The Upper Paleolithic Britain
The first sign of Neanderthal humans was first estimated around 15,000 years ago from the discovery of the burial of the Red Lady of Wales. Around this time Britain saw the end of the Ice Age and Homo sapiens were roaming free on the British land. Somerset was one of such sites where the discovery of Gough's Cave, where many bones remains and flint pieces were found, confirmed the end of the Ice Age and beginning of a warmer period, the Dimlington Interstadial which did not last much longer. The climate could go up to 17 degrees centigrade in summers allowing the birch trees, shrubs and grass to grow and could reach below 0 degrees centigrade in winters. Homo sapiens brought a different culture with them, a culture which is the base of humanity to date.
Living within these cultures explored various ways of hunting and food gathering techniques with advanced stone tools, bow & arrow, horn, wood, mammoth ivory etc. Besides hunting they also learned the art of fishing and had some sort of belief system encouraging magic and supernatural activities. This was the time when they grew flowers and made gardens (still no evidence) and made tent houses to live and sleep in. These houses were made up of dry tree leaves, grass etc and protected the Homo sapiens from climatic conditions. There advanced techniques with ivory and stone were again discovered in the form of jewellery and other personal ornaments whose purpose is still unknown.
This shows Homo sapiens distinct culture (Creswellian) and grouping became more complex and more and more food recourses were said to be found for a permanent settlement.
Archaeological remains proved that these humans were very much capable of making boats and harpoons and performed a lot of artistic work like cave painting which were found in many locations in Europe starting in the year 2003 after which the search for many others was fast and the results were positive. Starting with the pieces of stone tools found in the 'Caves of Devon' which were thought to be brought from places near Salisbury plain, which in turn reflects the movement of the Homo sapiens in their search for food with their tools and hunt kits to stay in those areas until there primary requirement of food was met after which moving to another location was the only option.
The kind of species that existed during that time was the Equus ferus (a kind of wild horse) and Cervus elaphus (a red deer) and other mammals including mammoths which were hunted down by Homo sapiens.
Many groups of Homo sapiens were said to have existed during that time in which they interacted to trade for resources and they mixed quite well with each other. This theory is proved with some distant discoveries made around Europe and Africa. Their burial process was also said to be different as told from the bones discovered from caves (which were painted) it appeared as if skinning and dismembering of a corpse with the bones was performed according to rituals seeking excarnation. Original Authors: Rohit Maini
Edit Update Authors: M.Harris
Updated On: 13/05/2008
