Today's post will be discussing the importance and unique characteristics of tool technologies in the Upper Paleolithic. However, before we begin on that topic it is important that you, as a student of the Upper Paleolithic, have a general understanding of the time periods that occurred before and lead up to the Upper Paleolithic. Here is a quick video to provide you with just that information!

Photo taken from:
http://acsarchaeology.com/projects/middle_to_upper_paleolithic_tran.htm

With the emergence of the Upper Paleolithic comes a time of incredible diversity and innovation in terms of tool technology. Lithics underwent a change that allowed stone technologies to reach an all time high in order to increase efficiency, variation and the number of functions. The Upper Paleolithic sees a surge of endscrapers, burins, composite tools and also an increase in the number of resources used to create such a variety of tools (Hublin, 2012).

Although the Middle and Upper Paleolithic tools were similar, the Upper Paleolithic was clearly dominated by blades and the ability to create large quantities of sharp, refined and efficient blades, while using fewer resources.

This allowed the Upper Paleolithic to provide "more blade for your buck".



To the right, we have a video of an archaeologist demonstrating how the refined blades of the Paleolithic era may have been created.

Upper Paleolithic Repertoire Summary:
1. Microliths and Blade Technology
2. Composite Tools
3. Carved Bone Tools, Ivory and Antler
4. Endscapers and Burins
5. Projectile Weaponry
(Hublin, 2012)

Photo taken from:

http://www.seppo.net/cartoons/albums/cartoons

/nature/mammals/mammuttiaro_villasarvikuono_eng.jpg

With that summary we conclude "The What's What and Who's Who of The Upper Paleolithic"'s discussion of tool technology. Come on back for some old-school art tips that you won't learn in any Berkeley art studio.









For those of you getting excited about the Upper Paleolithic, here is a trailer that discusses a number of aspects of this time period. There is a quick mention of cave art and Upper Paleolithic artistic expression at around 2:40.

Citations:

1. Hublin, Jean-Jacques . "The Earliest Modern Human Colonization of Europe." National academy of Sciences 34 (2012): n. pag. PNAS. Web. 5 Nov. 2012.