Andrea E. DeJesus
Seminar MWF
Dr. Tietjen
2/12/99
Cro-Magnons: The First Modern Man
Just out of curiosity, I asked a few of my friends for their definitions of a Cro-Magnon person. Their responses were along the same lines that I had anticipated. Most of their answers consisted of ideas like "a large muscular, hairy man who drug his mate around by her hair and lived in caves," or "violent people who wore leopard skins, massacred their prey and spoke in a language comprising of words like ‘ugh.’" Oh yeah, "and they painted on walls too." These are common misconceptions that are probably reinforced by cartoons like "The Flintstones," and other old movies made about our prehistoric ancestors. The truth is, if there happened to be a Cro-Magnon person dressed in modern clothes walking around the mall today, people would not be able to tell him apart from anyone else. These prehistoric humans had very similar physical characteristics and habits as humans do nowadays. They made several important accomplishments during their time period including tools, hunting methods, shelters, and society rituals.
Cro-Magnon man, Homo sapien sapien, lived from 30,000 B.C. to 10,000 B.C. in areas around southern France, Spain, Asia, and northern Africa. With their tall, erect posture, straight necks, and well-defined chins, these people looked much more like modern man than did the Neanderthal species before them. They also had small eyebrow ridges, prominent noses, and domed heads. They wore garments made of softened leather sewn together with thread made from the guts of the animals that they hunted. Needles used for sewing were made from the bones. In warmer weather, they dressed in clothing made from woven grass and bark. Cro-Magnon jewelry consisted of necklaces and bracelets created from shells, flowers, teeth and bones. Their bodies were often covered with tattoos or body paints. These are thought to be signs of social status or tribal identification.
This species of prehistoric man built permanent settlements that were designed carefully to last for several years. During the winter they lived in "Ice Age" huts similar to teepees. These shelters were made from branches and mammoth bones and the outer covering was animal skin. First, holes were dug for the long poles, which were tied together at the top of the teepee with string. Next, furs were sewn together and placed on the outside in order to keep the heat inside the hut. Rocks were place along the bottom to keep it from blowing away and hold it together. In the summer season, the Cro-Magnons lived in lightweight sturdy tents that were very portable while they followed the herds of animals that they hunted. Once the cold climate set in again, they would return to their winter huts. They frequently had to run out the wild life that had moved into their homes while they were gone.
Once the glaciers began to melt, the climate improved vastly, allowing the population of plants and animals to rise. The Cro-Magnons were nomadic hunters and gatherers and thrived during this time period because food sources were abundant. Their diets consisted of mostly nuts, berries, fish, and other fresh game. They were excellent hunters and for this reason, they rarely had to battle starvation. These prehistoric people hunted both individually and in organized groups, using bows and arrows, fishnets made from vines, and spears. Some tribes had even been known to build canoes in order to catch larger fish further out from the shores. Hunting with traps was an advantage too because this allowed them to work on other chores while catching their dinner. Unlike the Neanderthal species who ate their food where they killed it, the Cro-Magnons carried their food back to the camps to share it with other families. There is evidence of this at a site in France where archeologists have found the remains of one animal spread around to several different campfire rings hundreds of feet apart from each other.
Cro-Magnons are believed to be the first to develop advanced bone and stone tools for specific purposes. Some of these tools include axes, knives, needles, fishhooks, and rope. The bow and arrow was developed sometime after 20,000 B.C. They also never wasted any part of the animals that they killed. The skins were used to make clothes and the antlers made excellent tool handles, sewing needles, or hooks. These prehistoric people gradually learned to farm the land, domesticate animals, and to breed them for eating purposes.
