Editing Azilian

{{Short description|Mesolithic industry of the Franco-Cantabrian region}}
{{Infobox archaeological culture
|name        = Azilian
|map         = File:France - Ariège - Grotte du Mas d'azil4.JPG
|mapalt      = Mas d’Azil cave
|altnames    =
|horizon     =
|region      = [[Western Europe]]
|period      = [[Epipaleolithic]] or [[Mesolithic]]
|dates       = 12,500–10,000 BP<ref name=Barbaza2011>{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2011.03.012|title=Environmental changes and cultural dynamics along the northern slope of the Pyrenees during the Younger Dryas|year=2011|last1=Barbaza|first1=Michel|journal=Quaternary International|volume=242|issue=2|pages=313–327|bibcode=2011QuInt.242..313B|url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01995332/file/Younger%20Dryas%20Quatint%20.pdf}}</ref>
|typesite    = [[Le Mas-d'Azil]]
|majorsites  = 
|extra       =
|precededby  = [[Magdalenian]]
|followedby  = [[Maglemosian culture]], [[Sauveterrian]]
}}
{{Mesolithic|233}}
The '''Azilian''' is a [[Mesolithic]] [[archaeological industry|industry]] of the [[Franco-Cantabrian region]] of northern [[Spain]] and [[Southern France]]. It dates approximately 10,000–12,500 years ago.<ref name=Barbaza2011/> Diagnostic [[Cultural artifact|artifact]]s from the culture include projectile points (microliths with rounded retouched backs), crude flat bone [[harpoon]]s and pebbles with abstract decoration. The latter were first found in the River [[Arize]] at the type-site for the culture, the ''[[Mas d'Azil cave|Grotte du Mas d'Azil]]'' at [[Le Mas-d'Azil]] in the French [[Pyrenees]] (illustrated, now with a modern road running through it). These are the main type of Azilian art, showing a great reduction in scale and complexity from the [[Magdalenian]] [[Art of the Upper Palaeolithic]].{{sfn |Osborn |1915 |pp=[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43820/43820-h/43820-h.htm#Page_460 460] Piette's excavation described; [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43820/43820-h/43820-h.htm#Page_464 464], pebbles}}<ref name=tard>{{cite web|url=http://eacharya.inflibnet.ac.in/data-server/eacharya-documents/5717528c8ae36ce69422587d_INFIEP_304/122/ET/304-122-ET-V1-S1__file1.pdf | title =Mesolithic Culture of Europe  | publisher = e-Acharya INFLIBNET |access-date= January 22, 2019 }}</ref>

The industry can be classified as part of the [[Epipaleolithic]] or the [[Mesolithic]] periods, or of both.{{Citation needed|reason=reference?|date=April 2020}} Archaeologists think the Azilian represents the tail end of the Magdalenian as the warming climate brought about changes in human behaviour in the area. The effects of melting ice sheets would have diminished the food supply and probably impoverished the previously well-fed Magdalenian manufacturers, or at least those who had not followed the herds of horse and [[reindeer]] out of the [[glacial refugium]] to new territory. As a result, Azilian tools and art were cruder and less expansive than their [[Last Glacial Period|Ice Age]] predecessors - or simply different.{{Citation needed|reason=reference?|date=April 2020}}

People associated with the Azilian are genetically different from the preceding Magdalenian peoples, instead being related to peoples from who produced the [[Epigravettian]] culture as part of the [[Western hunter-gatherer|Villabruna/Western Hunter Gatherer]] ancestry cluster,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Allentoft |first=Morten E. |last2=Sikora |first2=Martin |last3=Refoyo-Martínez |first3=Alba |last4=Irving-Pease |first4=Evan K. |last5=Fischer |first5=Anders |last6=Barrie |first6=William |last7=Ingason |first7=Andrés |last8=Stenderup |first8=Jesper |last9=Sjögren |first9=Karl-Göran |last10=Pearson |first10=Alice |last11=Sousa da Mota |first11=Bárbara |last12=Schulz Paulsson |first12=Bettina |last13=Halgren |first13=Alma |last14=Macleod |first14=Ruairidh |last15=Jørkov |first15=Marie Louise Schjellerup |date=2024-01-11 |title=Population genomics of post-glacial western Eurasia |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06865-0 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=625 |issue=7994 |pages=301–311 |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-06865-0 |issn=0028-0836 |pmc=10781627 |pmid=38200295}}</ref> though with some ancestry from the preceding Magdalenian peoples.{{sfn|Villalba-Mouco|van de Loosdrecht|Posth|Mora|2019}}

