A woman buried in Germany in the Upper Paleolithic era
The Late Magdalenian Federmesser Culture represents a fascinating period in the Late Paleolithic era, approximately dating from around 12,000 to 11,000 BCE. This post-Ice Age culture in northwestern Europe is characterized by distinctive archaeological features and is primarily recognized for its microlithic tool technology.
Geographic and Temporal Context:
The Federmesser Culture is situated towards the end of the Upper Paleolithic, overlapping with the terminal Magdalenian era and leading into the Mesolithic period. It flourished predominantly in northwestern Europe, encompassing areas of modern-day Belgium, the Netherlands, northern Germany, Poland, and parts of France. It emerged as the harsh glacial conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum were giving way to a more temperate and hospitable climate, allowing for the resettlement of Northern European regions.
Environment and Lifestyle:
The Late Magdalenian Federmesser populations inhabited a landscape transitioning from glacial to more diverse ecosystems, where open steppes began transforming into mixed forests. This changing environment affected the subsistence strategies of the people. The era saw greater biodiversity, with reindeer herds and other ice age megafauna being replaced gradually by red deer, wild boar, and other woodland species. The people of this culture were primarily hunter-gatherers, adapting their tools and strategies to exploit the evolving flora and fauna.
Technology and Tools:
The hallmark of the Federmesser Culture is its microlithic tool tradition, a hallmark of the broader Magdalenian technology but distinguished by certain unique features. \Federmesser" translates to "feather knife" in German, referring to the shape of certain backed bladelets that resemble modern scalpel blades and were likely hafted onto handles or shafts to create composite tools. Alongside these backed blades, other tools included scrapers, burins, and truncations. The use of organic materials like bone, antler, and ivory remained common, although examples are fewer due to their decomposition in many sites.
Social and Cultural Aspects:
While direct evidence of social structures is scant, the material record suggests a degree of organization and resilience. Settlement patterns indicate semi-nomadic bands, occupying temporary campsites with strategic access to resources. The proximity of water bodies played a significant role, with sites often located near rivers or lakes, serving as both transportation routes and resource zones.
Art and symbolic behavior, significant in earlier Magdalenian contexts, continue albeit in less profuse forms. Personal ornaments, such as pendants made from teeth, shells, or amber, indicate the continued importance of personal adornment and possibly social signaling.
Interconnections and Developments:
The Federmesser culture represents a bridge between the Upper Paleolithic traditions and the coming transformations of the Mesolithic. There is evidence of interaction with contemporaneous cultures, such as the Ahrensburgian and the Bromme cultures, indicating a web of cultural exchanges across regions that facilitated the spread of innovations and ideas.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the Late Magdalenian Federmesser Culture stands as a testament to human adaptability during a period of significant climatic and environmental change. It reflects the ingenuity in technological development and resource use that allowed human societies to navigate the challenges of a world emerging from the grip of the Ice Age. Study of this culture not only enriches our understanding of prehistoric Europe but also provides valuable insights into the resilience and adaptability of human cultures in the face of environmental transformations."
Ancient genetic admixture analysis compares the DNA profile of this individual (OKL001) with present-day reference populations. These results show what percentage of the individual's genetic makeup resembles ancient populations from different geographic regions.
Modern genetic admixture analysis compares the DNA profile of this individual (OKL001) with present-day reference populations. These results show what percentage of the individual's genetic makeup resembles modern populations from different geographic regions.
These results complement the ancient ancestry components shown in the previous section, offering a different perspective on the individual's genetic profile by comparing it with modern reference populations rather than prehistoric ancestral groups.
The G25 coordinates for the sample OKL001 are as follows. You can analyze its admixture using G25 Studio.
OKL001,0.1358633,0.12365242,0.0624166,0.06411934,0.04283952,0.02268242,0.00572232,0.00920128,0.00279456,-0.01288798,-0.00873924,0.00272932,0.00701668,0.00254672,0.00699204,0.00279258,-0.0068908,0.00053098,0.00033152,0.00080022,0.00475248,0.00194808,0.00387008,0.0060633,-0.00171298
Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers
Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years1,2. Our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers is however limited, owing to the scarceness and poor molecular preservation of human remains from that period3. Here we analyse 356 ancient hunter-gatherer genomes, including new genomic data for 116 individuals from 14 countries in western and central Eurasia, spanning between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago. We identify a genetic ancestry profile in individuals associated with Upper Palaeolithic Gravettian assemblages from western Europe that is distinct from contemporaneous groups related to this archaeological culture in central and southern Europe4, but resembles that of preceding individuals associated with the Aurignacian culture. This ancestry profile survived during the Last Glacial Maximum (25,000 to 19,000 years ago) in human populations from southwestern Europe associated with the Solutrean culture, and with the following Magdalenian culture that re-expanded northeastward after the Last Glacial Maximum. Conversely, we reveal a genetic turnover in southern Europe suggesting a local replacement of human groups around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, accompanied by a north-to-south dispersal of populations associated with the Epigravettian culture. From at least 14,000 years ago, an ancestry related to this culture spread from the south across the rest of Europe, largely replacing the Magdalenian-associated gene pool. After a period of limited admixture that spanned the beginning of the Mesolithic, we find genetic interactions between western and eastern European hunter-gatherers, who were also characterized by marked differences in phenotypically relevant variants.