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Paleolithic:

Upper Paleolithic: Europe was populated by species of Homo since c. 900,000 years ago (Homo erectus), associated to the Pebble-tool technology and later to the Achelean one (since aprox 300,000 BP).

Middle Paleolithic: Eventually these European Homo erectus evolved into another species: Homo Neanderthalensis (since aprox. 200,000 BP), associated to the Musterian technologies. It must be noted that our ancestors H. Spiens also participated of this tool-making technique for long and they may have first settled Europe while this Mid-Paleolithic technique was still in use, though the issue is still unclear.

Upper Paleolithic:

· Ancient Upper Paleolithic: What is totally clear is that the bearers of most or all Upper Paleolithic technologies were H. Sapiens. Some locally developed transtional cultures (Szletian in Central Europe and Chatelperronian in the Southwest) use clearly Upper Paleolithic technologies at evry early dates and there are doubts on who were their carriers: H. Sapiens or Neanderthal man.

But the definitive advance of these technologies is made by the Aurignacian culture The origins of this culture can be located in Bulgaria (proto-Aurignacian) and Hungary (first full Aurignacian). It's thought that peoples original from the Near East were the carriers of the basics that gave birth to this culture. In any case by 35,000 BCE, the Aurignacian culture and its technology, had extended through most of Europe. The last Neanderthals seem to have been forced to retreat during this proccess to the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula.

The first but scarce works of art appear during this phase.

· Middle Upper Paleolithic: Around 22,000 BCE two new technologies/cultures appear in the southwestern region of Europe: Solutrean and Gravettian. They might be linked with the transitional cultures mentioned before, because their techniques have some simmilarities and are both very diferent from Aurignacian ones but this issue is very obscure yet.

Though both cultures seem to appear in the SW, Gravetian soon disappears from it, with the notable exception of the Mediterranean coasts of Iberia. Nevertheless, it finds its way to other regions of Europe (Italy, Central and Eastern europe), reaching even the Caucasus and the Zagros mountains.

The Solutrean culture, extended from northern Spain to SE France, includes not only a beatiful stone technology but also the first significative developement of cave painting, the use of the needle and possibly that of the bow and arrows.

The Gravetian culture, much more extended, is not behind though, at least in the artistic facet: sculpture (mainly venuses) is the most outstanding form of creative expression of these peoples.

· Late Upper Paleolithic: Around 17,000 BCE, Europe witnesses the appearence of a new culture, known as Magdalenian, possibly rooted in the old Aurignacian one. This culture soon supresedes the Solutrean area and also the Gravetian of Central Europe. In Mediterranean Iberia, Italy and Eastern Europe though, epi-Gravettian cultures continue evolving locally.

With the Magdalenian culture, Paleolithic developement in Europe reaches its peak and that is reflected in the amazing art, owing to the previous traditions: basically paintings in the West and sculpture in Central Europe.

(Links to Paleolithic santuaries: · · )

Epi-Paleolithic: Around 10,500 BCE, the Würm Glacial age ends. Slowly, through the following milennia, temperatures and sea levels raise changing the enviroment of prehistoric people. Nevertheless, Magdalenian culture persists until circa 8000 BCE, when it quickly evolves into two microlithist cultures: Azilian, in Spain and southern France, and Sauveterrean, in northern France and Central Europe. Though there are some differences, both cultures share several traits: the creation of very small stone tools called microliths and the scarcity of figurative art, which seems to have vanished almost completely, being substituted by abstract decoration of the tools.

In the late phase of this epi-Paleolithic period, the Sauveterrean culture eveolves into the so-called Tardenoisian and influences strongly its southern neighbour, substituting it clearly in Mediterranean Spain and Portugal.

Also, the recession of the glaciers, allows for the first time human colonization in Northern Europe. The culture of Maglemöse, derived from the Sauveterre-Tardenois culture but with a strong personality, colonizes Denmark and the nearby regions, including parts of Britain.

Neolithic: European Neolithic comes from the Near East, via Asia Minor, the Mediterranean waterway and also through the Caucasus in what regards to the East. There's been a long discussion between migrationists (those who claim that the Asian peasants almost totally displaced the European native hunter-gatherers) and diffusionists (those who claim that the process was slow enough to have been done mostly through cultural transmission). Modern genetic studies seem to show that the truth is somehow in the middle and that both proccesses took place, though the question is still open.

