Solutrean culture
Solutreian industry refers to the period between the development of the Gravette and Madeleine cultures and partly exists in parallel with them. Dating back to 23—18, 21—16 or 18—15 thousand BC. It is characterized by carefully crafted flint-shaped tips in the form of a laurel or willow leaf, treated with perfect pressing retouching, as well as with a notch. The method of wring-out retouching originated earlier, but reached its peak in the Solutrean era. Pressing retouching made it possible to produce arrowheads and spearheads that were as thin as the later iron arrowheads of the same size. They were light enough to be used for throwing weapons. Together with them, they find flint scrapers, incisors, punctures, points, and bone tips, needles with ears, wands, and works of art. Thus, the «tips of solutre» are traditionally considered to be a symbol of technical achievements in the Paleolithic, the pinnacle of the art of stone processing, unattainable in subsequent cultures of the Madeleine era.
Madeleine products
A variant of Solutrean culture is the Himaldi culture – the south of France and the north of Italy. Chronologically, it existed simultaneously with the Madeleine culture, but flint-like products resemble the products of the gravetta culture.
Products of culture «Himaldi»
Products of culture «Himaldi»
Products of gravetta culture
There are different views on the question of the origin of the Solutrean culture. The Solutrean culture is considered as a stage in the development of Western European cultures of the Stone Age, which arose on a local basis. Some scholars believed that it appeared from the east, from the area of the Selet culture, as evidence of which they cited the similarity of the leaf-shaped tips typical of both cultures.
