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Upper Paleolithic: Europe was populated by species of Homo since c. 900,000 years ago (Homo erectus), associated to the Pebble-tools technology and later to the Acheulean 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 Mousterian technologies. It must be noted that our ancestors Homo Sapiens 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 Sauveterrian, 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 Maglemosian culture, 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 five main cultural regions:
· Danubian cutures: 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, the culture of Rössen that is preeminent in the west, and the culture of Lengyel of Austria and western Hungary, which will have a relevant role in the upcoming periods.
· Mediterranean cultures: from the Adriatic to eastern Spain, including Italy and large portions of France and Switzerland. Also being diversified in several groups.
· 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 and Bielorrusia (culture of Dniepr-Don). Apparently this people were the ones who first domesticated horses (though some Paleolithic evidence could disproof it).
· Atlantic 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.
Plus a few independent areas: Andalusia, southern Greece and western coasts of the Black Sea (culture of Hamangia).
Calcolithic
Also known as Copper Age, European Calcolithic is a time of changes and confusion. The most relevant fact is the infiltration and invasion of large parts of the territory by people original from Central Asia, considered by mainstream scholars to be the original Indo-Europeans, though, again there are several theories in dispute. Other fenomena are the expansion of Megalithism and the appearence of the first significative economical stratification and, related to this, the first known monarchies in the Balcanic region.
The economy of the Calcolithic, even in the regions where copper is not used yet, is not anymore that of peasant communities and tribes: now some materials are produced in specific locations and distributed to wide regions. Minery of metal and stone is particularly developed ins some areas, along with the processing of those materials into valuable goods.
· Ancient Calcolithic: From c. 3500 to 3000 BCE. Copper starts to be used in the Balcans, Eastern and Central Europe. But the key factor could be in the use of horses, which would increase movility.
Since c. 3500, Eastern Europe is apparently infiltrated by people original from beyond the Volga (Jamnaja Kultura), creating a complex known as Serednij-Stog II, that substitutes the previous Dniepr-Don culture, pushing the natives to migrate with NW direction to the Baltic and Denmark, were they mix with natives (TRBK A and C). Soon this migration is followed by that of the (apparently) Indo-European invaders, who settle in eastern Germany and Poland (culture of Baalberge). Near the end of the period, other branch will leave many rests in the lower Danube area (culture of Cernavoda I), in what seems to be another invasion.
Meanwhile the Danubian culture of Lengyel absorbs its northern neighbours of Czekia and Poland for some centuries, only to receed in the second half of the period. In Bulgaria and Vallachia, the culture of Boian-Marica, evolves into a monarchy with a clearly royal cementery near the coast of the Black Sea. This model seems to have been copied later in the Tiszan region with the culture of Bodrogkeresztúr. Labor specialization, economical stratification and possibly the risk of invasion may have been the reasons behind this developement. The influx of early Troy (Troy I) is clear in both the expansion of metalurgy and social organization.
In the western Danubian region (actually Rhin and Seine basins) the culture of Michelsberg displaces its preecessor of Rössen. Meanwhile in the Mediterranean basin, several cultures (most notably Chassey in SE France and La Lagozza in northern Italy) converge into a functional union, which more significative characteristic is the distribution network of honey-coloured silex. Depite this unity, the signs of conflicts are clear, as many skeletons show violent injuries. This is the time and area where Ötzi, the famous man found at the Alps, lived.
Another significant developement of this period is that the Megalithic fenomenum starts spreading to most places of the Atlantic region, bringing agriculture with it to some underdeveloped regions there.
· Middle Calcolithic:
The period extends along the first half of the 3rd milennium BCE.
Most significative is the reorganization of the Danubians in the powerful culture of Baden-Pecel, that extends more or less to what would be the Austro-Hungarian empire in recent times. The rest of the Balcans is profoundly restructurated after the invasions of the previous period but, with the exception of the culture of Cotofeni in a montainous region, none of them show any eastern (or presumably Indo-European) trait. The new culture of Ezero, in Bulgaria, shows the first traits of pseudo-bronze (an aleation of copper with arsenium). So does the first significative Aegean group: the Cycladic culture after 2800 BCE.
