Aurignacian culture

A culture from the first half of the Late Paleolithic period, with the Aurignacian site in the Pyrenees region of France as the standard site. It was divided into early, middle and late periods, but later the early period came to be called the Châtelperronian culture, the late period the Gravetian culture, and only the middle period came to be called the Aurignacian culture. There is also a theory that considers the Châtelperronian and Gravetian cultures to be of the same technological lineage, and that they are continuously understood as the Périgordian culture, with the Aurignacian culture developing in parallel with it. However, this theory of parallelism has recently tended to be rejected.

The distribution of Aurignacian-type stone tools is extremely wide. They have been reported from Western Europe to China and even from Kenya in Africa, but they are not considered to belong to the same culture today. In Western Europe, they have been dated to around 30,000 years ago by carbon-14 measurements, but in Eastern Europe they are closer to 40,000 years ago.

It is characterized by thick stone tools such as boat-bottom shaped scrapers and animal-nose shaped scrapers. It was the first time that stone blade flaking was commonly practiced. The beginning of this culture is marked by the appearance of bone points with cracked bases, and changes in the shape of bone points serve as indicators for further divisions of the period. It is also the oldest culture to have left behind works of art, and is known for engraved limestone with archaic images (Ferrassy site). However, the widely distributed small female figurine known as the "Venus of Aurignac" all belongs to the Gravette culture. The culture was carried on by newer people, and among the best known are a Cro-Magnon man discovered in 1868, and a Grimaldi man, two of whose bodies were buried flexed side by side.

[Ichiro Yamanaka]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

フランス、ピレネー地方のオーリニャック遺跡を標準遺跡とする後期旧石器時代前半の文化。前・中・後期に区分されていたが、のちに前期はシャテルペロン文化、後期はグラベット文化とよばれるようになり、中期のみをオーリニャック文化とよぶようになった。またシャテルペロン、グラベットの両文化を技術的同系列と考え、連続的にペリゴール文化の名で把握し、それにオーリニャック文化が併行したとする学説もある。しかし、この併行学説は最近否定される傾向にある。

　オーリニャック型の石器の分布はきわめて広い。西ヨーロッパから中国、およびアフリカのケニアからも報告されているが、それらを同じ文化とする考えは今日ではとられていない。西ヨーロッパでは3万年前ごろとC‐14の測定で年代が与えられるが、東ヨーロッパでは4万年前に近くなる。

　舟底形掻器(そうき)、獣鼻形掻器などの分厚い石器に特色がある。石刃の剥離(はくり)が初めて普遍的に行われる。この文化の始まりは基部割れの骨製尖頭(せんとう)器の出現に特徴づけられるが、骨製尖頭器の形態変化は時期細分の指標となる。また美術作品を残した最古の文化で、古拙的な画像をもつ刻画石灰岩（フェラシー遺跡）などがある。ただ、「オーリニャックのビーナス」とよばれ、広い分布をもつ女性小像はすべてグラベット文化に属するものである。文化の担い手は新人で、なかでも1868年に発見されたクロマニョン人、2体が並んで屈葬されていたグリマルディ人はよく知られる。

［山中一郎］

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