Friday, February 2, 2024

The Gravettian nations

First came the Aurignacians in Europe, until the 31s-kBC. From then to 24kBC is a new culture, which we call "Gravettian"; followed by "Magdalenian". We're about to discuss what that means.

On Cinco de Mayo 2022 someone posted a long thread in Twitter about the western Frost Age. For over a year we could have this on ThreadReaderApp. Since then, Twitter has imposed one of its hare-ier-brained rules such that ThreadReaderApp no longer works on deleted "X" content, even good content from a now-disgraced [by whom?] author. Yeah by "X" I'm blaming Elon, the putz.

Another paper from last March is (still) blessedly online and inshallah shall so remain. Relevant here: the Gravettians in the west and southwest were Aurignacian-descendates. The Aurignacian demos was never replaced in the west; we just had gaps in our knowledge of the region. (Maybe the Twitter guy had figured his old posts as superceded.) They just became Gravettian by culture.

Meanwhile we now got new content, for 32kBC-22kBC - so, I guess, including the last bimillennial Gravetti holdouts in the east. The Gravettians of any race were not total nomads. (Few tribes are.) They settled their patches of land to make their own jewelry. Seashells of course, they're nonmetallic and nonceramic. Maybe some amber.

Dutiful reminder that pots aren't people, pots are language. In these lands before pots: jewelry is language. But languages do resist gene flow.

That March 2023 paper will, however, see demic turnover later - 12700 BC, the Bølling–Allerød warming before the Dryas. This gave good health to the western Epigravettian, and by now I assume to their dogs also; but less so to central Europe. The Epigravettian then, finally, replaced the Magdalenes bodily. (Pity the eastern-Magdalenes, those nonadaptables...) Thus, Epigravettian westerners formed the WHG whom, much later 6000s BC, various Baltic and East-European peoples [EHG] will meet, for trade.

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