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Upper Paleolithic Technology of Northern Eurasia

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Upper Paleolithic Technology of Northern Eurasia Evolutionary Anthropology 14:186–198 (2005) Innovation and Technological Knowledge in the Upper Paleolithic of Northern Eurasia JOHN F. HOFFECKER The technology of modern humans is unique in the animal kingdom with respect rotary drills, shaped musical instru- to its complexity and capacity for innovation. Evidence of technological complexity ments, mixed chemical compounds, and creativity in the archeological record is broadly coincident with and presum- and constructed kilns to fire ceramics. ably related to traces of creativity in art, music, ritual, and other forms of symbol- They were the first to create mechan- ism. The pattern of modern human technology is part of a larger package of ical devices, including spear-throwers behavior (sometimes referred to as “behavioral modernity”) that emerges with the and bows and arrows, and to domes- appearance of industries in Eurasia classified as Upper Paleolithic, but has deeper ticate another living species. roots in the African Middle Stone Age.1–5 Archeologists, of course, have al- ways viewed technology as a topic of central concern. In the nineteenth Before the Upper Paleolithic and variation in technology reaches a level century, the study of prehistory was the later Middle Stone Age, evidence commensurate with that of recent and built on a sequence of stages in the of technological change in the arche- living peoples and indicates a funda- progressive evolution of technology.10 ological record is comparatively lim- mentally similar capacity for innova- But archeologists have rarely ad- ited. Some of this may be a conse- tion, defined broadly in this context to dressed questions about the pattern quence of the almost complete lack of include invention, improvements to and context of innovations, the sort of preserved materials such as wood, existing technology, and the applica- questions that historians of technol- plant fibers, and hide, but commonly tion of both.7 ogy ask about the invention of clocks, preserved artifacts of stone exhibit no Despite the fact that the Upper Pa- printing presses, and steam en- significant change over intervals of leolithic, with a time span of more gines.11–13 Where and when did major hundreds of thousands of years. than 30,000 years, represents the technological innovations take place Moreover, when a new mode of tech- longest interval of technological cre- during the Upper Paleolithic? Were nology (for example, bifacial tools) ativity in modern human prehistory these innovations isolated, seemingly appears, it is often associated with the and history, it has been all but ignored random events, or did they appear in emergence of a new form of Homo.6 It by students of innovation. Most such clusters? Did they represent primarily is only with the advent of Upper Pa- students are historians or economists, new inventions (radical or discontin- leolithic industries produced by mod- who are unfamiliar with the methods uous innovations)7 or incremental im- ern humans that spatial and temporal and data of archeology, especially the provements on existing technologies archeology of prehistoric foraging (continuous innovations)? Did they peoples. They have tended to view the arise in the context of larger settle- Upper Paleolithic as an extension of ments and social networks or in John F. Hoffecker is a Fellow of the Insti- the Lower and Middle Paleolithic—a smaller group settings? Were techno- tute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Uni- period of slow and limited change in logical innovations associated with versity of Colorado at Boulder. He re- ceived a Ph.D. from the University of the basic equipment of hunter-gather- changes in climate and the effects of Chicago in 1986, and has conducted re- ers.8,9 these changes on landscape and search on prehistoric sites in Russia and Alaska. He is the author of A Prehistory of It has become increasingly appar- biota? the North: Human Settlement of the ent, however, that the Upper Paleo- Technology is a form of knowledge Higher Latitudes (Rutgers University lithic was a period of almost constant about the environment or, as Martin Press, 2005). technological change not unlike the Heidegger wrote, “a way of revealing” last 12,000 years. Peoples of the Upper the world.14,15 Although some tech- Key words: modern humans; technology; inno- Paleolithic invented sewn clothing, nologies have been abandoned or re- vation; Upper Paleolithic; northern Eurasia portable lamps, and watercraft. They jected by societies,16 the general trend also designed heated shelters, fishing has been cumulative growth of tech- © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. equipment, baking ovens, refrigerated nological knowledge.9,12,17,18 Histori- DOI 10.1002/evan.20066 Published online in Wiley InterScience storage pits, and artificial memory ans of technology and some philoso- (www.interscience.wiley.com). y systems. Upper Paleolithic folk used phers and anthropologists have Upper Paleolithic of Northern Eurasia 187 Figure 1. Map of northern