Practice question · Multiple choice
Symbolic artefacts appear far earlier in Africa than in Europe, yet the 'revolution' is dated from the European record. What does that reveal about the debate?
Hints
- Ask where a century of prehistoric archaeology was concentrated.
- A dense record and a real event look the same. How would you tell them apart?
Show the answer
A. That the apparent explosion may be a sampling artefact
Why
Two centuries of European excavation against far thinner coverage elsewhere makes intensity of research hard to separate from intensity of past behaviour. Blombos and Sibudu pushed the African dates back decisively, which is why the gradualist reading has been gaining ground on the revolution model.
Practise The Upper Paleolithic Revolution
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More questions on The Upper Paleolithic Revolution
- Order the symbolic record, oldest first.
- Complete the reframing of the "revolution."
- Sort each claim about cave art: supported or not supported by the evidence?
- Cave art gets progressively more sophisticated over time, from crude beginnings at Chauvet to mastery at…
- What does the placement and content of cave art tell us?