Burins similar to these are characteristic diagnostic artifacts typical of the digs attributed to the Gravettian culture.
The
Gravettian toolmaking culture was a specific
archaeological industry of the
European
Upper Palaeolithic era prevalent before the last glacial epoch. It is named after the type site of
La Gravette in the
Dordogne region of
France where its characteristic tools were first found and studied. It dates from between 28,000 and 22,000 years ago and where found, succeeded the artifacts datable to the
Aurignacian culture.
The diagnostic
characteristic artifacts of the industry are small pointed restruck
blade with a blunt but straight back, a carving tool known as a
Noailles burin. (See to compare with similar purposed modern tool:
burin)
Artistic achievements of the Gravettian cultural stage include the hundreds of
Venus figurines, which are widely distributed in Europe. The industry had counterparts across central Europe and into
Russia, as did the predecessor culture, which is also linked to similar figurines and carvings.
Gravettian culture
A phase (c.28,000–23,000 ya) of the European Upper Paleolithic that is characterized by a stone-tool industry with small pointed blades used for big-game hunting (
bison,
horse,
reindeer and
mammoth). People in the Gravettian period also used nets to hunt small game. For more information on hunting see
Animal Usage in the Gravettian. It is divided into two regional groups: the western Gravettian, mostly known from cave sites in France, and the eastern Gravettian, with open sites of specialized
mammoth hunters on the plains of central Europe and Russia.
In literature
Artifacts and technologies of this and the preceding Aurignacian culture figure centrally in the romanticized adaptation of the culture in the popular fictional pre-history depicted in the
Earth's Children novel series which leans heavily on archeological finds and theories from this era. In the series, the
Venus figurines are central to a fertility rite and worship of
"The Great Earth Mother", a nature spirit from which all life flows.
See also
