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2026-03-12 11:06:37   •   ID: 2410

Typical Artefacts from the Central European Late Gravettian

Plate 1 Credits: NHM
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Figure 2
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Figure 7
The picture in Plate 1 was taken in 'Hall 11' of the Naturhistorisches Museum (NHM) in Vienna a few years ago. It shows a landscape painting entitled „Lösswand“ bei Willendorf' (Loess Wall near Willendorf), which was created by Hugo Darnaut at the start of the 20th century.

The painting depicts the initial archaeological excavations at the "Willendorf I" site near the Brunner Brickyards, where a Late Gravettian with shouldered points was discovered. The multilayered site "Willendorf II", where the famous Venus was discovered by an Italian worker during Szombathy's 1908 excavation, is located not far to the north.

Figures 1 and 2 display backed rectangles from Willendorf. Figure 3 shows a classic shouldered point from Moravany in western Slovakia, and Figure 4 a classic Microgravette from Aggsbach, a Paleolithic site located 3.5 km south of Willendorf-already mentioned in the Blog:see: 2405 .

Finally, Figures 5 and 6 show a 'Point de Pavlov' from the Eastern Gravettian in the Dniester region. All tools are part of my collection.

Most researchers would agree that the definition of a Paleolithic entity depends on the presence of a shared material culture, ideology and lifestyle among the members of a group.

It is also important to note that this lifestyle must be present in a defined area during a defined period of time. In this respect, the 'Willendorf-Kostenki' complex remains a valid Paleolithic entity, dating to around 27–23 k.a. cal BP.

In this post, I will focus entirely on material remains to define the Central European Gravettian through characteristic stone artefacts. Eastern European prehistorians have addressed this issue in particular in recent years (see the Literature list).

Not all of these characteristic stone tools are always found together at a single site and some sites from the period in question contain none of them, either because only part of the site has been excavated, or because the artefacts come from biased collections,

Shouldered points (Fig.3) continue to be regarded as important elements, as are backed rectangles (Fig. 1 and 2) Pavlov points (Fig.5 and 6) and leaf points.

The “fond commun” is primarily reflected in various burins and the widespread use of burination as a technique at some sites.

However, it is important to note the view of authors who caution against the over-emphasising of the shouldered points, which are often found in only a few specimens.

Instead, they propose the designation of a "late Gravettian" a term primarily defined by chronology and not by Fossil directeurs.

This approach has its benefits. Take the Late Magdalenian, for example. This period often lacks the harpoon points that were previously considered essential. We would not have a complete picture of this technology complex if we left out sites where organic materials are poorly preserved.

It should also be noted that, within the vast area between the middle and lower Danube and Don rivers, contemporaneous sites with quite different cultural remains existed, such as Milovice and Jaksice II.

Backed rectangles are blades and bladelets with a straight back and two truncations perpendicular to the blade’s axis. They are shaped by abrupt or semi-abrupt direct retouching and their cutting edge is sometimes notched, though it is rarely fully retouched.

Examples of backed rectangles have been found at Willendorf II/8 and 9, Ostrava Petrkovice I, Predmostí (without stratigraphy), Moravany Zakovská, Moravany Lopata, Moravany Banka, Moravany Horné farské, Moravany Lopata I and Moravany Noviny, as well as at the dated Late Gravettian sites of Moravany Lopata II and Trenčianske Bohuslavice, which date to around 24 k.a. (see Fig. 7 from A.Zaar's thesis from Trenčianske Bohuslavice-Area A).

Above all, rectangles are a defining feature of the late Magdalenian period across much of Europe, as well as some Epigravettian industries in Italy and Peyrony’s local Périgordian Vb (Early Gravettian) industry in southwestern France.

Backed rectangles and trapezoidal rectangles are prevalent in the geometric Kebaran (18-16 k.a. Cal. BP) of the Levant, the contemporaneous Middle-Late Hamran in southern Jordan, and similar industries along the Euphrates.

Several Epipalaeolithic industries in North Africa are characterized by rectangles. A convergent evolution of microlithic inventories in the Levant and North Africa seems for me to be the most parsimonious explanation.

Bifacial leaf points have been known from Predmost for over 100 years (Zotz and Freund, 1951). They resemble those found in a late Gravettian context in Area B at Trenčianske Bohuslavice, as well as those found in the Gravettian at Szeleta in Hungary.

An increasing number of these characteristic leaf points have also been found in surface scatters near Trenčianske.

Shouldered points never comprise more than 6% of inventories and demonstrate considerable variability.

At one end of the spectrum are classic Kostenki points (large and broad with a high shoulder, often featuring flat retouches on the ventral side), found at Kostenki I, Kostenki 21, Avdeevo, Berdyj, Zaraisk, and Moravany, for example.

At the other end of the spectrum are slender, elongated shouldered points, such as those found at Moravany, Podkovica and Banka and in the Eastern European Plain ("the Molodavian"), which have only marginal or steep retouches and more closely resemble the "Perigordian" shouldered points found in southwestern France.

It can be suggested that these types form a continuum, representing different steps within reduction sequences and may also belong to different cultural traditions.

It seems that the so-called "Shouldered Point Horizon" proposed by Kozlowski is nothing more than a myth and an artifact of research history.Shouldered points have been found at low frequencies across Europe from the Early Gravettian to the Epigravettian period, spanning more than 10,000 years. The apparently concentration in certain areas may be the result of several major biases.

Literature:

Felgenhauer 1956-59: Willendorf i. d. Wachau. Monographie der Fundstellen I-VII, Mitt. d. Prähist. Komm. VIII/IX, 1956-59.

Fossil directeur”: a phenomenon over time and space : 16th SKAM Lithic Workshop, 21-23 of October 2019, Nitra, Slovak Republic / eds. Adrián Nemergut [et al.]. 2019. Slovak Academy of Sciences. Institute of Archaeology, Nitra.

Bohuslav Klíma, Zur Problematik des Aurignacien und Gravettien in Mittel-Europa. Archaeologia Austriaca 26, 1959: 35-51.

Bohuslav Klíma, Das Pavlovien in den Weinberghöhlen von Mauern. Quartär 19, 1968: 263-27F.

Lengyel, G., et al., The Late Gravettian and Szeleta Cave, northeast Hungary, Quaternary International (2015).

Michaela Polanská. Gravettian backed points from Unit K11 of Dolní Věstonice II (South Moravia, Czech Republic). Quaternary International, 2021, 581-582, pp.190-204.

Michaela Polanská, Bibiána Hromadová, Sandra Sázelová. The Upper and Final Gravettian in Western Slovakia and Moravia. Different approaches, new questions. Quaternary International, 2021, 581-582, pp.205-224.

Sandra Sázelová. et al.: Forgoten imes and spaces: New perspecives in paleoanthropological, paleoetnological and archeological studies. 1st Ediion. Brno: Insitute of Archeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences; Masaryk University, 2015.

Jarosław Wilczyński, Ondrej Žaár, Adrián Nemergut, et al. The Upper Palaeolithic at Trenčianske Bohuslavice, Western Carpathians, Slovakia, Journal of Field Archaeology, 2020: 270-292.

Ondrej Žaár, Gravettienska stanica Trenčianske Bohuslavice(Diplomová práca) Nitra, 2007.



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