Vom Ende des Aurignacien

Zur chronologischen Stellung des Freilandfundplatzes Breitenach (Burgenlandkr.) im Kontext des frühen und mittleren Jungpaläolithikums in Mitteleuropa

Abstract

The present article shows that the cultural change from the Aurignacian to the Gravettian took place much earlier in southern Central Europe than in other parts of the continent. In southern Central Europe this change appears to be a relatively quick process occurring roughly 34 000 years cal. BP ago (29.5 ka 14C BP). Comparably early appearances of the Gravettian are proven solely in Molodova V (Ukraine) and Paviland (Great Britain). It is further argued that the delayed appearance of the Gravettian further south could possibly be explained by interregional population shifts as a reaction to the dramatic climatic and environmental changes at the end of the last glacial Interpleniglacial. Here, it seems that traditions of the preceding Aurignacian persisted for several thousands of years. Bearing in mind the early as well as relatively quick cultural change from the Aurignacian to the Gravettian in Central Europe, the young age of two Aurignacian open-air sites, Alberndorf I in Lower Austria and Breitenbach in Saxony-Anhalt, raise some questions. Based on the available 14C-dates, which are discussed in detail in the case of Breitenbach, and assuming the placement of the site in a period for which Gravettian assemblages are already well documented in other regions, the question is whether the Aurignacian-Gravettian transition must be viewed with more differentiation and with regard to the large-scale spatio-temporal patterns.