also notable large, level, low
areas.
A brief geology of Europe as described here starts with the oldest rocks and
moves to more recent deposits overlying them. A geological map of Europe
is shown in Figure 1.2. The unusual map projection emphasizes Europe as a
peninsula, and the simplified geology at this large scale provides a useful view
of the important rock formations and their ages. The major geological divisions
of time are used in this map. Cenozoic rocks are the youngest. The oldest rocks
 F R AME WO RKS FO R EURO PE’S PA ST 5

Cenozoic 65 mya - present

Mesozoic 245 - 65 mya
Paleozoic 543 - 245 mya
Proterozoic 2.5 - 0.543 bya
Archaean 3.8 - 2.5 bya
Age unknown or variable
Fig. 1.2.
The geology of Europe
as a peninsula.

in Europe come from the early Proterozoic and Archaean periods, between 4
and 2.5 billion years ago (bya), and are found largely in Scandinavia. The more
recent geological periods are the Paleozoic (543–245 million year ago, mya),
the Mesozoic (245–65 mya, which is the age of dinosaurs), and the Cenozoic,
the last 65 million years of the earth’s history.
Continents are composed of cratons and platforms. Cratons are old igneous
and metamorphic rocks that make up the basement of the continents—
remains of the original crust, dating more than 500 million years in age.
Platforms are extensive sedimentary layers covering some areas of the craton
and filling in lower places on the surface. Geologists define three major types
of rock. Igneous rocks make up the majority of the earth’s crust and are
formed from the cooling of magma, the molten rock from the earth’s interior.
Sedimentary rocks are made up normally of small pieces of other rocks created
by the processes of erosion and deposition—gravel, sand, silt, and clay. These
sediments accumulate in layers and are compacted and cemented over time
into rock. Metamorphic rocks are igneous, sedimentary, or other metamorphic
rocks that are changed to a new form by heat or pressure during burial.
Shields are large areas where the cratons are exposed on the surface. The
Scandinavia Shield dominates the northernmost part of Europe, across
Norway, central and northern Sweden, and Finland. These rocks also extend
across the North Sea to the highlands of Scotland. Ancient rock is found as
well in smaller pieces in the Bohemian Massif of the Czech Republic, the
6 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Massif Central in southeastern France, the Meseta region of western Iberia,

and parts of the Balkan Peninsula. These terms—massif, meseta—refer
to a group or mass of connected mountains independent of a larger range.
Somewhat younger, but still ancient, rocks are found in these same areas as
well as the Alps and further east into the Carpathians.
On top of these old rocks, sedimentary basins developed in the lower
topography. Seas formed in these basins at various times, giving rise in some
areas to thick, marine sedimentary rock layers of Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and
Cenozoic age such as limestone, chalk, sandstone, shales, and many more.
For example, the Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary units of the Northern
European Plain mark the southern boundary of the Scandinavia Shield. Large
areas of western Europe have surface deposits of such materials. In eastern
Europe, the Hungarian Plain marks the center of a large basin that extends
far to the east. Elsewhere in Europe, the limestone landscapes of southwestern
France, riddled with the caves that hold the remarkable art of the Upper
Paleolithic, are a classic example of such sedimentary units.
More recent geological activity in Europe in the last 2 million years is
largely a result of tectonics and glaciation. Tectonics refers to the geological
forces associated with movements of the earth’s crust and mountain building.
Tectonic and volcanic activity have broken through the ancient rocks and
platforms of Europe in limited areas. Outside of Iceland and the Canary
Islands, the major region of modern volcanic activity in Europe lies in the
central and eastern Mediterranean. The famous volcanoes of southern Italy
(Vesuvius), Sicily (Etna), and the islands of the Aegean (e.g., Melos, Santorini)
are well-known examples. Remnants of older tectonic activity show up in parts
of Germany, France, and the Balkans, among other places.
This epoch of geological time—the last 2 million years—is the Pleistocene,
known colloquially as the Ice Age. The Pleistocene was in fact a series of ice
ages, perhaps as many as twenty cycles of warmer and colder climate. Warmer
periods, known as interglacials, were like today or slightly warmer. Cold
episodes, known as glacial periods, were characterized by a significant drop in
the earth’s atmospheric temperature, on the order of 8–10 °C (14–18 °F) from
today’s average. These colder temperatures fostered the accumulation of snow
and ice in northern latitudes and higher elevations. Huge mountains of ice
formed, 2–3 km (1–1½ mi) in thickness, and expanded over large areas under
the pressure of their own weight. Glaciation refers to the processes involved in
the formation, expansion, and retreat of such ice sheets.

PA S T CL IM AT E
During the Pleistocene, huge ice sheets covered northern Europe, originating
in the northern Baltic Sea, and expanding across Scandinavia and the northern
part of the continent and over the North Sea floor to most of Britain and
Ireland. Another major consequence of these cold episodes was the lowering of
sea level. So much of the earth’s water was tied up in ice sheets that sea levels
 F R AME WO RKS FO R EURO PE’S PA ST 7

fell as much as 120 m (almost 400 ft) or more during the periods of maximum
cold. The lowering of sea level greatly changed the outline of the continent
and left the North Sea floor, for example, as dry land. The British Isles were
connected to the continent, as were some of the islands of the Mediterranean.
Huge ice sheets also formed in the Alps, Pyrenees, and other high altitudes in
Europe. A map of Europe showing the extent of Pleistocene glaciation appears
as Figure 3.1. The glaciers that sit in the Alps and Scandinavian mountains
today are the remnants of that last glaciation.
As the last ice sheets began to melt about 16,000 years ago, a number
of processes took place. Retreating ice left deposits of ground-up rock and
sediment tens of meters deep that the ice had picked up and pulverized during
its expansion (Figure 3.31). This undulating surface of ground moraine covers
large areas of northern Europe and is found in remnants around the Alps
and Pyrenees. Thicker deposits, known as end moraine, piled up at the edges
of the ice sheet when melting slowed, leaving the hills and higher places of
southern Scandinavia. Enormous amounts of melt water were released as the
ice shrank back toward its place of origin, and that water carried a huge load
of sands and gravels that were deposited at the margins of the ice. The fine
silt sediments, known as loess, from the retreating ice were picked up by the
prevailing westerly winds. Tens of meters of this loess were deposited across
large parts of Central Europe and remain as the primary surface today.
The meltwaters eventually found their way to the oceans, and the sea began to
climb back to levels that are present today, once again redrawing the outline of
the European continent. Ancient humans living along the coast of Europe during
the Pleistocene were pushed inland and their former living places submerged by
the sea. Many of the archaeological remains of Pleistocene Europe have been
covered by the waters of the Atlantic, North Sea, and Mediterranean.
As the ice melted, its unimaginable weight disappeared. That weight had
depressed the earth’s surface by hundreds of meters in some cases. Slowly
the earth began to recover, or rebound as geologists say, returning toward its
earlier position. There are archaeological sites from 8,000 years ago on the
northeastern coast of Sweden that today are 200 m (650 ft) above modern sea
level, lifted by the rebound of the earth’s crust. This process is still ongoing
in northern Europe; the uplift continues in the Bay of Bothnia in the upper
Baltic Sea today, at a rate of almost 1 cm (about a half-inch) per year. The low-
lying coastline is expanding, and large areas of the former sea floor are now
dry land.

R AW M AT ER I A L S
Geology is also important in terms of mineral raw materials and their sources.
Stone, not surprisingly, was a critical resource during the Stone Age. Materials
for producing sharp-edged tools were indispensable. As humans we lack
biological equipment (such as sharp teeth and claws) for cutting or tearing
to obtain food, or for defense. Although several types of hard rock were
8 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

used to make stone tools, flint and obsidian were favored because
breaking these materials produced sharp edges in a predictable
way. Flint is a very fine-grained form of quartz, found primarily
as nodules and globular masses in sedimentary rocks, such as
chalks and limestones. Flint is found in many, but not all, parts of
Europe, especially in areas of ancient marine deposits or glacial till.
Obsidian is a black natural glass, produced from molten sands that
are sometimes created by volcanic activity. Obsidian is rare and
found almost exclusively on a few islands in the central and eastern
Mediterranean.
With the arrival of the Neolithic and the advent of pottery, clay
became another important resource for human existence. Ceramic is
a remarkable material; it’s basically a rock made by people. Firing soft
clay to create a hard ceramic was an important discovery, permitting
the invention of fireproof containers—cooking and storage vessels—
and other objects. The earliest known use of fired clay was in the form
of small human and animal figurines dating from about 25,000 years
ago in the Upper Paleolithic in Europe (Fig. 1.3). The first ceramic
containers, actual pottery, appeared more than 15,000 years ago in
the Far East. Fired-clay pottery comes to Europe about the time of
the first farmers, more than 8,000 years ago.
Clay is necessary for the manufacture of pottery. Natural sources
of clay are found in most of the landscapes of Europe, wherever
Fig. 1.3. slow-moving water deposited accumulations of this very fine sediment. Natural
A fired clay Venus deposits of pure clay are rarely suitable for making ceramics, however. A mix of
figurine from Dolni
clay and another material is normally required. This other material—known
Vě stonice. 11 cm high.
as temper—is a substance intentionally added to reduce breakage caused by
shrinkage during drying and firing. The temper allows more even distribution
of heat during the firing process. Prehistoric ceramics are typically about
70–80 percent clay and 20–30 percent temper. A variety of materials have
been used as temper in the past, including sand, shell, volcanic ash, pulverized
sherds (known as grog), or small pieces of rock, and even organic materials
such as bone, straw, and other fibers.
In addition to stone and clay, metals are an important part of later European
prehistory. Copper, then bronze, and then iron appear as the primary metallurgies
in Europe after 5000 B C . Gold and silver appear after 4000 B C , largely in the
form of jewelry. The Bronze Age begins in southern Europe after 3000 B C , and
the Iron Age begins shortly after 1000 B C . Bronze has several advantages over
copper. It can be recycled repeatedly, whereas copper loses its tensile strength
in recasting. Bronze holds an edge much better than copper. Most of the early
bronze objects were weapons: swords, daggers, spearheads, and arrowheads.
A map of ore sources in Europe offers clues to the beginnings of metallurgy
on the continent (Fig. 1.4). Iron is not shown on the map because of the
numerous sources present and the different kinds of iron ore available, to be
discussed in Chapter 6. Native metals and ores normally occur as veins in faults
and cracks through older rocks, which appear largely in the south of Europe.
 F R AME WO RKS FO R EURO PE’S PA ST 9

Fig. 1.4.
Metal ore sources in
prehistoric Europe.
Black dots = tin, red =
copper, white = silver,
yellow = gold. Iron
ores are not shown on
the map as they are
common in many parts
of the continent.

As can be seen on the map, the majority of sources of copper are in eastern
Europe, particularly the Balkans and Carpathian Mountains. A few additional
sources are known in the Alps, the British Isles, and Spain. Tin is rare; a few
scattered outcrops yielded this important metal for the production of high-
quality bronze. The precious metals—silver and gold—are also available from
a limited number of sources. Eastern Europe is a primary region for gold.

T IME A ND CHR ONOL OGY

Time, as Woody Allen once noted, is what keeps everything from happening
at once. Time is one of those concepts that we take for granted, in part because
it is difficult to comprehend. Time can be defined as a continuum in which
events occur in succession from the past through the present to the future.
There are in fact two time scales of significance for understanding the past:
geological time and archaeological time. These time scales or chronologies are
the frameworks that geologists and archaeologists create to subdivide time into
manageable units.
Archaeological time developed early in the nineteenth century. A
Danish naturalist named Christian Jü rgensen Thomsen was given the
responsibility for organizing the royal antiquarian collections. Thomsen
found a simple solution, dividing up objects in the collections according
to the material from which they were made: stone, bronze, or iron. His
formulation became the standard chronology for European prehistory,
10 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

dividing the archaeological periods into the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and
Iron Age.
Thomsen’s original scheme has evolved over time, but the basic framework
remains. The Stone Age is the period of hunters and early farmers, when
stone tools were predominant, before the discovery of metals. A subsequent
subdivision parted the Stone Age into the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) and
Neolithic (New Stone Age) to distinguish the arrival of agriculture, farmers,
and pottery after 7000 BC. The Mesolithic was later added to recognize the
period of more recent hunter-gatherers in Europe just before the arrival of
the farmers. The Paleolithic has been subdivided into three major segments—
Lower, Middle, and Upper—to reflect significant changes that occurred during
this time span of more than a million years. More details on these divisions are
presented in the following chapters.
The nature of archaeological sites and their contents change through
these periods. Paleolithic archaeology is dominated by caves and tools
made by breaking stone. The Neolithic is characterized by open-air villages,
large tombs, pottery, and artifacts made by grinding stone. The Bronze
Age is best known from Aegean states, earthen mounds, rich burials,
long-distance trade, and rarer and more exotic materials, including early
metals. The Iron Age is fortresses and towns, cemeteries, and iron weapons
and tools. The prehistory of Europe is a story of increasing local and
regional differentiation along with the growth of population, settlement,
development of technology, and increasing social, economic, and political
complexity.
The archaeological periods of Europe’s past take place within the framework
of geological time. Geologists have partitioned the 4.5 billion years of
the Earth’s history into units reflecting major changes and life forms. The
Cenozoic is the last 65 million years, the age of mammals. Geological time
in terms of humans in Europe includes the last two epochs of the Cenozoic:
the Pleistocene, which began 2.6 million years ago, and our current geological
epoch, the Holocene, which began almost 12,000 years ago. More on this in
the next section.
The Pleistocene was the time of the Ice Ages. It may be surprising to learn
that the evidence for the dramatic changes in temperature and glaciation in the
Pleistocene has come from underwater in the Caribbean Sea and from the ice
cap on Greenland. Scientists have made deep corings of marine sediments and
glacial ice respectively in these places. Oxygen isotopes are the key. Oxygen
isotope ratios vary with the temperature of ocean water or the atmosphere and
can thus indicate temperature change over time. The amount of the 18O isotope
relative to the 16O isotope decreases with increasing temperature. The small
animal shells (foraminifera) that make up much of the sediment on the ocean
floor contain oxygen isotopes in the carbonate of the shell. On Greenland,
oxygen isotopes from the Pleistocene are preserved in the kilometers-thick
layer of glacial ice that covers the huge island. These layers of shell and ice
go from youngest on top and oldest on the bottom and cover hundreds of
thousands of years.
 F R AME WO RKS FO R EURO PE’S PA ST 11

During the Pleistocene, alternations

between warmer and cooler periods
defined by oxygen isotopes have
been numbered sequentially and
are defined as marine isotope stages
(MIS). These stages today are used
for the chronology of the Paleolithic.
Figure 1.5 shows years before present,
changes in isotopes and temperature,
stage numbers, and divisions of the
Pleistocene. The major cold and warm
periods can be seen, as well as the
great variation in temperatures that
occurred. In addition, the warming
episode that began toward the end
of the Pleistocene is recorded, along
with the present interglacial period,
the Holocene.
In this book I follow standard
archaeological reporting of time.
Several conventions are used. The
oldest human remains are usually
described as millions of years in age
(mya). Many of the dates for the
Paleolithic inhabitants of Europe are
estimates based on various methods
and are reported as hundreds of
thousands of years before present
(BP). Dates before 10,000 years ago
are often reported as BP. As we come
closer in time to the present, methods
and dates become more precise. The last 10,000 years or so are usually Fig. 1.5.
described using the Christian calendar with B C and A D as the suffi x. A chart of the
I have listed an age for every site that is discussed in this book. In most cases Pleistocene and the
Paleolithic. Major
this date is for the earliest occupation of the site. Sometimes sites are inhabited for
subdivisions in both
very long periods of time and only some of that time span is of special interest. In time scales are
such an instance, the date for the site reflects the period of most importance. The provided along with
locations of sites are shown on a map of Europe at the beginning of the chapter, the Marine Isotope
along with a timeline to provide an indication of their age. Stages, an indicator
of atmospheric
temperature for the last
2.6 million years.
A V ERY SHOR T HIST ORY OF
EUR OP E A N A R CH A EOL OGY
Like many academic disciplines today, archaeology did not really exist as a
separate branch of study until the nineteenth century. The history of archaeology
12 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

follows closely the path that we all take to learn almost any subject—from
awareness to interest to questioning to exploration and—eventually—to
investigation and understanding. Archaeology is also a product of its times
in the sense that current issues and concerns influence the development of
the discipline. The period of exploration that accompanied the European
colonization of large parts of the world was one of discovery; many new
archaeological regions and sites were recognized and new questions were asked.
The period after World War II was generally one of optimism and a sense that
everything could be known and done using modern technology and ideas.
Growing awareness that too many people threatened the environment led to
greater concern with population and environment in archaeological thinking.
Today in archaeology there is rising concern with globalization, ethical issues,
climate change, and preserving the past.
Modern archaeology began in Europe with antiquarians in the sixteenth
century. This phase included the celebrated example of the early work of
William Stukeley (1687–1765) at Stonehenge in Britain (Fig. 1.6), published
between 1740 and 1743. The period after 1800 was marked by creation of
museums of antiquity, appointment of the first university chairs in archaeology,
and initiation of more systematic fieldwork in various parts of Europe. The
very first professor of archaeology was probably Caspar Reuvens, appointed at
the University of Leiden in the Netherlands in 1818.
By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the museums of Europe were
filling with strange objects from antiquity and collections of exotic souvenirs
assembled by ship captains and wealthy dilettantes from colonies and ports
of call around the world. Thomsen in Denmark had created the categories—
stone, bronze, and iron—for organizing the Danish past. The search for
human antiquity began in earnest. Jacques Boucher de Perthes, excavating in
his native France in the 1830s to 1850s, uncovered the bones of extinct animals
in association with handaxes and argued that humanity was clearly older than
the orthodox date of 6,000 years, dictated by the church. Matyáš Kalina and
Václav Krolmus published Pagan Sacrificial Places, Graves and Antiquities in
Bohemia in 1836, based on fieldwork and the study of museum collections.

Fig. 1.6.
A drawing of
Stonehenge by William
Stukeley, 1722.
 F R AME WO RKS FO R EURO PE’S PA ST 13

Across the continent, intrepid individuals were investigating local prehistory.

Ferdinand Keller described the discovery of Swiss lake dwellings during a
period of extremely low water levels in the winter of 1853–54. The Italian
archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli directed excavations at Pompeii in the 1860s,
excavating entire room blocks and recording stratigraphic layers. Working
in England, Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers—“the father of scientific
excavation”—stressed the significance of simple artifacts for understanding
the past. In the 1870s Heinrich Schliemann popularized his finds at Troy and
Mykene with dramatic newspaper accounts that captivated the public. Arthur
Evans uncovered and reconstructed the home of the Minoan civilization at
Knossos on Crete around the turn of the century.
A century ago the field of archaeology was unknown to most people. During
the first decades of the twentieth century, spectacular new sites were revealed
as archaeologists visited distant lands in search of the origins of civilization.
Archaeology gained an interested public. Those years also were a time of large-
scale public works projects in Europe; excavations produced mountains of
artifacts and information, revealing the richness of the archaeological record.
The years from 1900 to the Second World War were a classic stage of
exploration and investigation of culture history. Culture history focused on
the questions of when and where major changes and innovations happened,
and on the origins of those changes. Primary sources for change were thought
to be either innovation or diffusion. New artifacts and ideas were either local
inventions or borrowed from elsewhere.
The years following the Second World War saw dramatic changes in the
scale and perspectives of European archaeology. These changes involved
enormous growth in the number of archaeologists, museums, and excavations.
This period also saw dramatic developments in the nature of archaeological
research, in archaeological theory and new orientations to understanding
the past. Archaeological investigations have become larger, and the kinds of
analyses required much more sophisticated.
These changes in the second half of the twentieth century embraced
new theoretical orientations toward understanding the past. Theoretically,
archaeology has explored several perspectives, across the gamut from culture
history to a positivist, processual view and a postmodern, subjective outlook.
Positivists regarded the past world as objectively real and observable with the
right methods and instruments. Processual archaeologists wanted to explain
cultural change over time in a scientific manner, searching for cultural process
and generalizations. Postprocessual archaeologists often took a relativistic
perspective that led some to argue that archaeology cannot have an objective
view of the past, that our own biases and perceptions determine how we
interpret the archaeological record. Postprocessualists rejected evolutionary
arguments that suggested progressive change, and they generally avoided
generalizations. Today these perspectives have largely melded into a more
cohesive and coherent perspective on the past.
During this same period, there was an enormous increase in the number of
archaeologists, along with growth in the number and scale of archaeological
14 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

projects. Many countries established new, or expanded existing, heritage

agencies to reduce the impact of construction and development on historical
and archaeological places. Rescue archaeology has become a major theme.
Multimillion-dollar archaeological projects were undertaken in various places
around the continent. An example of such a project is the investigations at the
site of Polderweg, described in Chapter 3.
There is no pan-European archaeology. Although most archaeologists
are interested in understanding the past through investigation of material
remains, there are many ways to do this. There are substantial differences in
how archaeology is done and how the past is viewed in Europe (and elsewhere).
Certainly there are divergent approaches and goals at the national level. Italian
archaeology is focused primarily on the classical period of Rome; Greek
archaeology has concentrated on the Archaic and Classical periods (800–300
B C ), the time of city-states and Homer, Socrates, and other heroes of the
past. British archaeology tends to be more theoretical, perhaps in response
to a somewhat less abundant archaeological record on the island. German
archaeology is known for meticulous excavations and compendiumlike
reports of investigations. Scandinavian archaeology concentrates on more
on local issues and rarely reaches the rest of the continent. These are gross
generalizations, of course, but they serve to highlight some of the variation.
There are large differences as well between schools of thought that cross-
cut national boundaries, and even more dissimilarities between east and
west. Archaeology was part of the cold war. Soviet archaeology and a Marxist
perspective dominated Eastern Europe until the 1990s, while the West was
pursuing a range of theoretical orientations and was perhaps somewhat
less dogmatic in approaches to the past. Technological innovations were
incorporated much more rapidly into the archaeology of the West. These
differences are shrinking but still apparent.
The economic realities of the last few years have slowed change and growth
in European archaeology and provided some space for reflection. Theoretical
perspectives are no longer viewed as competitive, but rather more compatible.
Multidisciplinary archaeology is the norm today, combining the skills and
knowledge of many specialists in the investigation of the past. Before 1950 almost
everyone was simply an archaeologist; today there are archaeological chemists,
archaeometrists, archaeozoologists, archaeobotanists, archaeogeneticists,
bioarchaeologists, geoarchaeologists, theoretical archaeologists, and many
others. The huge amount of information uncovered and analyzed in recent
decades has completely rewritten our understanding of European prehistory
and, along with myriad exciting discoveries, is painting a fascinating picture of
Europe before Rome. The first part of this story begins with the next chapter.
CH A P T ER T WO

The First Europeans

Early Europeans
Atapuerca, Spain, 1.3 million years ago
Boxgrove, England, 500,000 years ago
Schöningen, Germany, 400,000 years ago
Neanderthals
Krapina, Serbia, 130,000 years ago
Salzgitter-Lebenstedt, Germany, 55,000 years ago
El Sidrón, Spain, 43,000 years ago
Grotte du Renne, France, 40,000 years ago
Vindija Cave, Croatia, 34,000 years ago
Ancient DNA
Neanderthal diet
Some reflections

E A R LY EUR OP E A NS
The story of our human ancestors is a fascinating, but fragmentary, tale. There
are lots of missing pages in the book. The further back we go in time, the less
evidence is available and the more conjecture is required to fill in the gaps.
Our oldest arguably human ancestors are found mostly in East and South
Africa, resemble our ape family relatives, and date to more than 6 mya (million
years ago). These individuals walked on two feet, the first step on the path to
becoming human.
Fossils of our ancient ancestors are diagnosed as to genus and species, a dual
scientific designation in Latin; a wide range of names have been applied. We
modern humans are Homo sapiens. Some of our earliest relatives have species
names such as Ardipithecus ramidus, Australopithecus afarensis, and many
others. These names are often more confusing than enlightening for anyone
but the experts. To make a long story short, there appear to have been several
early humanlike ancestors and the exact relationships among them are not
15
16 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 2.1. clear. These individuals walked on two legs, had relatively small brains, did
The location and not use tools, and were largely vegetarian.
time scale for sites Sometime around 2.5 mya, however, a clearer line of human evolution
mentioned in this
chapter. The white
emerged with the appearance of the first members of our own genus, Homo,
areas mark the again in East Africa. This area is the center for most of the current research
maximum extent of on early human ancestors. There are fossil-containing geological deposits from
glacial ice during the the appropriate time periods. Many of the earliest human remains have been
last major cold phase found in this region. The first Homo is subtitled habilis, or tool-using human.
of the Pleistocene.
At about this same time, the first evidence for the manufacture of simple stone
tools comes to light. These so-called pebble tools provided a cutting edge for
a creature that lacked sharp teeth and claws. Stone tools may have afforded
better access to meat for these individuals, whose brains began to grow from
ape toward human in size.
Shortly after 2 mya a new species, Homo ergaster, emerged in Africa and our
evolutionary story started to change dramatically. For the first time, fossils of
our ancient human ancestors are found outside Africa—in Asia, around 1.8
mya. Shortly thereafter, by 1.3 mya, these early human ancestors spread into
Europe. In this nomenclature, there are three variants of Homo during the
earlier Pleistocene: ergaster in Africa, erectus in Asia, and antecessor in Europe.
In Europe the early antecessor form evolves into heidelbergensis and eventually
becomes neanderthalensis.
The expansion of early human ancestors out of Africa is surprising, given
that the cold climate of Pleistocene Europe and Asia made for a much more
difficult habitat than the benign warmth of the African continent. In fact,
with only a few exceptions, almost all the sites in Europe earlier than 500,000
years ago—and there are not a large number—are found south of the Alps.
Interestingly a dramatic increase in archaeological sites in Europe younger than
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 17

500,000 years corresponds closely with the disappearance of large predatory

lions, tigers, and the giant hyena.
Early humans in Europe had to adapt to the more northerly conditions
of harsher winters, an absence of vegetable foods for parts of the year, and
the availability of large herds of migratory animals. Evidence for the first
use of fire appears around 800,000 years ago in the Near East, and this new
technology eventually arrives in Europe apparently much later, perhaps around
400,000 years ago. Humans became hunters. Long, wooden throwing spears
for hunting have been found amid the bones of ancient horses at Schöningen
in Germany from some 400,000 years ago, documenting both large-game
hunting and early use of wood for making tools and equipment.
Homo erectus appears to have continued in Asia until it was replaced by
Homo sapiens. In Europe, however, perhaps under conditions of extreme
cold and genetic isolation, the Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) evolved
from heidelbergensis, as a rather specialized form. Early Neanderthals are
recognizably distinct by ca. 250,000 years ago, and then, by 30,000 years ago
at the latest, they were gone from the earth, replaced by expanding populations
of anatomically modern humans (AMH) as they are known, early Homo
sapiens. This species, our own, likely evolved in East Africa around 200,000
years ago. The first Homo sapiens fossils appear outside of Africa by 90,000
years ago in the Near East and slightly later in south and east Asia. The first
sapiens creatures in Europe arrive around 40,000 years ago and completely
replace Neanderthals over a period of 10,000 years.
One of the major questions concerning the appearance of anatomically
modern humans and the emergence of late Paleolithic cultures has been, What
happened to the Neanderthals? This issue has dominated debate in Paleolithic
archaeology for more than fifty years, but resolution appears closer today. New
evidence from a variety of sources seems to indicate that the Neanderthals
were gradually replaced—absorbed might be a good word—by anatomically
modern humans in Europe. More discussion of this question continues in the
sections on Neanderthals in this chapter, including Arcy-sur-Cure, El Sidrón,
and Vindija Cave. The evidence from ancient DNA is reviewed in regard to
Vindija.
Thus, the first 4–5 million years of the evolution of the human lineage
took place in Africa. It is only during the Pleistocene epoch, the last 2 million
years, that our ancestors ventured outside of Africa, into Asia and Europe. We
begin the story of European prehistory at that point, with the arrival of Homo
antecessor. Intriguingly, some of the earliest evidence comes from northern
Spain—a place called Atapuerca, in the westernmost part of Europe, far from
the presumed entry point through the Near Eastern corridor. This chapter on
the first inhabitants covers more than 1 million years of European prehistory
and takes us to the appearance of early Homo sapiens.
There are several issues to keep in mind when considering the evidence for
the oldest human ancestors in Europe. There are problems with understanding
the context of the materials, with preservation, and with dating these remains.
In this chapter, we visit a series of archaeological sites as much as 1.3 million
18 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

years of age. This is very old stuff. A lot has happened in terms of disturbances,
erosion and deposition, and other biological and geological processes in that
period of time. It is often difficult to determine if archaeological materials are
in their original place of deposit (in situ) or if they have been moved by stream
action, mudslides, frozen ground phenomena, animal activity, and the like.
Time has faded the edges of the layers and muted the colors of earth and soil.
Strata are difficult to distinguish. Because of the time that has passed, it is often
impossible to determine if the archaeological materials at a site are the result of
one episode of human activity or a palimpsest of repeated visits and returns.
The age of these sites also means that preservation is usually very poor. The
further back we go in time, the more likely the disappearance or degradation
of all but the hardest materials. Stone tools are the hallmark of the Paleolithic
because they survive under most conditions of burial. But other materials—
bone, wood, skin, plant remains—usually disappear quickly from the
archaeological record. Sites with preserved organic remains from the earlier
part of the Paleolithic are extremely rare and thus vitally important to helping
us understand that part of the past.
The terminology for the earlier part of the Paleolithic in Europe is fairly
straightforward (Fig. 2.2). The Lower Paleolithic begins with the earliest
inhabitants, ca. 1.3 mya, with the individuals known as Homo antecessor and
stone tools referred to as Oldowan or Pebble Tools. The handaxe appears
shortly thereafter and defines the Acheulean archaeological culture of the
Lower Paleolithic. Homo neanderthalensis evolves from heidelbergensis after
250,000 years ago and is associated with what are called Mousterian stone
tools, dominated by flake tools and smaller handaxes.
It is difficult to date archaeological materials older than about 40,000
years ago, the outer limit of radiocarbon dating. The use of accelerator mass
spectrometers (AMS) in radiocarbon dating has been a major advance in the

Fig. 2.2.
Time and terminology
for the Lower and
Middle Paleolithic.
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 19

last twenty-five years. AMS dating can accurately estimate the age of very
small samples of organic materials, often within a few decades. However, after
40,000 years or so, since there is so little radioactive carbon left in a sample it is
almost impossible to measure. For older periods, there is no reliable technique
available for directly dating archaeological materials themselves.
Other radiometric techniques can be used, such as argon-argon dating, but
these methods depend on the presence of rare kinds of geological materials
(volcanic ash, basalt) associated with the archaeological remains. Only a few
early archaeological sites can be dated with these techniques. Moreover, the
error of such methods is quite high, in the thousands of years, so that age
estimates are very approximate. Earlier sites are often dated by association,
relying on the types of stone tools present or the species of animals found,
where these tools or bones have known dates from other places. This is a useful
way to estimate the antiquity of a site, but again it offers only an approximate
indication of the age of the materials.

ATA PUERCA , SPA IN, 1.3 MIL L ION Y E A RS AGO

Atapuerca holds a treasure trove of ancient archaeology, a bevy of highly
significant archaeological sites all in one location. It contains some of the first
Europeans and has more of the oldest human remains, more mystery, and
more information than any Paleolithic place previously known in Europe. At
the same time, there is a space-age feel at the site, with helmeted archaeologists
climbing bright steel scaffolding several stories high, covered by plastic roofs,
while colorful chutes for removing sediment and rock hang on the cliffs like
great yellow vines.
A ridge of limestone hills marks the horizon to the east of the city of Burgos
in northern Spain. Limestone is soft and is gradually dissolved by rain and
groundwater, which cut channels, caves, and underground streams through
the hills. Human remains and artifacts from the early to late Paleolithic are
hidden in the many caves of this porous rock mass. The entrances to many
of these caverns collapsed over time, closing and hiding the chambers and
entombing the materials within.
In the 1890s, a railroad was built through the area known as Atapuerca.
Because of the elevation and the need to maintain a reasonably level grade,
several deep cuts or trenches were hacked through the limestone for the
rail line. Th is railroad trench exposed a number of caverns and chambers
that had been hidden inside the hills for hundreds of thousands of years
(Fig. 2.3).
Major excavations to uncover the richness of their contents began in the
1990s. These include archaeological materials from the oldest Europeans to
the Bronze Age. The geology of the place has been divided into 11 stratigraphic
levels, which contain an important record of the Lower and Middle Pleistocene,
between 1.3 million and 150,000 years ago. There are at least seven sites being
investigated simultaneously within the caves and crevices of Atapuerca. It’s a bit
like an anthill, with large crews of diggers working at the top of high scaffolding,
20 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

digging into the cliff, and other

groups near the base, exploring
very deep deposits exposed there.
Passages and channels lead off
the exposed parts of these caves
into the interior of the limestone.
There is international interest,
large amounts of funding, and
a fascinating group of scientists
working devotedly to uncover
the secrets of the area. It is a
special place indeed.
The major sites at Atapuerca
are each given a name. The most
important for our Paleolithic
story here are known as Sima del
Elefante, Gran Dolina, and Sima
de los Huesos (Fig. 2.4). The
remains from Sima del Elefante
and Gran Dolina are immediately
relevant to the first Europeans.
Gran Dolina held the record
for the oldest human remains in
Europe from 1999 until 2008,
when the new discoveries from
Sima del Elefante were dated
and made public. The finds from
Sima de los Huesos are equally
Fig. 2.3. fascinating, are also early, and yield some information on the beginnings of
The railroad cut at the Neanderthals.
Atapuerca with the
The three sites together constitute a marvelous introduction to the arrival
excavation scaffolding
at Gran Dolina in the
and evolution of early human ancestors in Europe. The human remains from
distance. Elefante and Gran Dolina belong to the species Homo antecessor. The abundant
fossil materials from Sima de los Huesos come from Homo heidelbergensis, the
intermediary between antecessor and neanderthalensis. There is still substantial
disagreement about the classification and relatives of ergaster, but the species is now
widely accepted as the direct ancestor of later hominins such as Homo heidelbergensis
and Homo neanderthalensis rather than the Asian version, Homo erectus.
Atapuerca may hold the answers to many questions about our early ancestors.
The human remains from these three sites at Atapuerca are the largest collection
of fossils of our early ancestors anywhere. As such, Atapuerca is one of the
most important archaeological sites in the world. It is also extraordinary that
this important place of so many early finds lies in the far reaches of western
Europe. The Straits of Gibraltar in southern Spain were always a barrier of
open sea waters to passage from Africa. Homo ergaster individuals are assumed
to have traveled from northwest Africa through the Near East in order to
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 21

reach the European continent. The first human remains

in Europe would have been expected in southeastern
Europe, but they are not found there.

