Upper Paleolithic

The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic, and also in some contexts Late Stone Age) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. Very broadly it dates to between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity and before the advent of agriculture. The terms "Late Stone Age" and "Upper Paleolithic" refer to the same periods. For historical reasons, "Stone Age" usually refers to the period in Africa, whereas "Upper Paleolithic" is generally used when referring to the period in Europe.

Overview

Modern humans (i.e. Homo sapiens) are believed to have emerged about 195,000 years ago in Africa.Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia Nature 423, 742-747 (12 June 2003) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v423/n6941/pdf/nature01669.pdfOut of Africa: modern human origins special feature: middle and later Pleistocene hominins in Africa and Southwest Asia Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 22 September 2009;106(38):16046-50. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2752549/pdf/zpq16046.pdf Though these humans were modern in anatomy, their lifestyle changed very little from their contemporaries, such as Homo erectus and the Neanderthals. They used the same crude stone tools. Archaeologist Richard G. Klein, who has worked extensively on ancient stone tools, describes the stone...
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