Châtelperronian

Puntas de Châtelperron

The Châtelperroniense is a phase of the Perigordian culture, within the Middle Paleolithic. It is a transition industry between the Mousterian and the Upper Paleolithic. It developed between 36,000 and 32,000 years ago, approximately, at the end of a temperate interstadial, in the area of southern France and northern Iberian Peninsula. The name of this period comes from the eponymous site of the Grotte des Fées, in Châtelperron (France).

It is subdivided into:

• Archaic Châtelperroniense, with features of the Middle Paleolithic.
• Initial or typical Châtelperroniense.
• Châtelperroniense evolved, has a strong influence of the Higher Paleolithic.
• Châtelperroniense regressive, in which industries present a high degradation.

There is controversy, from an archaeological point of view, about the association of this culture with Neanderthals.

General characteristics

• The characteristic human type is the Neandertal.
• It is a cold period dominated by species such as rinoceronte lanudo and reindeer.
• Wide distribution of pine and oaks. Climate deterioration causes the substitution of forest mass by a vegetable and arbusive cover.
• Furniture art appears for the first time in Europe (because there was already a broad record of it, on the African continent produced by the Homo sapiens), with rhythmic series of incisions, either on stone or on bone, even on deer asta, as for example the propellants.
• The room places are limited to coarse huts, such as the circular plant built from mamut defenses.

Lithic industry

• The fossil director is the knife of Châtelperron with curved back.
• Terminal scrapers that predominate on the sides.
• Development of the donkeys.
• The size became more laminar.
• There are also truncated leaves.
• The back of the knives shows a tendency to be rectilineated.