Atapuerca, Spain: Sima del

Elefante, 1.3 mya
It is in terms of the early Homo remains that Sima del
Elefante (Cave of the Elephant) is most important,
the oldest humans yet discovered on the continent of
Europe. The Sima del Elefante is a cave 18 m (60 ft)
deep and up to 15 m (50 ft) wide at the base of the
Atapuerca railroad cut, filled with washed-in deposits
of coarse sediment. The excavations go very slowly, as
the sediments are strongly consolidated. Hammers, fine
chisels, and small picks are used to remove the layer in the search for stone and Fig. 2.4.
bone from the Lower Paleolithic. From this deposit there are human remains, Location of the sites at
stone tools, and animal bones with cut marks that very clearly indicate a human Atapuerca. The green
band is the railroad cut;
presence here dated to 1.3 mya. This is the best current evidence for the oldest the caves are shown in
human ancestor in Europe. The human remains include the frontal portion brown.
of a mandible with several teeth in place. Homo antecessor is estimated to have
been a 1.6–1.8 m (5’3”–5’10” ft) tall male who probably weighed around 90
kg (200 lb). Brain size was roughly three-quarters that of anatomically modern
humans. Along with the mandible, there are thirty-two simple stone flakes and
other artifacts, made from local stone. These tools are typical of the oldest stone
assemblages in Europe.
The list of animals identified among the bones at Sima del Elefante is
extensive and includes a number of warm-climate species that indicate the
human presence here was during an interglacial, or warmer, period of the
Pleistocene. Among the larger mammals are extinct forms of macaque monkeys,
wild boar, bison, several types of deer, rhinoceros, horse, wild cat, panther,
bear, fox, wolf, beaver, squirrel, hare, rabbit, hedgehog, and some weasel
species. Microfauna (species with small bones, mouse-size) are numerous and
include various species of voles, lemmings, dormouse, shrews, and moles. The
large mammals are primarily represented by long bones; rabbits and birds are
found in complete anatomical segments, mainly limbs, suggesting they may
have been eaten. Some bones of the large mammals show definite evidence of
marrow extraction, such as percussion marks on long bones (Fig. 2.5) and cut
marks to remove meat made by stone tools on other bones.

Atapuerca, Spain: Gran Dolina, 900,000 years ago

The deposits at Gran Dolina accumulated at the mouth of a cave or rock shelter
that has largely disappeared. The original entrance near the top of the hill of
22 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Atapuerca was exposed when the deep

railroad cut was made through this area.
High scaffolding is necessary to reach
the deposits where the excavations take
place. The site is only 200 m (600 ft)
from Sima de Elefante.
There are many layers at Gran
Dolina but the most important is
layer 6, which has been dated to
approximately 900,000 years ago.
Th is layer is one of the richest in
terms of bone remains, with more
than twenty-five animal species
Fig. 2.5. such as horse, deer, bison, rhinoceros, wildcat, hyena, and wolf. Several
Long bone from a large hundred stone artifacts have been found among the bones, for the most
mammal from Sima del
part simple pebble tools and flakes along with a few handaxes. In addition,
Elefante, intentionally
fractured (arrows show
approximately a hundred human fossil fragments, representing at least six
the impact points) to individuals, have been found to date. These bones belong to Homo antecessor.
extract marrow. The best-preserved specimens include a maxilla (upper jaw) and a partial
frontal portion of the cranium including the right eye socket (Fig. 2.6).
The human remains from Gran Dolina were the oldest in Europe until the
discoveries at Sima del Elefante.
These human bones exhibit a pattern of breakage, cutting, and chopping by
stone tools that clearly indicates that the humans who butchered the animals
whose bones are in the cave also must have butchered and consumed these folks.
Gran Dolina documents the fact that these early Europeans were cannibals.

Atapuerca, Spain: Sima de los

Huesos, 530,000 years ago
Both Elefante and Dolina were exposed when the
railroad was cut through the hills of Atapuerca.
Sima de los Huesos (“pit of bones”), however, lies
deep inside the hill and was found by spelunkers
and zoologists collecting the bones of bears that
had died while hibernating in the cave during the
Pleistocene.
The Pit of Bones is an extraordinary crevice
deep in one of the largest caves in the Atapuerca
region. The “pit” lies 55 m (180 ft) below ground
surface and 500 m (1,650 ft) from the nearest
modern entrance to the cave. The pit is “sock-
Fig. 2.6.
shaped,” a small depression at the end of a sloping passage entered from a 13 m
The skull of Homo
antecessor from Gran vertical shaft. Just to reach this crevice is a difficult journey for the excavators.
Dolina. The passage is narrow and slippery, and part of the trip into the site requires
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 23

traversing a deep shaft. Only one or two individuals at a time can work in this
nook; it is warm and has a low level of oxygen.
The excavations, however difficult, have produced spectacular results and
the largest set of human remains from the Paleolithic ever recovered. The
remains of humans and bears are mixed together at the bottom of the shaft
in a red clay layer that has preserved the bone. There are an especially large
number of teeth and finger bones at the site. The human remains in Sima de
los Huesos have been designated as Homo heidelbergensis and represent the
ancestors of the Neanderthals discussed later in this chapter. These remains
have recently been dated to a minimum age of 530,000 years.
Parts of the skeletons of at least thirty-two individuals have been found
(Fig. 2.7), a remarkably large number. Nine are male, nine are female (the sex
of fourteen could not be determined on the basis of the bones). The largest
number, eleven individuals, were between thirteen and seventeen years of
age. There are four children between three and thirteen. Only three people
were older than thirty when they died, and no one had reached the age of
forty. These individuals were of normal height; males averaged 1.75 m (5’9”),
females 1.7 m (5’6”). The tallest person was 1.8 m (5’9”) and probably weighed
Fig. 2.7.
90 kg (200 lbs). The cause of death is unknown. Several of the individuals had An artist’s
suffered from disease or injury. reconstruction of the
The Sima de los Huesos remains account for more than 80 percent of individuals from Sima
all known Middle Pleistocene fossils for the genus Homo and furnish an de los Huesos.
24 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

unprecedented collection for study. Excavations at the site continue every year,
and the project scientists believe there are likely forty more individuals in the
pit. The remains are an extraordinary sample of a human population living
during the Lower Paleolithic. As a result, we know more about these early
hominins than about almost any others.
It is also important to think about the context of the human remains at
Sima de los Huesos, at the bottom of a four-story shaft in the back of a cave
more than half a kilometer from the nearest entrance and sunlight. The
bodies of these heidelbergensis individuals were intentionally put into the pit.
Their cadavers must have been carried into the cave, through the difficult
passage, and dropped into the shaft. Perhaps this behavior foreshadows the
practice of intentional burial that is first seen among Neanderthals in the
Middle Paleolithic. The question of course is, Why? It appears there was
no health or sanitary reason for the long and arduous journey though the
cave. We may be witnessing here some of the first evidence for a “human”
awareness of death and special treatment of the dead. Of course, there may
be very different reasons these individuals were placed or somehow ended up
in the shaft, but they are not known.
New discoveries turn up regularly. Recently
the hallmark stone tool of the Lower Paleolithic,
a handaxe, was found among the bones (Fig. 2.8).
Although the earliest stone tools do have a cutting
edge, they are extremely simple and unwieldy. These
early tools evolved and improved over time as early
hominins began to remove more and more flakes
from the core of raw material, reshaping it and
creating longer, straighter edges for cutting. When
such a core tool assumes a distinctive teardrop
shape—pointed at one end, rounded at the other,
retouched to a desired size, shape, and heft—it is
known as a handaxe, the signature tool of Homo
ergaster, erectus, and antecessor. The handaxe is
truly an all-purpose piece of equipment that was
used for cutting, sawing, digging, bashing, and
boring large holes, among other things. This tool
was the Swiss army knife of the Paleolithic and
must have been used by everyone, since hundreds
of thousands of examples have been found at
Lower Paleolithic sites throughout Europe, Africa,
and large areas of Asia.
The handaxe is a more complex tool than it first
appears. Its final form is a shape inside a piece of
stone, and so it is in the mind of the maker; a cobble
Fig. 2.8.
The handaxe from Sima must be heavily modified for the handaxe to emerge. Moreover, the handaxe is
de los Huesos. Length symmetrical in outline, reflecting purpose, skill, and foresight in manufacture.
approximately 16 cm. Handaxes are often made from small cobbles 10–15 cm (4–6 in) long. A number
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 25

of much larger examples, however, also exist, some more than 30 cm (1 ft) in
length. The oldest Acheulean handaxes are known from a site in Ethiopia and date
to 1.9 mya. The oldest known handaxes in Europe come from southern Spain and
date to about 900,000 years ago.

BOXGROV E, ENGL A ND, 5 0 0,0 0 0 Y E A RS AGO

The relatively few archaeological sites in Europe older than 500,000 years, like
Atapuerca, are usually found south of the Alps. The general consensus has been
that northern Europe was a hostile and difficult climate in the Pleistocene and
early hominin groups stayed closer to the warmer zone of the Mediterranean.
This picture has changed a bit with major recent discoveries in the British Isles.
Early Paleolithic materials have been found at Happisburgh, Pakefield, and
Boxgrove. The first two sites have been reported only in the last few years and
are still under investigation. Pakefield, in county Suffolk on the east coast of
England, dates to ca. 700,000 years ago, and Happisburgh, in Norfolk, also
along the east coast, is perhaps 950,000 years old.
The site of Boxgrove has been known for some time and is one of the best-
documented Paleolithic sites in Europe. The name of the site comes from
the large parish in which it is located, not far from Brighton on the coast of
England, about 80 km (50 mi) directly south of London. Today the site lies
12 km (7.5 mi) from the sea, but 500,000 years ago it was part of the Atlantic
coast of Britain. The site here is in an area of buried chalk cliff that overlooked
a wide, level beach with a water hole or small stream.
The Eartham Quarry Company has been removing sand and gravel from the
deposits at Boxgrove for decades. The quarries go deeper and deeper into the
old seashore and move along the base of the chalk cliffs where these materials
formed half a million years ago. Many years ago, the workmen at the gravel
quarry began finding the bones of ancient animals and stone tools in some of the
layers they were digging up. Eventually archaeologists got involved, and a long-
term program of investigations was begun and continues here today (Fig. 2.9).
The quarry work has exposed these old surfaces over large areas. Boxgrove
is important for many reasons, notably the degree of preservation of the
landscape, the impressive size of the undisturbed ancient land surface, and
the quantity of well-preserved animal bones—even bird and fish bones are
in excellent condition. Many fine Paleolithic flint artifacts and the bones of
Homo heidelbergensis also found at the site. The combination of geology and
bones and stone artifacts found in situ gives a detailed picture of the coastal
plain of southern Britain half a million years ago.
The region around Boxgrove contains one of the largest preserved Paleolithic
land surfaces in Europe, buried beneath several meters of more recent sediments
(Fig. 2.10). More than ninety separate excavation areas have been opened by the
Boxgrove archaeological project since the 1980s, many producing exceptionally
well-preserved scatters of flint artifacts and mammalian fauna. This unique
record is allowing aspects of past human life such as tool manufacture,
subsistence, butchery patterns, and land use to be studied in detail.
26 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 2.9.
Excavations at Boxgrove
exposing the Lower
Paleolithic surface.

Fig. 2.10.
Cleaning stone artifacts
on the Lower Paleolithic
surface at Boxgrove.

The archaeological materials have been found in a deposit known as the

Slindon formation, sands and silts deposited at the junction of the chalk cliff
and the coastal plain (Fig. 2.11). Geological investigation of these deposits
has documented that this was a terrestrial environment surrounding a small,
shallow lake or pond, fed by spring water from the chalk cliffs. Isotopic analyses
of shells from the deposits indicate that summer temperatures were similar to
present day, while winters were probably colder.
The human activity at Boxgrove took place during an interglacial period, a
warm episode between the major cold spells of the Pleistocene. The best-preserved
remains had been buried in fine silt near the bottom of the high chalk cliff,
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 27

Fig. 2.11.
The sequence of
deposits at Boxgrove.
The Paleolithic
materials are near
the bottom of the
stratigraphy.

deposited in still water around the water hole, close to the high-tide mark. The
lack of in-ground features such as pits, postholes, or hearths suggests that this was
not an area of residence, but rather involved hunting and butchering activities.
At the excavation area designated as Q1/B, freshwater deposits next to the
chalk preserved the remains of butchered animal bones along with quantities of
handaxes, a few flake tools, and many sharp waste flakes. The flint was available
in the nearby chalk cliffs. The few flake tools were standard forms, mostly
scrapers. A large number of very fine handaxes have been found at this location.
This site appears to have been repeatedly used by early humans. Herbivores such
as rhinoceros, horse, bison, giant deer, and red deer may have been attracted to
the water hole, an excellent location for intercepting game. It was also here that
a tibia and two teeth belonging to Homo heidelbergensis were found.
Many of the animal bones exhibit cut marks from the flint tools used to
butcher the carcasses of the large game animals. There were no cut marks
observed on small animals found at the site, suggesting that the large game were
the primary prey. Cut marks from butchering occur in places on the skeleton
where large sections of meat were available and suggest that the animals were
hunted rather than scavenged. Cut marks were always found beneath the later
gnawing marks from scavengers. The whole spectrum of butchery-related traces
has been identified by the researchers, including cut marks created during
skinning, dismemberment, filleting, and scraping of long bones along with
impact scars resulting from breaking bones to remove the marrow.
At another site in the huge quarry at Boxgrove, the fragmentary bones of a large
horse were surrounded by small heaps of flint debris, left where a group of human
ancestors had made some new handaxes before butchering the meat. You can
almost imagine the stone waste materials piling up between the legs of the flint
worker as the handaxes took shape. The hunters here brought six large nodules
of flint to the site to make stone tools. A hole in a shoulder blade of the horse has
28 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 2.12.
Four views of an
Acheulean handaxe
from a Lower
Paleolithic site in
France. 27 cm long.

been interpreted as a sign that the animal was killed with a wooden spear. Such
spears, found at Schöningen, Germany, dating from 400,000 years ago, strongly
support this suggestion. (Schöningen is discussed in the next section.)
The flint tools at the site, including the handaxes, appear to have been made
rather quickly, used for butchering the animal prey and then discarded (Fig. 2.12).
Archaeologists spent many hours refitting the pieces of flaked stone back into
their original “unbroken” nodules. It’s a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle with very
similar pieces. The information gained, however, is invaluable. By mapping the
location of the pieces that fit together it is possible to see all the places associated
with the making and use of the stone artifacts. At Boxgrove, the distribution of
refitted pieces was usually very tight, indicating that the manufacture, use, and
discarding of the products of tool making took place in the same immediate area
and that it was not substantially disturbed in the last 500,000 years.
The Boxgrove quarry was purchased by English Heritage in 2003 for
preservation and future research. Boxgrove has been declared a Site of Special
Scientific Interest in Britain; almost 10 hectares (25 acres) have been protected
for the future by reburying the deposits of a part of the site with inert waste.

SCH Ö NINGEN, GERM A N Y, 4 0 0,0 0 0 Y E A RS AGO

There is an important debate among the scientists studying our early human
ancestors about what we ate and how we obtained our food. The early human
diet is difficult to determine because the remains of meals are generally not
well preserved. The wild plants of Africa probably provided a ready source of
food for early humans, but plant materials do not survive from so long ago.
The importance of fruits, nuts, and other plant foods in the diet is unknown.
Longer, colder winters in more northern latitudes must have put a premium on
successful predation. Meat would have been the source of sustenance during
winter when roots, nuts, leaves, and other edible plants were not readily
available. Meat became essential to the human way of life in colder climates.
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 29

plant materials that are on their way to becoming coal. Lignite is used as a
fuel for electric power generation; Germany is the world’s largest producer
of lignite.
Around Schöningen, the deposits of lignite are up to 30 m (100 ft) in depth.
Hartmut Thieme, an archaeologist from Hannover, has been visiting the strip
mines there since 1983. Because the brown coal is a relatively recent deposit
from the Pleistocene and Holocene, archaeological materials from many
periods have been unearthed by the mining. Thieme and his colleagues have
surveyed approximately 6 km2 (2.3 mi2) within the area of the mine. Materials
from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age have been uncovered.
The Lower Paleolithic sites were first discovered in 1992 in the southern
part of the mine at a depth of 8–15 m (25–50 ft) below the present surface. In
the deposits of brown coal lie a series of mud and peat layers that mark erosion
channels and former lakes in an ancient, buried landscape. The archaeological
sites were found along these former lake and stream shores, buried in the
organic materials that have preserved them so well. The remains of many
species of animals have been found at Schöningen, among them mammoth,
bison, wild cattle, horse, and red deer. The early humans came here during an
interglacial period, between the colder episodes of the Pleistocene, in northern
Europe. The climate at the time was cool and temperate; the vegetation in the
region was a mix of meadow and forest steppe.
There are several concentrations of archaeological materials from the Lower
Fig. 2.14.
The skull of a Paleolithic. Three sites are discussed here, designated as Schöningen 12, 13:1,
Pleistocene horse and 13:4. Schöningen 13:1 is the oldest and deepest of the three, along a
from Schöningen. former lakeshore. This site contained stone tools, some of which had been
30 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

burned, and the bones of mammoth, wild cattle,

horse (Fig. 2.14), and red deer. Just above the layer
with the archaeological materials were found the
complete skull of a bison and the footprints of large
mammals in the hardened mud.
Schöningen 12 also lies along a former lakeshore
and holds more than a thousand bones from the
straight-tusked elephant, a common prey animal
in the Lower Paleolithic, along with ten other
mammal species, and the remains of birds, fish,
and reptiles. Of particular interest were several
wooden objects, branches broken from a silver fir
tree and split diagonally across the knobby end,
in all likelihood to serve as a haft for an inserted
stone tool. If this supposition is correct, these
would be the earliest known composite artifacts,
tools made of more than one material.
The spear site (13:4) was found about 10 m (33 ft) below the present ground Fig. 2.15.
surface, originally along the shore of a small lake. The scatter of artifacts and A horse rib with cut
marks from filleting
other materials extends for about 50 m (164 ft) and is roughly 10 m (33 ft)
with a stone tool found
wide. This is a remarkable place because of the quality of preservation and beneath tooth marks
the age of the site, ca. 400,000 years. More than 25,000 animal bones and from a carnivore,
fragments have been found; 90 percent are from at least twenty horses and the indicating that the early
remainder are largely deer and wild cattle. Many of the horse bones have cut human ancestors at
marks and fractures typically produced by butchering. Several of the bones Schöningen had first
choice of the meat on
with cut marks also have impressions from carnivore teeth superimposed
the animal.
on the earlier cut marks (Fig. 2.15), indicating that the humans got the prey
before other predators did. Breakage patterns in the horse bones show the
hunters were after marrow as well as meat. The stone tools are made of flint
and include a variety of scraping and pointed pieces and many sharp edges.
Diverse wooden artifacts have been found. One of the first was a spruce
throwing stick, sharpened at both ends, about 80 cm long (2.6 ft) and 3 cm
(1.2 in) thick. This weapon could have been used to hunt waterfowl such as the
geese identified among the bones at the site.
The spears at Schöningen were used to hunt fast, mobile Pleistocene horses—
testimony to the skills of these hunters. At least eight spears have been found at
the site, lying among the skeletons of horses. The spears were made from small,
straight spruce trees approximately thirty years old and averaging 2 m (6.6 ft)
in length (Fig. 2.16). These were designed for throwing, carefully worked and
weighted weapons with a balance point. The spears resemble the modern javelins
used in athletic competition. The sharp end was fashioned at the base of the tree,
where the hardest wood is found. A modern copy has been thrown accurately
a distance of 60 m (almost 200 ft). For whatever reasons, and fortunately for
archaeology, the hunters left their spears behind when they left this place.
At least four hearths have been found, each about one meter in diameter
with burned and discolored earth clearly marking the location of the fire. Fire
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 31

Boxgrove supplies good evidence that early humans in Europe were predators,
eating meat as the first feeders. But how were the animals killed? How did our
early ancestors obtain their meat?
This question is at the center of a controversy in archaeology concerning
scavenging versus hunting. Some scholars believe that our early human
ancestors were primarily scavengers, visiting the kills of predatory animals,
taking the morsels that remained, competing with other scavengers. These
individuals argue that the actual hunting of large animals is a relatively recent
development in human prehistory. Others contend that early human ancestors
were successful hunters—stalking, killing, butchering, and eating the creatures
of Pleistocene Europe. The previous evidence was scanty and open to debate.
The discoveries at Schöningen, however, have ended that debate.
The remarkable Paleolithic finds at Schöningen come from a modern
strip mine for brown coal, located about 100 km (62 mi) east of Hannover,
Germany (Fig. 2.13). Brown coal, or lignite, is an organic deposit of ancient

Fig. 2.13.
Aerial view of the
excavations at
Schöningen in 1995.
The structure on the
terrace covers some
of the Paleolithic
excavations. The huge
excavations are part of
an open pit coal mine.
32 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

must have been a major factor in the

increasing success of human adaptation
and the move into new, colder habitats.
The oldest known evidence for the use
of fire comes from Israel and dates to
800,000 years ago. Cooking with
fire offers a number of advantages,
in addition to making food more
tender and palatable. It improves the
digestibility of many foods and destroys
harmful bacteria. For Homo antecessor,
cooking probably made it possible to
add new foods to the diet. The hearth
as a source of warmth and cooked
food was probably responsible for
changing human subsistence activities
from a feed-as-you-go-and-eat-raw-
food strategy to the sharing of cooked
foods. The hearth became an attractive
location for increased social interaction
between individuals.
This is clearly a hunting-and-
butchering site from the Lower
Paleolithic. Thieme, the excavator,
believes the site was used in the late
summer or fall when the water level
in the lake was lower. He also suggests
that the materials at Schöningen
13:4 are the result of a single hunting
episode in which a group of hunters
killed a number of horses along the
Fig. 2.16. shore of this lake. Twenty or more horses would have yielded a huge amount
One of the wooden of meat. There are some indications that it may have been cut into strips and
spears from Schöningen smoked or dried for later use. This was elaborate and thoughtful behavior on the
in its original position
of discovery.
part of Homo heidelbergensis 400,000 years ago.

NE A NDER T H A L S
As noted earlier, Neanderthals evolved from Homo heidelbergensis in Europe
around 250,000 years ago as a rather isolated branch of the genus Homo. Fossil
skeletons of Neanderthals are recognized by several characteristic features in the
skull and teeth. The cranium is relatively low, and the face is long. Prominent
brow ridges—bony protrusions above the eyes—and generally heavy bone
structure give the skull a distinctive look. The face is large, the forehead slopes
sharply backward, and the nose and the teeth sit farther forward than in any
other hominin, giving the entire face an elongated appearance. The front teeth
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 33

are often heavily worn, even the deciduous teeth of

young children, suggesting they were used constantly
for grasping or heavy chewing.
The skeleton of the Neanderthals differs somewhat
from anatomically modern forms, although they
had the same posture, dexterity, and mobility
(Fig. 2.17). Neanderthals were generally short and
stocky, averaging about 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in height, with
bowed limbs and large joints supporting a powerful
physique. Neanderthal bones are generally described as
robust; they had heavier limb bones than anatomically
modern humans, suggesting greater muscular strength
and a more powerful grip. This strength is also evident
in the shoulder blades and neck, and on the back
of the skull, where heavy muscle attachments are
noticeable. The average brain size of the Neanderthals
is slightly larger than that of modern humans, perhaps
a consequence of their heavier bone structure.
The heavy limbed appearance of the Neanderthals
may be related to the strength and endurance required
for travel over irregular terrain or to cold climate, similar
to that of the Eskimo. Or perhaps Neanderthals had to
be stronger to accomplish physically what anatomically
modern humans accomplished with sophisticated tools. Neanderthal skeletons Fig. 2.17.
exhibit more traumatic damage, especially fractures to the head and neck, Neanderthal (left) and
Homo sapiens skeletons
from accident or violence than many modern populations, perhaps from close
(right).
encounters with large game. The Neanderthals often lived to their late thirties
or midforties, a rather long life span in deep antiquity.
Neanderthals are generally found with flake tools, shaped into a variety of
forms for more specialized uses (Fig. 2.18). The term Middle Paleolithic is used

Fig. 2.18.
Flake tools from the
Neanderthal deposits
at Gorham’s Cave,
Gibraltar.
34 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

to describe these kinds of artifacts, which date from approximately 250,000

to 30,000 years ago in Europe. Handaxes continued to be made, but large
retouched flakes are hallmarks of the period.
The Neanderthals were large-game hunters. Isotopic studies of their bones
document a heavily carnivorous diet. Their prey varied across Europe; reindeer
were hunted primarily in the west and mammoths were more commonly hunted
in eastern regions. Cultural innovations during this period include the first
intentional burial of the dead, sometimes accompanied by what appears to be food
or gifts. The presence of these materials in graves may imply concepts of death as
sleep, or of life after death. It also possible that Neanderthals decorated themselves
with beads, pendants, and body paint. Perforated shells and animal teeth were
made to be strung and worn. “Pencils” of manganese dioxide have been found in
several Neanderthal living spaces and were likely used to draw lines on animal and
human skin. This evidence for self-decoration, however, is speculative.
Neanderthal fossils and Middle Paleolithic artifacts are found primarily in
Europe. An extremely cold period around 75,000 years ago may have pushed
some Neanderthal groups southeast into Southwest Asia and eastward into
western Asia. Five sites related to Neanderthals are visited in these pages.
At Krapina in Croatia, skeletal remains from Neanderthals and a variety of
animal species paint a rather grisly picture of life in the Middle Paleolithic.
The bones of at least thirteen Neanderthal individuals were found, burned,
split to extract marrow, and treated like the other animals that yielded meals
for the occupants of this site. Cannibalism, it seems, was not uncommon in
the Paleolithic. Salzgitter-Lebenstedt in northern Germany offers convincing
evidence that Neanderthals were well adapted as big-game hunters to the
cold conditions of Pleistocene Europe 55,000 years ago.
El Sidrón in northern Spain contains a large number of Neanderthal fossils of
great interest in genetic studies because of the good conditions of preservation.
At Arcy-sur-Cure in central France, Neanderthals occupied a series of caves
along a lovely, meandering river and left substantial remains for archaeologists to
puzzle over. The Neanderthal sites here are among the last in Europe and a good
place to seek an answer to the question of why the Neanderthals disappeared.
Finally, at Vindija, Croatia, not far from Krapina, bones and stones also from
the time of transition between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans
lend further insight as to the changes that were taking place.
By 30,000 years ago, almost all the Neanderthals were gone from Europe,
extinct, end of the line. A few refuge populations appear to have hung on in
southern Iberia until perhaps 25,000, when they too were replaced by Homo
sapiens, individuals like ourselves. The question of how that replacement
happened remains an intriguing puzzle in prehistory, not yet fully solved. The
mystery is discussed in more detail later in this chapter.

K R A PIN A , SER BI A , 13 0,0 0 0 Y E A RS AGO

There are two very important sites in northwestern Croatia for our under-
standing of the Neanderthals. Krapina is a famous place because of the
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 35

large number of skeletal remains found there and the convincing evidence
for cannibalism. Vindija Cave contained some of the youngest Neanderthal
remains in Europe and is particularly significant because of the layers dating
from the transition from Neanderthals to anatomically modern humans. Here
I discuss the discoveries from Krapina and some information on Neanderthal
diet. Toward the end of this chapter, we return to Vindija and what the
remains from that Croatian cave tell us about ourselves and our ancestry.
In 1856, three years before Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking
book On the Origin of Species, proposing natural selection as a mechanism for
evolution, pieces of a strange skeleton were unearthed in a limestone cave in the
valley of the Neander River, near Düsseldorf, Germany. At this time, the existence
of human forms earlier than Homo sapiens was not accepted, and there was only
limited awareness of a concept such as human evolution. Leading authorities
first described the bones from the Neander Valley as those of a deceased Prussian
soldier, a victim of Noah’s flood, or a congenital idiot—but definitely not an
early human ancestor. Gradually, however, more examples of these individuals
came to light. In 1886, at the cave of Spy in Belgium, two similar skeletons were
discovered in association with early stone tools and the bones of extinct animals,
clearly demonstrating the antiquity of humans in Europe.
Shortly thereafter, at the turn of the century in 1899, a Croatian
paleontologist with the wonderful name of Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger
visited a large rockshelter near the top of a limestone hill called Hušnjak, near
the town of Krapina in northern Croatia. Archaeological materials on the
surface deposits of the shelter convinced him to start digging. Between 1899
and 1905 almost 900 human fossil remains (Fig. 2.19), including 200 loose
teeth, were unearthed, along with numerous Middle Paleolithic artifacts and Fig. 2.19.
animal bones. The animal bones came from a variety of species such as cave Eye orbits and partial
cranium of one of the
bear, woolly rhinoceros, and aurochs (wild cattle). The age of the deposit—
Neanderthals from
including Neanderthal remains—is estimated to be around 130,000 years. Krapina.
Gorjanovic-Kramberger’s careful excavations
had a lasting legacy. He was one of the first in
Europe to preserve a stratigraphic section from
a prehistoric site as a record of the layers. He
saved virtually every Neanderthal bone from
the excavations and recorded the levels in
which they were found. He also saved most of
the stone tools and animal bones. He published
his results quickly and invited foreign scholars
to study the remains. His efforts meant that
Krapina has been included in virtually every
discussion of Neanderthals in the last hundred
years. Gorjanovic-Kramberger was also the first
to publish photographs of the hominin fossils
and to point out the evidence for cannibalism,
based on fragmentation and dispersal of the
bones, burning, cut marks, and other damage.
36 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

There is a very long and detailed series of investigations of the skeletal

remains from Krapina, which may be the most studied set of prehistoric fossils
in existence. The anatomical analysis of the Neanderthal bone material suggests
that at least seventy-five individuals are represented, the largest collection of
Neanderthals anywhere. The majority of the individuals died between the
ages of sixteen and twenty-four. The material was fragmentary, and although
there were pieces of most of the parts of the skeleton, there was no complete
skeleton for any single individual.
Many of the bones from Krapina were X-rayed in the 1990s. The results
indicated a generally healthy population with few indications of trauma or
disease, other than normal wear and tear due to age and activity. Several
individuals exhibited symptoms of osteoarthritis, and one person showed
evidence that a hand may have been amputated.
The case for cannibalism among the Neanderthals seems clear-cut, with
several sites across Europe recording similar kinds of evidence. El Sidrón,
discussed later in this chapter, holds convincing evidence of such a practice.
Several recent studies, however, have questioned this information and the
nature of the cannibalism taking place at Krapina. Erik Trinkhaus has argued
that none of the damage present in the Krapina Neanderthal skeletal sample
can be explained solely as a result of cannibalism. Moreover, he points out,
the frequencies of skeletal part preservation—particularly the survival of
fragile pieces of the skeleton—indicate that the Krapina Neanderthals were
buried, by either natural or human processes, soon after death. Trinkhaus
argues against cannibalism among the Neanderthals.
Two other studies have suggested that Neanderthal cannibalism may have
been important as a ritual activity, rather than for a meal. The first was done
by Jill Cook, David Frayer, and Jakov Radovcic. They believe that the flesh
was removed from the bones of these skeletons, but that it was done quite
systematically, perhaps as part of a mortuary ritual. Corpses were mutilated
by slicing off the ears, removing the tongue, detaching the lower jaw, and
skinning the head. Muscle and fat was removed from the limbs, and from
the torso by cutting, scraping, and scrubbing. The location and direction
of the cut marks suggest that the bodies were lying face-down during this
process.
The second study, by Jörg Orscheid, has raised serious questions about the
evidence itself, specifically the breakage patterns and cut marks. Orscheid
reports that certain elements such as the facial skeleton, base of the skull, and
hand and foot bones as well as vertebrae are underrepresented or missing at
Krapina. It seems unlikely that the bodies were buried in an undisturbed,
articulated manner. He further argues that the breakage patterns were not
caused by human activity, but rather by rock fall in the shelter as well as
by carnivore activity. The reported cut marks were generally not visible in
his study, and ones that were present appear to have been inflicted during
the excavations at the site! There is no consensus yet in this debate, but
similar evidence at several other Neanderthal sites in Europe strengthens the
argument for cannibalism.
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 37

SA L Z GI T T ER- L EBENS T ED T, GER M A N Y,

5 5,0 0 0 Y E A RS AGO
Salzgitter-Lebenstedt is located in Germany, some 50 km (30 mi) southeast of
the city of Hannover. The site lies along the slope of a small river valley, at a
point where the valley changes from narrow and steep to wide and flat. This
may have been a strategic spot along the migration route of reindeer herds.
A total area of 150 m2 (1,600 ft2) was first excavated in 1952; the site was
reopened in 1977 and another 220 m 2 (2,400 ft2) were exposed. The site has
garnered quite a bit of attention because of the well-preserved organic remains
from waterlogged deposits and the Middle Paleolithic age of the materials. The
evidence from Salzgitter-Lebenstedt has helped to resolve several important
questions about the behavior and abilities of the Neanderthals.
The age of the site has been determined from several lines of information. The
more than 800 flint artifacts that were found include small handaxes, scrapers,
and distinctive Levallois flakes that clearly belong to the Middle Paleolithic
and the Neanderthals. The Levallois technique involves some planning for
production of flakes of a specific size, through careful preparation of a core
before the flake is removed. The bones of several arctic and subarctic species
have been found at the site. The vast majority of the faunal remains come from
reindeer, mammoth, and horse, with 75 percent from reindeer alone. There are
a few bones and teeth from wolf, woolly rhinoceros, and bison. In addition,
there are five bones from Homo neanderthalensis, cranial fragments from at
least two individuals.
The evidence from pollen and other environmental indicators preserved
at the site suggests that the vegetation was a shrub tundra, with many cold-
adapted species of plants. Trees were rare and dwarfed in the cold conditions.
Dwarf birch and willow were present as shrub and bush vegetation. The faunal
remains confirm this picture of a cold, open landscape with stunted vegetation
and subarctic conditions. Pollen and other geological evidence indicate that
the sediments at the site belong to the last glacial period. The best estimate for
the age of the site is ca. 55,000 years ago, during a slightly warmer phase of
the later Pleistocene.
In addition to the stone tools found at the site, there were thirty-some
artifacts made from bone and ivory that document use of these materials by
Neanderthals. Most of these tools are pointed ribs and fibulae, along with a
distinctively carved bone point. The tools were shaped by whittling, which
can be seen in microscopic study of the worked points. Neanderthals were
definitely able to produce simple bone tools such as points and sharpened ribs.
The excavator interpreted the pointed ribs and fibulae as long bone daggers,
perhaps used to finish off wounded reindeer. Flaked bone artifacts are known
from other Neanderthal sites, including even flaked bone handaxes.
These materials were deeply buried at 4.5–5.5 m (ca. 16 ft) below the
surface in water-lain deposits (Fig. 2.20). Sandy sediments from moving
water and peaty mud from lakeshore deposition were most common. The
archaeological finds from the site were found in a band about 1 m (3.3 ft) thick
38 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

within the water-lain deposits.

