Micoquien

Micoquien
Micoquien biface
Geographical range Europe
Period Middle Paleolithic
Dates circa 130000 years BCE — circa 70000 BCE
Type site La Micoque
Major sites Balve Cave, Eem, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil
Preceded by Acheulean, Mousterian
Followed by Mousterian
Map of Europe showing important sites of the Micoquien (clickable map).
The Paleolithic

↑ Pliocene (before Homo)

Lower Paleolithic
(c. 3.3 Ma – 300 ka)

Oldowan (2.6–1.7 Ma)
Riwat (1.9–0.045 Ma)
Soanian (0.5–0.13 Ma)
Acheulean (1.8–0.1 Ma)
Clactonian (0.3–0.2 Ma)

Middle Paleolithic
(300–45 ka)

Mousterian (600–40 ka)
Micoquien (130–70 ka)
Aterian (82 ka)

Upper Paleolithic
(40–10 ka)

Baradostian (36 ka)
Châtelperronian (41–39 ka)
Aurignacian (38–29 ka)
Gravettian (29–22 ka)
Solutrean (22–17 ka)
Magdalenian (17–12 ka)
Hamburg (14–11 ka)
Federmesser (14–13 ka)
Ahrensburg (12–11 ka)
Swiderian (11–8 ka)
↓ Mesolithic
↓ Stone Age

The Micoquien is an early middle paleolithic industry, that is found in the Eem and in early episode of the Würm glaciation (about 130,000 to 70,000 BCE). The Micoquien is distinguished technologically by the appearance of distinctly asymmetrical bifaces. Its discoverer and namer was the archeologist and art trader Otto Hauser.[1][2][3] Hauser then sold a great number of so-called Micoque-wedges that he found in excavations in La Micoque (in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, Dordogne, France) to museums and collectors.

The specially formed handaxes from La Micoque exhibited an often a rounded base. The problem with the term Micoquien is that later excavations have revealed an older time placement for the La Micoque axes, which are now dated in the Riss glaciation.[4][5]

A wider artifact from the Micoquien is the Keilmesser (bifacially worked knife), which has a clearer chronology in Central Europe. From this some archeologists have proposed substituting the term Keilmesser group for Micoquien.[6]

Micoquien artifacts are distributed across all of Eastern Europe and Central Europe. In Germany they can be found at Balver Höhle and Lonetal.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Hauser, O. (1906-1907), La Micoque (Dordogne), und ihre Resultate für die Kenntnis der paläolithischen Kultur.- 1. Teil; Basel.. Technologisch bilden die Werkzeuge des Micoquien einen Übergang vom Spät-Acheuléen zum Moustérien
  2. ↑ Hauser, O. (1916), La Micoque, die Kultur einer neuen Diluvialrasse. Leipzig.
  3. ↑ Hauser, O. (1916), Über eine neue Chronologie des mittleren Paläolithikums im Vézèretal. Dissertation Erlangen. Leipzig.
  4. ↑ Rolland, N. (1986), Recent Findings from La Micoque and other Sites in South-Western and Mediterranean France: Their Bearing on the "Tayacian" Problem and Middle Palaeolithic Emergence.- In: Bailey and Callow (Ed.): Stone Age Prehistory. Studies in Memory of Charles McBurney; Cambridge University Press; Cambridge; 121-151.
  5. ↑ Rosendahl, G. (1999), La Micoque und das Micoquien in den altsteinzeitlichen Sammlungen des Reiss-Museums Mannheim.- Mannh. Geschichtsblätter N. F. 6; Ubstadt-Weiher; 315-351
  6. ↑ Jöris, O. (2004), Zur chronostratigraphischen Stellung der spätmittelpaläolithischen Keilmessergruppen. Der Versuch einer kulturgeographischen Abgrenzung einer mittelpaläolithischen Formengruppe und ihr europäischer Kontext. 84. Ber. Röm.-German. Komm.

External links

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