In the North, for some time the supposedly Indo-European groups seem to receed temporarily, suffering a strong cultural danubization.
In the East, the peoples of beyond the Volga (Jamnaja Kultura), surely eastern Indo-Europeans, ancestors of Scythians, Iranians and Aryans, take over southern Russia and Ukraine.
In the West the only sign of unity comes from the Megalithic super-culture, which extends now from souterhn Sweden to southern Spain, including large parts of southern Germany as well. But the Mediterranean and Danubian groupings of the previous period appear dissolved in many smaller pieces, some of them apparently retrograde in technological matters.
Since c. 2800 BCE, the Danubian culture of Seine-Oise-Marne pushes directly or indirectly southwards, destroying largely the rich Megalithic culture of western France.
After c. 2600 several fenomena will prelude the changes of the upcoming period:
· Large towns with stone walls appear in two different areas of the Iberian Peninsula: one in the Portugese region of Estremadura (culture of Vila Nova de Sao Pedro), strongly embedded in the Atlantic Megalithic culture; the other near Almeria (SE Spain), centered around the large town of Los Millares, of Mediterranean character, probably affected by eastern cultural influxes (tholoi). Despite the many differences the two civilizations seem to be in friendly contact and productive exchange.
· In the area of Dordogne (Aquitaine, France), a new unexpected culture of bowmen appears: it is the culture of Artenac, that soon takes control of western and even northern France and Belgium.
· In Poland and nearby regions, the (seemingly) Indo-Europeans reorganize and consolidate again with the culture of the Globular Amphores. Nevertheless, the influence of many centuries in direct contact with the stil powerful Danubian peoples has largely modified their culture.
· Late Calcolithic: This period extends from c. 2500 BCE to c. 1800 or 1700 BCE (depending of the regions). Anyhiow the dates are generalistic for the whole of Europe and the Aegean area is already fully in the Bronze Age.
C. 2500 BCE the new culture of the Catacombs (proto-Cymmerians), whose origines are obscure but are also Indo-Europeans, displaces the peoples of the Jamnaja Kultura in the regions north and east of the Black Sea, confining them to their original area east of the Volga. Some of these infiltrate Poland and may have played a significative but unclear role in the transformation of the culture of the Globular Amphores into the new culture of Cord Pottery.
Whatever happened, the fact is that c. 2400 BCE this people of the Cord Pottery substitute their predecessors and expanded to Danubian and Nordic areas of western Germany. One related branch invades Denmark and southern Sweden (Scnadinavian culture of Individual Sepultures), while the mid-Danubian basin, though showing more continuity, shows also clear traits of new Indo-European elites (culture of Vucedol).
Simultaneously, in the west, the peoples of Artenac reach Belgium. With the partial exception of Vucedol, the Danubian cultures, so buoyant just a few centuries ago, are wiped out from the map of Europe.
The rest of the period is the story of a misterios fenomenum: the culture of the Beaker Pottery. This group seems to be of merchant charachter and like to be buried according to a very specific ritual, almost invariable. Neverheless, out of their original area of western Central Europe, they appear only inside local cultures, so they never invaded and assimilated but rather went to live among those peoples, keeping their way of life. Hence the merchant character attributed.
The rest of the continent remains mostly unchanged and in apparent peace.
Since c. 2300 BCE the first Beaker Pottery appears in Bohemia and expands in many directions but particularly westward, along the Rhone and the sea shores, reaching the culture of Vila Nova (Portugal) and Catalonia (Spain) as their limits.
Simultaneously but unrelatedly, c. 2200 BCE in the Aegean region, the Cycladic culture decays being substituted by the new palatine phase of the Minoan culture of Crete.
The second phaseof the Beaker Pottery, since c. 2100 BCE, is marked by the displacement of the center of this fenomenum to Portugal, inside the culture of Vila Nova. This new center's influence reaches to all southern and western France but is absent in southern and western Iberia, with the notable exception of Los Millares.
After c. 1900 BCE, the center of the Beaker Pottery returns to Bohemia, while in Iberia we see a decentralization of the fenomenum, with centers in Portugal but also in Los Millares and Ciempozuelos.
