The Upper Palaeolithic
Blade tools, bone and antler working, ornaments, figurative art and burial all appear together.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 10 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 4 thousand years
- Era
- Late Pleistocene, Quaternary
From roughly 50,000 to 40,000 years ago the archaeological record changes character sharply, especially in Eurasia: standardised blade industries, projectile weapons, needles, ornaments, musical instruments, elaborate burials and representational art. Whether this reflects a cognitive change, a demographic threshold that allowed complex culture to be transmitted reliably, or simply better preservation and more intense research is one of the central arguments in archaeology — and African evidence increasingly suggests a gradual build-up rather than a sudden switch.