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AURIGNACIAN Aurignacian is not a time or a place, but rather it's a name given to a particular way in which a society of people were living in Europe as early as 34,000 years ago. How they lived is determined by the artifacts they left behind. A main feature of Aurignacian is its heavy use of core and blade technology. This manufacturing technique or industry continued for approximately 5,000 years during the Upper Paleolithic Period in Europe. It also appears on some sites in the Levant (region around the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean) and the tradition even continues far to the east into Siberia. The type site of Aurignac in the south of France (Haute Garonne) is where the name Aurignacian originates.
The Aurignacian stone tool industry ends in Europe by about 29,000 years ago. But the tradition of making large long narrow core blades continues to move eastward across Siberia eventually ending sometime around 22,000 years ago. The European term Aurignacian is not always used in other countries. Tracing the movement of Europe's Aurignacian into other countries for thousands of miles can be confusing. Different names are sometimes used to label a similar cultural tradition but it appears that the use of well made long narrow core blades began in Europe and expanded outward from there.
The Aurignacian relied heavily on blade technology to make a wide variety of tools. These blades were "expertly" struck off prepared conical cores. Earlier stone tool industries were making tools from more crudely made core blades, random flakes and Levallois flakes driven off "tortoise cores" (Mousterian). |
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"REFERENCES"
1970,
"Tools of the Old Stone Age," by Jacques Bordaz. |
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