Azilian techno-complex

[Goswin_van_Eyck]

The Azilian techno-complex is a poorer and less polished, generally
far inferior remnant of the Magdalénians: rooted in Europe, thus, in
contrast to the Capsians and Natufians of the Levantine
Epipaleolithic.
The eponymous site is located at the Pyrenees.
Occitania and Liguria from the Mesolithic into the Early Neolithic
is vastly racial stable.
Traditionally is thought that the Cardials were seafaring Atlanto-
Mediterreneans but a village site in South France brought doubt this
generally accepted theory:

http://www.geocities.com/jim_bowery/Atlantis.html

Interestingly the Mesolithics in Occitania belonged to a subrace
close to the Atlanto-Mediterrenean race , albeit slighter finer-
build.

While the use of microliths might have been introduced by Capsians
and the Azilian arose from mutual contacts, other sources point out
that southern influences degraded in later stages by greater use of
bone material and rapid regionalisation of this industry.

Here is a photo with a collection of skulls pertaining to the
Azilians, also harpoons and lettered pebbles and a distribution map
(icl. the Tardenoisin):

http://geology.cwru.edu/~huwig/cata...des/758.H.1.jpg

http://geology.cwru.edu/~huwig/cata...des/756.J.2.jpg

http://geology.cwru.edu/~huwig/cata...des/756.J.1.jpg

The Magdalénians dispensed to a certain degree lithic material for
manufacturing bone kits.
They hunted reindeers and horses over great distances, they show a
remarkeable fitness to svelte mobility and wander treks over vast
territories. From the moment the glaciers retreated, they took full
advantage of the free coming lands to migrate due north, covering
Great Brittain, Germany and the North European Plain.
Anyway, the wide distribution of the Magdalénian tribes didn't
inhibite them to maintain long distance contacts and exchanges(e.g.
prestige gifts, cult objects...).

The Azilians continued the traditions of their ancestors.

Microliths were important insofar it granted greater control and
manipulation of the environment, small game replaced megafauna that
by the cataclysms of the Younger Dryas was lead to extinction in
Europe.
It suited a survival strategy, induced a shift in subsistence and
new resources came in their scope.
Microliths tells us more than anything else on socio-economic
problems in that era.

As a side note, the beginnings of microliths are now searched in the
Iberomaurisians, though the Capsians elaborated the technique.
The origin of the Magdalénians is a bit clouded in mystery, some
regard it as a sudden transformation from Gravettian, others hint
that it's initial distribution overlaps the Solustréan.
The Solustréans disappeared all the sudden, one theory says they
crossed the Atlantic Ocean, very much like the travel mode of
Eskimos, along the board of glaciers, and landed in North America,
where they would give rise to the Clovis culture.
Others could have remained closer to home.
Tanged and barbed pressure-flaked points of the North African
Atherian have been found in Solustréan deposits.
Why wouldn't they dare to seek refuge in North Africa and take
possession of the Atherian industry?
Maybe this is the source of the Iberomaurisians....SW European
colonizers.

Crossing the Street of Gibraltar and remaining stuck in Iberia is
not really a big untertaking and maybe some residual racial memory
lingered in their mind, the need to return to their point of origin.
Eventually, they passed on more their techniques and products of
workmanship over to the natives than anything else.

Coon states that the Neolithic population of North Africa beared
more resemblance to Téviec and Mugem than with e.g. the Nile Delta
people.
The wanderlust of Solustréans and Magdalénians knowing, it's time to
contemplate the obscured waves of UP and Mesolithic Europeans due
south.

The Capsians must have send out prospecting missions before they
ever engaged to break away for Europe or their ancestry somehow is
linked with Europe.
It's alerting that they likely entered Iberia along the Atlantic
coast, it shows familiarity with the "terrain", the Iberian Atlantic
coast is tricky due its difficult tidal waters, it acquires native
seamanship and use of appropiate boat build.

Mesolithic living is grounded in exploiting the known environment
and making optimal use of the avaliable resources, it derives from
exhaustive knowledge of the local habitat and observing, studying
and controlling the resource distribution(cfr. Stephen J.Mithen's
chapter on the Mesolithic Age, in Prehistoric Europe.An Illustrated
History).

John Gray regards hunter-gathering communities as highly mobile,
but "their life does not require continious movement into new
territory. Their survival depends on knowing a local milieu down to
its last details. Farming multiplies human numbers. It thereby
compels farmers to expand the land they work.
Farming and the search for new lands go together."(Straw Dogs.
Thoughts on humans and other animals).

Interestingly, H-G communities live according a pattern of fusion
and fission.
The community gather together in the winter months on the lowlands
and seperate in small bands during the Summer, scattering over the
uplands.
It's a seasonal movement, however since it concerns the community as
a whole one could it describe as seasonal and communal, although the
latter is reserved for the Neolithic farming columns(cfr. founding
fathers, etc...).
Yet in reality, a sharp division cant be drawned as explained here
above.
The Cardials or Impressed Ceramic People of the Early Neolithic are
also characterized by seasonal and communal movement, and their
susbsistence relied still for a greap part on a riparian diet and
hunting small game but also bears and deers.