The Upper Palaeolithic is considered by many as the time of the highest development of the hunter-gatherer way of life as seen through the lens of archaeology. Nowhere is this more evident than in western and central Europe. With the arrival of modern humans, archaeologists witness the extinction of the indigenous hominin line of the Neanderthals, the common appearance of elements of symbolic expression in the form of ‘art’ and personal ornamentation, the appearance of specialist and possibly time-delayed subsistence economies, larger social groups, the burial of individuals with a ‘wealthy’ suite of burial goods, complex and high-investment technology and ‘frequent’ stylistic change in the forms of material culture.
The reason for these changes and developments, however, is still a matter of heated debate. Through the course of this module we shall explore the nature of these changes as they can be observed in the archaeological record, in the context of our current understandings of climate change, chronology, and hunter-gatherer ethnography. In particular we shall the evidence to support these interpretations and whether these developments are;
i. intrinsic to the nature of modern human behaviour;
ii. an incremental development through time;
iii. a response to severe local climatic change;
iv. an outcome of the demographic change;
v. a combination of the above.
This module will also help students to develop a set of essential research skills: the critical analysis of archaeological data, the development of a synthetic background section to a particular research topic, and the use of concept maps to help thinking.