The Gravettian Culture: Lords of the Mammoth Steppe

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In the depths of the ice age in Europe, at the end of the Upper Paleolithic, the Gravettian saw incredible societies of mammoth hunters thriving across Europe.
They lived in caves, rock shelters, and open-air settlements in mammoth bone houses and developed surprisingly complex and sophisticated societies. Their burials at sites like Dolní Věstonice and Sungir could include grave goods like ivory beads in enormous quantities, suggesting the emergence of social inequality.
They were the first people in the world to use ceramics, making small figurines of animals and people. They also made the world-famous Venus figurines in stone, ivory, and moulded from clay. So who were these people? Where did they come from? Where and how did they live? How could they create so much art in the depths of the ice age? And what ultimately happened to them?
This is the awe-inspiring story of the lords of the mammoth steppe; the Gravettians.

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Sources

Palaeolithic Europe: A Demographic and Social Prehistory by Jennifer C. French https://amzn.to/4dCRRf8
The People of Sunghir by Erik Trinkaus et al https://amzn.to/3JXhDgo
Growing Up in the Ice Age by April Nowell https://amzn.to/4aid9vB
Posth, C., Yu, H., Ghalichi, A. et al. Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers. Nature 615, 117–126 (2023)
Bennett, E.A., Parasayan, O., Prat, S. et al. Genome sequences of 36,000- to 37,000-year-old modern humans at Buran-Kaya III in Crimea.
Baker, J., Rigaud, S., Pereira, D. et al. Evidence from personal ornaments suggest nine distinct cultural groups between 34,000 and 24,000 years ago in Europe
The Death and Burial of Sunghir 1 - E. Trinkausa and A. P. Buzhilova 2010
The origin of the Gravettian - Janusz K. Kozlowski 2014
The symbolism of breast-shaped beads from Dolní Věstonice - Martina Lázničková-Galetová 2017
Upper Paleolithic ceramic figurines - Pamela B. Vandiver 2022
A Critical Reassessment of Pavlovian Art and Society - Rebecca Farbstein 2013
Identity and fear – burials in the Upper Palaeolithic - Simona Petru 2019
Upper Paleolithic Venus Figurines and Interpretations of Prehistoric Gender Representations – Vandewettering 2015
The Gravettian burials at Grotta Paglicci – Ronchitelli et al 2015
Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines - LeRoy McDermott 1996
Hunters of the Ice Age: The Biology of Upper Paleolithic People - Holt & Formicola 2008
Venus figurines history: https://www.stoneageherbalist.com/p/t...

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Thank you

Ancient Europeans for use of artwork:   / ancienteuropea1  
Dolni Věstonice digital reconstruction: https://www.behance.net/gallery/26216...
Thank you to Don Hitchcock for his fantastic resources at https://donsmaps.com/

Video Chapters

00:00 The Gravettians
01:50 MagellanTV
03:00 The First Europeans
05:38 Gravettian Origins
08:50 Gravettian physiques
11:23 Gravettian mobility
14:00 Venus Figurines
18:00 Personal ornaments and culture
19:18 Dolní Věstonice
22:44 The burials at Sungir
25:05 Gravettian social inequality
26:47 The last Gravettians