Aurignacian is the name of a culture of the Upper Palaeolithic present in Europe and south west Asia. It dates to between 34,000 and 23,000 BP. The name originates from the type site of Aurignac in the Haute Garonne area of France In archaeology, culture refers to either of two separate but allied concepts: An archaeological culture is a pattern of similar artefacts and features found within a specific area over a limited period of time. ... The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic – lit. ... World map showing Europe (geographically) When considered a continent, Europe is the worlds second-smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 km² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ... Jump to: navigation, search World map showing Asia (geographically) Asia is the central and eastern part of Eurasia and worlds largest continent. ... In archaeology a type site (also known as a type-site or typesite) is a site that is considered the model of a particular archaeological culture. ... Haute-Garonne is a département in the southwest of France named after the Garonne river. ...

Worked bone points with grooves cut in the bottom and some of the earliest cave art were produced by the Aurignacian culture. Their flint tools were more varied than those of earlier industries, employing finer blades struck from prepared cores rather than using crude flakes, and they made pendants, bracelets and ivory beads to ornament themselves. Bâtons de commandement are also found at their sites. This sophistication and self-awareness leads archaeologists to consider the makers of Aurignacian artefacts the first modern humans in Europe. Human remains and Aurignacian artefacts originally found at Cro-Magnon in France indicate that the culture was human rather than Neandertal. Cave, or rock, paintings are paintings painted on cave or rock walls and ceilings, usually dating to pre_historic times. ... In archaeology a blade refers to a thin, straight stone tool that has been struck as a flake from a larger prepared core. ... CORE may refer to: The Congress of Racial Equality in the USA. The Coordinated Online Register of Electors in the United Kingdom. ... Flake can be: fish flake, a platform made from dried timber where fish (predominantly cod-fish) can be cured in the sun. ... Ivory is a hard, white, opaque substance that is the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth, etc. ... A bâton de commandement or bâton percé is a name given by archaeologists to a particular prehistoric artefact of uncertain function. ... In archaeology, an artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human culture, and often one later recovered by some archaeological endeavor. ... The Cro-Magnons form the earliest known European examples of Homo sapiens, the subspecies to which modern humans belong. ... Binomial name Homo neanderthalensis King, 1864 The Neanderthal or Neandertal was a species of genus Homo (Homo neanderthalensis) that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia from about 230,000 to 29,000 years ago (in the Middle Palaeolithic, early Stone Age). ...

The first apperance of what Paleoanthropologists refer to as "La Paquette" in Europe. Includes new tool making skills, and the introduction of art.

The Aurignacian culture is considered by some archaeologists to have co-existed with the Périgordian culture of tool making. Périgordian is a term for several distinct but related Upper Palaeolithic cultures which are thought by some archaeologists to represent a contiguous tradition. ...

External links

Aurignacian people at cnn.com