The Cro-Magnons had developed a very well organized society and made many important accomplishments by working together. For example, as mentioned previously, they had communal activities such as hunting and fishing. They are also the first to show signs of cognitive thinking and planning ahead. They created a type of lunar calendar in order to keep track of the seasonal herd movements. They also developed a method of curing and storing meat throughout the cold winters by digging holes in the permafrost and using it like a deep freezer. This ancient species created more imaginative purposes for fire than their ancestors had. Inside their huts and cave interiors they had lamps as well as complex hearths. Skin-lined pits were excellent for heating water by using hot stones. They even found a way to fire clay objects by developing kilns that could reach up to 180 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Cro-Magnon culture believed in having celebrations associated with hunting, birth, and death. After studying the burial sites of Cro-Magnons, it is speculated that these people believed in some sort of afterlife. Most of the skeletons have been found buried with carved pendants, bracelets, and other grave goods commonly seen at gravesites. In one burial location in Sungir, Russia, a sixty-year-old male and two young children were discovered buried with over three thousand ivory beads sewn onto their clothing. Not all of the fossil remains have been as elaborately decorated as the one in Sungir. For this reason, it is speculated that the amount of personal adornment mirrors the social status of each person. At each gravesite there were significant differences in the methods used to burial the dead. Sometimes the bodies were found outstretched, and in other places the bodies were flexed. Some graves were covered by huge rock slabs while others were not. These different burial customs suggest a wider range of diversity among the Cro-Magnon cultures.
Between the ivory statues, ornate beads, and famous cave paintings, it is very obvious that art was of utmost importance to the prehistoric man. Each individual bead found in the graves at Sungir has been estimated to have taken at least one hour to carve. The amount of effort put into the decorations found with the deceased indicates the significance of art during the Cro-Magnon era. Archeologists believe that this creativity "was central to their experience of their environment and to the way they explained the world (Tattersall 1998)." When the Cro-Magnons were going through difficult times and life’s necessities were scarce, they may have believed that producing artwork would help to improve their hunting success and heal those stricken by hunger and illness.
The most well known phenomenon of the Cro-Magnon era is, of course, their spectacular cave paintings. Over 200 caves containing Cro-Magnon artwork have been discovered in the southwestern portion of Europe. Since 1940, French archeologists have been uncovering about one cave per year. Not all of the caves were easily accessible. There is an underwater cave in Cosquer, France, which can only be viewed by scuba divers. Well, these prehistoric ancestors did not strap on masks and snorkels in order to paint this cave. The sea level used to be around 300 feet lower due to the water locked up inside the glaciers. In other places, the paintings could have only been reached by crawling on one’s stomach through dark tunnels in a maze-like environment, never knowing who or what a person might run into. Those participating in some sort of initiation or trial may have endured these extreme conditions. But why did these humans feel the need to create such magnificent images on the walls of the caves? What significance did it have on their beliefs and lifestyles? Most of their drawings focused on the animals that they hunted like bison, cattle, and reindeer. These animals were very well drawn using many natural colors and animal fats while the people in the pictures were usually portrayed as stick figures. Perhaps they believed that by capturing the figures on the cave walls, they would have power and control over the animals. Not all of the caves contain pictures of non-threatening animals. Some cave walls are covered with images of dangerous animals such as bears, woolly rhinos, and panthers. This suggests that cave paintings could have also been a way for the Cro-Magnons to express their fears, needs, and religious values.
Many methods were used to create these cave images including painting with brushes and mainly a form of oral spray painting. In contrast to popular belief that cave art was created using charcoal, most of the drawings were made with iron oxide, black manganese, or other mineral pigments. After examining some of the paints used in the drawings, Michel Lorblanchet, director of France’s National Center of Scientific Research, discovered that the pigments were dissolved in saliva. He stated that the Cro-Magnons believed spitting to be "a way of projecting yourself onto the wall, becoming one with the horse you are painting (Hughes 1995)."
The era during which the Cro-Magnons lived must have been one filled with busy work and excitement. They were always on the move, searching for food, new tools, and more efficient ways of life. All in all, when looking at their basic needs for survival, they are not very different from the modern man. Humans nowadays require food, shelter, and reproduction in order to survive just as the Cro-Magnons did. The only difference is in the way the two species go about full filling these needs, well, besides the method of reproduction. In conclusion, the Cro-Magnon race is not one of killing and violence as it is often times portrayed. They were a civilized group of humans who used the best of their knowledge in order to make the many advancements for their time.
Bibliography
Donn, Lin and Don. Cro-Magnon and "Moderns." [Online] Available http://members.aol.com/Donnpages/EarlyMan.html#HSS, July 26, 1998.