==Terminology==
[[File:Gekerbter.Knochen.Thais.P1035755.jpg|thumb|[[The Thaïs Bone]], c. 12,000 BP.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www3.astronomicalheritage.net/index.php/show-entity?identity=83&idsubentity=1|title=The Thaïs Bone, France|website=UNESCO Portal to the Heritage of Astronomy|quote=The engraving on the Thaïs bone is a non-decorative notational system of considerable complexity. The cumulative nature of the markings together with their numerical arrangement and various other characteristics strongly suggest that the notational sequence on the main face represents a non-arithmetical record of day-by-day lunar and solar observations undertaken over a time period of as much as 3½ years. The markings appear to record the changing appearance of the moon, and in particular its crescent phases and times of invisibility, and the shape of the overall pattern suggests that the sequence was kept in step with the seasons by observations of the solstices. The latter implies that people in the Azilian period were not only aware of the changing appearance of the moon but also of the changing position of the sun, and capable of synchronizing the two. The markings on the Thaïs bone represent the most complex and elaborate time-factored sequence currently known within the corpus of Palaeolithic mobile art. The artefact demonstrates the existence, within Upper Palaeolithic (Azilian) cultures c. 12,000 years ago, of a system of time reckoning based upon observations of the phase cycle of the moon, with the inclusion of a seasonal time factor provided by observations of the solar solstices.}}</ref>]]The Azilian was named by [[Édouard Piette]], who excavated the Mas d'Azil type-site in 1887. Unlike other coinages by Piette, the name was generally accepted, indeed in the early 20th century used for much greater areas than it is today. [[Henry Fairfield Osborn]], president of the [[American Museum of Natural History]] and a palaeontologist rather than an archaeologist, was taken around the sites by leading excavators such as [[Hugo Obermaier]]. The popularizing book he published in 1916, 
''Men of the Old Stone Age'' talks happily of Azilian sites as far north as [[Oban]] in Scotland, wherever flattened barbed "harpoon" points of deer antler are found.<ref>Osborn, Obermaier and others thanked in the Preface ix-x, Piette's excavation described 460, Scottish "stations" 475</ref>{{sfn |Straus |2008 |p=312}}<ref>Oban is also given as an Azilian site in ''Prehistory: A Study of Early Cultures in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin'' by [[M. C. Burkitt]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=gDBgtiFNLSoC&pg=PA115 p. 115-116], originally 1921, reissued by Cambridge University Press in 2012, {{ISBN|1107696844}}, 9781107696846; [[:File:Map of principal Mesolithic sites in Britain. Wellcome M0016326.jpg|Map from a 1932 book showing British "Azilian" sites]]</ref>

Subsequently, Azilian types of artefact have been defined more precisely, and similar examples from beyond the Franco-Cantabrian region generally excluded and reassigned, although references to "Azilian" finds much further north than the Franco-Cantabrian region still appear in non-specialized sources. Terms like "Azilian-like" and even "epi-Azilian" may be used to describe such finds.{{sfn |Jameson |1999 |p=97}}

==Characteristics==

The Azilian in [[Vasco-Cantabria]] occupied a similar region to the [[Magdalenian]], and in very many cases the same sites; typically the Azilian remains are fewer, and rather simpler, than those from the Magdalenian occupation beneath, indicative of a smaller group of people.{{sfn |Straus |2008 |pp=312-313}} As the glaciers retreated, sites increasingly reach into the slopes of the [[Cantabrian Mountains]] as high as 1,000 metres above sea level, though presumably the higher ones were only occupied in the summers.{{sfn |Straus |2008 |p=312}} The grand cavern at Mas d'Azil is not entirely typical of Azilian sites, many of which are shallow shelters at the bottom of a rock face.

