Middle paleolithic

The Middle Paleolithic is the second of the periods into which the Paleolithic is divided, the initial stage of the Stone Age. It is characterized by the predominance of a lithic tradition called Mousterian, which uses the carving technique called the Levallois method or technical mode 3, which consists of obtaining one or several flakes by default, from a particular preparation of the core. It is a much less extensive period than the previous one (the Lower Paleolithic) and covers approximately between the years 325,000-300,000 before present (BP) and 40,000-30,000 BP.

The Middle Paleolithic coincides with most of the Upper Pleistocene or Tarantiense, until about half of the last ice age, that of Würm-Wisconsin. It is also the time of Homo neanderthalensis, which spread from Europe to the Near East and a large part of Central Asia.

Pictographic reconstruction of a neandertal group.

Linear vision

Initially, the Middle Paleolithic was defined by the existence of homo neanderthalensis, a species that was supposed to be in the line of evolution of the genus Homo towards Homo sapiens. But reality has turned out to be more complex and, according to current data, H. neanderthalensis did not predate H. sapiens, but it was a species of European origin that for 150,000 years had a parallel existence to H.sapiens, originally from Africa and its contemporary. A fossil of Homo sapiens, Omo I, dating to 195,000 years ago, has been found in the Omo River valley in southern Ethiopia. Furthermore, it has been shown that in East Asia Homo erectus survived over a large area while the other two species dispersed across the planet, also giving rise, in certain areas of present-day Indonesia, to a fourth species, Homo floresiensis, with a specialized adaptation to forests.

There was therefore no linear process of evolution and the initial vision of the Middle Paleolithic turned out to be basically European, verifiable only in those areas where the H. sapiens replaced H. neanderthalensis late, that is, in Europe and western Asia up to Iran and Uzbekistan, but not in the rest of the Asian continent, much less in the regions of Africa where H. sapiens.

Transition

Reconstruction of a skull H. neanderthalensis from the cave of La Ferrassie, France.

The cultural change characteristic of the Middle Paleolithic coincided with the appearance and spread of a new species of Homo, H. neanderthalensis, a descendant of Homo heidelbergensis. This last hominin dominated the European scene from at least 500,000 years ago to about 150,000 years ago. The tools associated with the H. heidelbergensis basically consist of "cutting stones" and some flake tools such as points and scrapers made of wood, bone and antlers, being the pioneers of this technique. The hand ax, also called a hand axe, was part of their technological equipment: large, it is carved on both sides and its uses were very diverse, serving both to tan leather and to work with wood. It seems that they would be organized in small groups with a certain social cohesion, since completely toothless jaws are known, which would indicate that the individual, after losing his teeth, continued to live and eat thanks to the help of his congeners. There is no doubt about its hunting abilities, as 400,000-year-old wooden spears have been found in Schöningen associated with this species and various hunted mammals. A differential behavior has also been detected when treating corpses, as evidenced by the Sima de huesos site, interpreted as a conscious and ritualized funerary act carried out some 300,000 years ago.

In Africa, a change in the work of tools dated from 600,000 BP is evident: they are less thick, more symmetrical and better polished, compared to the previous ones with Acheulean characteristics. These changes would match the estimated 630,000 BP dating for the fossil specimen found at Bodo. Whether this African individual would belong to H. heidelbergensis or if it would be different and it would be a Homo rhodesiensis, a species of which other remains have been found in a dozen places in Africa, covering the period between 630 and 160 thousand years BP.

African overview

The specificity of the Intermediate Stone Age (Middle Paleolithic) in Africa is beginning to be recognized. In Kenya (Guomde, Malewa Gorge, Kapthurin, Kapedo Beeds) and Ethiopia (Gademotta) the oldest tools from this period have been found. In the vicinity of Lake Eyasi (Tanzania) fossils of at least two individuals designated in 1939 as Africanthropus njarasensis were found, associated with a levallois-type industry that has been dated to 250,000 years BP and which various experts now classify as belonging to H. rhodesiensis.

