Stone Age
Middle Paleolithic Era

Topics covered in this section:

Introduction

The Middle Paleolithic covers a 60,000 year period, between 100,000 and 40,000 BP (before present).

During the Middle Paleolithic, we see an increase in the number of immigrants from the Near East as that region became considerably drier. Neanderthals spread northward, some settling in the Transylvanian Basin.

We see increased evidence of more permanent campsites, including areas being set aside for separate hearths and fireplaces.

And we see the very rudimentary beginnings of social behavior as people prepare intentional burial sites for their dead.

Archaeological Markers

Archaeologists have identified the typical characteristics of artifacts that are found at Middle Paleolithic sites, although there are many exceptions to these stereotypes.

Thin Points and Scrapers

Points and scrapers, manufactured from flakes, are much thinner than their predecessors from the Lower Paleolithic.

Permanent Campsites

Features began to appear that defined a campsite. In some campsites, there was evidence of post holes, indicating that the people began to construct more permanent living spaces.

Fireplaces and hearths made their debut within the separated living spaces.

And now we can find definite segregated areas of rubbish and human waste disposal.

Non-Local Raw Materials

Along with the permanent campsites, we can see that the inhabitants were more open to longer excursions away from their home base, to hunt or to collect raw materials for their stone tools.

Burials

Several sites contained intentional burial locations, indicating that there was an increased sense of concern for the dead.

Neanderthal

Although the Neanderthal made their initial appearance in the previous era, the Lower Paleolithic, they became a conspicuous part of the European landscape during this, the Middle Paleolithic.

Their migrations can be divided into two general time periods:

Ancient Stage

During the ancient stage, most samples of Neanderthals at archaeological sites consist of partial bits and pieces of skeletons.

There are many possible explanations for this lack of complete skeletons, including wild suggestions of cannibalism. But the most likely explanation is that their corpses were scavenged by carnivores such as wolves, leopards, or hyena, which also used the caves.

The natural action by carnivores would have scattered their bones across the terrain.

Pioneer Stage

The pioneer stage is so named because the Neanderthal, following animal herds, began to disperse slowly across Europe. Archaeologists have recovered a large sample of complete, as opposed to partial, Neanderthal skeletons from this stage.

Physical Characteristics

The Neanderthals had a rather short, stocky build. The average Neanderthal male was only 1.65 m tall (5.4 ft) and the average female, 1.5 m tall (4.9 ft).

Hunting Techniques

Based on bone forensics, some archaeologists suggest they may have hunted large animals at close quarters, perhaps stabbing at them with short spears. The spears, tipped with large triangular stone points, would have produced massive hemorrhaging in bison, horse, and deer.

Intentional Burial

At several sites, there are signs of intentional burial of the Neanderthal dead. Bodies are laid in carefully scooped-out pits, and on occasion protected against scavengers by stones or other large objects atop the graves.

Orderly Arrangement of Bones?

The orderly arrangement of Neanderthal bones is often cited as evidence of intentional burials. However, caution must be exercised before coming to this conclusion.

At Torralba, in Spain, for example, lines of elephant bones were once thought to have been deliberately placed. But recent studies show that river action accounts for their "intentional" alignment, not human intervention.

The oft-quoted "chests" of cave bear skulls in several high altitude Swiss caves seem to indicate human intervention. However, the orderly arrangement of these skulls can be explained as a result of the frequent use of deep caves as hibernation dens, where the bears themselves swept aside the skeletons of previous tenants who had died during the winters to make room for themselves.

Thus, an orderly alignment of bones doesn't always indicate that it's the result of a human touch.

Flowers on Graves?

Another former claim for intentional burials was based on finding pollen grains, where flowers were supposedly laid on the dead. But again, caution is necessary since it has been recently demonstrated that pollen grains can percolate through sediments above the bodies, and so the flowers may be much later additions to the site.

Transport of Raw Materials

Middle Paleolithic peoples apparently traveled farther afield to gather the raw materials used to make their stone tools.

Whereas craftsmen in the previous, Lower Paleolithic, traveled only short distances, the Middle Paleolithic artisans traveled over larger distances, usually 80-150 km (~50-100 mi), with an absolute maximum of 300 km (~185 mi).

Instead of the minutes required by their ancestors, Middle Paleolithic peoples undertook excursions lasting hours, or sometimes days, to find the necessary raw materials.

Romanian Archaeology

The largest migrations into Europe took place near the end of the Middle Paleolithic, around 45,000 years ago. About that time, the Near East grew increasingly dry, causing droughts and forcing the animal herds northward in search of fresh foliage and water.

Responding to growing food shortages, emigrants streamed out of the southern grasslands, northward across the wide land bridge that joined Turkey to the game-rich steppes and tundra of Europe and Asia.

The land bridge brought small bands of late Ice Age adventurers into the Carpathian-Danube region in search of food and shelter.

Climatologists tell us that the region was ideal. The massive glaciers that had spread over most of Europe had hardly touched the Transylvanian Basin.

Pioneers found dense forests throughout the Basin and also hunted and fished along the Danube. They also found an abundant supply of food in the Danube Delta region, where the Danube flows into the Black Sea.

Cave Dwellers

Several caves have yielded Middle Paleolithic sites, including: the Ohaba-Ponor cave; the Baia de Fier cave (where the oldest known remains of Homo sapiens fossilis or Cro-Magnon were found in a Mousterian context); the Nandru cave; and the Federi cave.

Riverine Dwellers

Middle Paleolithic sites have been found along the upper river terraces at sites such as: Ripiceni-Izvor and Mitoc.

Opal Tools

At Iosăşel, in northwestern Romania, archeologists have discovered some opal-working campsites, which yielded a large number of prismatic cores and blades.

Thin-Flake Technique

The mid-level terraces of the Bistriţa valley, in the eastern Carpathians, yielded blades made using the thin-flake technique. Other sites showing the same technique are found caves at the Baia de Fier, at Băile Herculane, at Cioclovina, and at Ohaba-Ponor.

Vârtop Cave Neanderthal

Paper 123-13 ("Uranium Series Dating of the Neanderthal Footprint at Vârtop Cave, Romania") was presented at the 16-19 October 2005 annual meeting in Salt Lake City of the Geological Society of America.

According to the paper humanoid footprints in the fossil record are very rare and this one was the first clearly homo sapiens neanderthalensis footprint. The 22 cm (8.7 in) long print, found in hardened calcareous mud, suggests a body height of about 1.46 m (4.8 ft).

U-Th isochron dating indicates that the Vârtop Cave person lived in Romania some time between 97,000 and 62,000 years ago, long before the earliest homo sapiens sapiens remains in Europe (c.35,000-30,000 years ago).

Pronunciation Help

To help American readers, the following pronunciation guide to Romanian words used above is provided. The sounds shown are only approximations, however.

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