Built Environments in the Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic

Summary

This is an abstract from the "More Than Shelter from the Storm: Hunter-Gatherer Houses and the Built Environment" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Hunter-gatherers are mobile because their resources shift based on season or by ecological zone. This mobility means that their built environments are ephemeral and their mark on the land is light. Many of the traces of structures or land modifications are therefore invisible within the archaeological record. This invisibility only increases as we go back in time as preservation diminishes. We do have a few sites where the remains of the built environment of Middle and Upper Paleolithic foragers is preserved. These sites suggest that there are major differences in the elaboration of living spaces between these two time periods. However, these differences could be explained by many factors, including duration of occupation, group size, site preservation, and, of course, cultural or cognitive differences between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. In this paper, I will present the current state of research and the explanations for why these differences may have existed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• More Than Shelter from the Storm: Hunter-Gatherer Houses and the Built Environment   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24765