Fragmented bones and stones
from this band could be fit back
together, and their distribution
covered large vertical and
horizontal distances in the
deposits, suggesting that all of
the archaeological materials
may have resulted from a single
depositional event. In essence,
even though the materials are
found in a thick band, they
were probably deposited as part
of the same set of activities and
then moved around somewhat
by nature.
Fig. 2.20. One of the major problems in investigating the oldest archaeological sites is
Excavations in progress the question of context. Did the materials found together come from the same
at Salzgitter-Lebenstedt
set of activities? Are the stones and bones and other materials at Salzgitter-
in the late 1970s. The
floor of this excavation
Lebenstedt the result of human hunting, butchering, and consumption of the
shows some of the animals? Or are these various materials from numerous sources simply found
animal bones in situ. together fortuitously, washed into eddies and bays by moving water, deposited
The seated human together by an accident of nature?
figure at ground level This is a difficult question to answer. Some archaeologists have argued
provides some scale.
for years that there is no irrefutable evidence of large-game hunting in the
European Paleolithic until the arrival of Homo sapiens. The assumption has
been that Neanderthals were not capable of the abstract thought, planning,
and cooperation that such hunting required.
Careful analysis of the animal remains can also suggest answers to many
questions, including whether the bones found at the site were associated
with the tools and other artifacts, if the animals were food for the site
inhabitants, what parts were eaten, if animals of a specific age or sex were
more commonly hunted, what time of year the animals were hunted, and if
there was specialization on a particular species or hunting was instead more
opportunistic and any animal encountered was considered as prey. Answers
to these questions help to define Neanderthal hunting capabilities and
strategies and assess their differences from and similarities to more recent
humans.
Archaeozoologists are trained to identify the genus and species of an animal
from small fragments of bone, as well as to determine the age and sex of the
animal, how bone was fragmented, and how many individual animals are
represented in the bone assemblage. The results of this work at Salzgitter-
Lebenstedt were particularly informative.
The predominance of reindeer bones helped confirm that specialized hunting
was indeed an important aspect of Neanderthal behavior. The fact that almost
all the bones of the reindeer skeleton are present in the archaeological deposit
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 39

argues that these materials are in situ and

largely undisturbed. The age and sex of the
animals was determined by bone size, tooth
wear, and other distinctive features. The
majority of the animals were males. Age was
estimated primarily from tooth size, eruption,
and wear on seventy-four mandibles. The age
of the animals ranged from calves to thirteen
years. Almost half of the slain animals were
eight or nine years of age, indicating a selection
for these individuals in their prime, and there
were only three animals over ten years of age.
The reindeer remains at Salzgitter-
Lebenstedt were different from the bones of
the other species in several ways, in addition to
being far more numerous. Bone preservation
of the reindeer was very good, the same skeletal
parts were present from all the animals, and
there was very little indication of gnawing by
other animals on the bones. It appears that
Neanderthal hunters at Salzgitter-Lebenstedt
likely killed many or all of these animals in
one hunt or only a few.
There was a high incidence of cut marks
and breakage made by humans cutting and fracturing the bone. Almost 40 Fig. 2.21.
percent of the bones have cut marks and about 25 percent show marrow fracture Cut marks made by
impacts. The cutting marks from sharp stone tools document dismemberment stone tools at three
locations on a reindeer
of the animal carcasses. These marks are located at the normal places used ulna.
for butchering an animal such as a reindeer (Fig. 2.21). Although reindeer
of all ages were killed in the hunt, the focus in butchering the animals and
extracting marrow was on the prime adult males. Much less attention was
given to females and young animals.
Season of death was determined from several lines of evidence. Three young
animals among the Salzgitter-Lebenstedt reindeer were between three and six
months old. Likely born in May or June, these calves would have died between
August and October. Antlers also provide some information. Measurements
of the diameter of the base of the antlers showed a bimodal distribution,
reflecting a larger group of adult males and a smaller group of subadult males,
females, and young animals. The archaeozoologist estimates that the adult
male animals died in a short period during the autumn, from September to
early October. This is also the time when all members of the herd—males,
females, and young—are together and on the move.
The predominance of animal bones from a single species, strongly
suggestive of intentional human hunting, is seen often at Paleolithic sites
after ca. 125,000 years ago. The evidence from Salzgitter-Lebenstedt suggests
that Neanderthals organized the ambush and mass kill of migrating reindeer
40 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

herds in the autumn of the year. The carcasses of the animals were butchered
intensively and marrow taken from the long bones and jaws. Prime adult males
were the focus of the hunt. Salzgitter-Lebenstedt and other Middle Paleolithic
sites in Europe clearly document that Neanderthals were successful hunters
who sometimes concentrated on a single species and selected prime-age prey.
The evidence from Salzgitter-Lebenstedt also confirms that Neanderthals were
capable of living and surviving in cold environments such as northern Europe
more than 50,000 years ago.
Archaeologists are also concerned with the social and ideological implications
of past activity and the issues that make us human. Cooperative large-game
hunting, as documented at Salzgitter-Lebenstedt, must have required complex,
probably verbal, communication and social interaction between individuals
from different groups. The amount of meat available in such communal hunts
was substantial, and even if the hunters took only the best portions there was
a great deal to go around. Perhaps these occasions were moments of shared
excitement and pleasure. A brief gathering of neighbors and relatives meant
partaking in the bounty of the hunt, and the opportunity to eat, laugh, dance,
flirt, argue, and become more human.

EL SIDR Ó N, SPA IN, 4 3,0 0 0 Y E A RS AGO

Spain has become the hot spot in Europe for Paleolithic studies. In the last
twenty years there have been many new sites, old human ancestors, and older
artifacts and animal bones discovered. El Sidrón can be added to the list.
El Sidrón has gained a great deal of attention for the Middle Paleolithic
materials found there, especially the bones of Neanderthals, discovered by a
group of spelunkers in 1994 who were exploring a small cave in the north of
Spain. Archaeologists then went to the cave and began careful excavations.
Since the year 2000, more than 1,600 bones and 350 stone tools have been
uncovered, dated to ca. 43,000 years ago.
An underground river here many thousands of years ago carved a long, winding
channel through the sandstone, creating many small side chambers and diversions.
The name Galeria del Osario (gallery of bones) was given to the chamber with the
Neanderthal remains. The bones come from an estimated twelve individuals: three
adult men, three adult women, three teenagers, and three children including an
infant. The discovery of so many individuals who died at the same time suggests
they may have been members of the same group or family.
The bones were broken and deeply scratched in such a way that there was no
question they had been part of a meal, fractured to remove the fatty marrow,
butchered to remove the meat from the bone. The researchers at the site believe
these individuals were killed and butchered outside the cave on the ground
above. Soon after, part of the roof of the cave collapsed, carrying the human
remains along with rock and sediments into the Galeria del Osario, where
they were protected for millennia by the undisturbed burial conditions.
The stone tools were typical Neanderthal artifacts made of locally available
lithic materials—side scrapers, points, denticulated pieces, and a small handaxe.
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 41

These tools may have been used in butchering the El Sidrón hominins or were
perhaps just in the area affected by the collapse of the roof.
Study of the bones and stone tools produced information on the nature
of the deposition of the materials. All of the human remains were found in a
single deep layer in the deposits. By fitting some of the broken stone artifacts
and bones back together, it was possible to plot the location of the pieces that
fit together. This information is available because the archaeologists recorded
the exact location of discovery for many of the finds. A plan showing the
vertical distribution of these refitted pieces indicated they were fairly
regularly spread over about one vertical meter (3’3”), no doubt a consequence
of the catastrophic collapse of the roof and the subsequent washing of these
materials into the cave. The study of the refits shows conclusively that this
deposit was the result of a single event and did not accumulate over a longer
period of time.
The physical anthropology of the human remains is fascinating. Although
the materials are fragmentary, all parts of the skeleton are represented in the
collection. In fact these remains were used in the forensic reconstruction of
Fig. 2.22.
a Neanderthal female (Fig. 2.22). The more than 1,600 bones found clearly A forensic
fall within the Neanderthal range of variation, and there are no anatomically reconstruction of a
modern human features present. There is extensive evidence for cannibalism Neanderthal female.
42 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

on the bones recovered from El Sidrón; some of the skulls were skinned, their
leg joints dismembered, and other long bones broken.
There is a high incidence of enamel hypoplasia seen in the teeth of all the
individuals in the deposit. These small, horizontal lines in the teeth represent
stress-related interruptions in development of the tooth enamel and likely
reflect nutritional shortages for the members of this group. The presence of
these stress markers is not uncommon among Neanderthals and probably
confirms the difficulty of the food quest in the rigors of Pleistocene Europe.
Some of the Neanderthal teeth from El Sidrón were examined recently using
the giant synchrotron near Geneva, Switzerland. This instrument is powerful
enough to make highly magnified and detailed photographs of the growth
layers in human tooth enamel. This information from the synchrotron reveals
a pattern of growth and development with daily growth lines, interrupted by
heavier stress lines from events such as birth, disease, injury, or hunger. This study
makes it possible to establish a more precise age for the children from El Sidrón.
The data also suggest that Neanderthal youngsters were reaching puberty and
adulthood several years before their anatomically modern equivalents.
The major finds at El Sidrón were, of course, the treasury of Neanderthal
bones. The physical, anatomical evidence from the skeletal remains is
enormously important—even more so because of the molecular evidence
they have yielded. Because of the extraordinary quality of preservation, the El
Sidrón bones have been very useful for the study of ancient DNA.
Mitochondrial DNA furnishes additional evidence that this may have
been a related group of family members. The three males appear to have been
genetically related and the three women were different, suggesting that females
may have moved in with the groups of their male partners at this time. Studies
have also demonstrated that the so-called FOXP2 locus found in modern
humans was also present in two of the Neanderthal individuals. This gene is
responsible for some aspects of speech and language ability in the brain and
the nerves that control the vocal apparatus. Presumably Neanderthals were
capable of speech. But of course, speech is not necessarily language.
As we have discussed, there is considerable debate over the humanness of
Neanderthals: whether they purposefully interred their dead, if they had complex
thoughts, whether they spoke a language, if they created art and decorated their
world and themselves. In addition, there is the continuing question about the
demise of the Neanderthals—were they killed off by the incoming anatomically
modern humans, or absorbed genetically into the larger population of Homo
sapiens? Certainly the evidence from El Sidrón speaks volumes in regard to the
question of speech and language. Moreover, the ancient DNA evidence also
suggests that there was some interbreeding between Neanderthals and early
Homo sapiens in Europe, implying their relationship was not always hostile.

GRO T T E DU R ENNE, F R A NCE, 4 0,0 0 0 Y E A RS AGO

Some of the northernmost caves in France are found near the village of Arcy-
sur-Cure, 100 km (60 mi) southeast of Paris. Although known for a very long
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 43

time—and under investigation by prehistorians for more than two centuries—

the discoveries continue, and continue to amaze. The caves lie in south-facing
limestone cliffs along the Cure River (Fig. 2.23). It’s a lovely spot on the river,
with some extraordinary archaeology.
The series of small caves at Arcy have been occupied intermittently, at least
since the time of Neanderthal. Many of their charming names are taken from
the animal species found among the archaeological bones: Abri du Lagopède
(grouse), Grotte du Cheval (horse), Grotte de l’Hyène (hyena), Grotte du
Trilobite, Grotte des Ours (wild cattle), Grotte du Renne (reindeer), Grotte du
Bison, Grotte du Loup (wolf), Grotte du Lion, Grotte des Fées (fairies), Grotte des
Deux Cours, Grande Grotte, Petit Abri, Grand Abri. Archaeological materials
have been found in all the caves and from a wide range of time periods.
These caves are important for a number of reasons. They contain substantial
deposits from the Middle Paleolithic, the time of Neanderthal. This includes
a complete small chamber with an unburied living area that was found when
excavations exposed the entrance. The caves also hold significant deposits from
the transition between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic and have the potential
to help resolve questions about when and how the replacement of Neanderthals
by Homo sapiens took place. In addition, there are some very early paintings,
discovered recently at the site, that document the northernmost (and some of
the oldest) cave art in France. This art at the Grande Grotte is discussed in the
next chapter.
One of the most unusual and fascinating discoveries at Arcy-sur-Cure
came some years after work got under way in Grotte du Renne. As the
excavations removed layer after layer, going deeper and deeper, the opening

Fig. 2.23.
Arcy-sur-Cure. The
caves are in the
limestone bluffs in the
upper center of the
photograph.
44 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

of a new chamber was slowly

exposed, buried beneath the deep
deposits. This new chamber had
never filled with sediments and
was basically in the same condition
as the Neanderthals left it, more
than 40,000 years ago (Fig. 2.24).
It was given the name the Galerie
Schoepflin. This small, low chamber
is more than 30 m (100 ft) from
the entrance to the cave, in an area
of total darkness. Neanderthals
must have sheltered in this interior
chamber for some period of time;
the floor of the chamber was
littered with thousands of animal
Fig. 2.24. bones and many stone tools, and it resembles the den of animals. There was
The Galerie Schoepflin no fireplace and little pattern to the scatter of bones and stones on the floor of
at the Grotte du Renne,
the chamber.
a Neanderthal den
preserved for tens of The other very important evidence from the Grotte du Renne comes from
thousands of years. layers dating from the time of the transition from Neanderthals to Homo
sapiens. These archaeological layers are known as the Châtelperronian, dating
to about 35,000 years BP and were followed by Aurignacian deposits, ca.
29,000 years ago. The Châtelperronian was the earliest Upper Paleolithic in
France and Northern Spain. The Aurignacian is another early phase of the
Upper Paleolithic and widely considered a product of Homo sapiens. The earliest
evidence for Upper Paleolithic technology comes from East Africa more than
50,000 years ago and includes bone tools, shell beads, and pendants, along
with a distinct set of artifacts.
The question is whether Neanderthals or Homo sapiens produced the
Châtelperronian because these materials include a number of items thought to
be associated only with anatomically modern humans, such as blades, objects
of personal adornment, and art. Figure 2.25 shows the remains of jewelry
made of animal teeth, bone, and shell, found in the Châtelperronian layer
at Grotte du Renne, If the Neanderthals did produce all these artifacts, then
the differences between these two species may not have been so great. Such a
possibility confounds the view of modern humans arriving with better brains,
better technology, and art and quickly replacing the Neanderthals.
The issue really is how different Neanderthals and anatomically modern
humans were. Much of the debate surrounding Grotte du Renne centers on
the portable art and ornaments that were found in the Aurignacian layer,
which closely resemble similar objects in the underlying Châtelperronian
horizon. The same layer contained a large number of Neanderthal teeth and
a skull fragment. That materials from the two layers were mixed together
in the past suddenly appears more likely now, with publication in 2010 of
a series of new radiocarbon dates documenting a wide range of dates from
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 45

Fig. 2.25.
Animal teeth and bone
perforated or notched
for use as jewelry, from
the Châtelperronian
layer at Grotte du
Renne.

the Châtelperronian layer. Now the association of Neanderthals with objects

of art and decoration seems dubious. An even more recent article, however,
reasserts the original context of these items in the Châtelperronian layer and
argues for their association with Neanderthals. The debate continues.
Similar information comes from the southwest of France. The archaeological
site of Saint-Césaire contains a number of layers from the Middle and Upper
Paleolithic periods, including the Châtelperronian. The dramatic evidence
from Saint-Césaire is the presence of a nearly complete Neanderthal skeleton
dated to 36,000 years ago in the Châtelperronian layer. When it was discovered
in 1979, the skeleton created an instant sensation; at that time, Neanderthals
were not considered capable of producing complex stone tools. Today, it is clear
that Neanderthals hafted flint points on wooden spear shafts and may well
have produced more complex artifacts such as the ones seen at Saint-Césaire.
The site is often regarded as evidence of the co-existence of Neanderthals and
Homo sapiens, depending on whom you ask!

V INDI JA CAV E, CR OATI A , 3 4,0 0 0 Y E A RS AGO

In most excavated Paleolithic sites in Europe, where there are layers from both
the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, there is a clear-cut difference between older
layers with Neanderthal–Middle Paleolithic bones and artifacts and younger
layers with Upper Paleolithic artifacts and the remains of anatomically modern
humans. But not always. The Grotte du Renne and Saint-Césaire have been
mentioned.
Vindija is also an exception because of the layers with a mixture of Middle
and Upper Paleolithic artifacts and both Neanderthal and sapiens individuals.
Many of the finds date from the period between 40,000 and 25,000 years ago,
the time of the transition from Neanderthal to anatomically modern humans
in Europe. In conventional archaeological wisdom, the Middle Paleolithic is
associated with Neanderthals and the Upper Paleolithic is found with Homo
sapiens. This is not the case at Vindija.
46 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

The most important layers in the cave for this discussion are labeled G, F,
and D. Layer G is subdivided into several phases. G3 dates from 45,000 to
38,000 years ago and contains Neanderthal remains in association with Middle
Paleolithic artifacts, as expected. G1 (34,000–32,000 years ago) contains
some of the youngest Neanderthals in Europe in a layer with both Middle
and Upper Paleolithic stone tools and early Upper Paleolithic bone points.
Layer F dates to 31,000–28,000 years ago, with the remains of individuals
who seem to have had a mix of sapiens and neanderthalensis features, in a
layer among artifacts thought to belong to the Upper Paleolithic, from a phase
called the Aurignacian. Level D is younger than 18,500 years and contains
only anatomically modern humans and distinctly Upper Paleolithic artifacts
associated with a younger Upper Paleolithic culture known as the Gravettian.
The anatomical and archaeological evidence from Vindija appears to show
a transition between Middle and Upper Paleolithic in which Neanderthals
are present in the early Upper Paleolithic levels. Such evidence would suggest
that there was interaction between these two human species between 40,000
and 30,000 years ago in Europe. At the same time, there are always doubts
and questions about the context and validity of such evidence because of the
possibility of disturbance and mixture of the archaeological layers. The genetic
investigations add another dimension to the argument and foster some further
resolution. These are discussed in more detail below.

A NCIEN T DN A
In 2004 a group of ancient-DNA scientists at the Max Planck Institute
for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, issued a categorical
statement to the effect that there was no genetic evidence that Neanderthals
and modern humans ever interbred. In 2009, when the group first announced
that they had begun to decode the Neanderthal genome—a huge step for
comparing genetic composition with our earlier relatives—they again reported
no significant evidence of interbreeding.
Then in 2010 the same scientists reversed themselves. By this time the
Leipzig group had reconstructed more than 60 percent of the Neanderthal
genome. The collagen preserved in the Vindija bones has been of great use to
geneticists in this investigation. Ancient DNA (aDNA) was extracted from
these bones and used to reconstruct the genetic code of the Neanderthals.
They used samples of bone from several sites, including Vindija, because of the
more recent date and the overlap with AMH individuals in time.
Now the scientists say they have found several indicators that there was gene
flow between the two species. By comparing the Neanderthal genome with
that of present-day humans, the research team concluded that Neanderthals
contributed 1–4 percent of the genome of Eurasians. The lead scientist, Svante
Pääbo, went so far as to say about the Neanderthals: “I would see them as a form
of humans that are bit more different than humans are today, but not much.” In
actual fact, it is difficult to know what to think given the amount of contradictory
genetic information regarding Neanderthals and modern humans.
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 47

The Leipzig group suggested that the flow of Neanderthal DNA into early
human DNA went in only one direction: from Neanderthals to sapiens. The
study found no early modern human DNA in the Neanderthal genome.
Another surprising aspect of this announcement was the argument that the
mixing between AMH and Neanderthal took place much earlier in time,
perhaps 60,000 to 100,000 years ago, not in Europe but in the Near East.
These results have not been readily accepted by other specialists, and the
question of the relationship between Neanderthals and sapiens remains
unresolved.

NE A NDER T H A L DIE T
Organic proteins in human tissue are generally fragile, and after death these
molecules disappear quickly under most conditions of burial. Fortunately there
are exceptions to this process, and under extraordinary conditions protein can
persist for thousands of years. This is the case for some of the human remains
from Vindija. The protein portion of bone, called collagen, is generally intact
in the Vindija human remains and can be used for dietary and genetic studies
rarely possible with materials this old.
Dietary studies of bone collagen focus on the isotopes of carbon and
nitrogen in the protein. Human tissue is ultimately constructed from the
nutrients in our food; the old maxim “you are what you eat” definitely applies
in this case. Carbon isotopes in bone collagen contain information about
the importance of seafood or certain kinds of plants in the diet. Nitrogen
isotopes reveal information about the position of the individual in the food
chain, or trophic level. Nitrogen isotopes in the bones at Vindija were the key
to understanding Neanderthal diet and pointed to a very carnivorous diet,
comparable to contemporary predators such as cave lions. These groups appear
to have been almost 100 percent meat eaters.
It is also possible to learn a bit about how they ate—and even more—
from their teeth. Microscopic examination of seven front teeth, incisors
and canines, of individuals from Vindija Cave revealed a series of scratches
(Fig. 2.26). The most parsimonious explanation for these marks has to do with
the table manners of Neanderthals. Observed among many groups around the
world, meat eaters often hold a large portion in their teeth and use a knife to
cut a bite-size piece off at their lips, the so-called stuff-and-cut method. Those
knives, stone or steel, sometimes rubbed against the teeth and left scratches.
That’s interesting, but what is more interesting is the pattern of the
scratches. The majority of these scratches, or striations, are oblique and run
from upper right to lower left. The direction of the marks means that the
person wielding the knife was right-handed. Studies of teeth from Vindija and
other Neanderthal sites show a ratio of 15:2 for right-handedness, similar to
the proportions today. This pattern has also been observed in the teeth from
Sima de los Huesos at Atapuerca, some 600,000 years ago, suggesting a long
antiquity for handedness in our human ancestors.
48 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 2.26. That’s also interesting, but more interesting again is what handedness means.
Microscopic scratches We are right- or left-handed because of the way our brains are organized, to
on the front teeth of
function in two parts, the right and left halves. Although such generalization
Neanderthals from
Vindija Cave.
is much too simplistic, linear reasoning and language components of grammar
and vocabulary are usually found on the left side of the brain. Other activities
such as the processing of sight and sound input, spatial manipulation, facial
perception, and artistic ability are usually functions of the right hemisphere.
Thus handedness is at least in some way related to the complexity of human
brains, and perhaps also to the emergence of language abilities.
The importance of meat in human diet may be related to the increasing size
of our brain during human evolution. The brains of our earliest ancestors were
around 500 cc, the size of an orange; modern human brain capacity is around
1300 cc, the size of a large grapefruit. Clearly our brains—and presumably our
intelligence—have increased during human evolution.
Neanderthals lived in the cold Pleistocene of Europe and most of their food
came from animals. Vegetation was sparse and plant foods were likely not
available for large parts of the year. Meat was food. Hunting provided most
of the diet. Steven Churchill, a paleoanthropologist at Duke University, has
calculated that a typical Neanderthal male would have needed up to 5,000
calories a day to support his body mass in the cold climate, almost the same as
what a bicycle racer burns every day in the Tour de France.
Another aspect of this intriguing argument about the importance of meat
in our diet has been put forward by Leslie Aiello, a biological anthropologist,
who argues that brains are “expensive” tissue and need lots of energy to operate;
larger brains need more energy. The brain uses twenty times as much energy as
the same amount of muscle tissue. Aiello believes the transition to a high-fat
and high-calorie meat diet allowed the body to invest more energy in brain
growth. She believes this shift toward more meat in the diet began with the
emergence of the genus Homo, ca. 2.5 mya. As part of the evidence for her
argument, Aiello points to human tapeworms, whose closest genetic relative
lives inside African hyenas and wild dogs. Aiello suggests that deep in our
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 49

human past our ancestors were eating meat, feeding on the same carcasses as
these other scavengers, and came into contact with these parasites.
Another aspect of past human diet involves cooking. Richard
Wrangham, an anthropologist, argues that cooking is really what has
shaped our human body. He points to research showing that people on
a diet of raw foods, including oil and meat, lost weight. They reported
feeling better but also experienced chronic energy deficiency. Raw food
is nutritious, but it requires more energy to process and metabolize in the
body. The use of fi re probably improved taste, but cooking certainly made
some foods easier to digest. As Wrangham notes, barbequed meat is altered
by the heat that breaks up long protein chains, softens cartilage and makes
tougher tissues more palatable. All of this makes meat more digestible for
stomach enzymes. Cooking also kills bacteria and can prolong shelf life.
Smoking meat helps to preserve it. We don’t know precisely when early
humans began cooking their food, but they probably started shortly after
they began regularly making fi res.

SOME R EF L EC T IONS
The early prehistory of Europe lies in the deep past, and little information
survives to the present. The stones and bones from Atapuerca present the most
detailed picture of what those ancestors looked like and what they were doing
in Iberia more than a million years ago. The skeletons of Homo antecessor are
mixed with the remains of various animals in the oldest sites. There is little
information on group size, season, or duration of visit that survives. Many
years ago, Martin Wobst pointed out the difficulties of understanding human
behavior in deep time. The bones of one hundred animals in a cavern at
Atapuerca, for example, could be the result of one visit by a small group, or one
hundred visits each by a single individual over a thousand years, or anything
in between. It is usually impossible to separate individual episodes of behavior
in deposits from so long ago.
These individuals were small-brained compared to their later descendants.
They made simple stone cutting tools, but we know little of their abilities
as foragers. The bones of larger animals exhibit cut marks from stone tools
and breakage patterns that indicate marrow extraction, suggesting that these
first Europeans were taking meat and marrow. But whether they hunted or
scavenged is not clear. There is convincing evidence of cannibalism from these
deposits, which might suggest that social conventions are not in place, that
social relationships—as we know them—are not well established.
The body of evidence then, although limited, intimates that human
society as a set of recognizable relationships, roles, and obligations was not yet
established. A closer behavioral analogy might be to groups of apes, moving
together in small troops through the landscape, stopping for short periods,
sleeping, eating, and leaving behind some lasting indication of their visit. As
well as occasionally eating other members of their own species.
50 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Atapuerca also offers some information for early human ancestors in Europe
between 1 million to 500,000 years ago. In this interval, several changes are
clear. The brain grows slowly in size and probably capacity. Stone tools evolve
and the handaxe becomes the common tool for these individuals, now known
as Homo heidelbergensis. Sites such as Gran Dolina remain a mix of human
and animal bones and stone tools, with little context beyond meat eating. The
evidence for cannibalism is reiterated.
One of the most enigmatic discoveries in the entire Paleolithic comes from
Sima de los Huesos: the remains of the thirty-two individuals found in the dark
depths of the big cave at Atapuerca, some 600,000 years ago. The questions of
how and why these individuals ended up in that hole may never be answered.
It may be that we witness in this deposit the beginnings of concepts about
death and ancestors in an unexpected context. Whatever the case, the mix of
young and old, male and female, suggests membership in a complete social
unit of all ages and sexes.
Many more archaeological sites began to appear in Europe after half a
million years ago, and more changes are evident in human behavior. Boxgrove
is one of the first of these sites in northern Europe. The concentrations of
artifacts here appear to be the remains of hunting and butchering activities.
Cut marks on bones always underlie scavenger tooth marks, suggesting the
early humans were the primary predators. Big game hunting is dramatically
documented at the site of Schöningen, where long wooden throwing spears
were found among the bones of wild horses.
Most of the earliest archaeological sites are found in the southern parts
of Europe. Archaeological remains that do occur in the north are almost
certainly from the warmer intervals during the Pleistocene. It is unlikely
that early humans could have survived in the extremely harsh winters of
Ice Age cold. The Pleistocene was a frozen forge that shaped and molded
these early human ancestors, demanding adaptation or death. Early humans
had to hunt successfully for winter food in the absence of edible vegetation.
Early humans had to stay warm and avoid frostbite and hypothermia. Fire
and shelter and perhaps some form of clothing were essentials in that hostile
climate. Until these capabilities were available, the Pleistocene cold had to
be avoided.
The earliest controlled use of fire in Europe dates to ca. 400,000 years
ago, when constructed fireplaces began to appear at a number of sites, such
as Schöningen in Germany. Fire brought substantial changes to human life.
It illuminated the night and prolonged the day, extended summer into winter,
permitted access to dark caverns, improved the nutrition and taste of many
foods, and may have constituted the focal point for the emergence of truly
human societies. The hearth became the center of action and interaction
for human groups. The distribution of artifacts, food remains, and other
archaeological materials around hearths reflects essential aspects of social
behavior and communication. The hearth ultimately defines social space. The
appearance of hearths may be an expression of the emergence of concepts of
home and camp.
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 51

Natural shelters in the form of caves and overhangs were used for refuge in
the rockier areas of Europe, but indications of camps or settlements have yet to
be observed in the earlier part of the Paleolithic. In spite of the optimism of a
few archaeologists, it seems unlikely that actual structures or camps are present
until later in time. Much of what has been observed archaeologically in the
early Paleolithic appears to be accumulations of materials, without significant
patterning or systematic distribution. Chu suggests some of these early dwelling
places may have been windbreaks to buffer the extreme cold of winters in these
regions, rather than true huts or shelters. Even the often-reported mammoth
bone “houses” from the Middle Paleolithic site of Molodova in the Ukraine
may well be natural features of some kind. Stringer and Gamble have described
some of these purported dwelling structures from the earlier Paleolithic as
more like nests than houses. Certainly the preserved Neanderthal den in
the Galerie Schoepflin at Grotte du Renne fits that description. Kolen has
reviewed a number of purported dwelling structures from the sites of Homo
heidelbergensis and neanderthalensis and finds no convincing evidence for
built structures. He argues that the earliest built dwellings date to the Upper
Paleolithic, associated with Homo sapiens.
Indications for clothing are difficult to find at archaeological sites because
of the decay of fragile organic materials, but a completely new line of evidence
comes from a surprising source, the genetic code of lice. There are two kinds
of lice in this story: head lice live in the hair on the head and have been around
for millions of years, while body lice live in clothing, not on the body, and
are a relatively recent species. Using mutation rates in modern lice genes, Ralf
Kittler and his associates estimated that the body louse first appeared between
42,000 and 72,000 years ago. Humans must have been wearing some form
of clothing or wrap at that time to furnish a habitat for this creature. More
convincing evidence for actual textiles comes from the Upper Paleolithic,
where both impressions of cloth in fired clay and dyed fibers of wild flax have
been found in excavations.
Between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago, Homo heidelbergensis became
Neanderthal across Europe. The human brain reached its present-day size.
New tools and ideas prevailed against the harsh environment. Life became
something more than eating, sleeping, and reproducing. Burial of the dead and
care of the handicapped and injured illustrate concern for fellow hominins.
The remains of an elderly man buried at La-Chappelle-aux-Saints in France
indicated that he had suffered from severe paralysis and arthritis, including
a broken jaw and missing teeth. Given those limitations, he must have been
cared for in the last years of his life.
Two big, related questions about Neanderthals stand out. The nature of
the Neanderthals is one; were they like us? Current thinking seems to favor
more alike than different. This question is in fact closely related to the second,
concerned with their fate: What happened to the Neanderthals, who became
extinct after 30,000 years ago? If Homo sapiens eradicated Neanderthals
in Europe, it implies major differences between the species and a certain
superiority of the anatomically modern humans. If Neanderthals and moderns
52 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

shared technological achievements and were romantically inclined, it becomes

much easier to accept them as close relatives of the human race.
Current anatomical evidence from Southwest Asia suggests that the first
sapiens individuals moved into this area around 90,000 years. The bones of
Homo sapiens from this time are found in layers with Middle Paleolithic tools.
Neanderthal skeletons have been found nearby, dating between 75,000 and
45,000 years ago. It is entirely possible that the Neanderthals in Southwest
Asia were forced there from Europe during a period of intense cold. It appears
that anatomically modern humans coexisted with Neanderthals in Southwest
Asia until around 45,000 years ago when the Neanderthals disappeared. In
Europe, the transition is less clear, and evidence for the first anatomically
modern humans is much later. Neanderthals are first known in Europe
by approximately 250,000 years ago, yet the earliest bones of anatomically
modern humans do not appear until after 40,000 years ago.
There were significant differences between neanderthalensis and sapiens.
Neanderthals hunted a limited range of species and used tools that changed
little over time compared to anatomically modern humans. Neanderthals
invested little in constructing shelter or organizing camps, perhaps a reflection
of shorter-duration stays and more mobility. In general the archaeological
record for Neanderthals is much more basic and limited than for Homo
sapiens.
Several lines of evidence for the relationship between Neanderthals and
anatomically modern humans are available. Ancient DNA sends a mixed
message. The early studies of genetic relationships between Neanderthals and
sapiens suggested no contact; more recent investigations point to some gene
flow between the two species. The archaeological evidence is also ambiguous,
but it appears that both populations were involved in making the creative
artifacts that are thought to define the modern mind. Physical anthropologists
argue that the anatomy of several burials from Europe reflects a mix of
Neanderthal and sapiens characteristics.
Erik Trinkhaus, one of the proponents of acculturation between
Neanderthals and sapiens, has summarized the current evidence regarding the
question, a sort of things-we-know list. Trinkhaus, a biological anthropologist,
focuses on the anatomical evidence.