Eurasia illustrating the locations of early Upper Paleolithic sites mentioned in the text. emphasized the connections between components of complex technology cal instruments, and other forms of technology and both social organiza- such as bows and dogsleds.30,31 Al- symbolism. Additional elements of tion and world-view.19–24 Such con- though a comparable ethnographic the package include long-distance nections are apparent in tribal societ- context is lacking, careful analysis of movement of raw materials, increased ies and prehistoric contexts.15,25–27 To similar items in Upper Paleolithic standardization of artifacts, and more what extent did innovations during sites may also reveal traces of such structured use of domestic space, all the Upper Paleolithic build on existing technology. of which may be indirectly linked to technologies and produce cumulative This paper is intended to provide a symbolism. The whole complex is pri- growth of technological knowledge? concise overview of innovation and marily associated with the evolution And did these innovations occur in the accumulation of technological of modern humans (Homo sapiens)in conjunction with major changes in knowledge in the Upper Paleolithic of Africa prior to 100 ka (100,000 years art, ritual, and other expressions of northern Eurasia. While important in- ago) and sometimes labeled “behav- world-view? novations occurred in the lower lati- ioral modernity.”3,4,33–34 Archeologists have been slow to ap- tudes, Upper Paleolithic sites above Whether behavioral modernity preciate the scope and significance of 40° North, which offer a more man- evolved gradually in Africa during 300 technological innovation in the Upper ageable subset of the global database, to 100 ka or rather suddenly at the end Paleolithic for several reasons. There are the primary focus. The overview is of this interval remains a matter of de- has been a longstanding focus on designed to explore briefly the broad bate among paleoanthropologists.3,35 widely recovered items, primarily stone patterns of innovation and their so- Regardless of the process by which it artifacts, that serve as diagnostic mark- cial, economic, and environmental became established among Homo sapi- ers of classificatory units such as Aurig- context. Finally, it touches on a ques- ens, behavioral modernity appears, af- nacian, but that comprise a very limited tion raised recently outside northern ter 100 ka, to have reached a threshold spectrum of Upper Paleolithic technol- Eurasia: To what extent did the accu- that permitted modern humans to ex- ogy. Many of the more novel imple- mulating technological knowledge of pand out of Africa and the Near East ments and devices were almost cer- the Upper Paleolithic provide the nec- into a wide range of habitats across tainly constructed from wood, fiber, essary foundation for sedentism, agri- Eurasia and beyond.36–38 The organiza- bone, antler, and other materials that culture, and urban life in the postgla- tional flexibility that language and 32 do not preserve as well or only in excep- cial epoch? other forms of symbolism help to effect tional circumstances. may have played a significant role in the Most major Upper Paleolithic inno- TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION dispersal, especially in arid environ- vations possess low visibility in the IN THE EARLY UPPER ments where resources are scat- archeological record and some, such tered,39,40 but the ability of behaviorally as domesticated dogs and cooking ov- PALEOLITHIC modern humans to create new and ens, have come to light only in recent The pattern of complexity and cre- complex technologies was almost cer- years.28,29 Late prehistoric middens of ativity in Upper Paleolithic technol- tainly of primary importance. the arctic coastal zone often contain ogy is part a larger package of behav- Artifact assemblages that may be small fragments of modified bone, ior that is represented in the assigned to the Upper Paleolithic are ivory, wood, or other material; these archeological record by traces of or- dated to as early as roughly 45 to 40 ka fragments are isolated but identifiable nament, engraving, sculpture, musi- in parts of eastern Europe and south- 188 Hoffecker ing to these climates was exacerbated for modern humans dispersing out of Africa by the retention, until late Upper Paleolithic times, of body dimensions better suited for the tropical zone,54 while the pace of development in cloth- ing and shelter technology may have been influenced by the succession of warmer and cooler oscillations that took place during the later phases of MIS 3 and the subsequent onset of the Last Glacial Maximum.55 Current archeological data suggest that tailored fur clothing was devel- oped gradually in the north Eurasian Upper Paleolithic. Although carved figurines from the south Siberian site of Buret’ dating to ca. 25 ka depict humans dressed in complete fur suits with snug-fitting hoods (Fig. 2),56 oc- cupation levels dating to more than 35 Figure 2. Figurine from Buret’ (southern Siberia) confirming the existence of complete ka contain only bone awls (presum- tailored fur suits with hoods by 24 ka.
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