La Madeleine

By Wikipedia: Magdalenian The Magdalenian, also spelled Magdalénien, refers to one of the later cultures of the Upper Palaeolithic in western Europe. It is named after the type site of La Madeleine in the Dordogne region of France. Originally termed "L'Age du Renne" (the age of the reindeer) by Lartet and Christy, the Magdalenian is synonymous in many people's minds with reindeer hunters, although Magdalenian sites also contain extensive evidence for the hunting of red deer, horse and other large mammals present in Europe towards the end of the last ice age. The culture was geographically wide-spread, and later Magdalenian sites have been found from Portugal in the west to Poland in the east. The culture spans the period between c. 18,000 and 10,000 BP, towards the end of the last ice age. The Magdalenien is characterised by regular blade industries struck from carinated cores. Typologically the Magdalenian is divided into 6 phases which are generally agreed to have chronological significance. The earliest phases are re-cognised by the varying proportion of blades and specific varieties of scrapers, the middle phases marked by the emergence of a microlithic component (particularly the distinctive denticulated microliths) and the later phases by the presence of uniserial (phase 5) and biserial 'harpoons' (phase 6) made of bone, antler and ivory. There is extensive debate about the precise nature of the earliest Magdalenian as-semblages, and it remains questionable whether the Badegoulian culture is in fact the earliest phase of the Magdalenian. Similarly finds from the forest of Beauregard near Paris have often been suggested as belonging to the earliest Magdalenian (see Martin Hemmingway's published PhD thesis for further details). The earliest Mag-dalenian sites are all found in France. The later phases of the Magdalenian are also synonymous with the human re-settlement of north-western Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum. Extensive re-search in Switzerland, southern Germany and Belgium has provided detailed AMS radiocarbon dating to support this (see research papers published in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society for 1996 and 1997). By the end of the Magdalenian, the lithic technology shows a pronounced trend to-wards increased microlithisation. The bone harpoons and points are the most distin-ctive chronological markers within the typological sequence. As well as flint tools, the Magdalenians are best known for their elaborate worked bone, antler and ivory which served both functional and aesthetic purposes including bâtons de commandement. Examples of Magdalenian mobile art include figurines and intrically engraved projec-tile points, as well as items of personal adornment including sea shells, perforated carnivore teeth (presumably necklaces) and fossils. The sea shells and fossils found in Magdalenian sites can be sourced to relatively precise areas of origin, and so have been used to support hypothesis of Magdalenian hunter-gatherer seasonal ranges, and perhaps trade routes. Cave sites such as the world famous Lascaux contain the best known examples of Magdalenian cave art. The site of Altamira in Spain, with its extensive and varied forms of Magdalenian mobillary art has been suggested to be an agglomeration site where multiple small

groups of Magdalenian hunter-gatherers congregated (see Margaret Conkey's semi-nal paper in Current Anthropology for 1980). In northern Spain and south west France it was superseded by the Azilian culture. In northern Europe we see a slightly different picture, with different variants of the Tjongerian techno-complex following it. It has been suggested that key Late Glacial sites in south-western Britain can also be attributed to the Magdalenian, including the famous site of Kent's Cavern, although this remains open to debate.

Photos by Josef Otto a StoneWatch Work 2008 www.stonewatch.org