Prehistory refers to the past for which there is no written history, which means that the primary information comes from the findings of archaeology. One of the periods of European prehistory is the Paleolithic (“old stone age”) period in which the primary cutting tools that people used were made from stone. This was a time period in which the people were engaged in hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants to obtain the food they needed.
Archaeologists often designate European Paleolithic cultures according to the styles of stone tools that are found in an area. These styles are usually restricted by time and space. Stone tool styles are thus used as a shorthand way of referring to ancient peoples. The Solutrean (also spelled Solutrian) stone tool tradition or “culture” is characterized by finely made leaf-shaped points. Robert Jameson, in his entry on Solutrean in A Dictionary of Archaeology, writes:
“Often superbly finished using pressure retouch or delicate percussion retouch, Solutrean points are among the finest examples of Upper Paleolithic stone tool technology.”
In addition to the distinctive points, the Solutrean stone tool kit included gravers, burins (woodworking tools that look like chisels), end scrapers, and perforators.
Shown above are some Solutrean tools dating to 22,000 to 17,000 years ago at the Musee d'Archeologie Nationale.
Shown above is a typical Solutrean leaf-shaped point.
The Solutrean culture takes its name from the site of Salutré in France. Solutrean artifacts are found primarily in southwestern France and in northwestern Spain.
Solutrean began about 25,000 years ago (some sources indicate 22,000 years ago) and appears to have lasted until about 13,000 years ago (some sources indicate 17,000 years ago). This was a time when the European climate was very different than it is today. This is a period of time known as the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The portions of Europe which were not covered by glaciers were cold, wind-swept, and relatively barren. Ocean levels were much lower and thus many of the coastal Solutrean sites are now underwater. In spite of these climatic conditions, the Solutrean people survived.
With regard to the manufacture of stone points, in their book Across Atlantic Ice: The Origins of America’s Clovis Culture, archaeologists Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley write:
“Overshoot flaking is a variation of full-face flaking. In this case flakes travel all the way across the face and remove a portion of the opposite edge.”
Some of the finely made Solutrean points do not appear to have been actually used and, in fact, some archaeologists feel that they may have been too fragile to use. These points may have served some non-utilitarian purpose: they were perhaps symbols of social status or they may have had religious or spiritual meaning.
Solutrean culture is known not only for its stone tool inventory, but also for its manufacture of bone tools, of which the most important was the needle. While clothing doesn’t survive in the archaeological record for thousands of years, the presence of needles strongly suggests that the people had tailored clothing. Thomas Wynn, in his chapter in the Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution, writes:
“In the Solutrean of southern France there were eyed needles made out of antler. The implied sewing technology includes the following steps: making the stone tool or tools; making the needle; and using the needle to make the finished item.”
The Solutrean sites have also yielded evidence of personal adornment in the form of bracelets, beads, pendants, and colored pigments which were used for body painting.
The Solutrean Hypothesis:
Some archaeologists have noted some similarities between the Solutrean points from France and the Clovis points found in North America. The similarities are not in the style or aesthetics of the points, but rather in the rather specialized methods of manufacture. Archaeologists Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley write:
“Indeed, we have examined many of the biface traditions around the world and so far have recognized purposeful overshot biface thinning only in Clovis and Solutrean assemblages and on bladelet cores in the Neolithic of Qatar. As this method becomes better known by archaeologists, more overshot technologies may be identified. Nevertheless, it is apparent that this technique was rare.”
Clovis cultures date to about 13,500 years ago and was at one time regarded as the earliest North American culture. Clovis appears to have originated in what is now the Southeastern United States and then diffused west and north. The oldest Clovis site is the Hole Site in Florida.
Archaeologists Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley write:
“The Solutrean hypothesis, in simple outline form, is that during the Last Glacial Maximum, sometime between 25,000 and 13,000 years ago, members of the Solutrean culture in southwest coastal regions of Europe were led by subsistence behavior appropriate to their time and place to exploit the ice-edge environment of the polar front across the North Atlantic and colonized North America to become—after several millennia—what we know as the Clovis peoples, who eventually spread far and wide across the Americas.”
Archaeologists Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley also write:
“During Solutrean times there may have been many accidental and purposeful trips back and forth between southwest Europe and North America.”
The Solutrean hypothesis is somewhat controversial. Unfortunately, many of the ancient sites in both France and North America which might yield data relating to the hypothesis have been covered by rising sea levels. DNA evidence from the Clovis Anzick site in Montana does not appear to support the Solutrean Hypothesis, as it shows a connection with Siberian populations. There is also a problem with the several thousand year gap between the end of Solutrean and the beginning of Clovis.