The Aurignacian is a type of culture studied by archaeologists from the Upper Paleolithic period, which is a time in prehistory. It is linked to Early European modern humans and existed from about 43,000 to 26,000 years ago in most areas. In Ukraine, this culture lasted until around 17,000 years ago, in a phase called the Epi-Aurignacian. The Upper Paleolithic in Europe began after the Levant, where the Emiran and Ahmarian periods were the first stages of the Upper Paleolithic. These periods marked the early movement of Homo sapiens out of Africa. These people later migrated to Europe, creating the first European culture of modern humans, known as the Aurignacian.
The Proto-Aurignacian and Early Aurignacian stages occurred between about 43,000 and 37,000 years ago. The main Aurignacian period lasted from about 37,000 to 33,000 years ago. A later phase, called the Late Aurignacian, transitioned into the Gravettian and lasted from about 33,000 to 26,000 years ago. The type site of the Aurignacian is the Cave of Aurignac in Haute-Garonne, southwest France. The culture that came before the Aurignacian was the Mousterian, which was used by Neanderthals.
One of the oldest examples of figurative art, the Venus of Hohle Fels, was created during the Aurignacian or Proto-Gravettian period and dates to between 40,000 and 35,000 years ago. It was discovered in September 2008 in a cave in Schelklingen, Baden-Württemberg, western Germany. The German Lion-man figure is also dated to a similar time range.
A Levantine Aurignacian culture existed in the Levant, with a type of blade technology similar to the European Aurignacian. This culture followed the Emiran and Early Ahmarian periods in the same area of the Near East and was closely related to them. Some scientists think the Levantine Aurignacian may have come before the European Aurignacian, but others believe it might have been influenced by the European Aurignacian. This debate is still unresolved.
Main characteristics
The Aurignacians were part of a group of modern humans who moved from Africa through the Near East into ancient Europe. These people became known as European early modern humans, or Cro-Magnons. This group includes remains from several cultures, such as the Ahmarian, Bohunician, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian. These cultures existed during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), a time period from about 48,000 to 15,000 years ago. The Aurignacian culture is linked to human remains found at Goyet Q116-1, while the later Gravettian culture in the east is connected to the Vestonice group.
The Aurignacian people made tools from worked bone or antler with grooves on the bottom. Their flint tools included fine blades and small bladelets made from carefully prepared cores, not from rough flakes. They also created some of the earliest cave art, such as animal carvings at Trois Frères and paintings in Chauvet Cave in southern France. They made jewelry like pendants, bracelets, and ivory beads, as well as three-dimensional figurines. Perforated rods, possibly used as spear throwers or tools for shaping spear shafts, were also found at their sites.
Art
Aurignacian figurines show images of animals that lived during a time when some mammals, such as mammoths, rhinoceroses, and tarpans, no longer exist. Some figures also look like humans and may be among the earliest signs of religious beliefs.
In Germany’s Vogelherd Cave, many animal figurines from about 35,000 years ago were found. One of the horse figures, along with five other small ivory statues of mammoths and horses discovered earlier, was carved with great skill. During the Aurignacian period, people also made beads from ivory to use as decorations. Famous cave paintings in Chauvet Cave are from this time.
Common statues from this period often show women, called Venus figurines. These figures have large hips, breasts, and other parts linked to fertility. Their feet and arms are either missing or very small. The Venus of Hohle Fels, found in 2008 in Germany’s Hohle Fels Cave, is one of the oldest known human figures. It is about 35,000 years old and is the earliest confirmed example of a human in prehistoric art. Another important find is the Lion-man of Hohlenstein-Stadel, discovered in Germany’s Swabian Alb. This figure, dated to about 40,000 years ago, is the oldest known statue of an animal that looks like a human.
Aurignacian discoveries include bone flutes. The oldest confirmed musical instrument is the Hohle Fels Flute, found in 2008 in Germany’s Swabian Alb. It was made from a vulture’s wing bone with five holes and is about 35,000 to 40,000 years old. Another flute was found at the Abri Blanchard site in southwestern France.
