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Behavioral and Cultural Changes at the Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition in Western Europe

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Part of the book series: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology ((IDCA))

Abstract

For a long time, archaeologists studying the Old World Paleolithic believed that Lower and Middle Paleolithic were providing the same kind of global evidence. Only the Upper Paleolithic was considered to be strikingly different. However, the last decade of research and discoveries, have made it clear that the gap between Middle and Upper Paleolithic was not unique, but that a huge step exists also between Lower and Middle Paleolithic. It is no longer possible to consider Lower and Middle Paleolithic as a simple unit, because there is a tremendous amount of difference between these stages. We cannot explain what the Middle Paleolithic/Early Upper Paleolithic transition may have been without knowing what the Middle Paleolithic is and how it is different from the Lower Paleolithic.

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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Farizy, C. (1994). Behavioral and Cultural Changes at the Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition in Western Europe. In: Nitecki, M.H., Nitecki, D.V. (eds) Origins of Anatomically Modern Humans. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1507-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1507-8_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-1509-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-1507-8

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