===Azilian pebbles===
[[File:Azilian painted pebbles from the cave of Le Mas d'Azil. Wellcome M0015173.jpg|thumb|Azilian painted pebbles from the cave of Le Mas d'Azil.|279x279px]]
Painted, and sometimes [[engraving|engraved]] pebbles (or "cobbles") are a feature of core Azilian sites; some 37 sites have produced them. The decoration is simple patterns of dots, zig-zags, and stripes, with some crosses or hatching, normally just on one side of the pebble, which is usually thin and flattish, and some 4 to 10&nbsp;cm across. Large numbers may be found at a site. The colours are usually red from [[iron oxide]], or sometimes black; the paint was often mixed in [[Pecten (bivalve)|''Pecten'']] saltwater [[scallop]] shells, even at Mas d'Azil, which is far from the sea. Attempts to find a meaning for their [[iconography]] have not got very far, although "the repeated combinations of motifs does seem to some extent to be ordered, which may suggest a simple syntax". Such attempts began with Piette, who believed the pebbles carried a primitive writing system.{{sfn|Jameson |1999 |pp=97-98, 98 quoted}}{{sfn |Osborn |1915 |pp=[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43820/43820-h/43820-h.htm#Page_463 463–464]}}

==Neighbours==
The Azilian culture coexisted with similar early Mesolithic European cultures, such as the [[Federmesser culture|Federmesser]] in northern Europe, the Tjongerian in the [[Low Countries]], the Romanellian culture of [[Italy]], the [[Creswellian]] in Britain and the Clisurian in [[Romania]] (in a process called azilianization).

In its late phase, it experienced strong influences from the neighbouring [[Tardenoisian]], reflected in the presence of many geometrical [[microlith]]s. The Azilian culture persisted until the arrival of the [[Neolithic Europe|Neolithic]] Era.<ref>A. Moure, ''El origen del hombre'', 1999. {{ISBN|84-7679-127-5}}</ref><ref>F. Jordá Cerdá et al., ''Historia de España 1: Prehistoria'', 1989. {{ISBN|84-249-1015-X}}</ref><ref>X. Peñalver, ''Euskal Herria en la Prehistoria'', 1996. {{ISBN|978-84-89077-58-4}}</ref> The [[Asturian culture]] in the area to the west along the coast was also similar, but added a distinctive form of pick-axe to its toolkit.

==Gallery==
<gallery perrow="6">
File:Harpon 2010.0.3.5. Global.JPG|Harpoon – Mas d'Azil – [[Museum de Toulouse]]
File:Pointe 228.2 La Tourasse (3).jpg|Azilian point - Tourasse Cave – [[Museum de Toulouse]]
File:Galet peint MHNT.PRE.2006.0.93.jpg|Painted pebble – Mas d'Azil – [[Museum de Toulouse]]
File:Galet peint Mas d'Azil - MAN 58.jpg
File:Galets peints Mas d'Azil - MAN 61 62 63.jpg
File:MAN - Station du mas d'Azil - galets peints (2).jpg
File:Galet peint Mas d'Azil - MAN 57.jpg
File:Galets peints Mas d'Azil - MAN 61 62 64 65.jpg
File:Galet peint MHNT.PRE.MAZ.15.jpg
File:Fragment osseux peint du Mas d'Azil - MAN.jpg
File:Harpon 2010.0.3.5. Global simple.JPG
File:MAN - Station du mas d'Azil - galets peints (7).jpg
</gallery>

==In Southern Iberia==
A culture very similar to the Azilian spread as well into Mediterranean Spain and southern Portugal. Because it lacked [[bone industry]] it is named distinctively as ''Iberian microlaminar microlithism''. It was replaced by the so-called ''geometrical microlithism'' related to Sauveterrian culture.

==Genetics==
In a genetic study published in 2014, the remains of an Azilian male from the [[Grotte du Bichon]] were examined. He was found to be carrying the paternal [[Haplogroup I-M438|haplogroup I2]] and the maternal haplogroup [[Haplogroup U (mtDNA)#Haplogroup U5|U5b1h]].{{sfn|Fu|2016}}