Subsistence economy
Most evidence from this time shows that meat from large animals was a major part of the Early Upper Paleolithic diet. However, humans likely ate a wider variety of foods than Neanderthals, including more plants, fish, and birds. Changes in climate probably influenced the types of food people ate in different areas, and the ways they obtained food were not the same everywhere. For example, one region might have focused more on hunting large animals, while another, like Northern Spain, shows evidence of hunting many different animals, such as red and roe deer, boar, horse, bovids, ibex, and chamois. How people lived and settled also varied greatly depending on local conditions. Evidence suggests that during this period, groups traveled farther and traded more with other groups. For instance, shells found at sites in Lower Austria, such as Krems-Hundsteig, came from the Mediterranean, about 300 kilometers away, or the Black Sea, roughly 600 kilometers away (Hahn 1971). Small amounts of stone or fossils found at Aurignacian sites in Moravia, southern Germany, and the Rhineland came from sources located 50 to over 200 kilometers away (Hahn 1987, Svoboda et al. 1996).
Tools
Stone tools from the Aurignacian culture are called Mode 4. These tools are made from blades, which are long, thin pieces of stone, rather than flakes, which were common in earlier cultures like the Acheulean (Mode 2) and Mousterian (Mode 3). During the Upper Paleolithic period, tools became more uniform in size and shape, and people began using materials like bone and antler to make tools. Studies of tool-making techniques and ancient environments suggest that early Aurignacian groups traveled longer distances during different seasons to hunt reindeer herds in cold, open areas, unlike earlier tool cultures.
Population
A 2019 study estimated the average population in western and central Europe during the Aurignacian period (~42,000 to 33,000 years before present) was about 1,500 people. The population could have been as high as 3,300 or as low as 800.
A 2005 study found that the population of Upper Palaeolithic Europe between 40,000 and 30,000 years before present ranged from 1,738 to 28,359 people. The average population during this time was about 4,424.
Association with modern humans
The advanced skills and understanding of themselves shown in Aurignacian artifacts led archaeologists to believe that the people who made these items were the first modern humans in Europe. Human remains and Late Aurignacian artifacts found together support this idea. Although few human bones have been found with Proto-Aurignacian tools in Europe, those that have been discovered are likely from modern humans. The best evidence linking Aurignacian tools to human remains includes at least five individuals from the Mladeč caves in the Czech Republic. These remains were dated using carbon dating to be at least 31,000–32,000 years old.
At least three well-preserved, but typically modern, individuals from the Peștera cu Oase cave in Romania were dated using bones to about 35,000–36,000 years ago. These remains were not found with archaeological tools, but they are within the time frame and region of the Early Aurignacian in southeastern Europe. Genetic evidence suggests that both the Aurignacian culture and the Dabba culture in North Africa may have originated from an earlier big game hunting culture in the Levant.
Genetics
In a genetic study published in Nature in May 2016, the remains of an early Aurignacian individual named Goyet Q116-1, found in modern-day Belgium, were studied. This individual belonged to the male lineage group C1a and the female lineage group M. Other Aurignacian samples showed male lineage groups C1b and K2a, and female lineage groups N, R, and U.
The Aurignacian material culture is linked to the spread of "early West Eurasians" during the Upper Paleolithic (UP) period. These people either replaced or combined with earlier Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) cultures, such as the European Châtelperronian. Evidence of IUP influence in later UP Europeans includes the presence of Ancient East Eurasian ancestry (about 17–23%) in the Goyet Q116-1 specimen. This ancestry may also be seen in the Bacho Kiro cave specimen and the Oase specimens, which are more closely related to ancient and modern East Eurasian populations. A 38,000-year-old specimen from eastern Europe, Kostenki-14, did not show signs of IUP ancestry. Villalba-Mouco et al. (2023) suggested that the IUP population existed before the split between European and Asian populations.
A 2023 study found that Aurignacians were closely related to the Gravettians, Solutreans, and later Magdalenians. Gravettian people belonged to two genetically distinct groups: one in western Europe (France and Spain) called Fournol, and another in eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and Italy) called Věstonice. Both groups traced their origins to earlier Aurignacian culture. The Aurignacian, Gravettian, and Solutrean cultures eventually merged to form the Magdalenian culture. The genes of seven Magdalenians from the El Miron Cluster in Iberia showed a close connection to Aurignacian people who lived in northern Europe about 20,000 years earlier. Analysis suggested that 70–80% of these individuals’ ancestry came from the population represented by Goyet Q116-1, who were part of the Aurignacian culture.
Upper Paleolithic cultures such as the Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian were later replaced by the Epigravettian people from Western Asia (Anatolia). A 2023 Nature study found that the ancestors of the Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHGs) were linked to the Epigravettian culture. These people largely replaced the Magdalenian population around 14,000 years ago. They were more closely related to ancient and modern populations in the Middle East and the Caucasus than to earlier European Cro-Magnons.