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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