1. The earliest Homo sapiens appear in East Africa around 200,000 years
ago, with a mix of ancient and modern human features.
2. These anatomically modern humans expanded into southwestern
Asia around 90,000 years ago. AMH remains are found with Middle
Paleolithic stone artifacts at that time. These sapiens groups may have
coexisted with Neanderthals there between 75,000 and 45,000 years
ago, one of the colder parts of the Pleistocene. After 45,000 years ago,
Neanderthals disappeared in Southwest Asia and Homo sapiens began
to expand into the rest of Asia and Europe.
3. Prior to 25,000 years ago, early Homo sapiens had a mix of ancient and
modern anatomical features.
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 53

Trinkhaus argues that biological data from the skeletal remains support the
assimilation, or mixture, model for the Neanderthal and AMH relationship—
expanding sapiens populations absorbed local Neanderthal groups. Although
we know little about population in the Paleolithic, some scholars have
suggested that the number of Neanderthals never exceeded 15,000 in western
Europe. If such relatively small numbers are reasonably accurate estimates,
then acculturation of these groups does seem feasible.
The jury is still out in this scientific trial. Certainly, there is a growing body
of cases in the archaeological record that appear to show late Neanderthal
remains found in early Upper Paleolithic cultural layers in sites in France,
Croatia, and elsewhere. At the same time, there are important questions
regarding the disturbance of archaeological sites and possible mixture of
layers, and issues about interpreting small, fragmentary remains of human
skeletal material.
In spite of a vigorous and ongoing debate, the evidence is growing to suggest
that the assimilation model fits at least some of the data. The aDNA evidence, in
spite of earlier statements to the contrary, now appears to support some genetic
mixture between Neanderthals and AMH. In sum, there is accumulating
information to support a peaceful, even romantic, encounter between these
two species. At the same time, there must have been violent encounters as
well. In all likelihood, both models of the transition to anatomically modern
humans in Europe are correct, and interaction between these species took
place in a variety of ways.
The fact is that the accumulating evidence for assimilation between
Neanderthals and moderns, including the presence of AMH in Middle
Paleolithic layers in southwest Asia and possible Neanderthals in Upper
Paleolithic levels in Europe, suggests that the differences between Homo
neanderthalensis and sapiens may not have been as substantial as was imagined
and that perhaps our long-lost cousins should be admitted back into the family.
The debate will continue, and the reputation of the Neanderthals will no doubt
waver until more convincing evidence finally resolves this dispute. More on
this issue in the next chapter and the site of Pestera cu Oase in Romania.
The question is also whether we can project our modern perspectives
and analogous behaviors back into the deep past of our human ancestors.
Hunter-gatherers are an anthropological construct, a model to describe
pre-farming human groups and their behavior. The model covers many
aspects of such societies, assumed to live in small groups of families and
move around a lot, with more or less egalitarian social relationships, and
reciprocal economies. But when does this form of social and subsistence
behavior become the norm in our Paleolithic past? Have we always been
hunter-gatherers? Likely not.
Clive Gamble questions the existence of human society in the early and
middle part of the Paleolithic, where society implies several family units
cooperating together in the hunt and other aspects of survival. Rather,
Gamble views our early ancestors as small gatherings of individuals surviving
by hunting. In this sense, our ancestry as hunter-gatherers seems less remote.
54 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Perhaps a generic term other than hunter-gatherers is needed for human groups
prior to the arrival of Homo sapiens.
There is so much we don’t know about our early human ancestors—in
Europe and elsewhere. As noted, there is little evidence and what exists is
fragmentary and often altered, moved or modified over the very many years
to the present. Research into human origins and evolution can be thought of
as a kind of identity quest. We want to know how “they” became “us,” which
raises all kinds of existential questions about what it means to be human. The
conventional qualifications for a human ancestor include bipedalism, larger
brains, and tool use. These criteria are met by Homo habilis in Africa some
2.5 mya. In this sense, early hominins were humans when they moved out of
Africa and into Asia and Europe sometime after 2 mya.
But there is more to being human than walking, thinking, and making
tools. The persistent ecological dominance of humans across the planet
is unprecedented among other species. Humans have unique capabilities,
notably cooperation among nonkin, language, advanced cognitive functions,
and technological virtuosity. Humans can walk, make tools, and have larger
brains; human beings can be altruistic, have free will, fear death, use complex
languages, plan for the future, enjoy art, and fall in love.
The origin of human speech and language is one of the more fascinating
aspects of humanness, but perhaps the most difficult to explain. The question
of when language appeared in human evolution is probably moot. Human
language evolved from the utterances and cries of communication found among
most primates to the complex grammar and vocabulary that characterizes
modern speech. Most animals make sounds. Chimpanzees have a repertoire of
twenty or more vocalizations and gestures for expressing their needs. Although
these apes can manipulate symbols, they are unable to connect more than two
or three concepts in a single phrase. To understand the changes in language
from gestures and cries to its complex form today, we must consider the path
of its evolution. The question is not when language appeared, but rather when
language became an important part of human survival.
Aiello and Dunbar argue that a close correlation between the neocortex
in the brain and size of human groups offers a means to predict the point
in human evolution when language would have been necessary to integrate
larger social groups and maintain cohesion. The neocortex is the outer layer
of the cerebral hemisphere associated with higher functions such as sensory
perception, motor commands, spatial reasoning, conscious thought, and
language. The appearance of larger group size, they believe, resulted in use of
language as a bonding mechanism.
Language poses a nonphysical form of social contact in larger groups where
such physical contact is not feasible. According to this hypothesis, language
came into existence as a kind of social glue. The members of larger groups
shared information on the location of other members and learned about the
availability of food resources. This information was shared with the larger
‘‘cognitive’’ group. Language made such exchange of information about
resources and coordination of foraging activities possible. Their study concludes
 THE FIRST EUROPE ANS 55

that language was a gradual development in human evolution, and by the time
of Neanderthals such enhanced vocal communication was in place. Others
such as Richard Klein have argued that a substantive change in language and
communication, perhaps initiated by important changes in the organization
of the brain, led to the creative explosion witnessed only 50,000 years ago,
culminating in the Upper Paleolithic, the subject of the next chapter.
 CH A P T ER T HR EE

The Creative Explosion

Origin and spread of modern humans
The Upper Paleolithic
Pestera cu Oase, Romania, 40,000 years ago
Grotte Chauvet, France, 32,000 years ago
Grande Grotte, Arcy-sur-Cure, France, 32,000 years ago
Dolní Věstonice, Czech Republic, 27,500 years ago
Grotte de la Vache, France, 14,000 years ago
Gönnersdorf, Germany, 11,500 years ago
Pincevent, France, 12,000 years ago
Doggerland, North Sea, 11,000 BC
The last hunters
Franchthi Cave, Greece, 9000 BC
Mount Sandel, Ireland, 7000 BC
Moita do Sebastião, Portugal, 6000 BC
Polderveg, Netherlands, 5500 BC
Tybrind Vig, Denmark, 5000 BC
Vedbæk, Denmark, 5000 BC
Rock art: Vingen, Norway, 5000 BC
Some reflections

ORIGIN A ND SP R E A D OF MODERN HUM A NS

Two related phenomena characterize the last 30,000 years or so of the
Pleistocene and the Old Stone Age in Europe, a period known as the Upper
Paleolithic. The first of these is the arrival of a version of ourselves, Homo sapiens,
around 40,000 years ago. The second is the creative explosion in technology,
equipment, raw materials, art, and decoration that took place in this period.
There appears to have been a substantial upgrade in human abilities and the
variety of activities taking place. The first part of this chapter examines some
of the sites and places that tell this story.
At the end of the Pleistocene and the Paleolithic, 10,000 years ago, hunter-
56
gatherers continued to thrive in a warmer, “postglacial” Europe, but their time
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 57

was coming to an end. Agriculture had been invented in the Near East and Fig. 3.1.
was spreading toward the continent, arriving in the southeast by 7000 b c and The location and
reaching the northeast by 4000 b c . This period of post-Pleistocene hunter- time scale for sites
mentioned in this
gatherers in Europe is known as the Mesolithic and is the focus of the second chapter.
part of this chapter.
By the end of the Pleistocene, Homo sapiens had created art, invented many
new tools, made tailored clothing, started counting, and spread to almost
all parts of the world. As noted earlier, the oldest known representatives of
anatomically modern humans have been found in East Africa, from almost
200,000 years ago. Further evidence of the activities of these individuals
comes from caves around Pinnacle Point on the Cape of Good Hope in South
Africa and dates to 165,000 years ago. This evidence is not in the form of
fossil skeletons, but artifacts. Several finds—small stone blades, pieces of red
ochre (an iron mineral used as a pigment), the earliest known collection and
consumption of shellfish—point to new kinds of food, new tools that probably
required hafting, and the use of powdered mineral as a pigment or preservative.
These are firsts in the archaeological record and likely document the beginnings
of the creative explosion witnessed more fully after 50,000 years ago.
The earliest skeletal remains of Homo sapiens found in western Europe date
to almost 40,000 years ago, following the appearance of blade tools and other
distinctively Upper Paleolithic artifacts. These anatomically modern individuals
were originally called Cro-Magnon, after the place in France where they were
first discovered. In spite of this distinctive name, they were indistinguishable from
anatomically modern humans. Lacking the robust frame, heavy brow ridges, and
58 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

protruding jaw of the Neanderthals, the H. sapiens face sits almost directly under
a bulging forehead. A chin reinforces the smaller, weaker jaw and its smaller teeth.
Cranial capacity is anatomically modern, and there is no obvious reason to assume
that Cro-Magnons were intellectually different from ourselves.

T HE UPP ER PA L EO L I T HIC
The Upper Paleolithic is characterized by a variety of changes and innovations that
developed over the last 30,000 years or so of the Pleistocene. These include the
arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe; extensive use of stone blades;
widespread manufacture of objects of bone, antler, ivory, and wood; invention of
new hunting equipment, such as the spearthrower and the bow and arrow; creation
of art and use of decoration; and domestication of the dog. The earliest evidence for
dog domestication dates to 33,000 years ago and comes from southern Siberia.
The Upper Paleolithic also represents an important phase in the geographic
expansion of the human species. There were more sites in more places than
ever before. Virtually all the earth’s diverse environments, from tropical rain
forest to arctic tundra, were inhabited during this period. Africa, Europe, and
Asia were filled with groups of hunter-gatherers, and Australia and North and
South America were colonized for the first time.
The archaeological materials of this period are best known from Europe, and
especially from southwestern France, which was an important hub of archaeological
activities during the twentieth century. Excavations over the last hundred years in
the deep deposits of caves and rockshelters in this area have exposed layer upon
layer of materials from the last part of the Pleistocene. These excavations and
studies of the contents of the layers resulted in recognition of a sequence of Upper
Fig. 3.2.
Paleolithic subperiods, known as the Châtelperronian, Aurignacian, Gravettian,
Upper Paleolithic
chronology,
Solutrean, and Magdalenian (Fig. 3.2). The term Gravettian has largely replaced
archaeological cultures, Perigordian in its use in European archaeology. These terms come from famous
and temperature. French sites where these subperiods were first recognized.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 59

The material remains left by these Upper Paleolithic societies reinforce the
idea that by this time our species had indeed arrived as creative creatures. Blade
manufacturing techniques and blade tools characterize the Upper Paleolithic.
Stone blades are a special form of elongated flake, with a length at least twice
its width and sharp, parallel cutting edges on both sides. Blades can be mass-
produced in large quantities from a single nodule of flint, removed from a core
in a fashion akin to peeling a carrot. Blades also provide a form, or blank, that
could be shaped (retouched) into a number of tools. Projectile points, burins
(cutting and engraving tools made from flint), knives, drills, and scraping tools
can all be made from a basic blade form.
Many new kinds of tools—made of materials such as bone, wood, ivory,
and antler—also distinguish the Upper Paleolithic. Spearthrowers, bows and
arrows, harpoons, ropes, nets, oil lamps, torches, and many other things have
been found. Hafting and composite tools, incorporating various materials,
were also introduced during the Upper Paleolithic. Resin and other adhesives
were used to hold stone tools in bone, antler, or wood handles.
Fine bone needles with small eyes document the manufacture of clothing
and other equipment sewn from animal skins. Several categories of carved
artifacts—buttons, gaming pieces, pendants, necklaces, and the like—
marked a new concern with personal appearance, expression of self, and
aesthetic embellishment of everyday objects. This development was closely
related to the appearance of decorative art (see Chapter 1, Fig. 1.3). Figurines,
cave paintings, engravings, and varied decorations of other objects reflect the
creative explosion that characterized Upper Paleolithic achievement. There is
also compelling evidence for celebration of the seasons and awareness of time
in the archaeological remains from the Upper Paleolithic. Finally, counting
systems and the beginning of a calendar of sorts—at least a recording of the
phases of the moon—may have begun in this time (Fig. 3.3).
In this chapter our story moves from the arrival of modern humans in
Europe until the appearance of Neolithic farmers, about 35,000 years between
the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic and the end of the Mesolithic. The
Upper Paleolithic (40,000–11,000 bp) is the last phase of the Paleolithic and
witnesses major changes in human life. The Mesolithic is the time of the
last hunters in Europe, between the end of the Paleolithic and the arrival of
Neolithic farmers (11,000–6000 BP).
Fig. 3.3.
The decorated bone
plaque from Abri
Blanchard, France.
The outer edge of the
object is serrated, and
the pattern of small
holes made by different
stone tools has been
interpreted as a
recording of the phases
of the moon; ca. 14 cm
in length.
60 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

We begin in a deep, dark cave in Romania, Pestera cu Oase, where the oldest
anatomical evidence for the first Homo sapiens in Europe has been found. One of
the hallmarks of this period is the appearance of art, dated to more than 30,000
years ago. There are so many marvelous Upper Paleolithic sites in southern
France and northern Spain that it is difficult to select a few examples. There are
literally hundreds of painted caves and dozens of important excavations that
have pursued the denizens of the late Pleistocene. So I have chosen three. The
Grande Grotte at Arcy-sur-Cure documents some of the archaeological evidence
for the start of the Upper Paleolithic. The journey continues with the site of
Chauvet, a recently discovered cave along a tributary of the Rhone River in the
south of France. Another cave, Grotte de la Vache, is fascinating in its own right
in terms of portable art pieces and other contents, but the site was also the focus
of an innovative archaeological investigation that has provided new information
on the lives of the inhabitants, in addition to its connection to the painted art in
the nearby cave of Niaux.
Upper Paleolithic hunters in the cold steppe and tundra of late Pleistocene
Europe concentrated on two species of animals. In western Europe reindeer
was the prey of choice, while mammoth were more commonly hunted in
the cold steppes of eastern Europe. The site of Dolní Věstonice in the Czech
Republic contains remarkable evidence of the settlement of mammoth
hunters in this region. Pincevent, in the environs of Paris, exhibits the
remains of reindeer hunters’ camps in northern France, Gonnersdörf and
Doggerland.

P E S T ER A CU O A SE, R OM A NI A ,
4 0,0 0 0 Y E A RS AGO
The Danube River carves a deep gorge through the Carpathian Mountains
along the border between Serbia and Romania in eastern Europe. This river
valley would have been a major route of east-west movement for human groups.
The area is rich in archaeological sites. (The site of Lepenski Vir, discussed in
the Neolithic chapter, yields some additional information about the region.)
The limestone mountains of the gorge are riddled with caves. In the winter
of 2002, a group of local spelunkers explored a large cave in southwestern
Romania. This was not an easy job. The cavers had to walk from the entrance
of the cave, more than 200 m (650 ft) through an underground river to a
point where they had to dive underwater and swim 25 m (80 ft) or so to reach
the interior caverns (Fig. 3.4). The dive was slow and difficult because of the
equipment and clothing they carried in and the archaeological materials they
carried out; usually two trips were required in each direction to move all the
gear, supplies, and samples. Then they climbed up from the bottom of a 30 m
(100 ft) deep pit, the equivalent of a ten-story building, to a higher level in the
cave to gain access to an unexplored series of chambers.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 61

At the end of the last of these

galleries was a small “mouse”
hole in the cave wall. A draft of
air through the hole suggested it
might open on another chamber.
The cavers removed enough rocks
and earth so that one person could
clamber through the hole. On the
other side were more galleries. These
new chambers had been sealed off
for thousands of years and were
littered with the skeletons of cave
bears, wolves, wild goats, and other
animals (Fig. 3.5). They named the
place Pestera cu Oase, the Cave of
the Bones.
After looking around for
sometime, one of the spelunkers
spied a lower jaw of human
form. The jaw was taken to the
local museum, and experts were
involved in a study to determine
how old this mandible might be
and to whom it belonged. Erik
Trinkaus, a specialist in early
human remains at Washington
University in St. Louis, Missouri,
noticed the presence of a bony
chin and other features on the
specimen, characteristic of
modern humans. Radiocarbon
dates from the jaw indicated an age of almost 40,000 years ago, making Fig. 3.4.
this the oldest known Homo sapiens in Europe. The next year, during Spelunkers at the
entrance to Pestera cu
continuing investigations at the site, an almost complete human face
Oase, Romania. They
and many of the fragments of the skull of that individual were recovered follow the stream in
(Fig. 3.6). the cave until it goes
Together, over the course of three years of investigation, the international underground. The
research team excavated more than 5,000 bones from the gallery, mapped the spelunkers dive through
cave bear hibernation nests, and collected samples for dating and geology. this passage into the
interior chambers of the
The discovery of the human remains in Pestera cu Oase rekindled debate
cave. Passage to the
about the relationship between modern humans and Neanderthals. The issue place with the human
here again is what happened to the Neanderthals. Trinkhaus argues that the remains requires about
specimens from Pestera cu Oase document the mixture of Neanderthal and an hour.
AMH features that might be expected at this critical date in the transition
from Neanderthals to Homo sapiens.
62 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 3.5.
A portion of the floor
of the Cave of the
Bones, Pestera cu
Oase, covered with the
remains of cave bear
and other species.

Fig. 3.6.
Stefan Milota, one
of the Romanian
spelunkers at Pestera
cu Oase, and the face
of the anatomically
modern individual
found in 2003.

GRO T T E CH AU V E T, F R A NCE, 32,0 0 0 Y E A RS AGO

The magnificent art of the Upper Paleolithic represents an awakening of the
creative spirit, an explosion of our aesthetic senses. Such a transformation may
also signify major changes in the minds of Upper Paleolithic people and/or
in the way they viewed the world and organized their lives and their society.
More than 200 painted caves from the Paleolithic have been discovered in
France over the past hundred years, and new caves continue to be found.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 63

Discoveries from the Grotte Chauvet have pushed back the date for the
earliest cave paintings by almost 10,000 years. The Ardeche River in the south
of France is a tributary of the Rhône and a popular outdoor destination for
kayakers and canoers. The river winds for more than 30 km (20 mi) through
a limestone gorge with high white cliffs and a natural arch over the water
(Fig. 3.7). This area is crowded with visitors in the summer, and there are
walking paths, picnic spots, and people everywhere. The region is also a
spelunker’s paradise; the limestone landscape is riddled with caves and caverns.
In December 1994, an archaeologist/caver named Jean-Marie Chauvet and Fig. 3.7.
The gorge of the
two of his friends entered a small cave not far from one of the spectacular Ardeche River in
bends in the river. On an earlier visit he had noticed a slight draft of air at the southern France, the
back of the cave. Digging out the rocks and earth, the group found a small location of Grotte
passage to a deep shaft. Down this 9 m (30 ft) shaft they came upon a huge Chauvet.
64 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 3.8.
Skull of a cave bear
perched on a stone
block on the cave floor
at Chauvet.

new cave with two major chambers and many side passages and galleries. The
entire cave was almost 2 km (1.2 mi) in length.
After the three had explored most of the cave, one of them noticed a painting
of a small mammoth on the wall, an animal extinct in Europe for thousands of
years. The cave had been hidden for more than 20,000 years by the collapse of
the entrance. Over the course of their subsequent exploration, the explorers found
hundreds of paintings and engravings. The bones and skulls of extinct animals
were scattered on the floor, and there were human footprints preserved in some
out-of-the-way places. Nothing had been touched. The soft, claylike floor of the
cave also retained the tracks of cave bears and large, rounded, depressions the bears
made as hibernation “nests.” Animal bones were abundant and included the skulls
of cave bears and the horned skull of an ibex (wild goat). One of the cave bear
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 65

skulls was found perched on the edge of a

stone block (Fig. 3.8), no doubt placed there
by one of the Upper Paleolithic visitors.
More than 300 paintings have now
been recorded in the Grotte de Chauvet,
depictions of some thirteen species of
animals. Perhaps because of the age of the
paintings, their style and appearance is
distinct from later Upper Paleolithic caves
in the southern France and northern Spain
(Fig. 3.9). Moreover, there are several
species in Chauvet that are rare in other
painted caves. The walls of the Chauvet
Cave are often covered with predators:
lions, panthers, bears, owls, and hyenas.
Jean Clottes, a leading French specialist
on cave art, believes that by painting these species that “symbolized danger, Fig. 3.10.
strength and power,” the artists may have been attempting “to capture the Panel of the Hand
Stencil. The design
essence of the animals.” Other species include mammoth, aurochs, giant red
was created by blowing
deer, woolly rhinoceros, horse, reindeer, and bison. paint over a hand held
The techniques used to make the paintings at Chauvet were unusual. Many against the wall (length
of the animals were painted on a surface after debris and concretions on the about 10 cm). The
wall had been scraped away, leaving a smoother, lighter canvas. In addition, the black outline is part
outline of some of the animals forms were carved into the cave wall, perhaps of a mammoth, drawn
before the hand.
to guide the artist, but these lines also have the effect of lending depth to the
painting, and in the light of a torch they create shadows around the edge.
There are no full human figures on the cave walls, but there are several
depictions of female genitalia, one perhaps with the upper body of a bison.
There are panels of red palm prints and others of hand stencils made by spitting
red pigment over hands pressed against the cave surface (Fig. 3.10). Abstract
markings—lines and dots—are found throughout the cave. There are also Fig. 3.9. (opposite)
engravings and finger drawings, depictions of animals made by dragging a Chauvet, the Lion
finger through the soft muddy walls found in parts of the cave. Panel (ca. 4.5 m in
length). Above, to the
Today we are aware that Chauvet contains some of the earliest known cave
right, a bison has been
paintings from the Upper Paleolithic. Radiocarbon dates from the paintings drawn as if coming out
themselves, from charcoal in torch soot on the walls, and from fireplaces on the of a hollow in the wall.
cave floor indicate that there were two periods of use, between 32,000 and 30,000 Below it is a young
years ago (the Aurignacian period of the Upper Paleolithic) and between 27,000 mammoth with huge
feet. Immediately to its
and 25,000 BP (the Gravettian). Some archaeologists have suggested that the
left, four bison heads
black paintings of animals in the caves may date from the earlier period, while the are seen from the front.
red scatters of palm and hand prints belong to the younger, Gravettian period. To their left several
As was the case with most of the painted caves of the Upper Paleolithic, bison and rhinos are
the interiors were not living areas. They were visited only briefly by the artists followed by a group of
and other members of society. People chose to use the shelter at the mouths lions (perhaps the lions
are hunting bison).
of caves as living areas, rather than reside in the dark, damp, cool recesses.
Under the panel there
Although Upper Paleolithic art was also likely painted at cave entrances and is an isolated rhino and
along cliff faces and rock outcroppings as well, it survived the erosive forces a horse.
66 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

of nature only inside caves. Cave art is, by and large, skillfully planned and
executed, capturing both the movement and the power of the animals that
Fig. 3.11. are rendered (Fig. 3.11). For the most part it is not graffiti; nor is it hastily
Panel of the Horses. sketched. The quality of the paintings is such that we must assume there were
This extensive frieze recognized artists in the Upper Paleolithic.
covers more than 6 m2;
Researchers at Chauvet believe that groups of people came repeatedly into
it lies within a larger
composition more than the cave to participate in ceremony or ritual activities. Footprints preserved in
6 m long. The wall was the muddy floors of various painted caves in Europe indicate that people of all
first scraped to remove sizes walked in the caves. Margaret Conkey, of the University of California,
previous drawings. The Berkeley, argues that these places may have served as a focus of social activity
aurochs looking to the
for larger groups of people. She suggests that the caves may have been a
left were drawn first,
then the horses, and
permanent symbol on the landscape and a place for the ceremonies and rituals
finally two rhinos. The associated with the assembly of several groups of hunters.
painting is dated to Werner Herzog, the famous German director, released a 3D documentary
31,000 years ago by film on the discoveries at Chauvet in 2011: Cave of Forgotten Dreams. The art
radiocarbon. A smaller of the Paleolithic fascinates and confounds us modern humans because of its
bison can be seen
remarkable location on dark cave walls, the emphasis on animals many of which
below as well as torch
marks, made 4,000 are now extinct, and the mysterious minds that produced this art. What were
years later, above the our ancestors thinking? Why is this spectacular art an important part of Upper
rhino on the right. Paleolithic life? What did it mean? The fascination and mystery continues.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 67

The magnificent art of the Upper Paleolithic represents an awakening

of the creative human spirit, an expression of our aesthetic senses. Such a
transformation may also signify major changes in the minds of Paleolithic
people and in how they viewed the world. The discoveries at the site of Dolní
Věstonice in the Czech Republic, one of the next stops on our tour, certainly
support that statement.

GR A NDE GRO T T E, A R CY- SUR- CUR E, F R A NCE,

3 2,0 0 0 Y E A RS AGO
Now for the rest of the story from the Upper Paleolithic at Arcy-sur-Cure. The
largest of the caverns at Arcy, called Grande Grotte, was a show cave for many
years that was open to paying tourists to see speleological formations and
underground lakes but lacked the marvelous Paleolithic art that captivates the
visitor in other French caves. After a fortuitous discovery, the Grande Grotte
now features some of the world’s oldest and most unusual cave paintings. It
was in 1990, as a French TV crew was filming a program on the geology of the
cave; bright klieg lights brought a new perspective to the walls and ceiling. One
of the crew suddenly noticed a painting of an ibex, and soon more paintings
were recognized through a thin coating. These images had been hidden by a
cloudy layer of calcite, several millimeters thick in places, that accumulated on
the walls of the cave over time.
Some twenty years later, researchers have since discovered more than seventy
depictions of various animals and as many abstract symbols and handprints
on the walls and ceiling of the cave (Fig. 3.12). Early cave artists seem to have
focused on predators and perilous animals, while later in the Upper Paleolithic
the theme changed to large herbivores, the hunters’ prey. Most of the animals
painted at Grand Grotte were dangerous: rhinoceroses, bears, lions, mammoths.
Mammoths make up about 50 percent of the animals depicted in the cave.
In addition there are numerous negative handprints and abstract signs—dots,
wavy lines, and trapezoidal forms. Artifacts found in the cave lay beneath 30 cm
(1 foot) of deposits and were usually related to the artwork, pigments, palettes,
pestles for grinding, and hearths and lamps for light.
Arcy’s images have been radiocarbon-dated between 28,000 and 33,000
years ago. They are contemporary with the paintings from Grotte Chauvet and
represent some of the oldest examples of rock art in the world. These painted caves
convey fascinating images of various types to those who view them today. Why
did people paint in these caves in the first place? They could just as easily painted
on the cliff faces and rock overhangs found throughout the region. Why were
the animals painted so frequently, and humans and plants so rarely? The extinct
animals that are depicted tell of a very different time in this region, with arctic
species and many dangerous predators. What was it about the caves that attracted
these Paleolithic peoples? And why did ancient peoples paint these pictures?
There are several schools of thought on the meaning of the cave paintings
from the Upper Paleolithic. An apparent emphasis on pregnant animals has
68 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 3.12.
A schematic
reproduction of some
of the painting on the
ceiling from Grande
Grotte, France. Most of
the representations are
of elephants.

often been interpreted to represent concern with fertility and the bounty
of nature, reflecting awareness of the importance of reproduction and the
replenishment of the herds on which these people depended for food. Other
scholars, pointing to the exaggerated hips and haunches of the animals and
spears in flight, argue for a concern with hunting animals for meat. Ceremonial
hunting rites and imaginary slaying of animals before a hunt might have
magically helped ensure success in the quest for food.
A few prehistorians suggest that the cave paintings were simply “art for
art’s sake,” a means for artists to express themselves and to change how their
fellow humans saw the world. Still others suggest that the painted caves were
primitive temples, sanctuaries for ceremony and ritual, such as initiation of
the young into society. Huge animals flickering in the light of torches and
lamps deep within the bowels of the earth would have been a breath-taking
experience for the uninitiated. David Lewis-William in The Mind in the Cave
writes about the role of the paintings in the activities of religious specialists in
Upper Paleolithic societies in terms of trance and magic, reflecting the power
of the spirit. It may also be the case that all of these factors were reasons for
the art.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 69

D O L NÍ V ĚS T ONICE, C Z ECH R EPUBL IC,

2 7,5 0 0 Y E A RS A G O
The remains of a series of camps from Paleolithic mammoth hunters lie in the
southern Czech Republic, not far from the Danube River Valley. The landscape
is dominated by a local river and steep, limestone hills with elevations up
to 550 m (1,800 ft). The limestone adds a more calcareous chemistry to the
soils and creates conducive conditions for preservation. Excavations have been
ongoing here at several localities for almost ninety years (Fig. 3.13).
The archaeological materials, which date from between roughly 24,500 and
27,500 BP, are deeply buried in loess. This loess is a Pleistocene aeolian silt,
probably picked up by the winds across the freshly denuded and ice-free landscape
of northwest Europe and spread across Central and Eastern Europe in deposits
tens of meters (25–50 ft) thick. Many prehistoric sites were slowly covered by
this airborne dust; bone, ivory, and other materials have been preserved in it.
The major problem with such sites is simply finding them, because they
are hidden under very deep deposits (Fig.3.14). Fortunately loess is useful
and often quarried for brick making. In several parts of Central and Eastern
Europe, these quarries have uncovered deeply buried archaeological materials,
permitting access to these remains.
Near the town of Dolní Věstonice, the enormous bones of extinct mammoths
were uncovered in the course of digging up loess for brick making. The first
mention of prehistoric finds was in the seventeenth century, when a doctor

Fig. 3.13.
The location of Upper
Paleolithic sites of
Pavlov and Dolní
Věstonice in the Czech
Republic.
70 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 3.14.
The deep loess deposits
on top of the Gravettian
layer (dark layer) at
Dolní Věstonice, some
6 m below the modern
ground surface.

reported several huge bones found in the vicinity of the village. Archaeological
excavations were initiated in 1924 and have continued intermittently until the
present. Large horizontal excavations removed the deep loess deposit over the
archaeological layer and exposed an area containing dwelling structures and
many intriguing artifacts. The remains of 800 to 900 mammoths have been
found, along with several examples of horse and reindeer.
The woolly mammoth of Pleistocene Europe was a magnificent creature.
As seen in cave paintings and frozen examples from Siberia, this animal had a
huge domed head atop a massive body covered with long fur. The mammoth
was roughly one and a half times the size of a modern African elephant and
must have been formidable prey for the later Pleistocene hunters of Europe.
In addition to mammoths, herds of wild reindeer, horses, woolly rhinoceros,
and other species roamed the cold steppe. At another site near Dolní Věstonice
from the same time period, smaller mammals such as wolf, fox, glutton, and
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 71

hare were found. The mammoth, however, was the primary game and probably
provided the bulk of the diet for the inhabitants.
During the late Pleistocene, the area around Dolní Věstonice was one of
forest-steppe, not far from the limits of forest growth (the tree line) in northern
Europe. Some wood was available; pockets of spruce and pine and even some
deciduous trees such as oak, lime, and beech grew in sheltered valleys. Broad
expanses of grass, moss, and lichen were food for the animal herds. The plant
evidence suggests a continental climate, relatively cool, but lacking extremely
cold temperatures, permafrost, or the tundra vegetation that dominated during
the colder episodes of the Pleistocene. The occupation of the site probably took
place during one of the warmer oscillations of the last glacial cycle.
Permafrost sometime after the occupation at Dolní Věstonice was responsible
for large-scale movement of the surface, a phenomenon known as solifluction.
This alternate freezing and thawing of the ground resulted in the disturbance
of many of the remains. For this reason, interpretation of the evidence and its
context at the site can be difficult and controversial. Fig. 3.15.
There are two separate concentrations of excavated archaeological materials Hypothetical plan of the
from the Upper Paleolithic period known as the Gravettian, marked by heavy site of Dolní Věstonice
with piles of mammoth
concentrations of mammoth bones and a series of structures. These huts were
bones, huts and
built on deliberately leveled floors, 4–5 m (ca. 15 ft) in diameter, dug down hearths, and fencing.
into the loess with a superstructure of mammoth bone and perhaps wood The scale and north
to support a roof. Postholes and large mammoth bones on the floor of the arrow are approximate.
structures may represent the roof-bearing components
of the houses. These structures had permanence, and
there are indications of repeated use of the same pits and
hearths over time. These sites may have been occupied for
months at a time, either through the calendar months or
via repeated visits over the years.
Our focus is on the site found at Dolní Věstonice I
because of the abundance of new and unusual features
and artifacts that have been found there, including
semisubterranean structures, fireplaces and ovens, and
flint and bone tools, along with thousands of fragments
of clay figurines, carved and decorated objects of known
and unknown function, and several human burials.
The highest layers in the deposits, which appear to
contain a campsite, are still reasonably well preserved
(Fig. 3.15). This camp lay on a projecting tongue of
land, along a local stream that became a bog just at the
eastern edge of the site. Part of the site sits on a low ridge,
affording a good view of the valley of a nearby river. The
effectiveness of the mammoth hunters is dramatically
portrayed in the scatters of mammoth bones marking
the boundaries of the settlement. The bones of at least a
hundred mammoths were piled up in an area 12 by 45
m (45 by 150 ft). Stone tools and broken bones suggest
72 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

that this was a zone where animals, or parts of animals, were butchered and
where skins may have been cleaned and prepared. Other piles of bones were
found throughout the settlement, often sorted according to kind of bone,
presumably for use as fuel and raw material for construction. Fires were lit
on some of these bone piles, as evidenced by ash, perhaps as a defense against
predatory animals.
Stones, earth, wooden posts, and mammoth bones were used for the
construction at the site. There were several kinds of structures, among them
roofed huts, windbreaks, fencing, and an unusual lean-to. Lines of wooden or
bone posts were set as fencing around the northern margin of the site.
The first building found was a large, oval structure, 9 by 15 m (30 by
50 ft) in size, with five regularly spaced fireplaces inside the walls. The size
of the structure, about half a tennis court, and its contents suggested to
the excavators that this was an open windbreak, without a ceiling, rather
than a roofed structure, and probably used during the summer. The wall
posts were supported with limestone blocks and were likely covered with
animal hides. At least three other roofed huts have been found in this area.
These structures are partially dug into the loess; they contain one or two
hearths and have numerous large mammoth bones on top of the floor. These
bones are probably the remains of the framework for the walls and roof,
which would have collapsed onto the floor of the structure after the site was
abandoned.
Another structure, uncovered in 1951, was found some 80 m (260 ft) along
the stream to the west of the main concentration. This structure was smaller,
6 m (20 ft) in diameter, and very unusual. The floor of the hut had been
dug into the loess slope to level it and to provide more protection against the
elements. Limestone blocks were placed against the excavated slope to buttress
the wall. Posts were also supported by these blocks at the front of the hut.
Hollow bird bones were found inside; they were cut at the ends and may have
functioned as musical instruments.
In the center of the hut was an ovenlike fireplace with a domed clay structure
raised around it. The oven was made of fire-hardened earth and ground
limestone. In the deep pile of ashes and waste on the floor of the hut were found
more than 2,300 small clay figurines that must have been fired in the oven.
These fired clay figures document the first known examples of ceramic objects
in prehistory, some 10,000 years before the invention of pottery in the Far
East. The figurines consisted of heads, feet, and other parts of animal effigies
and fired lumps of clay. Even the fingerprints of the maker were preserved in
some of the pieces. Not only that, but careful study of other impressions in
the clay figurines and balls revealed the oldest known fiber technology and
evidence for production of nets, basketry, and perhaps textiles.
Fireplaces are common at Dolní Věstonice and take two forms: hearths of
various sizes and kilns. The concentrations of artifacts, construction materials,
and foodstuffs are associated with the hearths, which must have been a focus
of human activity. Two kilns were found, the domed clay structure in the
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 73

isolated lean-to hut, and another horseshoe-shaped kiln with clay walls that
also contained fired clay figurines.
Most of the huts had one or more fireplaces for heat, light, and cooking. In
addition, there was a large hearth, almost 1 m (3’3”) deep and several meters
across, in an open area near the center of the compound, which may have
served as a common, central fire for the community. In the ashes of this fire,
a clay carving of a female figure, called the Venus of Vestonice, was found. In
addition to the Venus figurine, many figures of animals—bear, lion, mammoth
(Fig. 3.16), horse, fox, rhino, and owl—and more than 2,000 balls of burnt
clay have been found.
The Venus of Vestonice is a small, ceramic statue of a nude female, 11.1 cm
(4.5”) tall (Fig. 1.3). The breasts and hips are shown in some detail. The limbs
and head are largely stylized; the eyes are two simple, enigmatic slashes across
the face. There are at least two other Venus figurines found at the site. Such
figurines in bone, stone, and ivory are known from Upper Paleolithic sites
across most of Europe. Their ubiquity must reflect their significance as icons
or symbols of some shared beliefs and behaviors.
There is an extraordinarily rich assemblage of tools, equipment, objects,
and jewelry. More than 35,000 pieces of flint were found in the habitation
area. About 30 percent of the flaked stone tools were made of local flint and
hornstone, and about 70 percent were made from an exotic material, from
more than 100 km (60 mi) away in southern Poland. Stone tools in the form
of points, knives, and burins are made from narrow blades, typical of the
Gravettian tradition. There are also many items made from mammoth bone
and ivory: awls, needles, knives, spear points, lances, and digging equipment.
Ornaments for use as pendants, necklaces, on headbands, and the like
are made of carved bone, ivory, and shell. Some of the shells were from the
Mediterranean, several hundred kilometers to the south, evidence of either

