Personal Ornaments in the Early Upper Palaeolithic of Western Eurasia. An Evaluation of the record.

Abstract

[EN] The earliest occurrences of personal ornaments in Western Eurasia are known from as sem blages that are placed at the Middle to UpperPaleolithic Transition (Chatelperronian, Uluzzian, Blattspitzengruppen, Bachokirian). However, the pau - city of sites dat ng to this period which have produced such ornaments, the of ten doubtful contextual as sociation of the finds, and the limited number of personal ornaments known to date from this period, bring into ques tion their utilization prior to the Protoaurignacian. In contrast, personal ornaments are a regular component of Aurignacian as semblages, show ing a broad spectrum of form, raw material and techniques of attachment. In this paper we ar gue that personal or naments did not occur in Europe before about 38.0 ka 14C BP and that their appearance on the continent is linked to the arrival of Anatomically Modern Humans.