Upper Paleolithic Era

The last stage of the “Old Stone Age” is the Upper Paleolithic Era. During the Upper Paleolithic Era, modern humans drastically changed the tools that were being used. The changes that were made were, leaving behind the hand axe and flake tools and gaining blade tools (Aggarwal). Blade tools were created using the punch flaking technique (O’Neil). The first step in this technique was preparing the rock core, the next step is, placing a hard pointed punch near the striking platform (O’Neil). The punch was usually deer antler tip (O’Neil). Next, the punch is delicately struck by a hammer that had an antler tip,which then creates blade like flakes that are parallel-sided (O’Neil). Blade flake tools are very efficient in terms of maximizing the use of rock materials (O’Neil). All the materials in the core are being put to use as opposed to other tools that were created before. In the Upper Paleolithic Era, there are three major blade cultures, the Perigordian, Aurignacian and Solutrean (Aggarwal). In the Upper Paleolithic Era it …show more content…
The Perigordian culture was named after a region located in Southwestern France called Perigord (Aggarwal). Blade tools played a major role this culture. In the lower part of the Perigordian culture, the blade tools in this culture are characterized as having large curved points with blunted backs (Guisepi). The blade tools kept evolving from each other. In the upper part of the Perigordian culture, straight points, with blunted backs, which were called Gravitate points were the new style of blade tools (Guisepi). Burin tools also had an impact in this culture. Burin tools are narrow gouging chisels that are used to shape other instruments, such as animal bones (O’Neil). These blade tools could have been used by modern day humans for essentially everything, because of their ability to penetrate through objects. The next culture in the Upper Paleolithic Era is the