But this period also coincides with the oldest remains of Homo sapiens. The Fauresmithian lithic industry, discovered in the town of Fauresmith (South Africa), consists of bifaces, splitters, scrapers and levallois flakes. The Stillbayense and Howieson's Poort industries probably derived from it, widely spread throughout the Klasies River region, in the Cape province. They are characterized by lithic artifacts such as leafy and lanceolate points and small handaxes, as well as by the presence of art and ornaments in the form of perforated shells painted with red lines (dated to about 75,000 BP) and clay pieces with geometric engravings (ca. 70,000 BP).

The so-called sangoense industry consists of pieces on flakes, carved using the levallois method, as well as macrolithic tools, such as biface pieces, pickaxes and axes, often triangular. It was identified in 1920 in Sango Bay, on the west shore of Lake Victoria (Uganda). The Kalambo Falls site in Zambia contains a sequence with Sangoan strata dating to between 100,000 and 80,000 years old, but this industry could date back as far as 200,000 years.

In the oases of El Fayum and Kharga, in Egypt, and in the Maghreb, Levalloisian tools have also been found. In addition, in this region of North Africa there is evidence of Mousterian industry, such as in the Taforal cave (Morocco) and, in some cases, remains of H. neanderthalensis, as in the cave of La Cabililla, near Ceuta (Spain), which shows that Neanderthals were capable of crossing the Strait of Gibraltar.

Mousterian horizon

Different views of a lacquer obtained through the Levallois method.

The technological/stylistic complex called Mousterian industry or technical mode 3 is characterized by a stone carving technique, the Levallois method, whose existence has been confirmed at the end of the previous period, but which became general in this period. It consisted of preparing a core to obtain sharp and thick flakes by making notches directly on the flint. The artifacts obtained in this way present a clear homogeneity within the various typological variations, which increased with respect to the previous period, also appreciating a greater specialization of the tools. Typical instruments are scrapers, denticulates, scrapers, burins, large triangular points, points with retouched edges, and compression retouched. Elements with handles are characteristic. The tools were obtained using soft, bone or wooden percussion hammers. Likewise, there are small Acheulean-type bifaces.

The prehistorian François Bordes classified Mousterian artifacts into four types:

• Musteriense of Michelense traditionwith the presence of bifaces;
• Typical Musteriensealmost without bifaces, with few denticulates and many roots and tips;
• Charentiense.with few denticulates and variety of raederas;
• Musteriense denticulateswith a lot of denticulates.

The Mousterian has traditionally been related to the expansion of Neanderthal man into Europe and neighboring African and Asian areas. The new carving technique implied a planning capacity that did not exist in previous stages. Coinciding with this new technique, the first brains with a volume of 1400 cm³ appear in the fossil record. A certain technological continuity (with various regional variants) is also detected between Europe, Africa and Asia up to present-day India, which would presuppose the existence of cultural contacts across these continents. And perhaps also genetic, since human populations must have been so small that they would occasionally have to form larger groups in order to exchange men or women with each other to balance their populations. Not only Neanderthals made Mousterian artifacts, but H. sapiens discovered at the sites of Skhul and Qafzeh (Israel) and dated to around 100,000 years old also did so, which would show that they shared certain cultural aspects with Neanderthals. The time of the Neanderthals would occupy between 127,000 and 40,000 years BP, in addition to a period of coexistence with H. sapiens that would have lasted until less than 30,000 years ago, when the first ones disappeared completely.

