The Solutrean industry is a relatively advanced flint tool-making style of the Upper Paleolithic of the Final Gravettian, from around 22,000 to 17,000 BP. Solutrean sites have been found in modern-day France, Spain and Portugal.

Details

The term ''Solutrean'' comes from the type-site of " Cros du Charnier", dating to around 21,000 years ago and located at Solutré, in east-central France near Mâcon. The Rock of Solutré site was discovered in 1866 by the French geologist and paleontologist Henry Testot-Ferry. It is now preserved as the Parc archéologique et botanique de Solutré. The industry was named by Gabriel de Mortillet to describe the second stage of his system of cave chronology, following the Mousterian, and he considered it synchronous with the third division of the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

period. The era's finds include tools, ornamental beads, and bone pins as well as prehistoric art. Solutrean tool-making employed techniques not seen before and not rediscovered for millennia. The Solutrean has relatively finely worked, bifacial points made with lithic reduction percussion and pressure flaking rather than flintknapping. Knapping was done using antler batons, hardwood batons and soft stone hammers. This method permitted the working of delicate slivers of flint to make light projectiles and even elaborate barbed and tanged arrowheads. Large thin spearheads; scrapers with edge not on the side but on the end; flint knives and saws, but all still chipped, not ground or polished; long spear-points, with tang and shoulder on one side only, are also characteristic implements of this industry. Bone and antler were used as well. The Solutrean may be seen as a transitional stage between the flint implements of the Mousterian and the bone implements of the

Magdalenian The Magdalenian cultures (also Madelenian; French: ''Magdalénien'') are later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in western Europe. They date from around 17,000 to 12,000 years ago. It is named after the type site of La Madele ...

epochs. Faunal finds include horses, reindeer, ibex, mammoths, cave lions, rhinoceroses, bears and

aurochs The aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') ( or ) is an extinct cattle species, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of the largest herbivores in the Holocen ...

. Solutrean finds have also been made in the caves of Les Eyzies and , and in the Lower Beds of Creswell Crags in Derbyshire, England (Proto-Solutrean). The industry first appeared in what is now Spain, and disappears from the archaeological record around 17,000 BP.

Solutrean hypothesis in North American archaeology

The Solutrean hypothesis argues that people from Europe may have been among the earliest settlers of the Americas. Its notable recent proponents include Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian Institution and Bruce Bradley of the University of Exeter. This hypothesis contrasts with the mainstream archaeological consensus that the North American continent was first populated by people from Asia, either by the Bering land bridge (i.e.

Beringia Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72 degrees north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip ...

) at least 13,500 years ago, or by maritime travel along the Pacific coast, or by both. The idea of a Clovis-Solutrean link remains controversial and does not enjoy wide acceptance. The hypothesis is challenged by large gaps in time between the Clovis culture and Solutrean eras, a lack of evidence of Solutrean seafaring, lack of specific Solutrean features and tools in Clovis technology, the difficulties of the route, and other issues. In 2014, the

autosomal DNA An autosome is any chromosome that is not a sex chromosome. The members of an autosome pair in a diploid cell have the same morphology, unlike those in allosomal (sex chromosome) pairs, which may have different structures. The DNA in autosomes ...

of a male infant ( Anzick-1) from a 12,500-year-old deposit in Montana was sequenced. The skeleton was found in close association with several Clovis artifacts. Comparisons showed strong affinities with DNA from Siberian sites, and virtually ruled out any close affinity of Anzick-1 with European sources. The DNA of the Anzick-1 sample showed strong affinities with sampled Native American populations, which indicated that the samples derive from an ancient population that lived in or near Siberia, the Upper Paleolithic Mal'ta population.

Physical characteristics

Examination of physical remains from the Solutrean period has determined that they were of a slightly more

gracile Gracility is slenderness, the condition of being gracile, which means slender. It derives from the Latin adjective ''gracilis'' (masculine or feminine), or ''gracile'' ( neuter), which in either form means slender, and when transferred for examp ...

type than the preceding Gravettian culture. Males were rather tall, with some skeletons being up to 179 cm tall. Volume 4 of the ''Portuguese Magazine of Archaeology'' from 2001 examined a Solutrean female individual whose physical remains are described as "having postcranial elements that derive from a relatively small and gracile individual". The teeth of Solutrean individuals are described as being similar in appearance to those belonging to the people of the Gravettian.

Gallery

File:Solutrean tools 22000 17000 Crot du Charnier Solutre Pouilly Saone et Loire France.jpg, Solutrean tools, 22,000–17,000 BP, Crot du Charnier,

Solutré-Pouilly Solutré-Pouilly (; frp, Selutrié-Polyié) is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is known for a local geological feature, the Rock of Solutré. Wine The vineyards of ...

, Saône-et-Loire, France File:Biface feuille de laurier.JPG, Flint point from Volgu in the National Archeological Museum in France File:Abris sous roches du Solutréen.JPG, Solutrean caves in

Aujac, Gard Aujac () is a commune in the Gard department in southern France. Population See also *Communes of the Gard department This is a list of the 351 Communes of France, communes of the Gard Departments of France, department of France. The commune ...

File:Altamira-8.jpg, Solutrean cave art at Altamira

References

External links

Clovis and Solutrean: Is There a Common Thread?
by James M. Chandler
Stone Age Columbus
BBC TV programme summary

transcript of 2004 NOVA program on PBS

Washington Post article from 28 February 2012

Libor Balák at the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Archaeology in Brno, The Center for Paleolithic and Paleoethnological Research {{Prehistoric technology, tools, state=expanded Gravettian Archaeological cultures of Europe Archaeological cultures in France Archaeological cultures in Portugal Archaeological cultures in Spain Saône-et-Loire Upper Paleolithic cultures of Europe Industries (archaeology)