The Pavlovian is an
Upper Paleolithic
The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coi ...
culture, a variant of the
Gravettian
The Gravettian was an archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic that succeeded the Aurignacian circa 33,000 years BP. It is archaeologically the last European culture many consider unified, and had mostly disappeared by 2 ...
, that existed in the region of
Moravia
Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia.
The me ...
, northern
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populou ...
and southern
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
around 29,000–25,000 years BP. The culture used sophisticated stone age technology to survive in the
tundra
In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless m ...
on the fringe of the ice sheets around the
Last Glacial Maximum
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent.
Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eu ...
. Its economy was principally based on the hunting of
mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...
herds for meat, fat fuel, hides for tents and large bones and tusks for building winter shelters.
Its name is derived from the village of
Pavlov, in the
Pavlov Hills, next to
Dolní Věstonice in southern Moravia. The site was excavated in 1952 by the Czechoslovakian archaeologist
Bohuslav Klíma. Another important Pavlovian site is Předmostí, now part of the town of
Přerov
Přerov (; german: Prerau) is a city in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 41,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Bečva River. In the past it was a major crossroad in the heart of Moravia in the Czech Republic. The historic centr ...
.
Excavation has yielded flint implements, polished and drilled stone artifacts, bone spearheads, needles, digging tools, flutes, bone ornaments, drilled animal teeth, and seashells. Art or religious finds are bone carvings and figurines of humans and animals made of mammoth tusk, stone, and fired clay. Textile impression made into wet clay give the oldest proof of the existence of weaving by humans.
[Balak - Textiles]
References
Further reading
*Grigor’ev, G. P. Nachalo verkhnego paleolita i proiskhozhdenie Homo sapiens. Leningrad, 1968.
*Filip, J. Enzyklopädisches Handbuch zur Ur- und Frühgeschichte Euro-pas, vol. 2. Prague, 1969.
Gravettian
Archaeological cultures of Central Europe
Archaeological cultures of Eastern Europe
Archaeological cultures in Austria
Archaeological cultures in the Czech Republic
Archaeological cultures in Poland
Archaeological cultures in Russia
Archaeological cultures in Ukraine
Upper Paleolithic cultures of Europe
Stone Age Austria
Stone Age Czech Republic
Archaeology of Moravia
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