Fig. 3.16.
A fired clay mammoth
figurine from Dolní
Věstonice, ca. 6 cm in
length.
74 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

travel or trade. Other objects carved of antler or ivory, or made of baked clay,
have no clear practical purpose and may have served as ritual objects in the
ceremonies that took place at the site.
Perhaps the most remarkable finds involve two representations of what is
probably the same individual. Excavations in 1936 uncovered a small ivory
plaque about 4 cm (1.6 in) high, with a crudely incised human face portrayed
on it. The face is asymmetrical, with the left eye and the left half of the lip
somewhat lower than the right. A second carved ivory head was found in
1948 in the open summer hut. This three-dimensional head also portrays an
individual, and the left side of the face is somewhat distorted and asymmetrical.
Finally, a burial was excavated in 1949, discovered beneath two huge shoulder
blades from a mammoth. The skeleton belonged to a woman and was covered
with red ochre, a red mineral pigment. A study of the facial bones of this
individual showed that she suffered from partial paralysis of the left side of her
face. It seems plausible that the two faces carved in ivory are representations of
this person in the grave.
Other burials have been uncovered as well. A child buried at Dolní Věstonice
III had a necklace of twenty-seven pierced fox teeth; the skull was covered with
red ochre, and the burial lay beneath the shoulder blades of a mammoth.
Fig. 3.17.
In 1986, the bodies of three teenagers were discovered in a common grave
The triple grave at Dolní (Fig. 3.17). Two of the skeletons were strongly built young males. The third
Věstonice. individual was determined to be female, seventeen to twenty years of age. A
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 75

marked curvature of the spine, along with several other skeletal abnormalities,
suggested that she had been painfully disabled in life. The two males had died
healthy, in the prime of their lives. The evidence of a thick wooden shaft or
spear thrust through the hip of one of the males indicates his death at least
was violent. The simultaneous burial of all three individuals certainly suggests
a traumatic end to their lives.
The bodies had been buried with special care. The skeletons leaned into one
other, like nestled question marks. Both young men had been laid to rest with
their heads encircled with necklaces of pierced canine teeth and ivory; the one
with the pole thrust up to his coccyx may also have been wearing some kind
of painted mask. All three skulls were covered in red ocher. The woman was
placed between her two companions. The man on her left lay on his stomach,
facing away from her but with his left arm linked with hers. The other male lay
on his back, his head turned toward her. Both of his arms were reaching out,
so that his hand rested on her pubis. The ground surrounding this intimate
connection was splashed with red ocher.
The mammoth were clearly the major source of food at Dolní Věstonice,
but the remains of other animals—reindeer, horse, wolf, fox, glutton, and
hare—have been found as well. Plant remains have also been recovered from
the site, a rarity in Paleolithic archaeology. Among the bits of charcoal at the
site were pieces of burned bulbs and tubers from plants with edible roots.
One of the more fascinating aspects of life in the Upper Paleolithic is the
explosion that takes place in ornamentation and self-expression. In some ways
it seems that for the first time individualism has a place, and ego is visible,
perhaps permitted. This individuality is expressed in jewelry and decorated
equipment, perhaps in body paint, tattoos, clothing, hairstyles. For the first
time in the past we see the individual, the personality, of the members of the
group. There is an identity in death as well, with distinctive grave goods and
equipment, gifts and souvenirs for the afterlife.
New roles and identities in the group may also appear, e.g., shamans/curers.
Shamans in human societies are believed to be intermediaries or messengers
between the human world and the spirit world, often through the medium of
trance. Shamans function as healers, mediators, and seers in small-scale societies.
The presence of shamans in the archaeological record is vague, but burials like the
elderly woman beneath the mammoth shoulder blades point in that direction.
Accompanying her in the grave were the bones of an arctic fox.
At the same time there is a group or regional identity emerging,
expressed in local styles, designs and motifs. Artifact types are no longer
continental in distribution; smaller regional patterns appear that must
denote networks of interaction and shared norms. Group identity likely
was fostered by shared belief, ceremony, and ritual. The large communal
fi replace in the center of the site at Dolní Věstonice would seem to be one
of the shared spaces where individuals were forged into a larger amalgam
of the group or band.
The archaeologist who originally excavated the site, Bohuslav Klima, believes
that Dolní Věstonice was a mammoth hunters’ village, with 20 to 25 people per
76 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

hut. Given an estimate of five or six huts at the site, there may have been as many
as 100–120 occupants. Some have argued that the substantial size and nature
of the site, along with the burials, argues for a permanent or semipermanent
arrangement. The depth and extent of deposits at Dolní Věstonice suggest that
this site may have been occupied throughout the year. The substantial house
structures and burials reiterate this impression. Others point to the difficulties
involved in determining if the structures were used simultaneously and the
complexity of the deposits given disturbances and solifluction. Interpretation of
site population and duration of occupation is not an easy undertaking.
Whatever the case, Dolní Věstonice is very different from everything we
have discussed up to this point. A large campsite for a substantial group of
people with purposefully built residences, perhaps living for long periods or
even permanently in one spot, as mammoth hunters of the Upper Paleolithic.
The camp is organized and structured, and a wide range of activities took place:
house construction; hearth maintenance; birth, death, and burial; manufacture
of tools; import of exotic raw materials such as shell and certain types of stone
for tools; production of art; butchering of animals; and collecting of plant
foods. The remarkable ceramic artifacts and other materials found at the site
confirm the sense that this is a special place indeed. Previously unknown
from the earlier human past, locales now become places of social occasion,
in addition to basic survival and routine domestic activities. There are clearly
new ideas, new motifs, and no doubt new beliefs that are structuring human
thought and behavior, and human society.

GRO T T E DE L A VACHE, F R A NCE,

14,0 0 0 Y E A RS AGO
The province of Ariège in southwestern France, near the Spanish border, has
more prehistoric painted caves than any other in the country. Toward the end
of 1952, a French archaeologist named Romain Robert was exploring a cave
known as the Grotte de la Vache (Cave of the Cow) on the steep slope of a
deep valley in the foothills of the Pyrenees (Fig. 3.18). The site was occupied
toward the end of the Pleistocene, when a warming trend and a retreat of the
glaciers had begun.
There, in a chamber known as the Salle Monique (Fig. 3.19), sealed
beneath more recent deposits, he discovered a rich archaeological deposit on
the floor of the chamber. In this room near the entrance to the cave, a small
group of Magdalenian hunter-gatherers camped repeatedly between 12,000
and 15,000 years ago and left behind the evidence of their visits. Today the
cave maintains a steady temperature of 13°C (55 °F) throughout the year. The
Salle Monique receives some light from the entrance of the cave and is not
completely dark.
Twelve years of excavation on the chamber floor by Robert, from 1953
to 1964, uncovered more than 200 m2 (2,150 ft2) of an extremely rich
archaeological level, sealed beneath layers of clay and calcium carbonate. The
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 77

archaeological deposit is a black sandy layer, rich in charcoal, between 10 cm Fig. 3.18.
(4 in) and nearly 1 m (3’3”) thick. Because of the clay and carbonate cap, The location of Grotte
de la Vache and Grotte
preservation in the cultural layer was quite good. Charcoal from the cultural
de Niaux in the French
layer has yielded a radiocarbon date for the site of approximately 13,600 years Pyrenees.
before the present.
Fireplaces on the floor of the cave, ringed with stone, marked the living
areas of these people (Fig. 3.20). Although the original excavator argued that a
hut had been built near the entrance of the cave, there is no definitive evidence.
The quantity of archeological material, particularly the number of carved bone
objects, is staggering. The deposit contained more than 143,000 animal bones,
36,000 stone artifacts, 2,000 harpoons and points made of reindeer antler,
300 bone needles, 200 animal teeth and shells perforated as ornaments, and
220 pieces of portable art decorated with carved and engraved designs.
Paleolithic art is generally divided into two kinds, the mural art of the cave
wall paintings (such as at Chauvet), and portable art on objects that can be
moved. The mural art is largely confined to southwestern France and northern
Spain. Portable art is found throughout Europe in the Upper Paleolithic
and includes decorated objects and figurines made of stone, bone, or antler,
sometimes clay or ivory. Small, three-dimensional objects such as the widely
known Venus figurines and carved animal bone tools, and two-dimensional
relief carvings are all varieties of portable art.
78 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Decoration was applied to diverse objects, both practical tools

and purely aesthetic forms. Designs were made by carving, cutting,
grinding, and engraving. A wide range of motifs are depicted, usually
animals, sometimes plants, and even human figures. In addition to
the representational designs there are also geometric patterns, lines
of dots, rows of tally marks, and other kinds of graffiti or notation.
The artists at Grotte de la Vache masterfully decorated small
stone pebbles and polished pieces of bone and antler with remarkable
depictions of cave lion, bear, antelope, salmon, and wolves (Fig.
3.21). Horses, bison, reindeer, ibex, and deer are also common.
Human figures, though rarely portrayed in this time period, appear
on several pieces.
The animal remains are essentially the product of the hunt and food
preparation. A range of species were represented. The hunters typically
pursued mountain game. A major part of the diet was ibex and ptarmigan
(grouse). Ptarmigan, a large bird, was the single most abundant animal
in the bone remains; more than 4,500 individual birds were represented
in the kitchen refuse in the cave. The ibex was also important in the
diet, and a minimum of 1,800 animals were counted among the many
bones. There were also reindeer and chamois (another wild goat). The
local wildlife was exceptionally rich and diverse, including hare, rabbit,
red deer, wolf, fox, wild horse, wild boar, and a variety of other birds,
among them ducks, geese, hawks, and eagles.
Raw materials from the animals were also important. Fur came
from trapping animals such as arctic foxes, red foxes, hare, and several
species of wild cats. Most of the worked harpoons and some of the
decorated pieces were made on antlers shed by male reindeer in the
autumn and collected by the Magdalenian hunters. Bone used for the
decorations and designs came from the larger mammals. Long bones
Fig. 3.19. were often used; the surface of the bone was scraped and polished before the
Plan of the cave of design was applied. Some of the carved pieces found at the Grotte de la Vache
Grotte de la Vache, were also stained with both red and black pigments. The color would have made
France.
the carved designs stand out against the white bone. There were thirty-nine
mortars and forty-four pestles used for grinding color pigments.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 79

It is interesting to compare the proportions of animals depicted in the Fig. 3.21.

carved bone objects to the bones of the animals that were hunted and eaten. A happy lion engraved
For the most part there is an inverse relationship. Animals that appear in the with two others on a
piece of bone from
artwork are rarely eaten, and vice versa. The ibex is clearly an exception. Grotte de la Vache;
The sex of the animals could be determined by measuring the size of certain length ca. 20 cm.
bones, since males were significantly larger than females. Males made up about
40 percent of the total number of ibex. About 30 percent of the ibex bones came
from juveniles, animals younger than twenty-eight months. These age and sex
proportions are very similar in populations of wild ibex today, suggesting that
the Magdalenian hunters took male or female animals, young or old, as they
encountered them. Since they also seem to have hunted a variety of other
animals, it would appear that hunting was often opportunistic, attacking
whatever prey was available, rather than planned and directed toward specific
species or selective in terms of the age or sex of the prey.
It was also possible to determine when the prey had been killed. The
individual animal jaws were examined for information on tooth wear, the
presence of deciduous teeth, and the state of eruption of permanent teeth to
estimate the age of death of the animal. Since these species have a known
calving season (usually a few months in the spring), the season of death can be
determined by counting forward from the calving season. Ibex and chamois
are more easily estimated than reindeer, which have a longer calving season.
On the basis of the age of the animals, it appears that the wild goats (ibex and
chamois) were hunted from autumn to spring, most heavily during the winter
months. In November, at the start of the rut, large herds of animals of both sexes
and all ages would have gathered in the vicinity of Grotte de la Vache, leaving
the higher mountains for the winter. Reindeer, on the other hand, appear to have
been hunted as they migrated biannually through the valley during the same
periods each year, between mid-August and mid-October, or in May and June. Fig. 3.20. (opposite)
The living area at Grotte
Most of the evidence suggests that the dwellers of the Hall of Monique lived
de la Vache, with in
there during the colder months of the year. It is easy to imagine that during the situ fireplaces in the
spring and summer such groups would have moved into more open, lighter, floor. The signs mark
and warmer places to live. They may not have moved far. two of the fireplaces.
80 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

There is one more intriguing aspect to the archaeology of Grotte de la Vache.

Directly across the valley, within sight of la Vache, is the cave of Niaux, one of
the more famous painted caves in the Pyrenees (or in Europe for that matter).
Niaux has an enormous entrance today, 55 m high by 50 m wide. There are
more than two kilometers of galleries running deep within the mountain,
displaying a hundred or more superb paintings from the later part of the Upper
Paleolithic, many of which are almost one kilometer (1,100 yards) inside the
cave. Many of the paintings are done in the classic style of the Magdalenian,
animals outlined in black or red pigment. Niaux is contemporary with Grotte
de la Vache and almost the opposite in terms of its contents and characteristics.
Niaux is huge; la Vache is relatively small. There is very little cultural refuse in
Niaux, many wall paintings, and no portable art; la Vache itself has only a few
small engravings on the walls of the cave.
Yet in all probability the inhabitants of la Vache visited Niaux and may have
even been responsible for the paintings. The styles of the portable art of la Vache
and the wall paintings of Niaux are very similar. Perhaps here we are seeing the
secular and the sacred in Upper Paleolithic life. Clearly the caves were used in
very different ways. In this case, it may be the warmth and light of the south-
facing mouth of la Vache that drew its residents, in contrast to the darker and
colder, north-facing Niaux. As real estate agents say, location is everything.

GÖNNERSDOR F, GERM A N Y, 11,5 0 0 Y E A RS AGO

Many archaeological discoveries are accidental. This was certainly the case for the
site of Gönnersdorf. In 1968, a resident of the town of Feldkirchen-Gönnersdorf
along the Rhine in western Germany, about 15 km (10 mi) northwest of Koblenz,
was digging a basement for a new house. Lots of strange things began to turn up,
bone, slabs of slate, various stone tools; the archaeologists were called in. Gerhard
Bosinski of the University of Köln spent his summers over the next eight years
excavating one of the most fascinating Upper Paleolithic sites in Europe.
Some of the finds at Gönnersdorf were typical of the Upper Paleolithic
Magdalenian culture: flint artifacts, fireplaces, even the animal bones. But
many of the finds were highly unusual, especially the remains of living
structures and associated pits and other features, scatters of red ochre, small
figurines of ivory and antler, beads made from jet (a black mineral), perforated
animal teeth, a pavement of stone slabs, and hundreds of engraved slate tablets.
There was something special about the site.
Gönnersdorf was a large, open-air settlement on a terrace above the Rhine
River with a spectacular view over a broad region. Today, this is one of the
great wine-producing regions of Germany. The landscape is dominated by
high hills and water. The Rhine is a major, navigable river until it reaches the
Swiss border in southern Germany. It would have carried even more water in
the late Pleistocene as Alpine glaciers quickly melted and the water drained
out the Rhine to the Atlantic. In fact, the area around Gönnersdorf is cut by
several rivers, making the location a rather central place for hunters of large
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 81

migratory animal herds that would have moved through this crossroads. On
the western side of the site a small stream has cut a steep, narrow valley that
marks the boundary of the settlement. This small ravine was the source of the
slate materials that were found in abundance on the site.
This region of Germany has seen volcanic activity in the last 20,000 years,
both before and after the Gönnersdorf occupation. The Laacher See Volcano is
only 11 km (7 mi) to the west; the last large eruption, around 10,900 b c , buried
the site in pumice, protecting and preserving the remains. The Magdalenian
layer at Gönnersdorf sits on top of an earlier layer of pumice from an eruption
around 20,000 years ago. Radiocarbon dates on animal bones from the site itself
indicate an age of approximately 13,400 b c , during the late Magdalenian.
This period near the end of the Pleistocene was characterized by several
fairly rapid oscillations between cold and relatively warm climate, along with
associated changes in vegetation. The colder episodes were very dry, with mild
summers and very cold winters. Vegetation was treeless arctic tundra with a
ground cover of grasses and herbs. The warmer episodes witnessed a longer
growing season, milder winters, and more precipitation. The vegetation has
been described as grass-covered steppe with scattered bushes and small trees of
willow and birch, especially in sheltered areas along the stream valleys.
Gönnersdorf was excavated with great care, recording the exact location of
many of the finds in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. A number of experts
in geology, pollen studies, and archaeozoology were involved in the project. A total
of almost 700 m2 (7,500 ft2) was excavated. Sediments were sieved through fine
screens, and many small finds were recovered in this way. At least four separate
concentrations of materials were distinguished in the excavation area.
The most visible material at the site and the most widespread was also the
biggest. Pavements of stone slabs, or plaquettes, covered large parts of the
excavation area and were particularly concentrated in certain areas (Fig. 3.22).

Fig. 3.22.
Part of the pavement,
bone, and stone
artifacts found in
Concentration IIa at
Gönnersdorf.
82 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

These stone slabs were primarily of slate, collected in the sides of the deep
valley next to the site. Other types of stone were also brought to the site for
pavement slabs, including quartz, quartzite, and basalt. The stone slabs varied
in size from less than 10 cm (4 in) in diameter to larger pieces more than 50
cm (20 in) in diameter. Many of these slabs appear to have been broken at
the site. A layer of powdered red ochre (hematite), 1–5 cm (½–2 in) thick,
was deposited among the stone slabs, densest in highest concentrations of
slabs. There is an enormous number of these slabs present, representing a great
deal of effort on the part of the Magdalenian inhabitants. The slabs from one
concentration alone weighed more than 1,000 kg (2,200 lb). These pavements
reflect a significant investment in the construction of the settlement.
The larger structures would have been substantial, built to last for some
time and made from materials that were not easily portable. These houses
were 6 to 8 m in diameter, and the floors were paved with slate slabs. The
floor of each house was prepared by digging into the hill slope to create a
level platform. The house itself is marked by a circle of small pits to support
posts; higher densities of slabs, artifacts, and debris; and the red ocher layer.
A larger post was placed in the center of the structure to support the roof.
Many of the slabs on the floors were engraved with profi les of animals and
other figures.
These are substantial structures, and the excavator believes they were
used repeatedly for long periods, over some years. At least three episodes of
occupation can be recognized from the artifacts and pits. Bosinski has also
suggested that the wooden frames of the houses were covered with animal
hides, perhaps from horses (Fig. 3.23). About forty horse hides would have
been needed to cover one of the frames.
The four concentrations of materials seen at Gönnersdorf are suggested
to represent remnants of dwelling constructions. Concentrations I, II, and
III would have been large, sturdy structures. Concentration IV appears to be
the remains of a lighter tent framework. The tent was approximately 5 m in
diameter, marked by a circle of large stones. There is a fireplace inside the tent
and another just outside. There are no pits or postholes in the tent circle, no
red ochre on the floor, and relatively few finished artifacts associated with the
tent. The similarity among the artifacts and the refitting of lithic material,
however, demonstrates that the tent and Concentration III (and probably
Concentration I) were in use at the same time.
This discussion focuses on Concentration III. The red ochre and the pits
also have a distinctive distribution in this structure. The red ochre is found
outside the structure; elsewhere it is confined to the interior areas. No outer
ring of supporting posts was observed in Concentration III. Most of the
remains appear related to activities taking place in this area. One pit with a
number of unusual finds and finished tools may have been a cache of materials
for making clothes. Two pits were used for cooking, and another with lots of
backed bladelets may have been used for storing hunting equipment.
In addition to the structural features of the houses and the pavements, there
are large quantities of various artifacts at Gönnersdorf: stone, bone, antler, and
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 83

ivory objects, jewelry and items of personal adornment, and a huge number of Fig. 3.23.
engravings. There is also a large quantity of animal bones, food waste from the An artist’s
reconstruction of
hunt that can tell us about the diet and some of the habits of these people. A
the structures at
brief description of these materials may provide some sense of the richness of Gönnersdorf with
the materials at Gönnersdorf and the rather special nature of the settlement. both large huts and
Stone tools and their manufacturing waste are the most common type of smaller tents.
artifact at Gönnersdorf. More than 50,000 pieces, 1 cm (½ in) in diameter
or larger, were excavated. About 1 percent of these were finished tools and
the remainder were largely unretouched blades, waste flakes, and cores. The
finished tools are typical for the late Magdalenian: many blade tools, end
scrapers on blades, blacked blades and bladelets, burins, and small borers.
Burins for cutting and engraving were the most common formal tool type
present at the site.
The raw material for the stone tools came from several sources. Some of the
raw material used at Gönnersdorf was available locally. Quartzite and siliceous
shist could be obtained within a few kilometers of the site. Other raw materials
came from quite some distance; there was a Baltic flint whose closest source
was near Duisburg, 100 km (60 mi) to the north in the Lower Rhine River,
and west European flint from the Meuse River area at least 100 km to the
northwest.
Lamps were another interesting category of stone artifact. Other examples
are known almost exclusively from cave sites where torches were also used as a
light source. These lamps likely burned animal fat using a small wick and were
best suited to producing light, rather than heat for warmth or cooking.
84 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Although it is difficult to accurately establish the season of occupation, there

is evidence from Gönnersdorf to indicate a human presence during both the
warmer and colder parts of the year. The more intensive use of the site, however,
appears to have taken place during the winter. Several lines of evidence found
in Concentration I support this contention. Fetal bones from horses show
that mares, pregnant over the winter, were hunted from Gönnersdorf. Bones
from migrant geese that likely overwintered in the Rhineland were also found
in Concentration I. Arctic fox is common here as well, and this animal was
probably trapped in the winter when its fur is in prime condition. Finally, the
tooth eruption pattern in the reindeer mandibles indicates that some of the
animals were killed in the colder months.
Concentration II shows another pattern in terms of seasonality. The fetal
bones from horses are from a later stage in pregnancy, and the bone development
in young horses shows they were killed during their second summer. The flint
raw material in Concentration II comes from the Meuse river area to the north,
while the material used in Concentration I was local quartzite. The sum of the
evidence suggests that these two concentrations were used at contrasting times
of the year, perhaps by different groups of people.
Animal products such as bone, antler, and ivory were also used as raw
material for tools. Shed reindeer antler and mammoth tusks were probably
collected and brought to the settlement. The standard technique for working
these materials is described as groove-and-splinter. Two parallel grooves are
cut with a sharp stone tool along the length of the bone or antler raw material;
a splinter of the material can then be removed and shaped into numerous
kinds of artifacts, including antler and ivory points, harpoons, decorated bone
rods, and even a few fish hooks. Eyed bone needles are the most common type
of nonstone tool.
Personal jewelry and adornment becomes the style in the Upper Paleolithic,
and Gönnersdorf is no exception. Several kinds of material were used to make
such items. Small pendants or beads of jet, perforated animal teeth, fossil shell,
and sea shells are found at the site. The sea shells must have been traded or
exchanged over the long distance from the Mediterranean. Black jet, a kind of
fossil wood, comes from a valley ca. 50 km to the west. “Rondelles” are another
intriguing object: small perforated slate disks, 3–4 cm (1–3 in) in diameter,
some of which are engraved with fine lines and designs. Almost 400 were
found at Gönnersdorf. These may have been used as buttons or pendants.
There are two other major categories of artifacts at Gönnersdorf that
require some discussion: carved figurines and engraved slate plaquettes or
small tablets. The figurines are small statuettes made of ivory, antler, or slate.
The slate tablets often have similar figures engraved on them. These figurines
schematically depict the female figure with large buttocks, some with breasts
and usually without head or limbs.
The engraved slate plaquettes are the most common art at the site. About
10 percent of the slates in the pavement at the site have been engraved with
various motifs, particularly female figures (Fig. 3.24), animals, and abstract
symbols. A flint burin was probably used to etch the fine lines in the slate.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 85

Fig. 3.24.
Several female figurines
engraved on a stone
plaque in a very
abstract style. The
plaque is 11.8 by
10.8 cm.

There are approximately 300 female figures in the slate engravings, similar
to the figurines but shown only in outline. In a few cases, several figures are
depicted together in what might be a dance scene.
Although the female figures are quite abstract, the animal engravings
show significant detail and are very naturalistic. The animals depicted in the
engravings are the same ones identified in the bones at the site, but there are
some intriguing differences. The mammoth, for example, is one of the most
common animals shown on the plaquettes (sixty-one engravings), but only
a few pieces of bone and tusk are known from the site. The most common
engraving is of the wild horse (seventy-four examples), often just the head of the
animal, and this species was also most common in the food remains. Reindeer
and fox, which are common in the bone assemblage, are not depicted in the
engravings. The cave lion and the seal, which are not found in the kitchen
refuse, do appear among the engravings. The seal is of particular interest since
this is a marine animal and the sea was at least 250 km to the north and west.
Perhaps seals were observed swimming up the Rhine, or perhaps these horse
hunters at Gönnersdorf sometimes traveled to the coast.
Engraved stone plaquettes (Fig. 3.25) are well known in the Upper
Paleolithic, and examples are found at many sites across Europe, although
usually not in such quantity. There are perhaps 500 examples at Gönnersdorf,
6,000 at Parpalló near Valencia on the east coast of Spain, and 1,500 at La
Marche in west-central France.
In sum, Gönnersdorf is a remarkable archaeological site in many ways.
The large outdoor structures, repeated use of the location, and the enormous
quantities of artifacts and art are witness to the intensity of human use. The
extraordinary variety of materials is testimony to the skills and technology
of the Magdalenian people who lived at the site. The fact that the sources
86 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

for materials such as shell and flint are hundreds

of kilometers distant is a comment on either the
exchange networks in operation or the mobility
of these groups, or both. The importance of
personal decoration and ornamentation is
strongly manifest at Gönnersdorf in the variety
of beads and pendants. Self-awareness is human
nature in the Upper Paleolithic, and individuals
likely sought to distinguish themselves in terms
of dress, appearance, and behavior.
The artwork, figurines and plaquettes may
require a different understanding of the past. We
cannot know the significance of these objects to
the people who made and used them. Sacred or
profane, do such materials reflect belief systems
or just artistic expression? Do we witness art,
or religion, or a combination of the two? The
disparity between the animals eaten and the
animals that appear engraved on the slates is
intriguing. Mammoths are common in the art,
but almost invisible on the site. This powerful
animal must have been one of the most impressive
sights on the steppes of late Pleistocene Germany.
Fig. 3.25. Perhaps the depictions reflect the things that were strongest in the minds of the
Two engraved female hunters, rather than the mundane. Many of the animals are drawn in striking
silhouettes and a horse
detail, reflecting the deep knowledge these people had of the environment in
head on slate plaque
from Gönnersdorf.
which they had to survive.
The engraved lines Gönnersdorf also tells us a great deal about the human condition and
have been highlighted the nature of human society at this time in our prehistory. The term hunter-
to make them more gatherer describes a human way of life before farming that was dependent
visible. The larger on the bounty of nature. Wild animals were hunted and wild plants were
female is almost 12 cm
gathered for food. Such societies were generally smaller, less sedentary, and
long.
more egalitarian than farming groups. Because wild resources vary in quantity
and location throughout the year, such small groups often moved frequently
to take advantage of available foods. This pattern is clearly operating in the
Upper Paleolithic, in which many archaeological sites appear to be temporary
or short-term places of residence where animals were hunted.
These groups often have a regular and repetitive annual cycle of activity,
returning to the same areas every year when foods become available. At the
same time, it is essential for small human groups to be part of a larger network
to find mates, share information, and exchange materials and ideas. To solve
this need, hunter-gatherers usually come together in larger groups at what
have been called aggregation camps for some part of the year, normally when
resources are particularly abundant.
In the Upper Paleolithic, it may be the case that the fall hunt provided
sufficient stores in the form of dried or smoked meat and fat that larger
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 87

groups could aggregate over the winter months. This may be what we see at
Gönnersdorf, and perhaps at Dolní Věstonice as well. Patterns of behavior that
characterize hunter-gatherers described in recent times such as many groups
of North American Indians, the Inuit of Alaska and Canada, and others seem
to be in place during the Upper Paleolithic. It remains difficult to envision
such behaviors prior to 40,000 years ago. It may be the case that being hunter-
gatherers (as we understand the term) requires many of the attributes that
make us human, that come along with the arrival of Homo sapiens. I return to
this issue at the end of the chapter.

