The Upper Paleolithic in Europe was not only the last phase of the Old (Paleo) Stone Age but it also coincided with the end of the geological epoch, the Pleistocene – or the Ice Age. Northern Europe was mostly glacial or tundra. Modern Humans would have come into Europe during this time and encountered their close relation, Homo Neanderthalensis. They would have shared technology and interbred before the Neanderthals finally dying out around 30,000 BP in Southern Iberia.
Notable: the
Cave Painting of the Franco Cantabrian region and the Venus Figurines which are widespread in the region.
See Palaeolithic Europe
The Neolithic in Europe is facilitated by the retreat of the glaciers as the world warms during the new Holocene period. Neolithic charateristics such as settlements and agriculture take hold in Europe later than in the Middle East closer to the middle of this time span. Examples of the Neolithic here are pottery culture and megalithic structure building.
Europe in the Ancient period is characterised by the technological / metallurgic revolution that became the Bronze Age, and then later the Iron Age. The comparably revolutionary period the Neolithic, which preceded the Bronze Age with the Copper (Chalcolithic) Age, naturally gave way to the next epoch in which metallic technology would revolutionise life. Bronze would begin in the Middle East as much as in Europe as the copper and tin trade that facilitated it was a network of both regions. Later, Iron would supersede Bronze especially in its use in weaponry.
Mediaeval Europe.
Modern Europe.
The Upper Palaeolithic period, the last phase of ‘The Old Stone Age’ is concurrent with human migration out of Africa and across the world. Modern Humans will have travelled across Asia and back into Europe but also into ‘Oceania’ – which today is South East Asia and Australasia. They would have encountered the challenge of travelling across much water but as the sea level would have been much lower due to the Ice Sheets in the Northern hemisphere locking up much of the worlds water, reaching Australia was ultimately possible. This would have required seafaring technology however, and it is now accepted that Australia itself was reached by approximately 60,000 YBP. The Palaeolithic is characterised by stone technology as it will endure for its contemporary study. However as boats were not made of stone it is harder for us to access evidence of this technology, instead genetic evidence gives us a picture of this migration.
Oceania in the Neolithic period.
Ancient Oeania.
Mediaeval Oceania.
Modern Oceania.