The impossible coincidence. A single-species model for the origins of modern human behavior in Europe

Abstract

Few topics in palaeoanthropology have generated more recent debate than the nature and causes of the remarkable transformation in human behavioral patterns that marked the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic in Europe.1-11 Those of us who have argued for an effective technological and cultural “revolution” at this point in the Paleolithic sequence have emphasized three main dimensions1, 2, 9, 11-14: the wide range of different aspects of behavior that appear to have been affected (Fig. 1); the relative speed and abruptness with which most of these changes can be documented in the archeological records from the different regions of Europe; and the potentially profound social and cognitive implications of many of the innovations involved. Most striking of all in this context is the abrupt appearance and proliferation of various forms of perforated animal teeth, shells, beads, and other personal ornaments, and the even more dramatic eruption of remarkably varied and sophisticated forms of art, ranging from representations of male and female sex organs, through the highly stylized animal and combined animal-human figures from southern Germany, to the striking wall paintings of the Chauvet Cave.8, 15-18 One might add to this the similar proliferation of more enigmatic but potentially equally significant abstract “notation” systems on bone and ivory artifacts.19 To describe the Upper Paleolithic revolution in Europe as reflecting preeminently an explosion in explicitly symbolic behavior and expression is in no sense an exaggeration, as most prehistorians would now agree. We are probably on safe ground in assuming that symbolic behavior and expression of this level of complexity would be inconceivable in the absence of highly structured language systems and brains closely similar, if not identical to, our own.5, 17, 20-28.