P INCE V EN T, F R A NCE, 12,0 0 0 Y E A RS AGO

Geologists like acronyms. One favorite is LGM, or Last Glacial Maximum.
This term describes the last time continental ice sheets reached their maximum
extent during the Pleistocene. This happened during a period of extreme cold,
between 26,000 and 19,000 years ago. Average winter temperatures were at
least 5–10° C (8–15° F) colder than today.
Northern Europe was covered with a continental ice sheet during the
LGM, across Britain and the North Sea, all of Scandinavia into the northern
Netherlands, Germany, and Poland. Enormous mountain glaciers buried the
Alps and Pyrenees. Permafrost covered the ground south of the ice sheet into
present-day France, Hungary, and points east. Sea level was approximately 120
m (almost 400 ft) lower than today. Much of the northern half of Europe was
simply uninhabitable, and there is a distinct absence of human evidence there
from this time.
Fig. 3.26.
Beginning around 19,000 years ago, a gradual warming trend resulted in
After the Ice. The fresh
the retreat of the ice, rising sea level, and changes in the environment. The land surface after the
melting ice sheet left a thick layer of gravel, sand, and clay, remnants of the retreat of glacial ice in
former land surface bulldozed up and pushed along by expansion of the ice. At modern-day Greenland.
first this was completely barren ground
(Fig. 3.26), but a sequence of plant species
colonized the area, beginning with low
ground cover of dwarf shrubs, grasses,
mosses, and lichens, and eventually by
birch and willow groves, pine woods,
and finally a mixed oak forest. Animals
followed the vegetation. Initially there
were herds of large, migratory animals:
reindeer, horses, mammoth, shifting in
time to forest species such as red deer, roe
deer, wild boar, and brown bear.
It was in this context of dramatically
changing environment and a newly
formed landscape that the early human
inhabitants of northern Europe began to
enter the region. Initial human settlement
88 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

of this area began after 14,000 years ago. Radiocarbon dates suggest that
the first human occupants were seasonal visitors, arriving several thousand
years after the initial spread of vegetation and animals. These pioneer hunting
groups were followed a few hundred years later by more permanent residents.
The colonizing groups came from refugia in the south, where Magdalenian
Fig. 3.27. groups had sheltered from the extreme cold of the Last Glacial Maximum.
European vegetation A fascinating question pertains to this expansion: Why did human groups
12,000–11,000 BP. move into new, unknown, and often inhospitable regions? There is no clear
Warming conditions— answer, but it is the case that the human species has constantly been moving
though with some
cooling—allowed open
to new frontiers since Homo ergaster left Africa some 2 million years ago. The
woodland cover (green) Upper Paleolithic represents an important phase in the geographic expansion
to spread back over of the human species. There were more sites in more places than ever before.
much of southern, Perhaps the only answer to the question of why is that human nature entails a
central, and eastern curiosity, a need to explore.
Europe during this
It’s difficult to imagine Paris as a cold, windswept plain with few trees,
interval. Coniferous
woodland predominated
herds of reindeer, wild horses, and the occasional mammoth. Yet 12,000 years
in eastern Europe ago at the end of the Pleistocene, northern France was a generally barren,
(blue-green). Some subarctic landscape, cold and dry, with open woodlands (Fig. 3.27). One of
closed forest vegetation the coldest periods of the Pleistocene had ended, and the climate was gradually
formed in central ameliorating. Permafrost had disappeared and low ground cover and shrubs
Italy. In the northwest
of Europe, tree
expanded across the region. Large migratory herds of reindeer, wild horses, and
cover (mainly birch several other species moved across the landscape. The Magdalenian reindeer
and pine) remained hunters preyed on these herds.
relatively sparse, and In the vicinity of Paris, the Seine River and its tributaries in northern France
steppe forest (pink) were likely a significant barrier on a major route of reindeer migration, with
predominated. In parts
large herds moving north every spring and back to the south in the autumn.
of southern Europe,
steppe vegetation
There are a number of shallows and fords along the river that must have been
(yellow) remained important crossing points for these herds. The sandy banks and bars of the Seine
predominant. at these fords and shallow crossings were the location of camps of Magdalenian
reindeer hunters approximately 12,000
years ago.
More than ten such sites have been
excavated in the last seventy years in the
area around Paris. Deeply buried scatters
of stone, bone, antler, hearthstones, and
charcoal mark these ephemeral autumn
encampments of reindeer hunters.
Preservation is generally good because
these sites were quickly covered by the
annual flood of the river and deposition of
a fresh layer of silt. The river floods must
have sometimes been gentle, because in a
few cases there is little disturbance of the
materials. Some artifacts have been found
standing upright, and crushed eggshells
have been uncovered at some sites.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 89

The focus here is on a site called Pincevent. The archaeological layers at

Pincevent are deeply buried, up to 1 m (3’3”) below the modern ground
surface. These layers are a mix of sand and silt that accumulated over the last
15,000 years or so along the Seine. The sandy layers built up during drier
periods and were often wind-deposited. The silty layers were deposited by the
spring flood waters of the river, which rose almost every year into historical
times. At Pincevent, at least four thin layers with archaeological remains have
been identified, extending over an area of 2 hectares (5 acres), more than a
soccer field.
The project, originally under the direction of André Leroi-Gourhan and
Michael Brezillon, began in 1964 as a rescue excavation. During the first
twenty-five years, twenty large hearths and approximately a hundred tents
or habitation structures were uncovered. The excavators intentionally exposed
broad horizontal areas of the site, leaving features, artifacts, and bones in place.
In this way, entire “living floors” could be seen and the pattern of discarded
materials studied to determine where people slept, cooked, made tools, and
so on. The excavators also made latex rubber casts of many areas, which were
then painted to reconstruct and permanently preserve the distribution of the
archaeological materials. They are remarkably realistic.
By clearing broad horizontal areas, the excavators were able to identify distinct
concentrations or clusters of archaeological remains. Pieces of concentration
contained 20,000–30,000 flint artifacts, animal bones and antler, and some
blocks of stone, ochre, and charcoal (Fig. 3.28). Concentrations average 60–70
m2 in size, about a quarter of a tennis court. These concentrations probably
represent single tents or structures as the residence and focus of activity of a
few hunters. The concentrations were very similar. The tent or structure has an
oval outline, ca. 3 m (10 ft) in diameter, with a small, circular hearth, 50 cm
(1½ ft) in diameter, at the entrance. The inside of the tent was usually stained
with red ochre and covered with many small artifacts. The back part of the
structure typically had a very low density of finds, suggesting this may have

Fig. 3.28.
Concentration of flint,
stones, bones, antler,
red ochre and charcoal
at Pincevent. This
surface is a painted
latex copy of the
original excavated
area at the site that
now sits in a nearby
museum. See Fig. 3.29
for a drawing of this
concentration.
90 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 3.29.
A tent circle and hearth
at Pincevent with stone,
splintered bone, and
stone tools adjacent,
larger bone fragments
to the right, between
the hearth and a dump
of ash, fire-cracked rock
and bones. The black
hearth is approximately
75 cm in diameter.

been the sleeping area. Stone and bones were scattered outside the front of the
tent up to 7 m (almost 25 ft) from the entrance. It looks as if flint tools were
prepared in the tent and the waste material was thrown outside.
At Pincevent, one of the most important excavated areas is in Layer IV. This
area contains 9,400 kg (almost 10 tons) of flint artifacts, the skeletal remains of
at least forty-three reindeer, fire-cracked rock, ochre, and several shallow pits
Fig. 3.30. and fireplaces. Red ochre stains are concentrated around three large fireplaces.
Distribution of
The excavators suggest that activities were centered on three contemporary
conjoined metacarpals
in one zone of
huts, each with an associated fireplace. The hut contained a central zone of
concentrations at actual living space and surrounding zones of domestic activities and refuse
Pincevent. The lighter disposal. The intensity of activity decreased with distance from the hearths.
and darker contours Small piles of waste materials from stone tool manufacture lie on one side of
indicate density of the hearths, finished tools and red ochre on the other (Fig. 3.29).
artifacts. Red ovals are
Near one of the hearths is a large stone that was likely the seat of a flint
hearths. Connected
dots are pieces of the worker. Most of the flint was available in the immediate area of the site. A
same bone that have few pieces, however, came from some distance, confirming the mobility of
been fit back together. the hunters who had camped here. Reconstruction or refitting of the pieces
removed from the flint nodules is a good
indication of how tools were made. Moreover,
pieces that are missing and not found at the site
provide evidence of which tools were carried
elsewhere. Finally, the scattered locations of
pieces that fit together reveal how the tools and
waste materials were moved about at the site.
The distribution of bones on the living floor
is similar to that of the flint debris (Fig. 3.30).
Larger bones were at the periphery; smaller pieces
and fragments were found near the fireplaces.
The bones from a meal were apparently tossed
away from the hearth. Small fragments of antler
were found near the hearths, but larger pieces
were discarded at the edge of the activity zone.
Making antler into tools was apparently done at
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 91

this periphery. The lack of sweeping or cleaning of the living area suggests that
the occupation at Pincevent was brief.
Analysis of the faunal remains was highly informative. Virtually all of
the animal remains come from reindeer, with a very few horse, hare, and
mammoth bones scattered in the deposits. The presence of specific bones and
teeth from the reindeer skulls near the hearths suggests that the heads were
cooked and eaten in the tents. The number of rib and sternum pieces was quite
low compared to the number of reindeer identified at the site. These parts of
the animal are known to have been smoked or dried for later use by historic
Eskimo groups and perhaps the Magdalenians were doing the same thing.
Most of the reindeer at the site were killed and butchered during the late
summer and fall. Several methods were used to determine the season of
settlement. There were no fetal bones from pregnant reindeer among the animal
remains, as would be expected if these animals were killed in the winter. There
were no newborn calves among the bone evidence, so spring occupation is
unlikely. Differences in the size of the reindeer at the site indicate that both
males and females were present. The reindeer sexes do not spend the year
together, except during the fall migration. Both male and female antlers at the
site were attached to the skulls, not shed, thus delimiting a period between the
end of May and October when both sexes are carrying their antlers. Finally,
the sequence of tooth eruption in young animals at Pincevent demonstrates
that these animals were most likely killed between September and the end of
November. In sum, the evidence from the reindeer bones, antler, and teeth
strongly argues for Magdalenian hunters at Pincevent between the end of
summer and the beginning of winter.
One of the hallmarks of most hunter-gatherers is egalitarian behavior and food
sharing among the members of the group. James Enloe argues that food sharing
can be observed in the distribution of bones at Pincevent. He focuses on the hearths
as the center of all families or units at the site. He then examines how an individual
reindeer was cut up and distributed among the hearths by refitting the broken
and split pieces of bone. The bone waste from the initial butchery of the animals
following the slaughter is absent at Pincevent, so Enloe reasonably argues that the
animals were killed and butchered into large pieces elsewhere, off the site.
Eskimo reindeer hunters in Alaska butcher a caribou (the North American
version of the reindeer) into eight parts. The limbs are the favored parts because of
the quantity and quality of meat. The distribution of limbs at Pincevent suggests
that the best cuts of meat were shared between the hearths. Refitting pieces of the
limb bones at Pincevent (including the metacarpals, part of the foreleg; Fig. 3.11)
indicates that there were three donor hearths that shared meat with three receiver
hearths. These receiver hearths may have belonged to less successful hunters, elderly
individuals, or others who had less food. Food sharing is a very human behavior.

DOGGER L A ND, NOR T H SE A , 11,0 0 0 BC

Doggerland is the only place in this book without a country. It is the name given
to a large portion of the floor of the North Sea that was dry land during the
92 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

colder periods of the Pleistocene. The Dogger

Banks, a shallow water area in the middle of
the North Sea that today is a hazard point for
fisherman, lent their name to Doggerland.
During the LGM, with sea levels as much
as 120 m (almost 400 ft) below present, this
area would have been part of the European
continent, connecting Britain to Belgium, the
Netherlands, northern Germany, and Denmark
(Fig. 3.31). The total area submerged by rising
sea waters, as the temperatures warmed and
the Pleistocene came to an end, was about the
size of the state of California.
This area would simply have been an
extension of the continent, a landmass with
Fig. 3.31. features similar to the rest of northwest Europe. Initially this would have been
The outline of a zone of permafrost and tundra as the ice sheet retreated, but during the
northwestern Europe warming at the end of the Pleistocene forests of pine and birch, and eventually
during the Last Glacial
mixed oak forest, likely dominated this landscape.
Maximum. Doggerland
is the area of the North It is important to remember that the ice sheets kept melting and sea level
Sea floor that was dry kept rising through the early Holocene, gradually drowning Doggerland.
land during that period. Britain was cut off from the continent around 6500 b c . The Dogger Banks, an
upland region of Doggerland, would have been an island during this period,
and it was eventually submerged after 5000 b c .
A major undersea event during this period may have had a substantial
impact on Doggerland and its human and animal populations. Around 6200
b c there was a huge underwater landslide off the coast of Norway that triggered
a massive tsunami or tidal wave. This tsunami, with waves estimated to have
been 3–10 m (10–35 ft) high, would have had a powerful impact on coastlines
throughout the North Sea region. This tsunami is even recorded in deposits
along the east coast of Greenland, some 1,500 km (930 mi) to the west.
Doggerland, then, is a region that was home to human groups in the late
Paleolithic and early Mesolithic of northwestern Europe. The human presence
on Doggerland was dramatically documented in the 1930s when a fishing
vessel dredged up a late Paleolithic barbed point made of antler from deep
water in the North Sea. Heavy nets from these fishing boats drag along the
sea floor and bring up a variety of items in addition to fish and shellfish. Since
the 1930s a number of artifacts and animal remains (including mammoth
and reindeer) from the Pleistocene and Holocene have been found (Fig. 3.32).
Recently fragments of a Neanderthal skull were dredged up off the coast near
Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Doggerland was a place of human occupation and activity for some time.
Late Paleolithic groups likely pursued reindeer herds in this large region.
Mesolithic hunter-gatherers would have feasted from the forest and the sea
in the rich habitat that this mix of forest, wetlands, and seacoasts would have
supplied. At the same time, Doggerland is a lesson in global warming and
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 93

catastrophe. Warming at the end of the Pleistocene gradually inundated a huge Fig. 3.32.
part of the North Sea floor as sea levels rose, displacing a substantial Mesolithic Part of a mammoth
population. In the middle of this process a major tsunami struck, probably skull from the North
Sea floor being moved
catastrophically flooding large parts of the generally low, flat landscape and no ashore for analysis
doubt eradicating portions of those same populations before their abandonment and curation in the
of the area. Similar events take place today. The past repeats itself. Netherlands.

T HE L A S T HUN T ER S
The last ten millennia in Europe witnessed enormous changes in the human
condition, many times over what took place in the preceding million years.
Europe 10,000 years ago was occupied by hunters who had survived the cold
and ice of the Pleistocene and were adjusting to new conditions on a warmer,
forested continent as the period came to an end. Europe entered the Holocene,
our current geological epoch, and the warmer temperatures of an interglacial
cycle in the Earth’s oscillating climate. Temperatures for the last 10,000 years
measured in the Greenland ice layers provide evidence of warmer temperatures
with a gradual cooling trend toward the present (Fig. 3.33).
Changes were also taking place in the Near East, where experiments at
controlling nature—domesticating plants and animals—would lead to a
revolutionary new way of life. This village farming culture expanded quickly
and reached the southeastern shores of Europe by 7000 b c , bringing crops and
94 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 3.33.
A plot of temperature
recorded in oxygen
isotopes in the
Greenland ice core for
the last 10,000 years.

herds, and new ideas and technologies. The Neolithic agricultural adaptation
moved inexorably across the continent, reaching the northwestern corners of
Europe by 4000 b c . Everything changed.
The term Mesolithic is used for the period between the end of the Pleistocene
and the beginnings of agriculture. The end of the Pleistocene is conventionally
set at 9000 bc . The end of the Mesolithic is marked by the introduction of
agriculture, earlier in southeast Europe (7000 bc ) and later in northwest Europe
ca. 4000 bc . The Mesolithic was a time of innovation, interaction, and successful
adaptations among these early postglacial foragers. Europe’s last hunters thrived
in rich new environments along the coasts and rivers of the continent.
Among the distinctive characteristics of this period are a broad diet of plants
and animals and highly specialized technologies. Sophisticated equipment
included the bow and arrow, domesticated dogs for hunting, water transport
in the form of canoes and seagoing craft, a variety of fishing gear such as
nets, hook and line, weirs, traps, and ground stone tools for woodworking and
grinding. Pottery is used in later Mesolithic northern Europe. In addition,
this area was the home of spectacular Mesolithic art in a variety of forms
and media: carved amber figurines, engraved wooden objects, and numerous
decorated bone, stone, and antler pieces.
Subsistence activities appear to have greatly intensified in the Mesolithic.
Humans became more omnivorous; the number of species incorporated into
the diet is significantly greater than in the Upper Paleolithic. New additions
to the diet in the Holocene generally come from lower trophic levels in the
food chain and require more complex procurement and processing techniques.
Certain resources—particularly nuts, shellfish, and marine species—become
more visible in the archaeological record. Of perhaps greatest importance is
the increasing use of the resources of the sea.
Several sites document this Mesolithic period of the past. Franchthi Cave in
the south of Greece contains a deep sequence of archaeological materials from
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 95

the late Paleolithic through the Neolithic. The Mesolithic remains document
a range of exceptional activities related to the use of the Mediterranean. In
Portugal the site of Moita do Sebastião, an enormous shell midden, was
filled with the refuse of a Mesolithic hunters’ camp and many graves of their
dead. From the Netherlands, the site of Polderweg is a sterling model of
how archaeology should be done. The site was excavated in front of railroad
construction and published within a few years of the end of the fieldwork. The
investigations at Hardinxveld have completely rewritten the early prehistory
of the Netherlands. Finally we turn to Denmark and the remarkable place
known as Tybrind Vig, the Mesolithic under the sea.

F R A NCH T HI CAV E, GR EECE, 9 0 0 0 BC

Franchthi Cave, in southern Greece, is remarkable for the very long sequence of
human occupation that has been left in the cave over the last 20,000 years or more
(Fig. 3.34). The stratigraphy in the lower layers belongs to the Upper Paleolithic,
and the more recent levels contain deep layers from the Mesolithic and Neolithic
periods. The cave has also been used in recent times by shepherds.
Franchthi is an exceptionally important archaeological site for a number
of reasons. It contains evidence of very early seafaring, of deep sea fishing, of
dietary changes over time, and some of the earliest evidence for the arrival of
agriculture in Europe. Our focus here is on the Mesolithic levels at Franchthi,
but at the same time it is possible to observe changes from the preceding Upper
Paleolithic and to foreshadow the arrival of the Neolithic in Europe.

Fig. 3.34.
Franchthi Cave in the
Peloponnese, Greece.
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Thomas Jacobsen of the University of Indiana directed excavations

at Franchthi Cave over eight field seasons between 1967 and 1979. An
international team of scholars worked, and continues working, on publication
of the vast and complex materials and data recovered from the site. The cave
is huge, a horizontal cavern 150 m long, with good shelter from the elements.
Massive rock falls sometime in the past opened two chimneys through the
ceiling of the cave (Fig. 3.35).
The archaeologists dug several deep trenches in the cave, and a huge amount of
earth was removed. The deepest trench went 11 m (36 ft) down through deposits
dating from 20,000 to 8300 bc . Today, the cave lies along the Aegean coast. In
the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, however, when sea levels were lower, a
fairly level plain and several kilometers separated Franchthi from the sea.
The body of evidence from the Upper Paleolithic deposits generally falls within
the range of what is known about other parts of the western Mediterranean
at this time. What is astounding at Franchthi in this period is the presence
of pieces of obsidian in the late Upper Paleolithic levels around 11,000 b c .
Obsidian is a translucent, hard, black or dark green glass, produced during
volcanic eruptions. Molten silica can flow out of a volcanic core and harden
Fig. 3.35.
into this glassy, black rock which was highly sought by prehistoric makers of
A view from the
chimney in the roof of
stone tools. Obsidian, like glass and flint, fractures easily and regularly, creating
Franchthi Cave, toward very sharp edges (Fig. 3.36). It is available from only a few sources, limited by
the excavated areas. proximity to volcanic terrain and chance formation of a silica flow.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 97

Most volcanic sources for obsidian

are known because they are rare and
the material is unusual. Moreover, the
sources can be distinguished chemically
by their elemental composition. It is
possible to fingerprint specific flows of
obsidian through minor differences in
the chemistry of the material. In this
way one can accurately determine where
obsidian found in an archeological site
has come from.
There are very few sources of
obsidian in continental Europe. The
Carpathian mountains have a few
minor deposits, and more sources are
known from several volcanic islands
in the central Mediterranean and Aegean. The obsidian in the later Upper Fig. 3.36.
Paleolithic levels at Franchthi comes from the Aegean island of Melos. Melos Obsidian, a black
lies in the Cycladic Islands; at the closest point it is 100 km (60 mi) from the volcanic glass used
to produce extremely
Greek mainland to the north and 135 km (85 mi) from Franchthi to the west. sharp stone tools. The
The presence of Melos obsidian at Franchthi proves beyond the shadow of flake is ca. 5 cm in
a doubt that late Upper Paleolithic people were navigating the Mediterranean diameter.
in watercraft. Either people from Franchthi went to Melos to get this stone or
they were involved in an exchange network that moved the material to mainland
communities around the end of the Pleistocene. We know nothing of the type of
boat or raft in use at this time, but there is no question that people were crossing
the waters between Melos and the mainland. The amount of obsidian from Melos
increases in the Mesolithic and again in the Neolithic period at Franchthi.
The Upper Paleolithic occupation ended ca. 9000 bc , and the cave was
apparently unoccupied for roughly 500 years until the arrival of early Mesolithic
hunter-gatherers. The Mesolithic period at Franchthi was relatively brief, just
1,500 years, and has been divided into two phases on the basis of stratigraphy,
radiocarbon dating, and changes in the artifacts and fauna. The Lower Mesolithic
runs from 8500 to 8000 bc and the Upper Mesolithic from 8000 to 7000 bc .
The area around Franchthi at this time was covered with an open oak
woodland, mixed with other trees and shrubs such as juniper, pistachio, wild
pear, and almond. Franchthi was 2 km (1.2 mi) away from the sea during the
Mesolithic, overlooking a grassy coastal plain. A river ran through the coastal
plain; marshes, salt flats, and mud shoals at the river mouth probably created
a rich habitat for marine resources.
The Lower Mesolithic inhabitants of Franchthi exploited a range of terrestrial and
marine resources at the beginning of the Holocene. The animal bones document
about 65–70 percent red deer, 25–30 percent wild boar; wild horse and wild
goats have disappeared, and wild cattle were rare. In addition there are substantial
numbers of hare and birds, as well as fox, probably taken for fur. A great increase
in the amount of seeds and plant remains was observed. There were roughly 700
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seeds from nineteen species of plants in the Upper Paleolithic, compared to almost
28,000 seeds from twenty-seven species in the Lower Mesolithic.
The plants identified in the Mesolithic sample were collected in the spring,
summer, and autumn. Many of the edible species of seeds and nuts could have
been stored through the winter, so the absence of identifiable winter plants does
not rule out winter occupation of the cave. Further evidence came from the
marine shellfish. Analysis of the season of death of these mollusks showed they
were being collected year-round. In addition, oxygen-isotope analyses of shells
from marine mollusks from the Lower Mesolithic suggest that two species, sea
snails and lagoon cockles, were collected in all four seasons of the year.
The Lower Mesolithic level at Franchthi also contained the only burials at
the site. Initially a single burial was encountered, a twenty-five-year-old male
buried in a contracted position in a shallow pit near the mouth of the cave.
The man had died from blows to the forehead, but he seems to have already
been suffering severely from malaria. The first male burial lay on top of five
inhumations and two cremations, plus the fragmentary remains of another
two to five individuals. These bones represent persons of all age groups.
The Upper Mesolithic levels at the site indicate even greater reliance on the sea.
The remains of tuna and the increased import of obsidian from Melos document
use of the sea on the part of the residents of Franchthi. Bones from large tuna
constitute about 30 percent of the animal remains in these layers. Measuring up
to 2.5 m (8 ft) long and weighing up to 200 kg (450 lb), tuna can be caught only
in the deeper waters of the Aegean and Mediterranean. Obsidian continued to be
brought across the sea to Franchthi in the Upper Mesolithic, and grinding stones
of the mineral andesite were imported from the Saronic Gulf to the north.
There appears to be a break of about 500 years in occupation of the cave
between the latest Mesolithic and the earliest Neolithic. The Neolithic period,
beginning around 7000 bc, saw substantial changes in subsistence practices at
Franchthi Cave with the introduction of domesticated sheep and goats as well as
wheat and domestic forms of barley and lentils. The first appearance of domesticates
occurs in levels with few or no ceramics. The domesticated plants and animals
appeared rather suddenly at Franchthi and must have come from Southwest Asia
via the Aegean. Some 3,000 years after their first appearance in Greece, farming
societies had replaced hunter-gatherers across most of the European continent.
The introduction of agriculture and the spread of the Neolithic is the subject
of the next chapter. Next we move to westernmost Europe, a distance of some
3,000 km (almost 2,000 mi), and the Mesolithic of Ireland.

MOUN T SA NDEL , IR EL A ND, 70 0 0 BC

Ireland is a remote and distinctive outpost of Western Europe, a landscape of
rocky uplands and steeply cut valleys, mantled with dense vegetation that grows
almost year-round in a climate tempered by the Gulf Stream. At the western
margin of the continent, the island has long been isolated from Britain. This
insularity has resulted in the absence of many common European mammals,
such as wild cattle, red deer, and roe deer. Species present after the end of the
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 99

Pleistocene included wild boar, Irish hare, Irish stoat, pine marten, beaver, otter,
and brown bear. Ireland has no Paleolithic and apparently was not inhabited
until about 9,000 years ago, one of the last places in Europe to be colonized.
This insular character also lent a distinctive cast to the Irish Mesolithic
that became more pronounced over time. Artifacts at the earliest sites already
exhibit features that are distinct from those in neighboring Scotland, only
a few kilometers across the straits of the North Channel. By the end of the
Mesolithic, many stone tools are uniquely Irish in design, indicating an absence
of contact with the rest of Britain and the continent. For example, there were
no flint arrowheads in the later Mesolithic of Ireland, although these objects
were common in England and on the continent during that period.
Radiocarbon dating for the earliest humans in Ireland yields an age of 7000 bc
for the site of Mount Sandel in Northern Ireland, the oldest evidence for a human
presence in Ireland. This name was originally given to an Iron Age hillfort atop a
30 m (100 ft) high bluff above the River Bann. Today, the small Mesolithic site east
of the fort is of much greater importance in the prehistory of Western Europe.
The River Bann runs into the sea some 5 km (3 mi) north of the site. Today
the tidal ebb and flow of the sea reaches this far inland and creates an estuary
below Mount Sandel. This would not have been the case earlier in prehistory,
when sea level was lower. The Bann would likely have been a series of rapids
below Mount Sandel during the Mesolithic occupation, and the mouth of the
estuary would have been a few kilometers further to the north.
The area was excavated in advance of housing construction in the 1970s by
Peter Woodman from University College, Cork, to determine what, if any,
remains from the Mesolithic period could be recovered. What started as a
minor rescue operation quickly grew, however, into a major project, as the
excavations required some forty weeks of work over five years of field seasons,
opening an area of more than 1,000 m2 (1200 yd2; Fig. 3.37).

Fig. 3.37.
Excavations at Mount
Sandel, Ireland,
revealed a large hut.
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Fig. 3.38.
An artist’s
reconstruction of the
huts at Mount Sandel.

The excavations exposed a series of large, circular structures, roughly 6 m

(20 ft) in diameter (the size of a large room), each with a central fireplace and
interior pits, rebuilt repeatedly on the same spot. The huts were marked by
peripheral rows of postholes, many more than 20 cm (8 in) deep, set at an
angle in the ground. A circle of saplings or branches had been shoved into
the ground and then brought together in the center to form these structures
(Fig. 3.38). The ground was cleared to the subsoil in the interior of the hut, and
the sod may have been used to cover part of the outside of the hut. Estimates
by Woodman suggest that eight to twelve people may have inhabited such a
structure.
Stone artifacts in the huts included worn or broken and discarded arrow
tips and drills, along with a substantial amount of waste material from making
stone tools. Axes and scraping tools were discarded around the edges of the
hut. A number of flint blades with traces of red ochre were also found here;
their use is unknown. Evidence for tool manufacture was also found to the
west outside the huts.
Fireplaces in the huts were used for cooking and heating. Their contents
included stone artifacts, burned animal bones, and large quantities of
hazelnut shells. Seeds of water lily and wild apple were also recovered in the
excavations. Most of the identifiable bones from the site were those of wild
boar, predominantly young animals; hare was present, but rare. Bird and fish
bones were common. Duck, pigeon, dove, goshawk, and grouse were taken by
the Mesolithic hunters of Mount Sandel. Sea bass, eel, and especially salmon
were well represented in the bones that were preserved. Salmon bones, which
usually do not survive, were found at the site because they had been charred in
the hearths. Freshwater fish remains were not found.
The substantial nature of the residential structures, the numerous pits
and rebuilding episodes, along with evidence from the diverse plant remains
and animal bones all suggest that Mount Sandel may have been occupied
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 101

Fig. 3.39.
The time of year of
residence at Mount
Sandel. The season
and relative abundance
of various resources is
shown by the graphs.
This evidence indicated
that the site was
probably inhabited
year-round.

year-round. Various foods would have been available throughout much

of the year, enabling the occupants to remain at the site for most seasons
(Fig. 3.39). Salmon were present in the streams and rivers during summer; eels
ran downstream in autumn, when hazelnuts were ripe. Water lily seeds were
collected in September. Most of the pig bones came from young animals killed
during winter.
The evidence of year-round occupation at Mount Sandel, Franchthi, and other
places highlights an important phenomenon in the Mesolithic: hunter-gatherers
living on or near the coast were largely sedentary. This shift toward a less mobile
way of life may be one of the characteristics of the early Postglacial period.

MOI TA D O SEB A S T I Ã O, P OR T UG A L , 6 0 0 0 BC

The term shell midden is used in archaeology to describe heaps of shell, usually
found near the sea coast, that represent accumulations of the remains of
tens or hundreds of thousands of marine mollusks such as oyster, mussels,
and other species. The term midden itself refers to a dump or deposit of
trash. Shell middens often contain archaeological materials in the form of
fireplaces, artifacts, bones, and occasionally human burials. They may have
been residential or simply short-term campsites or feasting places for the
consumption of shellfish and marine foods. These middens can be enormous,
hundreds of meters long and several meters high. There was a famous series
of prehistoric shell middens in San Francisco Bay more than two stories high.
There are also examples of freshwater shell middens in some parts of the world.
Shell middens are found on every continent except Antarctica, dating from a
wide range of time periods.
10 2 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 3.40. In Portugal, the term for such shell middens is concheiro. Massive prehistoric
The edge of the valley shell heaps were first reported in Portugal in 1863; the Portuguese middens
terrace seen from the date largely from the Mesolithic period. There are several groups of shell
Muge River area in
Portugal. The site of
middens in the country; the best known, referred to as the Muge middens, are
Moita do Sebastião lies in the lower valley of the Tagus River (Fig. 3.40). The Muge is a small branch
beneath the agricultural of the Tagus, which empties into the Atlantic at Lisbon, some 45 km (30 mi)
buildings on the to the southwest. During the Holocene there was an enormous tidal effect in
terrace. the Tagus, reaching the Muge and creating a rich estuarine zone at the limits
of the tidal flow with extensive brackish water mollusk beds. In addition, the
waters of the river and the upland areas of the valley margin and nearby hills
would have provided access to waterfowl, fish, and large game such as aurochs,
red deer, and wild boar.
There are at least 13 separate middens in this area (Fig. 3.41). These sites
lie within a few kilometers (1–2 mi) of one another, and early excavations
uncovered large numbers of human skeletons buried in the middens. Carlos
Ribeiro, digging at two of the sites in the 1880s, reported more than 170 burials.
Radiocarbon dating of four human skeletons from the site of Moita do Sebastião
has indicated an age of 6100–5900 bc , well within the Mesolithic period.
In 1952–1954 excavations were conducted at Moita do Sebastião to salvage
the remaining parts of the midden that had been damaged in preparation for
construction of farm buildings. The original shell midden, at least 2.5 m (8
ft) high and covering an area of some 300 m2 (3,200 ft2), had been largely
removed by the farm owner, leaving only about 20 cm (8 in) of the lowest levels
of the midden. A number of pits and postholes were observed beneath this level.
Excavations focused on these features, including an arrangement of postholes
that suggested the presence of a structure almost 40 m 2 (430 ft2) in size.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 10 3

Subsistence information comes primarily from animal remains at the shell Fig. 3.41.
middens. A large range of animal species were present: red deer, aurochs, roe The location of Moita
deer, wild boar, and an occasional horse. Smaller mammals included rabbit do Sebastião and other
shell middens (red
and hare, birds (both waterfowl and pigeon and partridge). The shell middens
dots) at the confluence
are made up of a range of marine invertebrates and lots of crab and shellfish, of the Tagus and Muge
with a predominance of cockles in the Muge valley. Estuarine and open-sea rivers. The dotted red
fish and sea mammals such as otters were also found in the deposits. Plant line is the limit of
remains at some of the sites include unidentified seeds and pine and pistachio saltwater and the solid
red line is the limit of
nuts. Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in Portuguese skeletal material
tidal influence.
indicate a mixed diet of marine and terrestrial components.
The burials at the site are one of the more interesting features at Moita
do Sebastião. There are at least one hundred human burials reported from
this midden, and probably more disappeared or were destroyed during the
bulldozing of the mound.
Mary Jackes and Pedro Alvim have suggested that the burials were placed
in a distinctive arrangement. The skeletons were found on the same surface
and so are roughly contemporary, and in several pits over which small mounds
may have been erected. They argue that the pits and graves were arranged in
a horseshoe or U-shape, just beneath the high point of the shell midden that
stood over the burials. There is also a possible U-shaped alignment of postholes
inside the horseshoe of burial pits. If this scenario is correct, one of the original
functions of the shell midden at Moita do Sebastião may have been for interring
and commemorating the dead. Jackes and Alvim suggest that some of the animal
remains may have come from feasting activities during funerary ceremonies.
The health of the buried individuals as seen in the skeletal remains was
generally good. Evidence of injury in the skeletal remains from Moita do
Sebastião includes a broken flint point in the heel of one male, and three
examples of forearm fractures in two females and one individual of unknown
sex. It is difficult to determine if these injuries are the result of accident, domestic
violence, or intergroup conflict. The rather low incidence of traumatic injury
observed in the skeletal remains as a whole suggests that violence was not a
major aspect of life or death. One of the adult males apparently underwent
cranial surgery, or trephination. A small hole was drilled in the top of his skull,
some 10 mm (less than ½ in) deep, perhaps as a medical procedure.
10 4 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

P OL DERW EG, NE T HER L A ND S, 5 5 0 0 BC

The explosive growth of infrastructure in the last twenty-five years—related

both to the success of the European Union and the expansion of the global
economy—has meant a multitude of new archaeological excavations.
Most of the countries in Europe have legislation requiring developer-
funded archaeological investigations in advance of construction. A good
guess would be that in the last twenty-five years these activities have at
least doubled the amount of material and information we have about the
prehistory of Europe. Hundreds of new sites have been discovered and
excavated. Thousands of human remains have been recovered. Hundreds
of thousands of artifacts and other archaeological materials have been
removed from the ground.
Massive construction projects and the rise of developer-funded rescue
archeology in Europe have completely changed how archaeology is being done.
No longer a shoestring enterprise, large rescue projects spend millions of euros.
The funds provide not only for excavations but also salaries, analyses, and
publication. The scale of these projects has also undergone a revolution. Small
areas of a few tens of square meters were the norm for Mesolithic fieldwork
until the advent of developer-funded investigations. Now large-scale, horizontal
excavations can expose complete areas of settlement and allow archaeologists
to see the complexity of human occupations in a single view.
Fig. 3.42. The Netherlands is one of the countries where development has been fast-
The Rhine delta paced and construction of new roads, railroads, sewage treatment facilities,
region in the southern industry, and housing has boomed. In the late 1980s a new freight railroad was
Netherlands with the
planned, running east from the enormous Europort harbor near Rotterdam to
new rail line to the
German border. The
the German border. This rail corridor went through the middle of the Rhine
location of Polderweg is River valley in this part of the Netherlands, an area rich in archaeological
shown. sites (Fig. 3.42). Enormous amounts of money were provided by the railroad
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 10 5

to investigate these sites. Projects on a scale unimaginable twenty years earlier

were scattered across the landscape in advance of construction.
In this case, the commercial archaeological unit at the University of Leiden
won the contract to conduct studies of two late Mesolithic and early Neolithic
sites that would be destroyed by the rail line. The project was directed by
Leendert Louwe Kooijmans. One of the sites was at a place called Hardinxveld-
Giessendam Polderweg (Polderweg for short). Radiocarbon dates place the
site between 5500 and 5000 b c , firmly in the late Mesolithic period in the
Netherlands. Farming arrives in the southeastern Netherlands ca. 5250 b c .
The site is in one of the many reclaimed areas in the Netherlands where
the Dutch have built dikes and pumped out the sea to create new land. The
Polderweg site is situated on an old river dune, 5 m below modern sea level.
The top surface of the dune measured ca. 80 m (260 ft) by 50 m (165 ft), or Fig. 3.43.
Excavations inside
4000 m 2 (43,000 ft2), half a soccer field. During the late Mesolithic the water
the coffer dam at
level in the extensive swamps of the Rhine was several meters below the dune Polderweg. The
tops. At that time, the dune tops would have been virtually the only dry land horizontal steel pipes
in a large region of river, streams and reed marsh. Today the site is buried are support beams
beneath several meters of more recent sediments. for the coffer dam.
These sites were discovered in 1994 by archaeologists boring deep holes into Excavations inside the
coffer dam took place
the earth in a systematic grid along the planned route for the railway. Excavation
under a temporary
of part of the southern slope of the dune at Polderweg took place in 1997–98. shelter for protection
A 20 m (65 ft) deep cofferdam was put in place and water was pumped out against the wind and
from an area of 30 m (100 ft) by 18.5 m (60 ft) for the excavations. The entire weather.
10 6 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

area was roofed and furnished with pumps for keeping the water
out, and a gantry for lifting heavy materials (Fig. 3.43). All the
sediments from the cultural layers were washed through screens
with water to increase the recovery rate and reveal small objects.
The excavation was placed on the side of the river dune in order
to be able to excavate both the top surface and the lower slopes of
the dune. The maximum depth of the excavations was 7 m (23
ft) below ground level.
Four stratigraphic phases were distinguished in the deposits.
The most important is Phase 1, dated between 5430 and 5350
b c . Most of the discussion that follows involves the discoveries,
analyses, and interpretation from this period, perhaps four to
six generations of human life.
There were two major areas of archaeological remains, a
residential area on top of the dune and refuse deposits in the
reeds and water at the base of the dune. The sandy top of the
dune retained the traces of a number of structures and other
features. Pieces of charcoal from fires were scattered across the
dune, perhaps more concentrated in the oval pits. For the most
part, artifacts made of stone were small and few in number. The
excavation exposed large oval pits—possible house structures,
round pits interpreted as hearths, and postholes. The four large,
circular or oval pits exposed on the top of the dune in Phase 1
at Polderweg ranged in size from 3 by 3 m to 4 by 6 m (10 by
10 ft to 13 by 20 ft). They are interpreted to be the remains of
sunken floor huts or shelters.
Fig. 3.44. Two burials were uncovered in the excavation, one intact and one badly
Burial of a young disturbed (Fig. 3.44). In addition, there were eighty fragments of scattered
female on the dune top human bone in the deposits at the site, representing at least ten individuals.
at Polderweg.
An isolated human collar bone was found with repeated identical cut marks,
caused by a sharp stone tool. These cutmarks were identified as perimortem,
inflicted at or around the time of death. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes from
the human bones point to a predominance of terrestrial and freshwater foods
in the diet. There were also three dog burials.
The wetland deposits surrounding the dune contained abundant, well-
preserved ecological, economic, and artifactual information, as the occupants had
used this zone as a rubbish dump. Here larger objects, waste bone, wood, broken
equipment, and paddles and possible pieces of dugout canoes were found.
Analysis of the various materials recovered in the excavations has generated
a wealth of detail about the activities at the site, the season of occupation, the
diet of the inhabitants, and other information. Major categories of finds include
stone tools, animal bones, and wooden artifacts. In addition, during the last
phase of settlement at Polderweg fragments of simple, coiled pottery vessels
with a pointed base began to appear in small numbers. This ceramic tradition
is Mesolithic and arrived before domesticated plants and animals and other
Neolithic artifacts.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 10 7

The stone artifacts are of particular interest because there is no natural stone
in this part of the Rhine River delta. All stone material had to be carried into the
site. Most of the flint used at the site came from the gravels of the Meuse River,
75 km to the east. There are also a few pieces of quartzite from central Belgium,
perhaps 100 km (60 mi) to the south. A large block of distinctive flint came from
the Limburg region of the southern Netherlands, also 100 km distant. Finally, there
are two lumps of pyrite (an iron mineral) almost certainly available only in the
Ardennes region of Belgium, 200 km (120 mi) to the southeast, and at Boulogne-
sur-Mer on the Channel coast equally far to the southwest. Clearly the movement
of raw materials, and human interaction, covered long distances in this period.
The primary subsistence activities in all phases involved hunting wild boar
and red deer, trapping beaver and otter, fishing, and fowling. The animal
remains include bone, antler, and teeth from a variety of species. There seems
to have been a special focus on trapping fur-bearing animals such as beaver
and otter, and fishing for pike. The excavator estimated that there must have
been around 10 million fish bones from Polderweg Phase 1, reflecting the
importance of fish in the diet. Pike accounted for 50 percent of the fish
remains, with the remainder largely from members of the Cyprinidae family
(roach, bream, and tench). Pike spawn in shallow water in the winter and are
more easily taken at that time of year.
Almost 650 bird bones were identified from Phase 1 at Polderweg. The presence
of these species provides information on the ecological context of the site at the
time of occupation. Some 90 percent of the identified bones come from wetland
dwellers, mainly ducks, geese, and swans—red-throated diver, cormorant, little
grebe, grey heron, rail, and reed bunting. Their normal habitat is open, moving
water bordered by a lush vegetation of reeds. Ducks seem to have been the
primary target of the hunters. The other 10 percent are characteristic of a wooded
environment: sparrowhawk, buzzard, eagle, owl, woodpecker, and woodcock.
Almost all of the wetland species either are winter visitors or are present in
much higher numbers during the colder months. The bird remains document
occupation from November to March, with an emphasis from December to
February. Summer species are notably absent. This has led to the unexpected
conclusion that the Late Mesolithic occupants of the site chose to locate their
winter residence in the wetlands, perhaps to take advantage of the migratory
waterfowl present at that time.
The animal bones and other products are not just sources of food; these are
also raw materials for production of tools, weapons, jewelry, and other items.
Boars’ tusks were made into chisels. Heavy red deer antler was used for axes
and adzes (Fig. 3.45). Bone was used for many types of artifacts, among them
heavy adzes and finer awls and gouges.
There were important plant foods in evidence at Polderweg: hazel nuts,
water chestnut, tubers, and crab apple. The first two can be collected in the
autumn, while tubers are best collected from fall to early spring. Crab apple
likely did not grow at the site and was probably transported to the settlement,
perhaps in a dried state. The charcoal evidence likely reflects wood collected
for fuel and is dominated by alder, oak, ash, and wild apple (not crab apple).
10 8 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 3.45.
Antler tools from
Polderweg: chisel, awl,
and hammer. The chisel
is ca. 15 cm in length.