· First Neolithic in Thessalia: Apparently related with the Anatolian culture of Hacilar, the Greek region of Thessalia is the first place of Europe known to have developed agriculture, cattle-herding and pottery. These early stages are know as pre-Sesklo culture.

· Ancient Neolithic: Thessalian neolithic soon evolves in the more coherent culture of Sesklo (c. 6000 BCE), which is at the origins of the main branches of Neolithic expansion in Europe. Practically all the Balcanic Peninsula is colonized in the 6th milennium from this core. That expansion, reaching the easternmost Tardenoisian outposts of the upper Tisza gives birth to the proto-Linear Pottery culture, a significant modification of the Balcanic Neolithic that will be in the origin of one of the most important branches of European neolithic: the Danubian group of cultures.

Parallely, the coasts of the Adriatic and southern Italy witness the expansion of another Neolithic current of less clear origins. Settling initially in Dalmatia, the bearers of the Cardium Pottery culture may have come from Thessalia (some of the pre-Sesklo settlements show related traits) or even from Lebanon (Byblos). They are sailors, fishermen and sheep and goat herders, and the archaeological findings show that they mixed with natives in most places.

Other early neolithic cultures can be found in Ukraine and Southern Russia, where the epi-Gravettian locals assimilated cultural influxes from beyond the Caucasus (culture of Dniepr-Don and related) and in Andalusia (Spain), where the rare Neolithic of La Almagra Pottery appears without known origins very early (c. 5800 BCE).

· Middle Neolithic: This phase, starting in 5000 BCE is marked by the consolidation of the Neolithic expansion towards western and northern Europe but also by the irruption of a new culture that, probably through violence, occupies most of the Balcans, substituting or rather submitting the first Neolithic settlers.

This is the culture of Dimini (Thessalia) and the related ones of Vinca-Turdas (Serbia and Macedonia) and Karanovo III-Veselinovo (Bulgaria and nearby areas), this last one more hybrid than the other two.

Meanwhile, the tiny proto-Linnear Pottery culture has given birth to two very dynamic branches: the Western and Eastern Linnear Pottery Cultures. The latter is basically an extension of the Balcanic neolithic but the western branch, more original, shows a rather quick expansion, assimilating what today is Germany, Czekia, Poland and even large parts of western Ukraine, Moldavia, the lowlands of Rumania, and regions of France, Belgium and the Netherlands. All that in less than one thousand years. With expansion comes diversification and a number of local Danubian cultures start forming at the end of the 5th millenium.

In the Mediterranean, the Cardium Pottery fishermen show no less dynamism and colonize/assimilate all Italy the Mediterranean regions of France and those of Spain.

Even in the Atlantic, some groups among the native gatherer-hunters start incorporating slowly the new technologies. Among those the most noticeable regions seem to be the southwest of Iberia, influenced by the Mediterranean but specially by the Andalusian neolithic, which soon developes the first Megalithic burials (dolmens) and the area around Denmark (culture of Ertebölle), influenced by the Danubian complex.

· Late Neolithic: This period occupies the first half of the 4th century BCE and is rather quiet. The tendencies of the previous period consolidate, so we have a fully formed Neolithic Europe with the following cultural regions:

· Danubian: from northern France to Western Ukraine. Now splitted in several local cultures, the most relevant ones being: the Rumanian branch (culture of Boian) that expands into Bulgaria, in the west predominates the culture of Rössen, while in Austria and western Hungary appears the culture of Lengyel, which will have a relevant role in the upcoming periods.

· Mediterranean: from the Adriatic to eastern Spain, including Italy and large portions of France and Switzerland.

· The area of Dimini-Vinca: Thessalia, Macedonia and Serbia, but now extending its influx also to parts of the mid-Danubian basin and southern Italy.

· Eastern Europe: basically central and eastern Ukraine and parts of southern Russia (culture of Dniepr-Don)

· Western Europe: a mosaic of local cultures, some of them still pre-Neolithic, from Portugal to southern Sweden. Since around 3800 BCE the western regions of France incorporate also the Megalithic style of burial.

· Andalusia (southern Spain): with its badly defined but original culture.

· Southern Greece and Crete: also poorly defined Neolithic cultures.

· Western coasts of the Black Sea: the original and misterious culture of Hamangia, with its beautiful art.

Calcolithic:

· Ancient Calcolithic:

· Middle Calcolithic:

· Late Calcolithic:

Bronze Age:

Iron Age: