Monday, June 13, 2022

Why don't they have stone arrowheads in Europe?

I cannot find any pictures of elegant stonework from -say- France that is any more recent than those fine Solutrean blades. But what were the Europeans doing around 10K years ago? Just a little puzzle. I did see some fine things from Spain, so what is true?

4 comments :

Anonymous said...

https://www.donsmaps.com/

If your interested old world stuff. Never really thought about your comment before, an interesting point.

Curt Hoffman said...

Check out references to Magdalenian and Azilian cultures in western Europe. There was a tendency towards greater use of bone and antler for points, as well as composite tools using bone and microliths. This was also the case in the Middle East and North Africa. Nothing is quite comparable to the fine tool-making traditions of the Solutrean, though.

pwax said...

Well, that is interesting. Bone points and micro-blades sounds like an Arctic culture. As if (?) Europe was still caught in a post-glacial mind-set, while the US had moved on to big game hunting.

Correct me if this is wrong, but I don't think micro-blades appear much in the "south 48" of the US.

Curtiss Hoffman said...

No, that's basically correct. Arctic cultures in North America have them. They are present in small numbers further south, but they are rare. So "much" is an accurate statement.