Creswellian culture

Creswellian culture
Geographical range	Great Britain
Period	Upper Paleolithic
Dates	between 13,000–11,800 BP
Type site	Creswell Crags
Major sites	Gough's Cave,Kents Cavern

TheCreswellianis a BritishUpper Palaeolithic culturenamed after the type site ofCreswell CragsinDerbyshirebyDorothy Garrodin 1926.^[3]It is also known as the British LateMagdalenian.^[4]According to Andreas Maier: "In current research, the Creswellian andHamburgianare considered to be independent but closely related entities which are rooted in the Magdalenian. "^[5]The Creswellian is dated between 13,000 and 11,800 BP^[1]and was followed by the most recent ice age, theYounger Dryas,when Britain was at times unoccupied by humans.^[6]

History[edit]

The term Creswellian appeared for the first time in 1926 inDorothy Garrod'sThe Upper Palaeolithic Age in Britain.This was the first academic publication^[7]by the woman who in 1939 became the first woman ever to be elected as a professor atCambridge.^[8]It is also the first monograph about the Upper Paleolithic of Britain at the national level and it remained the only one on the subject for half a century. Garrod suggested that the British variant of theMagdalenianindustry is different enough to create a specific name:^[7]

"I propose tentatively" Creswellian ", since Creswell Crags is the station in which it is found in greatest abundance and variety."
— Dorothy Garrod, The Upper Palaeolithic Age in Britain, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1926, p. 194.

The definition of Creswellian was refined since then and now refers exclusively, in the British context, to the Late Magdalenian-style industry.

Description[edit]

Diagnostic tools used to identify the period include trapezoidal backedbladescalled Cheddar points, variant forms known as Creswell points, and smallerbladelets.Other tool types include endscrapersmade from long, straight blades. A special preparation technique was employed to remove blades from acorethrough striking in a single direction, leaving a distinct 'spur' on the platform. The tools were made using a softhammerstoneor an antler hammer.^{[citation needed]}

Other finds include Balticamber,mammoth ivory and animal teeth and bone. These were used to make harpoons, awls, beads and needles. Unusual bevelled ivory rods, known assagaieshave been found atGough's CaveinSomersetandKent's CaverninDevon.

Twenty eight sites producing Cheddar points are known in England and Wales though none have so far been found inScotlandorIreland,regions which it is thought were not colonised by humans until later. Most sites are caves but there is increasing evidence for open air activity and that preferred sources of flint were exploited and that tools travelled distances of up to 100 miles from their sources. Some of the flint at Gough's Cave came from theVale of Pewsey^{[citation needed]}inWiltshirewhilst non-local seashells and amber from the North Sea coast also indicate a highly mobile population. This matches evidence from the Magdelanian cultures elsewhere in Europe and may suggest that exchange of goods and the sending out of specialised expeditions seeking raw materials may have been practised. Analysis ofdebitageat occupation sites suggests that flint nodules were reduced in size at source and the lighter blades carried by Creswellian groups as 'toolkits' in order to reduce the weight carried.

Comparison of flint from Kent's Cavern and Creswell Crags has led some archaeologists to believe that they were made by the same group.^{[citation needed]}

Food species eaten by Creswellian hunters focused on the wild horse (Equus ferus) or thered deer(Cervus elaphus), probably depending on the season, although theArctic hare,reindeer,mammoth,Saiga antelope,wild cow, brown bear,lynx,Arctic foxand wolf were also exploited.

Highly fragmentary fossil bones were found inGough's Caveat Cheddar. They had marks that suggested actions of skinning, dismembering, defleshing and marrow extraction. The excavations of 1986-1987 noted that human and animal remains were mixed, with no particular distribution or arrangement of the human bones. They also show the signs of the same treatments as the animal bones. These findings were interpreted in the sense of a nutritionalcannibalism.However, slight differences from other sites in skull treatment leave open the possibility of elements of ritual cannibalism.^[9]

References[edit]

^^a ^bRobert Hosfield, Vanessa Straker and Paula Gardiner with contributions from Anthony Brown, Paul Davies, Ralph Fyfe, Julie Jones and Heather Tinsley (2007). "Palaeolithic and Mesolithic". In Webster, C.J. (ed.).The Archaeology of South West England.Somerset County Council. p. 36.There are numerous radiocarbon determinations on human remains, butchered animal bones and organic artefacts which date the Creswellian to between 13,000-11.800 BP (Jacobi 2004).{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^The museum's exhibit label says "Cresswell points were probably hafted knife blades",Derby Museum,read July 2011
^Davies, William; et al. (1999).Dorothy Garrod and the progress of the Palaeolithic: studies in the prehistoric archaeology of the Near East and Europe.Oxbow Books. p. 282.
^Pettit, Paul; White, Mark (2012).The British Palaeolithic: Human Societies at the Edge of the Pleistocene World.Abingdon, UK: Routledge. p. 440.ISBN 978-0-415-67455-3.
^Maier, Andreas (2015).The Central European Magdalenian: Regional Diversity and Internal Variability.Springer. p. 133.
^Stringer, Chris (2011)."The Changing Landscapes of the Earliest Human Occupation of Britain and Europe".In Ashton, N.; et al. (eds.).The Ancient Human Occupation of Britain.Elsevier. p. 1.ISBN 9780444535979.
^^a ^b Kathryn Price« One vision, one faith, one woman: Dorothy Garrod and the Crystallisation of Prehistory »,inGreat Prehistorians: 150 Years of Palaeolithic Research, 1859-2009,London, Lithic Studies Society, 2009, p. 141-142.
^ Pamela Jane Smith,« From ‘small, dark and alive’ to ‘cripplingly shy’: Dorothy Garrod as the first woman Professor at Cambridge »Archived28 February 2009 at theWayback Machine,University of Cambridge, 2005. Accessed 6 juin 2011.
^P. Andrews, Y. Fernández-Jalvo, « Cannibalism in Britain: Taphonomy of the Creswellian (Pleistocene) faunal and human remains from Gough's Cave (Somerset, England) »,Bulletin of the Natural History Museum: Geology,n° 58, 2003, pp. 59-81 (doi:10.1017/S096804620300010X).

Creswellian culture

History[edit]

Description[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]