The wood preservation at Polderweg is exceptional and offers some of the

first examples of such artifacts and equipment from the Mesolithic in the
Netherlands: posts, fragments of a bow, an axe haft, paddles, digging sticks,
skewers, planks, possible spear points, fragments of canoes, and unidentified
“round” wood. “Round” wood refers to pointed pieces other than posts.
Intentional selection of different species for specific kinds of wooden artifacts
indicates a thorough awareness of the properties of these various trees.
The river dunes of the Rhine delta would have been small wooded islands in
the midst of a large marshland during the Mesolithic in the Netherlands. The
site of Polderweg is probably typical for human settlement in this area. The
excavator suggests that the population of the dune in Phase 1 might have been
twenty-five to fifty people in ten households. The burials of dogs and people,
including women and children, the size of the site, and the large amount and
wide variety of flint, bone, and antler artifacts indicate this was a substantial
residential settlement for at least part of the year.
Several lines of evidence—migratory waterfowl, the emphasis on pike—
indicate that this place was largely for winter residence. Trapping beaver and
otter for fur may have been one of the primary activities taking place from
this location. Subsistence seems to have focused on wild boar and fish. Other
animals are represented, but only in smaller numbers. The artifacts of stone,
bone, antler, and wood are also typical of the Mesolithic; introduction of
pottery during the last phase of occupation at Polderweg is not. Ceramics
presage the arrival of the Neolithic, bringing dramatic change across all of
Europe. More about Mesolithic pottery at the next site of Tybrind Vig.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 10 9

T Y BR IND V IG, DENM A R K , 5 0 0 0 BC

One of the most important Stone Age sites in Europe lies beneath 3 m (10 ft) of
water between the peninsula of Jutland and the island of Funen in Denmark.
Sports divers have been finding and recording submerged archaeological sites
and historical wrecks off the coasts of Denmark for decades. Archaeological sites
from the Mesolithic period and even fossil landscapes with standing tree trunks
from that period remain largely intact in places on the Danish sea floor.
Tybrind Vig was discovered by divers in 1972. Because of the large amount
of material that was found, they contacted Søren H. Andersen, a professional
archaeologist to assist them. Excavations were begun in 1978. The group of
divers raised the funding to cover costs and spent a month of their vacation
time, for ten years every summer, diving and digging at Tybrind Vig.
Denmark sits on a geological tilt line; the northeastern half of the country
is rising up and the southwestern half is sinking. Two processes operate; to the
north the rebound of the earth’s crust in response to the disappearance of the
weight of continental ice at the end of the last glaciation continues, and to the
south a large salt dome centered under the Netherlands is gradually lowering
the land surface. Sites from the later Mesolithic period in southwestern
Denmark are drowned beneath the waves.
Excavations beneath the sea were not easy (Fig. 3.46). New techniques had
to be developed to replicate dry-land methods of careful recording. The divers
worked in one-meter units and eventually excavated about 180 m2 (almost
2,000 ft 2). They recorded the precise location of important finds, and all the

Fig. 3.46.
A diver brings a
humanly worked antler
from a red deer (North
American elk) from a
submerged Mesolithic
site in Denmark.
11 0 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

sediments were sieved to look for small pieces that could

be easily missed.
Tybrind Vig is a wonderfully informative place to
learn about the Mesolithic of Northern Europe. The
finds are remarkable because of both the quantity
and the extraordinary conditions of preservation.
It seems there is a little bit more of everything from
Tybrind Vig.
The settlement was used between 5000 and 4000 b c .
The archaeological deposits represent only a part of the
former human settlement; the actual dry land occupation
with fireplaces and activity areas was destroyed by wave
erosion millennia ago. However, because the settlement
was directly at the seashore, artifacts and waste material
were also dumped or lost in the water in what are called
refuse deposits. These remains today are found in
Fig. 3.47. waterlogged, oxygen-free, organic sediments that accumulated to a meter or
A Mesolithic pottery more in depth during the period of human occupation. Tybrind Vig has some
vessel from Denmark,
of the best conditions for preservation of organic materials such as wood, bark,
ca. 35 cm high.
fibers, and bast anywhere in the world.
It is important to remember that almost everything found at the site was
originally lost, tossed, or intentionally deposited in the water. And it has
remained there ever since. Most of the remains are connected in one way or
another with getting food: equipment for hunting and fishing, travel and
transportation, the animals that were prey, and the plants that provided
nourishment and raw materials.
The artifacts from the site document a simple, functional technology
designed for efficiency. A complete wooden bow and several fragments were
found, made of elm. The complete bow is 3 cm in diameter at its midpoint and
tapers to a narrow rounded tip at each end. The total length is 1.66 m (5’6”),
the average height of a man in Mesolithic Denmark. Stone tools flaked from
flint are abundant and include large numbers of arrow points, two kinds of
axes, and some specialized scraping and cutting tools. Small groundstone axes
were also made by these people.
Pottery was used in the northern areas of Europe during the late Mesolithic
(Fig. 3.47) and was noted also at the site of Polderweg. Pottery is normally
thought to be a product of Neolithic peoples, characteristic of a village way of
life. Although the inhabitants of Tybrind Vig were typical hunter-gatherers,
they made distinctive pointed-base pottery vessels in several sizes for cooking
and storage. This ceramic technology probably came from the east, spreading
from points of origin in China and Mongolia, and arriving in Scandinavia
shortly after 5000 b c . In addition to the containers, they also made small,
shallow oval bowls of fired clay that served as lamps, burning fat or oil with
a wick.
Numerous worked wooden stakes were uncovered in the excavations. These
pieces, of varying length and diameter, were found both standing vertically
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 111

and lying horizontally in the deposits. The stakes were usually part of
the fishing fences and weirs in the sea in front of the site—barricades
that guided fish and eels into large wicker traps. These stakes were
made of hazel wood and had been worked, some just cut away from
the tree and others sharpened to a point. The wooden stakes varied
in age from five to twelve years at the time of cutting. Many of them
were long and straight (more than 2 m, ca. 7 ft, in length), typical of
coppiced trees.
Coppicing is an ancient form of woodland management that involves
pruning the branches of trees so they can regrow from shoots. Hazel
does not naturally grow in long, straight sections unless coppiced. The
coppiced shoots of the hazel tree will grow straight as long as there is
adequate space and light.
Other plant materials were carefully selected for specific properties.
Bows were made of elm, the dugout canoes were lime, the wooden
paddles were ash. Part of a fish trap woven of alder and willow twigs
was also found. Spear fishing is documented by a number of finely
worked leister prongs of the wood of the thorn tree attached to a shaft
of hazel with strands of fiber, probably from the nettle plant. The
arrangement of these pieces was made clear by the find of an intact
leister head (Fig. 3.48).
Water transport is well documented by three dugout canoes from
Tybrind Vig, one complete and two partial examples. The complete
canoe was carved from the trunk of a lime tree and is 9.5 m (31 ft)
in length. The cavity in the canoe is 50–65 cm (1.6–2.1 ft) wide and
about 30 cm (12 in) in depth. The boat has a stern board fitted into
place to close off the end. There was a place near the stern, covered
by a thin layer of clay, 65 by 30 cm (25 by 12 in) in size—a large
placemat, on the floor of the canoe. The clay had been heated to hardness, Fig. 3.48.
and part of the area beneath the clay layer was charred. This was likely an area A reconstructed fishing
for carrying coals or embers for warmth, or perhaps for quickly starting a fire leister from Tybrind Vig,
complete except for
at a new location. This boat could have carried six to eight individuals and the shaft, ca. 40 cm in
their equipment. The canoe had been deliberately submerged and weighted length.
down with a large stone, perhaps to keep the wood from drying out and
decaying.
In addition to the dugouts, at least fourteen wooden paddles were found,
most with a shaft of more than 1 m (3’3”) and a heart-shaped blade around 30
cm (12”) in diameter. After excavation, these paddles were normally cleaned
by brushing, but one day a very careful washing of the blade of one of the
paddles revealed a distinct design on the surface (Fig. 3.49). A new form of
Mesolithic decoration was revealed. Eventually four decorated blades were
identified.
Other plants with other purposes included a kind of mushroom or fungus
that when dried is excellent tinder for starting fires. Bark was also used, perhaps
for flooring or construction. Bast fibers from lime bark and nettles, and other
plants and trees, were used for string and rope. The line preserved on one of
11 2 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 3.49.
Decorated paddle blade from Tybrind Vig.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 11 3

the bone fishhooks from Tybrind is made of plant fibers (Fig. 3.50).
Spun plant fibers also used to make nets or textiles, with a technique
known as needle netting. Several pieces were found that are among
the oldest examples of textiles known anywhere in the world.
Plant remains were plentiful at the site. There is very little
evidence for consumption of vegetables and other plant foods in
the Paleolithic period. The evidence from Tybrind Vig suggests
that there were at least five categories in the local diet: roots,
nuts, grains, wild berries and other fruits, and green vegetables.
Direct evidence for starchy tubers comes from the sea beet and the
common reed. Hazel nutshells were abundant in the deposits at
Tybrind, and charred acorn husks suggest this nut was consumed
as well. Nuts could be stored for long periods (acorns have to be
leached to remove tannic acids before eating). Seeds were found
from plants such as nettle and goosefoot, and from a variety of
fruits, including raspberries, wild strawberries, dewberries, rowan
berries, and rosehips. Rosehips are rich in vitamins. Pips from
crabapples and seeds from berries of dogwood and hawthorn were
also found in the layers.
The animal bones at the site revealed a mixed diet of seafood and forest Fig. 3.50.
animals. The primary game animals were red deer, roe deer, and wild boar. A bone fishhook from
Evidence from tooth eruption and wear from the deer jaws indicates that these Tybrind Vig with part of
the line still attached;
animals were hunted year-round from the site. Other species included a few height 3 cm.
examples of aurochs (wild cattle) and a wild horse. Dogs were common, and
their bones were found among the refuse.
A variety of marine foods were consumed, ranging from oysters to seals,
dolphins, and small whales, but it is fish—particularly cod, spurdog, and eel—
that were of primary importance in the diet. Sixteen species of fish were found
at the site; twelve species of birds including ducks and geese were counted
among the animal remains.
Studies of the isotopic composition of human skeletons from Mesolithic
burials indicate that seafood played a predominant role in the diet. More
evidence of consumption of fish came from the pottery. Because of the quality
of preservation at this underwater site, traces and residues from heating and
cooking have been preserved on some of the pots. Soot or burn marks on the
outside of a vessel are one indication of use for cooking. Other residues, known
as food crusts, are the result of the burning and charring of food in and on the
vessel. On several of the pots from Tybrind there were heavy charred remains
with visible traces of fish scales and small bones of cod. Under a microscope
thin, grasslike stalks of plants can also be seen.
Animal bones were also used to make certain equipment. Small fishhooks
were made from the rib bone of red deer and sharp fishing spear tips of bone
were made of deer bone. Antlers were used for a variety of artifacts, including
heavy axes; two of these antler axes had been polished and decorated with
a pattern of fine geometric lines. Tooth pendants were worn as jewelry and
ornaments on clothing in the Mesolithic. Canine teeth from a variety of
11 4 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

species were perforated near the end of the root and worn as pendants or sewn
onto clothing.
Some animals were apparently hunted for fur rather than food. There
were a large number of intact marten skeletons with skinning marks from a
stone knife. Other fur-bearing species included wild cat, fox, otter, badger,
and polecat. Fatal fractures on the rear of the skull represent blows from
either the trapper or the traps that captured these animals. Clearly the
furs of these animals were of importance, perhaps for exchange as well as
domestic use.
The use of the site appears to have been almost continuous during the fifth
millennium b c . Several graves were present at Tybrind Vig. Scattered human
bones and fragments from at least four persons were found in the excavations.
One largely complete grave was uncovered containing the skeletons of a young
girl, twelve or thirteen years of age, along with a young baby, and a second
grave that probably held two adults.

V EDBÆK , DENM A R K , 5 0 0 0 BC

Two hundred kilometers to the east of Tybrind Vig and just north of the city
of Copenhagen, more Mesolithic graves were found near the town of Vedbæk,
dated to around 5000 b c . In 1975, a graveyard was discovered here during
construction of a new school (Fig. 3.51). Of the twenty-two individuals who

Fig. 3.51.
The cemetery at
Vedbæk, Denmark. The
gray area was disturbed
by construction
activities before the
archaeologists arrived.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 11 5

were buried in the cemetery, four were newborns, and eight more died before
reaching the age of twenty. There were nine men, five of whom were over fifty;
of the eight women, two died before age twenty, and three lived to be over
forty. Two women died in childbirth and were buried with their newborns
beside them.
Powdered red ochre was found in many of the graves. Ochre was also used
in the Upper Paleolithic for cave paintings and in some burials; it occurs
naturally in a yellow or light brown form in many parts of the world and turns
darker red when heated. Red-deer antlers were placed with elderly individuals.
Males were buried with flint knives, and females were often interred with
jewelry made of shell or animal teeth. In one grave, a newborn infant was
found buried with a flint knife on the wing of a swan next to his mother (Fig.
3.52). The mother’s head had been placed on a cushion of material, perhaps an
animal skin, that was elaborately decorated with ornaments of snail shells and
deer teeth. Similar materials were found around her waist, suggesting a skirt
or clothing of some kind.

Fig. 3.52.
The grave of a mother
and newborn child
from the cemetery at
Vedbæk. The baby was
buried on the wing of
a swan.
11 6 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

The cemetery also contained rather dramatic evidence for conflict among
the people of northern Europe at that time. Almost half of the individuals
in the cemetery show some signs of traumatic injury. Simultaneous burial of
three individuals in a single grave—an adult male with a lethal bone point in
his throat, an adult female, and a child—suggests both the violent death of
all three and the existence of the nuclear family. The incidence of trauma and
injury recorded in human bones from the Mesolithic is remarkably high.
Intentional burial of the dead has been practiced by humans since the time
of the Neanderthal. What seems new in the Mesolithic is the presence of
cemeteries, groups of graves, which must reflect both longer-term residence
and growing group identity. In small groups of fifty people or so, only one or
two deaths per year would be expected. Cemeteries with tens of individuals
imply either much larger group size or more likely the extended use of place to
bury relatives in familiar ground.

ROCK A R T: V INGEN, NORWAY, 5 0 0 0 BC

Rock art is the oldest surviving form of human expression, probably dating as
far back as 40,000 years ago. Rock art is known from every continent except
Antarctica and from most of the periods of prehistory. It is almost ubiquitous
in human societies where rock is part of the landscape. This art falls into two
major categories, depending on how it is made: petroglyphs are carved into
rock, and pictographs are painted on the rock.
Both types have a long history. There are cave paintings and engravings
from the late Paleolithic, as we have seen at Chauvet and Grande Grotte at
Arcy-Sur-Cury. There are also large concentrations of Upper Paleolithic
petroglyphs, in the Coa Valley in Portugal for example. There are Mesolithic
petroglyphs in various parts of Europe, perhaps best documented in Norway.
There are a multitude of localities from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, and into the
Iron Age. In this volume I discuss three groups of rock art from the Mesolithic
in Norway, the Neolithic in Spain, and the Bronze Age in Sweden at the end
of each of these chapters. We begin with Mesolithic Norway.
One of the problems with studying rock art is the difficulty of dating
the depictions. In Norway, dating is based on a process called shoreline
displacement. The method is possible because the landmass of Norway is
gradually getting higher as the land rises from the sea. The land is rising, or
rebounding as geologists say, from removal of the enormous weight of glacial
ice that sat on it. Norway was at the center of continental glaciation during the
Pleistocene period, and the ice sheet there was several kilometers thick. Now
the land that was pressed down by such weight is slowly returning to its former
elevation. The rate of rebound over time has been determined for various parts
of Norway, and old coastlines high in the mountains today can be dated.
The second aspect of dating by shoreline displacement concerns human
settlement and placement of rock art. Most of the human activity in prehistoric
Norway was along the coast: settlement, fishing, placing petroglyphs. Because
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 11 7

the rebound of the land, and the rise of the coast, goes on at a relatively
constant rate, and because the coast from the end of the Pleistocene is now
several hundred meters above modern sea level in Norway, archaeological sites
at different elevations can be dated within a few hundred years. In the city of
Oslo, for example, Mesolithic rock art dating to ca. 5000 b c can be found
almost 60 m above sea level. At the site of Alta in northern Norway, a detailed
chronology of the changes in rock art over time can be constructed because of
well-documented shoreline displacement (Fig. 3.53).
Rock art is found in many areas of the Norwegian coast. One of the richest
and most spectacular sites is a place called Vingen, north of Bergen, along the
west coast. Vingen lies in a fabulous fjord setting, with cliffs rising from the
sea, high peaks everywhere, white water falling down the mountainsides, the
deep blue sea, and the bright blue sky. Yet the rock art itself is the highlight.
There are petroglyphs on virtually every flat rock surface at the site (Fig.
3.54). The number of images on a single surface varies from one to 200.
Geometrically carved animals cavort on large rocks scattered across a level
terrace along the shore of the fjord. The dominant motif is the red deer, with a Fig. 3.53.
few moose and reindeer. There are also wolves or dogs, whales and porpoises, Rock art from the site
birds, and a few snakes. Human figures constitute about 3 percent of the of Alta in northern
Norway, dated by
depictions. The rock art at Vingen cannot be dated by shoreline displacement,
shoreline displacement.
but radiocarbon dates from small huts around the rocks point to a time The depiction of various
between 5000 and 4000 b c for creation of this art. The people of Vingen were motifs changes over
hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic. time.
11 8 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 3.54. SOME R EF L EC T IONS

Vingen, Norway, a
treasury of Stone Age The arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe is a fascinating period for many, many
rock carvings. In this reasons. So much happens, so much changes, it is hard to know where to begin
photo there are several
a discussion. Groups of anatomically modern humans expanded from an origin
petroglyphs on the large
rock to the right. The in East Africa ca. 200,000 years ago and eventually crafted an essentially new
petroglyphs have been human culture. The Upper Paleolithic in Europe is characterized by a variety of
filled with red pigment innovations that developed over the last 30,000 years or so of the Pleistocene,
in recent years to make following the arrival of this new human species.
them more visible.
The Upper Paleolithic was the culmination of many long trends—in
There are hundreds of
petroglyphs at Vingen.
biology and culture, in language and communication, in ritual and ideology,
in social organization, in art and design, in settlement and technology—that
had begun several million years earlier. Evolution brought humanity to our
modern form, Homo sapiens. New continents were explored; Australia, North
America, and South America were colonized.
More kinds of implements were made from a wider variety of materials
than ever before. Bows, boats, buttons, fish hooks, lamps, nets, spearthrowers,
and many other items were produced for the first time during this period. Fine
bone needles with small eyes document the manufacture of sewn clothing and
other equipment from animal skins. The dog was domesticated, probably as a
faithful hunting companion and occasional source of food.
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 11 9

Sites from the Upper Paleolithic were larger and more common than those
from previous periods. From almost any perspective, this period of the Upper
Paleolithic represents a dramatic change in human behavior, almost certainly
associated with changes in the organization of the brain or the use of language,
or both. Essentially modern behavior appeared following this transformation; a
rapid change from archaic to modern, from the past to the present, had begun.
Several categories of artifacts—buttons, gaming pieces, pendants, necklaces,
and the like—marked a new concern with personal appearance, an expression
of self. It seems that a number of very human traits (identity, ego, perhaps even
vanity) are emerging at this time. Figurines, cave paintings, and engravings
reflect the creative explosion that characterized Upper Paleolithic achievement,
as awareness of art and design erupted in the human consciousness. More
generally, there is an aesthetic embellishment of portable, everyday objects.
There is awareness of time in the archaeological remains from the Upper
Paleolithic. Finally, the beginnings of counting systems and a calendar of
sorts, or at least a recording of the phases of the moon, appeared at this time,
as seen for example in the bone plaque from the site of Abri Blanchard.
A really intriguing question concerns when society, not just individuals,
became human—the transformation from social animals to human society.
The term gatherings, coined by Clive Gamble, might perhaps provide a semantic
concept for the concentrations of remains—the archaeological sites—left
behind by groups of early humans in this murky period.
When did we change from roving, foraging troops of apelike humans to
integrated bands of hunter-gatherers molded into humanlike societies? The
term hunter-gatherer is used in archaeology and anthropology to designate
small-scale societies in which food is obtained from the wild. Wild animals are
hunted and wild plants are gathered for food. Such groups would move camp
frequently, in search of new resources. An annual round often characterized
the repeating yearly cycle of the food quest. In addition to the distinctive
pattern of subsistence and settlement, hunter-gatherer societies were generally
smaller, less sedentary, and more egalitarian than farming groups.
It is aspects of organization that truly separate these groups from their
earlier relatives. Kinship structured social relationships. Food, property, and
information were shared. Status was earned through achievement, and it
was ephemeral, held only by the individual who gained it and not passed on
to offspring. Nonkin relationships were maintained by exchange of mates,
goods or foodstuffs. At some point, early foraging groups became hunter-
gatherers. Kuhn and Stiner have argued this transition took place during the
Upper Paleolithic, citing evidence such as exchange of exotic materials and
technological solutions to seasonal or regional variation.
Human society has a structure that is rare in the animal world. Humans
live in groups to satisfy their basic needs for reproduction, defense, food, and
other resources; but a range of group sizes, organization, and activity could
fulfill these same needs. The best structural and organizational arrangements
to achieve these goals in terms of co-residence group size and affiliated social
units seem to involve family units. Families are reproductive groups and often
12 0 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

live as an extended unit with three generations. Subsistence groups are often
larger. Security groups could be the largest units, with both local and areal
networks. A single co-resident individual will defend his or herself, but may
also belong to an alliance that can assemble larger units for protection.
Paul Roscoe argues that living in larger groups creates problems, among
them optimality and conflicts of interest. Optimality refers to the need
for efficient operation. Conflicts of interest arise as group members and
groups seek differing goals, such as mates, or food resources, or alliances.
The optimality problem is solved by nesting segments, organizing units
of various sizes (and different sets of individuals) to carry out activities.
Conflicts of interest are normally resolved by a mechanism called social
signaling through which individuals and social groups communicate their
desires, capabilities, and situation. Displays of social and martial power
substitute for actual conflict. The combination of nested segments and social
signaling constitutes an effective structure for human societies of increasing
size to fulfi ll their needs.
The Pleistocene and the Paleolithic came to an end some 10,000 years ago.
The ice sheets retreated as warmer temperatures prevailed, and our present
epoch—the Holocene—began. Archaeological time in the Holocene begins
with the Mesolithic, the period of the last hunters prior to the arrival of
farming and the Neolithic.
The Mesolithic witnessed continuing intensification in the variety of human
activities and organization. These hunter-gatherer societies consumed a wide
range of wild plant and animal species, using highly specialized technology.
An incredible range of fishing gear, including nets, weirs, hooks, and harpoons,
was developed during this period. Evidence of water transport in the form
of dugout canoes and paddle is found in various parts of Europe. Ground
stone artifacts appear as axes, celts, grinding stones for plant materials, and
other tools. Projectile weapons were equipped with a variety of tips made of
bone, wood, antler, and stone. In those areas of Europe where bone and other
organic materials have been preserved, artifacts are often decorated with fine,
geometric designs.
Evidence from several areas suggest less mobility among some of these
groups as the duration of site occupation extends and the same places are
repeatedly used over a period of years. Cemeteries, found in some parts of
Europe in the Mesolithic, also suggest more sedentary occupations and return
to the same dwelling places.
It seems reasonable to conclude that hunter-gatherer behavior and
organization, as we know it from more recent contexts such as North
American Indians in the early contact period, was achieved in the late
Paleolithic and Mesolithic. The archaeological remains and the activities that
we can infer reflect patterns observed historically. Some years ago Binford
suggested a useful model for the study of hunter-gatherer behavior that is
based on ethnographically known, or more recent, hunter-gatherers. Binford
distinguished foraging versus collecting patterns according to residential
mobility. Foragers move to food, while collectors have more permanent
 T H E C RE AT I V E E X P L O S I O N 121

Fig. 3.55.
A schematic
representation of
foraging and collecting
patterns of subsistence
and settlement among
hunter-gatherers. A.
Collectors occupy a
fixed base camp; a
number of smaller,
temporary, specialized
hunting and gathering
sites are used to
extract resources from
the environment and
return them to the
base. B. Foragers move
residential camps
regularly during the
year to take advantage
of seasonally abundant
food resources.

residences and bring foods back to their base. In essence, this is a continuum
between more and less mobile strategies for survival.
An example from southern Scandinavia illustrates the more intense use of
the landscape that is reflected in sedentary settlement (Fig. 3.55). The coastal
environment in this area was rich with a variety of wild game and nuts and
other plant foods on land, and abundant marine mammals, fish, and shellfish
12 2 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

in the sea. Migratory waterfowl enhanced the larder at certain times of the
year. Two options were available to human groups in such environments:
foraging and collecting. Because of the abundance of foods available year-
round in this region, the archaeological evidence suggests that Mesolithic
hunter-gatherers were collectors and following patterns of behavior known in
more recent times.
In this context of successful hunting and gathering societies, agriculture
and the Neolithic arrives and changes human ways forever. This is, of course,
the subject of the next chapter.
CH A P T ER F OUR

The First Farmers

The origins and spread of agriculture
Neolithic Cyprus
Shillourokambos, Cyprus, 8200 BC
Asprokremnos, Cyprus, 8800 B C
Nea Nikomedeia, Greece, 6200 BC
Lepenski Vir, Serbia, 6200 BC
Vinča, Serbia, 5500 BC
Rudna Glava, Serbia, 5000 BC
Varna, Bulgaria, 4500 BC
Passo di Corvo, Italy, 6000 BC
Linearbandkeramik
Vaihingen, Germany, 5300 BC
Polished flint axes
Spiennes, Belgium, 4400 BC
La Draga, Spain, 5000 BC
Arbon-Bleiche 3, Switzerland, 3384 BC
Ötzi, Italy, 3300 BC
The megaliths of Western Europe
Skara Brae, Orkney Islands, 3200 BC
Stonehenge, England, 3100 BC
Newgrange, Ireland, 3100 BC
Los Millares, Spain, 3200 BC
Hal Saflieni, Malta, 3600 BC
Rock art: Barranco de la Valtort, Spain, 5500 BC
Some reflections

12 3
12 4 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 4.1. T HE O R IGIN S A ND SP R E A D O F A G R ICULT UR E

The location and
time scale for sites The origins and spread of agriculture and a Neolithic way of life marked a
mentioned in this major turning point in the evolution of human society. Farming changed
chapter.
everything. Our heritage as food collectors, consuming the wild products
of the earth, extends back millions of years. Nevertheless, at the end of the
Pleistocene some human groups began to produce their own food rather than
collect it, to domesticate and control wild plants and animals, achieving what
is perhaps the most remarkable transformation in our entire human past.
Agriculture is a way of obtaining food that involves domesticated plants
and animals. But the transition to farming is much more than simple herding
or cultivation. It also entails major, long-term changes in the structure and
organization of the societies that adopt this new way of life, as well as a totally
new relationship with the environment. Hunters and gatherers largely live off
the land in an extensive fashion, generally exploiting diverse resources over a
broad area; farmers intensively use a smaller portion of the landscape and create
a milieu that suits their needs. With the transition to agriculture, humans
began to truly change their environment.
Cultivation of plants and herding of animals, village society, and pottery did
not originate in Europe. Domestication arrived from the ancient Near East.
The Neolithic began in southwest Asia some 11,000 years ago and eventually
spread into the European continent, carried by expanding populations of
farmers. The mountains of western Iran and southern Turkey and the uplands
of the Levant (the coastal region of the far eastern part of the Mediterranean,
from the northeastern Sinai Peninsula through modern Israel, Lebanon,
and Syria, and west along the modern Turkish coast) form an elevated zone
 T H E F I R S T FA RM E R S 12 5

somewhat cooler and wetter than much of the Near East. The area has been
described as the Fertile Crescent. A variety of wild plants grow in abundance.
This region was the natural habitat of many of the wild ancestors of the first
species of plants and animals to be domesticated at the end of the Pleistocene:
the wild wheats and barleys, the wild legumes, and the wild sheep, goats,
pigs, and cattle that began to be exploited in large numbers at the origins of
agriculture.
In the period just preceding domestication, there was intense utilization of
wild plant foods. The focus at that time was in the northern Levant (northern
Syria and southern Turkey), where changes appear early and quickly.
Particularly noticeable is the range of equipment for using plant foods: sickle
blades and grinding stones, along with storage pits and roasting areas for
preparing wild wheat.
Between 9000 and 8000 b c , changes in the size, shape, and structure of
several cereals indicate that they were domesticated. The Neolithic, defined
by the appearance of domesticated plants, began at that time. Eight species
of plants were domesticated during the period 9000–7000 b c , including
three cereals—emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, and barley—and at least four
pulses—lentils, peas, bitter vetch, and chickpeas. (Pulses are the edible seeds
of leguminous plants, such as peas and beans.) Flax also was domesticated
during this period and probably used for both oil and fiber; linen cloth is
made from the fibers of the flax plant. In this same time period, animals were
domesticated and herding became part of human activity. Goats may have
been the first domesticates, soon joined by sheep, pigs, and cattle.
The first towns appeared. Major changes in human diet, and in the
organization of society as well, began to take place. The number and the size
of prehistoric communities expanded greatly during the early Neolithic, as
populations apparently concentrated in settlements. By 7500 b c , new forms of
residential architecture (rectangular houses) appeared and the earliest public
constructions are seen. Pottery came into use around 7500 b c to serve as easily
produced, waterproof containers for holding liquids, cooking, and storage.
Shrines and ritual paraphernalia appear frequently, suggesting formalization
of religious activity. The complete Neolithic package of domesticates, village
architecture, and pottery was thus in place shortly before 7000 b c , as the
Neolithic began to spread to Europe, Africa, and western Asia.
Think about the arrival of farming in Europe in terms of millennia, or
thousand-year blocks of time. Plants and animals were domesticated in
Southwest Asia sometime after 11,000 years ago, in the tenth millennium b c .
The Neolithic village complex of square houses, pottery, and agriculture first
moved to Europe in the seventh millennium b c . This spread took place both
by land, across the Bosporus from Turkey to the Balkan Peninsula, and by sea
from Cyprus and Anatolia, through the Aegean, to the Greek mainland.
The sixth millennium b c witnessed a move out of the Balkans along two
routes (Fig. 4.2). One was along the north coast of the Mediterranean, probably
by ship with intermittent stops that left behind communities of farmers and
pastoralists. A second arm of the spread went inland, crossing Central Europe
12 6 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 4.2.
The spread of
agriculture across the
European continent.

almost to the shores of the Atlantic. The Mediterranean group is usually

described from its pottery as the Cardial Culture; the inland group also has
a distinctive pottery that provides its name, the Linearbandkeramik culture.
The final stage, expansion into the British Isles and Northern Europe to the
limits of cultivation, took place during the fourth millennium.
The entire journey from the plains of Thessaly in Greece to Scandinavia (ca.
2,000 km, 1,200 mi) and Britain (2,300 km, 1,430 mi) took about 3,000 years.
These movements from Asia to Europe, from southeast Europe to Central
Europe and the Mediterranean, and to the northern limits, took place quickly
as rapid leaps or spreads, followed by long periods of stability and adjustment.
One of the lasting questions about the spread of agriculture across Europe is
how it occurred. Was farming carried by new colonists across the continent, or
did it spread among local peoples adopting a new way of life?
One of the more pronounced trends in the European Neolithic was
regionalization, the development of distinctly local traditions. Initial farming
cultures expanded over broad regions. Settlements were generally located in
open and unprotected spaces, and pottery styles were similar across very large
areas. Quickly, however, population growth and development of permanent
field systems resulted in competition and conflict between groups. By 3000
b c , the continent was occupied by well-entrenched farming populations
making stone tools and pottery, cultivating, trading, and fighting.
In southeastern Europe developments in the Neolithic were dramatic,
witnessing the rise of large towns, often on top of tells, which are huge mounds
 T H E F I R S T FA RM E R S 12 7

of human refuse and building material, accumulated in the same place over
generations. This was a time of major cultural fluorescence among a series
of cultures in Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, and eastern Hungary; population
numbers increased, large villages and towns appeared as tells, technological
innovations including the first copper production flourished, long-distance
trade expanded, and social inequality became pronounced.
Later Neolithic settlements across Europe were often located in defensible
positions and heavily fortified. Pottery-making traditions became more limited
in their distribution. At the same time, trade and exchange expanded in scope.
A variety of materials and finished goods were moved long distances across
Europe. Obtaining raw materials, manufacturing trade items, and transporting
finished goods were an important part of Neolithic economic systems. Flint,
for example, was mined in Denmark, Belgium, England, and elsewhere and
polished into fine axes for trade.
Our consideration of the arrival, spread, and intensification of the first
farmers in Europe follows their expansion across the continent. Examples of
important sites in each region document the nature of these societies and their
adaptations.