Homo sapiens (Cro-Magnon most pro…). [Online] Available http://www.nku.edu/~holthr/shows/110/HISPERSP/fslide10.htm.
Hughes, Robert. Behold The Stone Age. [Online] Available http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/academic/cult_sci/anthro/lost_tribes/stoneage.html,
February 13,1995.
Nateghi, Kaveh. Homo sapiens. [Online] Available http://www.pro-am.com/origins/research/sapien1htm, 1995-96.
Pre-Historic Man. [Online} Available http://killeenroos.com/1/Prehisma.htm.
Sheridan, Tom. The Principio Project at Peddie—Natural Philosophy, Human Evolution: Modern Cro-Magnon. [Online] Available http://www.peddie.k12.nj.us/science/ev-tps1.htm, November 10, 1997.
Tattersall, Ian. From Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness. [Online] Available http://www.human-nature.com/darwin/books/tattersall.html, November 21, 1998.
Brandie Wigginton
Freshman Seminar
Evolution Paper
The First Modern Man
You’re sitting in the first class of your college career, Human Nature. As you listen to the teacher describe the course you think this class is going to be a bird course. Then your heart is abruptly stopped when you hear the announcement that the first test will be today. Nervous, anxious and palms sweating you read the first question. Where did humans come from?
It’s not a difficult question so you answer God of course. It’s in the Bible and it has yet to be proven wrong. Duh? In Genesis 2:7 it states, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Turning in the test you had a good feeling inside that you had aced it and that this class would be easy after all.
Maybe twenty or more years ago the above situation would have been typical. However, with exposure to scientific findings this topic is quite controversial now. The modern theory about our origin is that we gradually evolved from monkeys. Knowing that evolution is a long process one must ask whom where the first modernized humans if it wasn’t Adam and Eve?
According to skeletal remains found in 1868, the Cro-Magnon man was an ancestor of prehistoric humans. Approximately 35,000 years ago, Cro-magnons, roamed the earth between the years of 30,000 B.C. to 10,000 B.C. in the Neanderthal region of what is today known a France. Belonging to the same genus and species as modern man (Homo sapiens) one would have trouble distinguishing from a Cro-Magnon man walking down the street. The Cro-Magnon man stood upright and had an erect posture. The head was balanced, the forehead high, and the brow ridges were small which indicated modernization of the frontal lobes of the brain. They also possessed well-defined chins, larger brains, and prominent noses.
It is safe to assume that physically Cro-Magnons were indistinguishable from living Homo sapiens but what indicates that they were our intellectual equals? Living during the Ice Age, a time when resources were vast, survival was a task at hand. However, the Cro-Magnons were nomadic hunters and gatherers thus cold times were not necessarily hard times. Many Cro-Magnon sites found indicate that these early modern humans took full advantage of the resources available to them. Bone remains found at sites suggest that a typical diet included reindeer, bison, wild horse, mammoth, and fish along with seeds, berries, roots, and nuts. It is also evident that unlike other hominids Cro-Magnons took their food back to their living quarters and shared it amongst other families. In one locality in France, archaeologists identified the remains of a single animal distributed between three different campfire sites separated by hundreds of feet and occupied by different families.
As stated earlier the life of the Cro-Magnons was not a constant struggle because they were such good hunters. However, it is also obvious from the animal remains that their hunting techniques must have been just as efficacious. Some techniques included organized hunts that were both individual and with groups. During the seasonal migration period, the Cro-Magnons used cunning hunting skills and tools to kill their prey. Some tools used were traps to catch their prey along with bow and arrows and poisons. Boats and rafts were also built to accommodate fishing in deeper water. Fishnets that were used were woven of vine and fishhooks were made from animal bone.
Since the Cro-Magnons had seasonal hunting times it only made sense that their homes lie close to the places at which herds would roam. The dwellings of Cro-Magnons were most often caves and shelters but it is apparent that huts were made. During the winter season permanent settlements were built called "Ice Age Huts." These teepee style built homes were made from branches and mammoth bones and were covered with animal skins. Holes were dug in the ground where the poles would be inserted. Then upon placement of the poles in the ground they were tied at the top with string made of animal guts. Large rocks were piled at the base of the teepee for support and durability. During the winter months Cro-Magnons also lived in homes called long huts. These were huts built large enough to hold entire tribes. Long huts had many entrances and rooms with several places designated for the use of fire. Remains of these huts have been discovered at a Ukrainian site. During the summer months, Cro-Magnons lived in tents that could easily be moved from place to place as they followed herds.