Bronze Age
Though the use of Bronze started much earlier in the Aegean area, it is not before 1800 BCE that it reaches southern Spain, while Central Europe will wait another century (c. 1700 BCE) and the Atlantic region will remain Calcolithic till 1300 BCE (noticeably Egypt remained in the same backward technological state till much later). In any case, the date of 1800/1700 BCE can be considered refrential for the generality of Europe, as start of this stage, though some scholars claim earlier dates for the introduction of Bronze (this may be caused by the slim barrier between copper and bronze, an aleation of the former).
c. 1800 BCE, the culture of Los Millares in SW Spain is substituted by that of El Argar, fully of the Bronze age, which may well have been a centralized state.
c. 1700 BCE, the Central European cultures of Unetice, Adleberg, Straubing and pre-Lausitz start working the Bronze, a technique that reached them through the Balcans and Danube.
c. 1600 BCE is considered a good approximate date to consider the start of Mycenean Greece, after centuries of infitration of Indo-European greeks from an unknown origin.
c. 1500 BCE, most of these Central European cultures are unified in the powerful culture of the Tumuli. Simultenously but unrelatedly, the culture of El Argar starts its phase B, characterized by a sensible Aegean influence (pithoi burials). About this time is believed that Minoan Crete felt under the rule of the Greeks.
c. 1300 BCE, the Indo-European cultures of Central Europe (among them Celts, Italics and surely Illyrians) change the cultural phase conforming the expansionist culture of Urn Fields, that starts a quick expansion that brings them to occupy most of the Balcans, Asia Minor, where they desroy the Hittite Empire (conquering the secret of iron foundry), NE Italy, parts of France, Belgium, the Nederlands, NW Spain and SW England.
Derivations of this sudden expansion, are the Sea Peoples that attacked Egypt unsuccesfully for some time, including the Philistines and the Dorians, most likely hellenized members of this group that ended invading Greek itself and destroying the might of Mycene and, later, Troy.
Simultaneously, around this date, the culture of Vila Nova de Sao Pedro (that lasted 13 centuries in its urban form) vanishes into a less spectacular one but finally with bronze. The center of the Atlantic cultures (Atlantic Bronze complex) is now displaced towards Great Britain.
Also about this date, the culture of Vilanova, clear precursor of the Etruscan civilization, appears in central Italy (possibly with an Aegean origin).
Iron Age
Though the use of iron was known to the Aegean peoples about 1100 BCE, it didn't reached Central Europe before 800 BCE, giving way to the culture of Hallstat, Iron Age evolution of the culture the Urn Fields. Probably as by-product of this technological superiority of the Indo-Europeans, soon after, they clearly consolidate their positions in Italy and Iberia, penetrating deep inside those peninsulas (Rome founded in 753 BCE).
Around that time the Phoenicians, benefitting form the dissapearence of the Greek maritime power (Dark Ages) found their first colony at the entrance of the Atlantic Ocean: in Gadir (modern Cádiz), most likely as a merchant outpost to covey the many mineral resources of The Iberian Peninsula and the British Islands.
Nevertheless, since the 7th century BCE, the Greek nation recovers its power and start their own colonial expansion, founding Massalia (modern Marseilles) and it's Iberian outpost of Emporion (modern Ampuries). This last thing wasn't done before the Iberians could reconquer Catalonia and the Ebro valley from the Celts, separating physically the Iberian Celts from their continental neighbours.
The second phase of the European Iron Age is defined particularly by the Celtic culture of La Tène, that starts near 400 BCE, followed by a large expansion of this people into the Balcans, the British Islands (where they assimilated druidism) and other regions of France and Italy.
The Celtic debacle under the expansive pressure of Germanic peoples (original from Scandinavia and Lower Germany) and the forming Roman Empire, in the last century BCE, is also that of the end of Prehistory properly speaking, though many regions of Europe remained yet illiterate and therefore out of written history for many centuries yet, we must place the boundary somewhere and this date, near the start of our calendary, seems quite convenient. The remaining is regional prehistory (or in most cases proto-history) but not anymore European prehistory as a whole.