NEOL I T HIC CY P RUS

We begin this chapter outside of Europe. The island of Cyprus holds critical
information on the spread of agriculture, as a stepping stone between the
Near East and the European continent. Cyprus lies more than 60 km (almost
40 mi) off the coasts of Turkey and Syria in the northeastern corner of the
Mediterranean. In spite of the distances involved, early Neolithic farmers sailed
there from the mainland more than 10,000 years ago. Even more remarkably,
they brought domesticated plants and both wild and domestic animals with
them. It is an extraordinary story.
At the time of colonization, Cyprus was a rather barren place, devoid
of most species of animals, populated largely by pygmy hippos, pygmy
elephants, mice, and genets (a small relative of the wild cat family).
Although there is evidence of a pre-farming human presence on Cyprus,
it was intermittent. The site of Akrotiri-Aetokremnos on the south coast
of Cyprus, dating to ca. 9500 b c , has provided the earliest indications of
human occupation on the eastern Mediterranean islands. Here the remains
of more than 500 pygmy hippos have been found, in association with
human artifacts and hearths.
The arrival of farmers 700 years later brought cattle, sheep, and goats,
along with a number of crop plants originally domesticated in the Near
East. Some of these animals were not yet completely tame. They appear to
have brought their pets: dogs and cats. Cats may have been domesticated
to control the mice that were attracted to the stored grain and wastes of
early farming villages. The mice probably came as stowaways in the cargo
of the farmers’ boats. Red deer were not present on the island prior to this
12 8 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

time, strongly suggesting that the farmers crossing the sea brought these
wild animals as well. In essence, these very early Neolithic farmers carried a
new ecosystem with them to Cyprus and changed the nature of life on the
island forever.
Early Neolithic sites have been found on the south coast of the island, a
long distance from the closest landing points to the mainland in the northeast.
Ancient water wells offered the first evidence. These wells, uncovered during
construction of tourist accommodations, were almost 10,000 years old, 8
m (more than 25 ft) deep or more. The contents, things fallen or dropped
in, very much resembled the PPN (Pre-Pottery Neolithic; discussed just
below) culture of the original farmers of Southwest Asia—on Cyprus. It was
absolutely astounding. Remarkably, these wells were dug by Neolithic people
at the same time domestication was just beginning on the mainland in the
Near East. Following discovery of the wells, the French-Cypriot excavations at
Shillourokambos, and more recently the international archaeological project
at Asprokremnos, have further documented a very early Neolithic presence
on Cyprus.
To understand the chronology and relationships of these sites, it is important
to know a bit more about the origins of agriculture in the Near East, where
the farmers who colonized Cyprus came from. There is a pre-Neolithic period
known as the Natufian, which witnessed the beginnings of sedentism as hunter-
gatherers first moved into small villages and subsisted on various animals,
especially gazelle, and collected the abundant wild wheats, barleys, and other
species that grew around them. Site variability and long-distance exchange of
exotic materials increased, cemeteries appeared, and material culture reflected
more symbolic or ritual behavior.
The first 3,000 years or so of the Neolithic in the Near East are without
fired clay pottery, and so the period is known as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. The
PPN is divided into two periods, an earlier PPNA, 9500 to 8500 b c , and later
PPNB, 8500–6400 b c . Everything changed with the onset of the Neolithic.
During the PPNA some communities grew in size and became nodes in
economic exchange networks. Communal architecture makes an appearance
in the form of large-scale stone structures at cult sites. Cultivation of wild
cereals likely began during this period, but there is no reliable evidence for
morphological changes in the plants due to domestication. A similar picture
pertains to animals. Several wild species were likely managed, or even herded,
during this period, but there is no evidence of domestic animals other than
the dog and cat.
During PPNB growth and change continued. Major sites were now two to
three times larger, and new ritual and burial practices are witnessed in dramatic
artifacts and cemeteries. The earliest clearly domesticated plants (wheats, barley,
lentils, chickpeas, flax, and others) are found in archaeological sites from this
period. The first definitively domesticated animals are also known from PPNB
sites. Goats and sheep were probably the first domestic species. Cattle and
pigs took a slower path to domestication and are not observably present until
ca. 7500 b c in the later PPNB. These animals were likely managed, perhaps
 T H E F I R S T FA RM E R S 12 9

herded, for many years, however, before the anatomical changes that result
from domestication became apparent.

SHIL L OUR OK A MBO S, CY PRUS, 8 2 0 0 BC

It is in this context that the first farmers from the Near East traveled to Cyprus,
carrying Neolithic culture, plants, and animals with them. Shillourokambos is
a very early PPNB site in southern Cyprus, closely related to farming cultures
in the Levant and southern Turkey, where agriculture originated. Excavations
at the site began in 1992 and continued until 2004 under the direction of Jean
Guilaine. More than 5,000 m2 were excavated, exposing many structures,
various pits, and narrow ditches in the subsoil (Fig. 4.3). The first two phases of
the settlement, from 8200 to 7500 b c , are characterized by circular dwellings
with wattle and daub walls. Holes were cut into the subsurface to support the
wooden posts for these structures. Some deep pits probably served as wells
(Fig. 4.4). The site also has evidence for construction of circular cattle
enclosures.
Connections with the mainland, the homeland of these farmers, are clearly
evident in the form of obsidian from Turkey and other materials. There are
a number of similarities in the architecture and artifacts at the site shared
Fig. 4.3.
between Cyprus and the Levant. Round houses, typical for the early prehistory
The excavation area
of Cyprus, are known even earlier in the Levant. Stone blades for sickles are at Shillourokambos,
made in multiple segments, and arrowheads are made on a distinctive type of Cyprus, with various
stone blade. Both forms have precursors on the mainland. pits and other features.
13 0 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

The plants under cultivation in the early phase

of settlement at the site were not demonstrably
domesticated in terms of changes in the size and
shape of the cereal grains. Wild barley and wild
emmer wheat were the two main cereal crops. These
species were brought to Cyprus by the farmers.
Domesticated forms appear in the second phase of
occupation at the site, after 8000 bc. A variety of
other wild plants appear in the deposits and were
likely collected for various uses—food, medicine,
and raw materials for construction and crafts. Some
of these included great cane, wild asparagus, wild
oats, capers, hawthorn, broom, wild olive, wild
lentils, pistachios, and wild peas.
The animal remains were well preserved,
numerous, and tell us a great deal about the nature
of farming villages in the early part of the Neolithic.
These materials were studied by Jean-Denis Vigne.
Pigs were the most common species in the early
phase of settlement; sheep and goats were also present
among the faunal remains. All of these animals were
eaten, and very likely controlled by the farmers of
Shillourokambos. However, only dog bones show
the kind of size reduction that archaeozoologists use
Fig. 4.4. to identify domesticated animals (as a general rule of thumb, domesticated
A bottom-up view animals are smaller in size than their wild ancestors).
of one of the Early
Cattle were introduced to Cyprus ca. 8300 bc or shortly before, at a time
Neolithic wells at
Shillourokambos. Note
when domestic cattle had begun to appear on the mainland. Cattle bones are
the footholds in the rare in the earliest phase at Shillourokambos and do not provide information on
side wall. their morphology and domestication status. Sheep, goats, and cattle are in the
size range of their wild ancestors. The culling pattern of goats suggests hunting
of feral populations, while cattle and sheep were probably tamed and controlled.
Fallow deer were present as well but seem to have been hunted as wild animals.
Fish and bird bones were also found among the animal remains. The earliest
known domestic cat has been found buried next to a human grave dating to 7300
bc (Fig. 4.5). A cat was also portrayed in a figurine found at the site (Fig. 4.6).

A SP R OK R EMNO S, CY P RUS, 8 8 0 0 BC

The discovery of Shillourokambos and other PPNB sites on Cyprus was a huge
surprise. Now, even earlier Neolithic evidence has been found on the island.
PPNA farmers settled at the site of Asprokremnos in central Cyprus, as well as
other locations on the island. Excavations here are recent, and the full report
of the finds is not yet complete. Nevertheless, it is clear that an Early Neolithic
farming community was established between 8800 and 8600 b c , dating from
 T H E F I R S T FA RM E R S 131

Fig. 4.5.
Two burials, a human
and a domestic cat, at
Shillourokambos.

the PPNA. The abundant lithic remains and nearby sources of raw materials—
flint, rock for grinding stones, and red ochre—suggest that exploitation of
these lithic resources may explain the inland location of the site.
The excavations exposed several structures, one of which is very intriguing
because of its size and special context. The structure was dug into the
13 2 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

subsoil to create a semisubterranean packed earth

floor for a structure more than 5 m (16 ft) long.
The superstructure of the building was destroyed
by fire and the contents on the floor remained in
place: stone vessels, a variety of querns and grinding
equipment, and a human figurine. Among other
finds at the site, shell beads were common. Faunal
remains document an emphasis on wild boar; these
animals were previously absent on the island. It
seems incontrovertible that wild boar were brought to
Cyprus by humans from mainland Southwest Asia.
A few bird bones and freshwater crab remains were
also present.
The Early Neolithic of Cyprus affords dramatic
evidence of the mobility of early farmers. This
expansive, colonizing behavior characterized early
farmers and was responsible for the rapid spread of
agriculture to the limits of cultivation across Europe.
Crossing the sea to the Mediterranean islands, these
Fig. 4.6. groups initiated the passage of agriculture to the continent of Europe. The
Cat head from a farming groups expanded, leaving the core area of the northern Levant, even
clay figurine found before the process of animal domestication was finished, before pottery arrived,
at Shillourokambos.
Height 3 cm.
and before the adoption of rectangular house forms. These groups hopped
across the islands of the Aegean moving toward mainland Greece. At the same
time, or perhaps slightly later, land-bound farmers spread from Anatolia across
the Bosporus to Europe. The next question, of course, is what these groups
looked like when they arrived in mainland Europe. For information on the
first European farmers, we turn to such sites as Nea Nikomedeia in Greece and
Lepenski Vir in Serbia.

NE A NIKOMEDEI A , GR EECE, 62 0 0 BC
The Early Neolithic sites in Greece and the Balkan Peninsula are often
found as tells. Early Neolithic farmers in this region built their houses
with mud walls. After the houses were abandoned and collapsed, sediments
accumulated in the mound, creating excellent conditions for preservation.
New houses were erected on the old ones, and gradually mounds of earth and
refuse accumulated, with a few growing many meters high. Because there is
so much material on top of the early layers, it is usually difficult to excavate
deeply and expose the foundation of the mound.
The alluvial plains of southern Macedonia and Thessaly in Central
Greece have an unusually high concentration of early Neolithic tells (Fig.
4.7). The environment and topography of these areas, with fertile soils
and sufficient rainfall, were particularly hospitable for settlement by early
farming groups.
 T H E F I R S T FA RM E R S 13 3

The early Neolithic site of Nea Nikomedeia (Fig. 4.8) lies in the Macedonian Fig. 4.7.
Plain of northern Greece. Nea Nikomedeia does not contain the earliest Distribution of Neolithic
sites in the Plains of
evidence of farming in continental Europe, but the site is among the best
Thessaly, east central
known for this period. The background to its fame rests in the fact that most Greece.
of the upper layers were removed by local road builders for highway fill before
archaeologists recognized the importance of the place. The absence of the
upper layers of the original mound meant that a large area of Early Neolithic
deposits was open and accessible.
A series of radiocarbon dates from Nea Nikomedeia indicate foundation of
the settlement around 6200 b c . At this time there were a number of Neolithic
tells across the landscape to the south in Thessaly. The Neolithic in Greece
was well under way. The original tell at Nea Nikomedeia must have been
substantial, probably on the order of 2.4 ha (6 acres) in size and several meters
high before the earth was removed for road construction.
The site was excavated in the 1960s by a joint Harvard-Cambridge project
under the direction of Robert Rodden. When Rodden first visited the site,
Early Neolithic pottery fragments and other artifacts were scattered over the
surface of the leveled mound. Most of the site had been disturbed by the
road builders and later plowing, such that there was only half a meter (20
in) of archaeological deposits remaining. But this was the earliest and most
important layer. In the end, removal of the upper part of the mound made it
possible to study the earliest levels.
The excavations revealed a series of houses, individual structures 2–5 m (6–16
ft) apart on a slight rise at the edge of a marsh. There were at least three phases of
building at the site, separated by periods of abandonment or disuse (Fig. 4.9). The
earlier settlement was somewhat smaller than the later one, with seven structures in
13 4 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

Fig. 4.8. the excavated area. Houses were oriented more or less east-west, but there seemed
Aerial photo of the to be no indication of planning in the layout of the community.
excavations at Nea
The houses were built using oak posts, 8–20 cm (3–8 in) in diameter, for
Nikomedeia showing
the square excavation
the heavy uprights. Between the oak posts, the mud walls were constructed by
units and the outlines placing cut saplings vertically 1–1.5 m (3–5 ft) apart in a shallow ditch, and filling
of structures. in the spaces between them with bundles of reeds, laced among the posts. This
framework was then plastered with mud mixed with chaff on the inside of the
structure and with white clay on the outside. To protect the mud walls from the
rain, it is assumed the roofs were peaked with thatch to carry off the water (Fig.
4.10). All the houses are roughly square, about 8 m (25 ft) on a side, with similar
layouts.
Several of the houses were partitioned into two connected rooms, which
may have had different functions. A room in one of the houses had a plastered
platform with hearth and storage bin, suggesting it was used for food preparation
and storage. House floors were carefully constructed with hard-packed clay.
Some of the houses opened onto fenced patios or porches; these areas seem to
be an integral part of the domestic space with hearths and ovens. Clay ovens
were found outside of several houses, apparently half-domed structures of clay,
on top of a small pit in the ground. Whether these were enclosed ovens or
more simply windbreaks for an outdoor hearth is difficult to say.
 T H E F I R S T FA RM E R S 13 5

Fig. 4.9.
Plan of the excavations
at Nea Nikomedeia,
showing three phases
of house construction
(white, gray, black).

There was one larger and very unusual structure near the center of the tell, 12
by 14 m (40 by 46 ft) in size, divided into three interior sections by parallel rows
of timber post. The contents of the house were also highly unusual and included
a number of female figurines and fragments, large greenstone axes, hundreds of
unused large flint blades, “shoe-shaped” pottery vessels, and several hundred clay
disks found in one corner. There was little evidence of normal domestic activity
in this house; it was described as a possible shrine by the original excavators. It is
certainly unusual, but the specific function is uncertain.
Various kinds of pits were found around the houses at the site. Some may have
been dug originally for construction mud, and later used for refuse disposal. Rubbish
pits could be distinguished by dark fill of animal bones, ash, charcoal, and broken
artifacts. Storage pits were clay-lined and often relatively clean. Carbonized plant
13 6 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

remains were abundant at the site and revealed

the crops in cultivation; the farmers at Nea
Nikomedeia grew wheat, barley, peas, lentils,
and bitter vetch. The faunal remains indicate
that sheep and goats were the primary herd
animals. Cattle and pigs were present, but in
much lower numbers. The people of the village
also relied on wild foods from the surrounding
region and spent a good bit of time hunting,
fowling, and fishing. Deer, hare, and wild pig
bones were found in the deposits along with
the remains of fish, freshwater mussels, and
saltwater cockles—two kinds of shellfish from
two contrasting environments.
The tools and artifacts at the site are
typical of the Neolithic. Stone tools, made
largely from locally available material,
included both polished and flaked forms.
Flaked stone tools were not abundant and
consisted largely of simple blades and flakes
Fig. 4.10. with a few stone scrapers, arrowheads, and sickles. More than 400 ground and
Artist’s reconstruction polished stone tools were found, made from serpentine (a fine-grained green
of a house at Nea stone) and marble, including adzes, chisels, pestles, pounders, querns, grinders,
Nikomedeia with wood,
reed, and mud walls
and lightly worked pebbles. Unusual artifacts of marble and serpentine took
and a peaked, thatch the form of large nails or studs. The excavator suggests that the nails may have
roof. been decorations for the hair and that the studs were used as earrings. I will
get back to these items again.
Bone was used for needles, awls, and fishhooks. Basketry must have been an
important technology at the site, but the baskets themselves are not preserved.
There are, however, examples of the technology visible on the bottom of
ceramic vessels pressed into woven mats when the pottery was still soft clay,
permanently preserved when the pot was fired.
Tens of thousands of pottery sherds were found in the excavations, representing
more than 1,000 vessels. Pottery found at the site exhibits a range of shapes and
decoration. Shapes included open bowls, large narrow-mouth storage jars, small
ladles, and several others. Decorated pottery was only a small proportion of the
total, painted or ornamented with finger-impressed designs on the exterior, similar
to what is found at the site of Vinča to the north. Painted designs in red on a cream
background appear as blocks, triangles, and wavy lines. Some of the pots have a
human face portrayed on the upper, outer surface.
Ceramic objects also include spindle whorls, spools, loom weights for
making cloth, and clay disks. Evidence for the sling as a weapon was in the
form of hundreds of fired clay pellets, but these items might also have been
used as cooking or heating stones. Fired clay was used to make figurines, found
in large numbers in the excavations, including a quantity of female human
forms (Fig. 4.11). These female figurines have a distinctive style: a cylindrical
 T H E F I R S T FA RM E R S 13 7

Fig. 4.11.
Unusual artifacts
from Nea Nikomedeia
that may be related
to contracts and
accounting: a. stone
and clay nails, b. a
female figurine, c.
fired clay stamp seals,
and d. askoid, or shoe-
shaped vessels. Not to
scale.

head with narrow eyes and a beaklike nose atop a disproportionate torso with a
T-shaped upper body, small breasts held in the hands, and large, globular legs
with little indication of the feet. A few male figurines were also found. Animal
figurines were common, represented by crude depictions of sheep and goats.
One of the most intriguing artifact types is the fired clay stamp seal. Some
twenty-one were found. These objects have a small knob or handle on the
opposite side of a decorated area a few centimeters squared (about a half-inch)
in size, ranging from circular to rectangular in shape, usually covered with a
geometric pattern of some kind. Originally these seals were thought to have
been dipped in coloring or dye and used to reproduce their pattern in textiles
and animal skins, or perhaps to decorate human skin.
A recent study, however, suggests more complex use of these objects, related
to an early form of accounting. They are more or less standardized in shape
and size and appear throughout much of the Aegean and Balkan region in the
Early Neolithic. The author of the study, Miha Budja, speculates that these
unusual objects—nails, studs, seals, and figurines—may have been involved in
a system of exchange involving reciprocity and obligation—contracted partner
exchange between individuals or small groups. The items may have been
signs of agreement or contract (the human figurines); markers of ownership,
content, or destination (stamp seals); signs of identification (animal figurines);
13 8 EUROPE BEFORE ROME

and counting tokens (disks, nails, and studs).

The first systems of writing arose in the ancient
Near East from a similar system of tokens and
containers used in accounting for trade and
exchange.
The total population of Nea Nikomedeia in
the Early Neolithic was probably on the order
of 200–300 individuals, an estimate based on
the size of the site and the apparent number of
houses. If we assume that there were fifty to a
hundred houses at the site in any one period, not
all of them in use, and five to ten individuals per
house, this number appears reasonable.
A total of twenty-one burials were found
within the excavated area of the site, individuals
of all ages and both sexes, their bodies oriented
largely north-south with the head to the south.
All of the burials were inside the settlement.
The dead were buried outside the houses and
sometimes in the debris of abandoned homes.
The deceased were usually placed in a small
Fig. 4.12. pit with few or no grave goods. One striking grave contained an individual
Burial of an adult male interred with a large stone in his mouth (Fig. 4.12). Children are more
with a large stone in his
common in the graves than adults. There is one case of a mass grave with
mouth.
the skeletons of three children and another of an adult woman with two
children. Cause of death is unknown, but disease is a reasonable possibility;
one of the consequences of sedentism and larger communities is the rise of
communicable diseases.

L EP ENSK I V IR , SER BI A , 6 2 0 0 BC

Some 60 km (40 mi) east of the modern city of Beograd, Serbia, the slow waters
of the Danube River funnel into a narrow torrent as they cut a gorge, known as
the Iron Gates, through the Carpathian Mountains (Fig. 4.13). The combination
of the steep-sided mountains and the fast-paced river foster an extraordinarily
rich and diverse environment along this 100 km (60 mi) stretch. The area was
home to hunter-gatherers from the Paleolithic and Mesolithic and contains some
of the earliest evidence for the arrival of farming in Eastern Europe.
The Iron Gates is a spectacular place, with green woods clinging to
the steep walls of the gorge and bare rock exposed where the trees cannot
cling. The area is isolated and difficult to enter. Nevertheless, two millennia
ago the Romans recognized the importance of this passage connecting the
upper and lower stretches of the Danube. In typical Roman fashion, they
carved a road along the base of the cliff s on the south side of the river.
It cost many lives and a number of years of effort. Today, however, the
 T H E F I R S T FA RM E R S 13 9

modern road follows that ancient Roman track, past the monument the Fig. 4.13.
Romans raised to the original builder, permitting access into and through The Iron Gates, gorge
of the Danube River
the Iron Gates.
through the Carpathian
High mountain ridges shelter the gorge from the extremes of summer heat Mountains, between
and chilly winter winds. The river mists, warm soils, and moderate seasons Romania and Serbia.
protect an unusual vegetation and animal life that have changed only a little
since the Pleistocene epoch. Temperate species of trees—birch and spruce—
survive alongside more Mediterranean varieties such as hackberry and beech.
The forests in the hills above the river were rich with game, particularly red
deer, and the river was full of fish. Where the waters of the Danube rushed into
the narrower channels of the gorge, whirlpools appeared and constantly stirred
up the bottom sediments, providing rich nourishment for the inhabitants of the
river. Danubian carp and catfish were enormous in this area; sturgeon migrating
upstream from the Black Sea may have reached a weight of 200 kg (450 lb).
In the 1960s, the Yugoslavian and Romanian governments began a joint
project to build a hydroelectric plant to tap the enormous power of the river.
The dam for this project would raise the water level in the gorge by 35 m (115
ft). Archaeologists working ahead of the construction searched the shores of
the Danube to document prehistoric sites that would be submerged by the river
rising behind the dam. A large number of early archaeological sites, especially
from the Mesolithic, were encountered in this process.
Here and there along the steep sides of the gorge are a few relatively level
places. Lepenski Vir is the name given to one of the great whirlpools in the
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middle of the gorge. On the sunny right bank just opposite this whirlpool is
a broad, level, arc-shaped shelf of sand that lies beneath the steep, forested
sides of the gorge. On this shelf the archaeologists discovered one of the most
remarkable and unusual archaeological sites in all of Europe (Fig. 4.14)—and
one about which there has been much debate over its precise age and function.
The site was named after the whirlpool.
Most of the settlement at Lepenski Vir (ca. 2,400 m2, 25,000 ft2) was excavated
between 1965 and 1970 by the Serbian archaeologist Dragoslav Srejovic. The
excavations revealed more than 3 m (10 ft) of deposits in several layers. There
was evidence for elaborate constructions, plastered floors, stone-lined fireplaces,
human skeletons, and art—Europe’s oldest stone sculptures. Srejovic believed
that most of the houses and other artifacts from Lepenski Vir belonged to the
Mesolithic period. Deer, pig, and abundant fish bones document a large part of
the diet of the inhabitants. Some pottery and other artifacts indicated a Neolithic
presence in the upper levels, but he assigned the major features of the settlement
to pre-Neolithic times. The Mesolithic date for Lepenski Vir was controversial
because of the very unusual structures and sculpture at the site. These features
were unknown elsewhere in Europe during the Mesolithic.
The age of the site has finally been settled by new radiocarbon dates obtained
in the last decade. It has become clear that most of the deposits date between
6200 and 5900 b c and belong to the early Neolithic culture of southeastern
Europe. In addition to the radiocarbon dates, Early Neolithic pottery has been
Fig. 4.14.
found on the floor of at least two of the houses at the site.
The excavated site of
Lepenski Vir on a sandy
There are at least two phases of house construction at Lepenski Vir. In
shelf in the Danube the lowest level, approximately twenty structures were found in irregular
Gorge, Serbia. rows on a series of terraces, a total area of some 60 by 30 m (200 by 100 ft;
 T H E F I R S T FA RM E R S 141

Fig. 4.15). A central plaza sits amid the houses, adjacent to the shoreline.
There was also one larger building located in the upper middle of the village.
In the later levels at the site there are some changes in domestic architecture:
houses had indoor ovens, perhaps for baking bread, domestic sheep were
present, and obsidian and Spondylus (thorny oyster) shell was imported from
the Adriatic or Aegean seas. The basic plan of the community and houses,
however, remained the same.
The settlement contained a total of more than one hundred structures,
Fig. 4.15.
called “houses” or “shrines,” ranging in size from 5 to 30 m2 (50 to 320 ft2) in
Plan of the trapezoidal
floor area, or the equivalent of small to very large rooms today. The trapezoidal houses at Lepenski
huts often included an elaborate stone-lined hearth and red plastered floor Vir. Note the larger
(Fig. 4.16). The plaster floor was surrounded by large postholes, indicating structure, top center.

Fig. 4.16.
An artist’s
reconstruction of
one of the trapezoidal
structures at Lepenski
Vir.
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a substantial timber superstructure. The broader end of the houses faced the
river, while the narrow end often contained an area of stone paving, sometimes
with hollowed stones or more elaborately sculptured boulders with fish-human
features (Fig. 4.17). Some of these large stones may have served as altars.
There were a large number of graves at Lepenski Vir, leading some to
suggest that this site, at least in its latest phase, may have been a cemetery.
Human skeletal remains were uncovered in and around the houses. There are
134 graves reported, containing the remains of approximately 190 individuals.
In addition there were partial skeletons from adults (thirty-four), subadults
(five), and newborns (three) in unidentified contexts. Skulls and parts of heads
were recovered in areas between houses, while the remainder of the skeleton
was often found beneath the house floor. In one example, the body of an old
man was laid out with the head of an older woman (minus her lower jaw), an
aurochs skull at his shoulder, and a deer skull near his hand.
Lepenski Vir is unique in almost every way: the red plastered trapezoidal
structures, the stone sculptures, the elaborate stone-lined fireplaces, the large
number of structures, the relative absence of domestic equipment. And the
place itself is very unusual. The largest area of level land along the entire gorge,
across from a spectacular red sandstone, trapezoidal-shaped mountain, is in
front of one of the largest whirlpools in the Danube. Before the dam was built
the river flooded every year, often more than once. This meant the inhabitants

Fig. 4.17.
One of the stone
sculptures from
Lepenski Vir. The face
of the sculpture is ca.
25 cm in diameter.
 T H E F I R S T FA RM E R S 14 3

of Lepenski Vir would have been forced to move elsewhere for at least part
of the year. A reasonable question arises: Was this a permanent residential
settlement for Early Neolithic farmers, or something else? One possibility to
consider is that this special place was a large ritual center for certain ceremonial
and funeral practices of the first farmers in this area.
The evidence from Lepenski Vir is particularly important for understanding
the transition to agriculture in southeastern Europe because of the presence
of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers prior to the onset of the Neolithic. The Iron
Gates region was the focus of Mesolithic settlement during the period after
10,000 years ago. A number of rich Mesolithic sites have been found along
the banks of the gorge. Less than 1,000 years after the arrival of agriculture
in the Aegean, the first farmers appear in the interior of southeastern Europe,
notably the Iron Gates region. The radiocarbon dates for the Early Neolithic
in the Balkan Peninsula are 6600–5200 b c . Lepenski Vir was a special sort
settlement in this time period, on top of an earlier Mesolithic site.
Today the original Lepenski Vir lies under the waters of the Danube, but
the site can still be visited as a national monument of Serbia. In 1969, as the
waters rose slowly behind the hydroelectric dam, many of the structures and
other remains at Lepenski Vir were raised more than 30 m (100 ft) up the side
of the gorge to the plateau above. A small museum stands adjacent to the new
location; an elaborate roof protects the reconstructed archaeological remains.
It was remarkable that the original place of dwellings along the river could
be moved and restored higher up the hillside so that visitors could appreciate
these extraordinary Early Neolithic creations.
Fig. 4.18.
The distribution of
V IN Č A , SER BI A , 5 5 0 0 BC Vinča culture in the
Balkan Peninsula and
The Vinča culture of the middle Neolithic flourished from 5500 to 4000 b c the location of several
in the territories of what is now Bosnia, Serbia, Romania, and the former sites mentioned in the
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Fig. 4.18). The Vinča culture was named text.
after a major settlement, located just 15 km
(10 mi) from the modern Serbian capital of
Beograd. The massive mound, or tell, of Vinča
sits on a rise called Belo Brdo (white hill) along
the riverbank near the confluence of three
large rivers, a place of strategic and economic
significance. This crossroads permitted ready
access to most of southeastern Europe.
The tell of Vinča is 10.5 m (35 ft) high, the
equivalent of a three-story building, and covers
an area of 10 ha (25 acres), or about two city
blocks (Fig. 4.19). Excavations began at the site
in 1908 and have continued with interruptions
since. Vinča is the only known tell within a
100 km (60 mi) radius and one of the more
important Neolithic sites in Europe.
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Fig. 4.19.
The huge tell of
Vinča during earlier
excavations. The
maximum height of the
tell is 10.5 m.

The primary period of Neolithic residence at Vinča was between 5500 and 4500
bc. The site was fortified with a palisade enclosing the settlement, with straight
lanes between the houses. These houses were generally large square buildings
with 40–60 m2 (430—650 ft2) of floor space and several rooms and built-in
earthen furniture—benches, braziers, tables, and sleeping areas. Floors and walls
were plastered. The size of the settlement and the range of activities taking place
increased over time. In the deep layers of the tell there are a number of distinct
 T H E F I R S T FA RM E R S 14 5

building phases from the Middle Neolithic, or Vinča, period. Rectangular houses
were common, frequently with evidence of what is most likely accidental burning.
Houses were separate (the areas between them served as yards), with stamped
earthen floors, open fireplaces, clay ovens, and a number of pits. There is a later
early Bronze Age occupation, a medieval cemetery, and even a Celtic settlement
on top of the Neolithic layers that make up the bulk of the tell.
Vinča must have been a very special place. Not only was the tell the one
high, permanent mound in the region, three types of finds occur earlier and in
much higher concentrations at Vinča than elsewhere: ritual objects, personal
ornaments, and exotic lithic material.
Ritual objects often take the form of figurines. These fired clay figures are
anthropomorphic, small, usually broken, and normally found outside of the
houses. Clay figurines are one of the spectacular hallmarks of the Vinča culture,
found by the thousands across southeastern Europe. A figurine may have been
placed beneath the floor of a house as a foundation deposit, an amulet for good
fortune. As Douglass Bailey suggests, many of these figurines were everyday Fig. 4.20.
objects, seen, handled, worshipped, or cursed. What is important is how the The head of a
figurines functioned to reiterate the shared identity of individuals and the Neolithic figurine
(foreground) and an
community.
anthropomorphic pot
These stylized figurines depict nude or elaborately costumed figurines of cover from Vinča. The
women (and the occasional male), standing, kneeling, or sitting, wearing head of the figurine is
distinctive beaked masks (Fig. 4.20). Perforations in the ear region must have ca. 3 cm high.
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held rings or other attached decoration. The masks are usually three- or five-
sided and highly stylized, generally similar from one to the next. Every depiction
of costume, however, is different, likely individualized. The significance of
these figurines is unknown, but they probably involved individual participants
in ceremonial or religious practices, judging from the combination of masked
figures and distinctive costumes.
Svend Hansen of the German Archaeological Institute has studied
Neolithic figurines in great detail and estimates that the total number in
Southeast Europe is around 50,000, emphasizing their important symbolic
role in Neolithic societies. The tradition of Neolithic figurines originated in
the Near East and spread from east to west with other aspects of the Neolithic.
The human figurines are characterized by symmetry and frontality, and they
depict both male and female individuals. More than half are of indeterminate
sex. One particular pose, females holding their hands or arms under the
breasts, is a common motif from the earliest Neolithic in the Near East,
perhaps 9,000 years old. The figurines at Nea Nikomedeia followed this form
as well. A distinctive stylistic change can be seen in the female figures in
Southeast Europe. Many of the figurines of the Early Neolithic have rounded,
voluptuous bodies; but by 5500 b c the shape is more abstract and schematic.
The masked figures with differentiated costumes become the more typical
forms of figurines.
Other kinds of ritual artifacts include vessel lids with faces, bucrania, and
incised signs. Elaborate lids for ceramic vessels document a special-purpose
vessel, likely used in ritual activities. These covers take the form of humans
or eared animals with eyes and nose clearly depicted (Fig. 4.20). The surface
of the lid is often inscribed with a series of abstract geometric lines. Bucrania
is the term used for bulls’ heads displayed in a ritual context. The skulls of