Cro-magnons were similar to modern humans in many ways including their fashion taste. Of course, the materials that they used were different from ours today, but they too dressed for the weather like us. For example in the summer time we try to wear as less clothes as possible to keep our bodies cool. The Cro-Magnons did the same thing by wearing clothes made from woven grass and even bark. In the cooler months they bundled up in softened leather sewn together with string made from animal guts.
As hominids began to evolve over the years their societal organization also began to show intense development. One sign of development showed in the evidence of their elaborate burials, which indicated some belief in the afterlife. The most profound example of a Cro-Magnon burial was found in Russia. At the site of Sungir, a sixty-year-old male and two young individuals were found adorned with more than 3,000 ivory beads. They also wore carved pendants, bracelets, and shell necklaces. At another site found in Sungir, two children were buried head to head with two straightened mammoth tusks stretched over them. They two were adorned with shell and ivory objects.
So what do these burials tell us about the Cro-Magnons? First it indicates the belief that grave goods were thought to be useful to the decreased in the future. Second, it suggests that the amount of personal adornment paralleled to an individual's social status. Finally it suggests decoration and art were normal components of their daily lives and not just rituals.
With the socioeconomic status of the Cro-Magnons on a rise there was immense room for their important accomplishments. The creation of a lunar calendar seemed to be a fruitful accomplishment for their hunting season. With the new calendar the Cro-Magnons were able to keep track of the seasonal movements of the game that they hunted. They also created the first methods of refrigeration. In order to have sufficient amounts of meat for the winter, the Cro-Magnons dug holes in the permafrost and used them as natural freezers.
The Cro-Magnons also began to use fire in more sophisticated ways. For example, in their homes they used lamps, hot stones were used to heat water in skin lined pits, and kilns were used for clay baking. Gradually they began to domesticate animals for breeding and for farming purposes.
The Cro-Magnons left many artifacts from their lifestyle for archeologists to study but none seem to be as impressionable as their cave art. The walls and the ceilings of their caves were painted with paints made of manganese and iron oxide. Many of the paintings focused on hunters and animals. Stick figures were drawn for people but the animals were well drawn and filled with natural colors. The walls of some caves were filled with both threatening and non-threatening animals.
So why were these paintings so important? It is believed that cave paintings gave Cro-Magnons a sense of power over the animals. They also could have had religious values to those that drew them a matter of social consciousness could be expressed including their needs, values, and fears.
One of the most unique ways that Cro-Magnons projected their artistic ability was through oral painting. Instead of using brushes pigments were dissolved in saliva and spit on the wall. It is not known why this was done but maybe it allowed them to become one with the animal being painted.
The era of the Cro-Magnons was remarkable for its cultural diversity and the modernization of life it displayed. These early European humans were not at all brutes like many cartoons make them out to be. In fact, there is an abundant correlation in the similarities to present day humans. It just shows that Cro-Magnons were ahead of their time by showing signs of thinking and planning for the future.
Bibliography
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Cro-Magnon. http:// www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Garden/3114/cromagnon.html, January 28, 1999.
Cro-Magnon Man. http:// www.ward.com/obit/cro_mag.htm, January 28,1999.
Tattersall, Ian. From Becoming Human : Evolution and Human Uniqueness. http:// www.human-nature.com/darwin/books/tattersall.html, January 28, 1999.
"Human Evolution: THE EVOLUTION OF HOMINIDAE: Homo sapiens: CRO-MAGNONS: The culture of the Cro-Magnons.: Hunting techniques." Britannica Online. <http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=macro/5002/23/102.html>
"Human Evolution: THE EVOLUTION OF HOMINIDAE: Homo sapiens: CRO-MAGNONS: The culture of the Cro-Magnons.: Hunting techniques." Britannica Online. <http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=macro/5002/23/102.html>
Pre-Historic Man. http://killeenroos.com/1/Prehisma.htm, January 28, 1999.