The most recent ice age peaked between 24,000 and 21,000 years ago, when vast ice caps covered North America and northern Europe, and mountain ranges like Mount Africa. Kilimanjaro and the Andes of South America were covered with glaciers.
At that time, our Homo sapien the ancestors had migrated from the warm heart of Africa to the northern European and Eurasian latitudes severely affected by the drop in temperatures. Armed with great creative brains and sophisticated tools, however, these early modern humans – almost identical to us physically – not only survived, but thrived in their harsh environment.
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Language, art and storytelling helped survival
For our Homo sapien ancestors living during the last ice age, there were several essential benefits of having a large brain, says Brian Fagan, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of numerous books, including Cro Magnon: How the Ice Age gave birth to the first modern humans and Climate chaos: survival lessons from our ancestors.
“One of the most important things about Homo sapiens is that we had a fluid speech, “says Fagan,” plus the ability to conceptualize and plan ahead. “
With the advent of language, knowledge about the natural world and new technologies could be shared among neighboring human groups, and also passed down from generation to generation via storytellers.
“They had institutional memory through symbolic storytelling, which gave them a relationship with the forces of the environment, the supernatural forces that governed their world.”
Also through music, dance and art, our ancestors collected and transmitted vast amounts of information on the seasons, edible plants, animal migrations, weather conditions and more. The elaborate cave paintings from sites like Lascaux and Chauvet in France show the intimate understanding that humans of the end of the Ice Age had of the natural world, especially the prey on which they depended for their survival.
This painting from the Chauvet cave in southern France dates from around 32,000-30,000 BC.
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“When wildlife biologists look at these paintings of reindeer and bison, they can tell you what time of year they were painted just from the look of the hides and skins of the animals,” says Fagan. “The way these people knew their surroundings was absolutely amazing by our standards.”
Tools used by humans in the Ice Age
The last Ice Age corresponds to the Upper Paleolithic period (40,000 to 10,000 years ago), during which humans made great strides in making tools and weapons, including the first tools. used exclusively to make other tools.
One of the most important of these was called a chisel, a humble-looking stone chisel that was used to cut grooves and notches in bone and wood, a lightweight material that was also hard and sustainable. The intricate spear points and harpoon points made from this bone and wood were small and light enough to be carried on foot by hunters over long distances, and were also detachable and interchangeable, creating the first compound tools. .
“Think of the Swiss Army Knife, it’s the same thing,” says Fagan. “The weaponry they were making covered an extraordinary array of specialist tools, most of which were made from grooved wood and bone.”
Microliths have been added to bone tools like these, including needles, harpoons, and projectile points.
DEA / G. Dagli Orti / De Agostini / Getty Images
But even these sophisticated hunting weapons were useless outside of close range attacks, which sometimes required the hunter to jump on the back of his massive prey. Again, our human ancestors used their intelligence and planning skills to take some of the danger and guesswork out of the hunt.
In a famous hunting ground in eastern France, Ice Age hunters lit fires each fall and spring to lock herds of migrating wild horses and reindeer into a narrow valley marked by a tower of limestone known as Roche de Salutré.
Once in the corral, the animals could be safely and easily killed up close, harvesting an abundance of meat which was then dried during the summer and winter months. Archaeological evidence shows that this well-coordinated massacre lasted for tens of thousands of years.
The invention of the needle brings tailor-made clothing
When the first humans migrated to northern climates about 45,000 years ago, they designed rudimentary clothing to protect themselves from the cold. They draped themselves in loose skins that also served as sleeping bags, baby carriers, and hand guards for chiseling stone.
But that all changed about 30,000 years ago with what Fagan claims to be the most important invention in human history: the needle.
“If you saw a needle from 20,000 or 30,000 years ago, you would know what it was in an instant, a very fine point tool with a hole in one end to pass the thread,” explains Fagan. “The miracle of the needle is that it has enabled humans to make form-fitting clothing tailored to the individual, and that is vital.”
Like modern mountaineering clothing, clothing from the end of the Ice Age was meant to be worn in layers. An Ice Age tailor carefully selected different animal skins – reindeer, arctic foxes, hares, even birds like ptarmigan – and sewed three or four layers together, from moisture-wicking underwear to waterproof pants and parkas.
The yarn was made from wild linen and other plant fibers and was even dyed different colors like turquoise and pink. The result was a fitted and versatile wardrobe that fully protected its wearer from below freezing temperatures.
Video: How humans survived the Ice Age
Rock shelters provide protection from the elements
For shelter during the colder months, our Ice Age ancestors didn’t live deep in caves as Victorian archaeologists believed, but instead settled in natural rock shelters. These were generally spacious depressions carved into the walls of river beds under a protective overhang.
Fagan says there is strong evidence that Ice Age humans made significant changes to protect their rock shelters. They draped overhangs with large skins for protection from strong winds and built internal tent-like structures made of wooden poles covered with sewn skins. It was all set around a blazing fire pit, which reflected heat and light off the rock faces.
During the brief summer months, hunters moved across the open plains that stretched from the Atlantic coast of Europe to Siberia. With cold temperatures persisting into the night, shelters were taken in dome-shaped huts partially dug into the earth.
“The frame was built from a trellis of mammoth bones, hunted or looted from carcasses,” Fagan explains. “On top of that, they were laying peat or animal hides to make a house that was occupied for months.”