Homo neanderthalensis

Neanderthals measured 1.60-1.70 m on average, their trunk was wide, with large hips but short forearms and legs, weighing an average of about 70-80 kg. They had prominent supraorbital ridges, a flat forehead, a backward-projecting skull, a large nasal cavity, powerful jaws, wedge-shaped facial and nose bones, and no chin. Its brain capacity would be 1500 cm³ on average, therefore greater than that of H. sapiens. They weren't tall but they were muscular. Their skin color would be very white, as they evolved at high latitudes. It is possible that they were capable of having a spoken language since a fossil found in the Kebara cave (Israel) shows a hyoid bone (the one that supports the larynx) of modern type. Genetic studies carried out on the remains of the Sidrón cave (Asturias, Spain) have provided evidence of the gene that allows us to speak, FoxP2. Its physiological development was similar to that of H. sapiens, being born at a similar maturity and growing in the same way.

Apart from our own species, the largest number of known fossils of the genus Homo correspond to H. neanderthalensis: at least 206 specimens, but not all complete. Many of them show diseases and injuries that they could not have survived without the help of the group to which they belonged. This relative abundance motivated Erik Trinkaus to carry out a paleodemographic study in which it was observed that more than 40% had died before the age of five, 25% between the ages of 20 and 40, and only 6% after the age of 40. having a life expectancy at birth of less than 30 years. This high mortality would be the consequence of very harsh living conditions and would be partly offset by a high birth rate. These data are criticized because they are about individuals belonging to very different regions and who lived in times separated from each other by thousands of years. In addition, there are researchers such as Juan Luis Arsuaga who believe that the Neanderthal groups would be very mobile and their stays in the caves limited in time; considering that all but four of the fossils were found in caves, then the record we have would be highly skewed.

Map that reflects the maximum known expansion so far Homo neanderthalensis.

The Neanderthals shared the territory with a very diverse fauna that, according to the remains found in the Cueva de los Casares site (Guadalajara, Spain), would correspond to that of a relatively cold mountain climate: marmots, beavers, wild boars, deer, horses, steppe rhinos, lynxes, leopards, lions, wolves, spotted hyenas, brown bears, and cave bears. With all these predators, Neanderthals would have to compete to get their food. They would be powerful hunters endowed with great physical strength, using wooden spears with lithic tips and traps. They would practice unselective and opportunistic hunting, without disdaining the possibilities offered by carrion, as is still the case today with some hunter-gatherer peoples, such as the Hadza. Live prey, carrion and whatever they obtained through gathering would be complementary food alternatives for them.

They dominated fire and its use was widespread, which is attested by the abundant remains of hearths from many sites, such as the aforementioned Kebara cave or the Abric Romaní (Barcelona, Spain). They buried their dead in caves in a conscious and planned way, accompanying them in some cases with what has been interpreted as offerings: animal remains, stone instruments, flowers or hematite powder. Although not all researchers agree, they are attributed symbolic and funerary behaviors, with cults related to their dead and/or with the skull of bears. At sites such as Krapina (Croatia) practices of cannibalism have been detected. They lived in caves and rock shelters where there were any, appearing in some conditioning works, as well as specific work and/or habitation areas. They also built open-air camps near areas with abundant game and water, the best known being that of Molodova (present-day Ukraine), where a hut built entirely of mammoth bones and tusks was excavated. more and more authors, it could be affirmed that they were as human as we are, in the most spiritual, sentimental and mental sense of the term.

The last known Neanderthals date from about 32,000 years ago or a little less and have been found in the regions of the Iberian Peninsula located to the south of the Ebro River, which would act as a border with the Cro-Magnons who would already occupy the Cantabrian area at that time and the rest of Europe. Some Neanderthal populations survived for a few millennia after the expansion of the Cro-Magnons through Europe (about 40,000 years ago) in areas of the Cantabrian Sea, France, Italy or Bulgaria. Probably (although there are authors who do not think so) as a result of contacts with H. sapiens developed an industry already belonging to technical mode IV, called chatelperroniense by the French. In the same way, a taste for personal adornment appeared among these populations isolated from their peers, evidenced by the appearance of beads from necklaces and large amounts of red ocher in sites such as the Cave of Reno, in Arcy-sur-Cure. Its extinction and replacement by modern humans coincided with the last (and hardest) moments of the Würm, when the Mediterranean coast turned into a cold steppe.