Villalba-Mouco ''et al'' examined the remains of two males of the Azilian culture buried at the Late [[Upper Paleolithic]] site of Balma de Guilanyà, [[Catalonia]], Spain c. 11,380-9,990 BC.{{sfn |Villalba-Mouco |van de Loosdrecht |Posth |Mora |2019}} They were found to be carrying the paternal haplogroups [[Haplogroup I-M170|I]] and [[Haplogroup C-M8|C1a1a]], and the maternal haplogroups [[Haplogroup U (mtDNA)#Haplogroup U5|U5b2a]] and [[Haplogroup U (mtDNA)#U2'3'4'7'8'9|U2'3'4'7'8'9]]. They consisted of a mixture of ancestry between people from the preceding [[Magdalenian]] culture, as well as [[Western hunter-gatherer|Villabruna/Western Hunter-Gatherer]] cluster, which shares affinities to people from the Middle East and Caucasus.{{sfn |Villalba-Mouco |van de Loosdrecht |Posth |Mora |2019}}

==See also==
*[[Art of the Upper Paleolithic|Art of the Upper Palaeolithic]]
*[[Federmesser]]
*[[Prehistoric art|Prehistoric Art]]
*[[Prehistoric Europe]]
*[[Prehistoric France]]
*[[Prehistoric Iberia]]
*[[Sauveterrian]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Fu |first1=Qiaomei |date=May 2, 2016 |title=The genetic history of Ice Age Europe |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |publisher=[[Nature Research]] |volume=534 |issue=7606 |pages=200–205 |doi=10.1038/nature17993 |pmc=4943878 |pmid=27135931 |bibcode=2016Natur.534..200F |hdl=10211.3/198594}}
*{{cite book |chapter=Azilian" and "Azilian pebbles |last=Jameson |first=Robert |editor-last=Shaw |editor-link=Ian Shaw (Egyptologist) |editor-first=Ian |editor-last2=Jameson |editor-first2=Robert |title=A Dictionary of Archaeology |publication-place=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell Publishers |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-470-75344-6 |oclc=212123771 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofarch0000unse_y5w9/page/96/mode/2up |chapter-url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}
*{{cite web |last=Osborn |first=Henry Fairfield |author-link=Henry Fairfield Osborn |title=Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and Art |publication-place=New York |publisher=C. Scribner's Sons |year=1915 |id={{OCLC|271179658|980865711}} |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43820/43820-h/43820-h.htm |via=Project Guttenberg}}
*{{cite book |last=Straus |first=Lawrence Guy |chapter=The Mesolithic of Atlantic Iberia |editor-last=Bailey |editor-first=G. N. |editor-last2=Spikins |editor-first2=Penny |title=Mesolithic Europe |publisher=Cambridge University Press |publication-place=New York |date=2008 |isbn=978-0-521-85503-7 |oclc=85162222}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Villalba-Mouco |first1=Vanessa |last2=van de Loosdrecht |first2=Marieke S. |last3=Posth |first3=Cosimo |last4=Mora |first4=Rafael |last5=Martínez-Moreno |first5=Jorge |last6=Rojo-Guerra |first6=Manuel |last7=Salazar-García |first7=Domingo C. |last8=Royo-Guillén |first8=José I. |last9=Kunst |first9=Michael |last10=Rougier |first10=Hélène |last11=Crevecoeur |first11=Isabelle |last12=Arcusa-Magallón |first12=Héctor |last13=Tejedor-Rodríguez |first13=Cristina |last14=García-Martínez de Lagrán |first14=Iñigo |last15=Garrido-Pena |first15=Rafael |last16=Alt |first16=Kurt W. |last17=Jeong |first17=Choongwon |last18=Schiffels |first18=Stephan |last19=Utrilla |first19=Pilar |last20=Krause |first20=Johannes |last21=Haak |first21=Wolfgang |title=Survival of Late Pleistocene Hunter-Gatherer Ancestry in the Iberian Peninsula |journal=Current Biology |publisher=Elsevier BV |volume=29 |issue=7 |year=2019 |issn=0960-9822 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.006 |pages=1169–1177.e7|pmid=30880015 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2019CBio...29E1169V |hdl=10261/208851 |hdl-access=free }}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Azilian}}

{{Prehistoric technology|state=expanded}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Azilian| ]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures in France]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures in Spain]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures of Europe]]
[[Category:Hunter-gatherers of Europe]]
[[Category:Industries (archaeology)]]
[[Category:Magdalenian]]
[[Category:Mesolithic cultures of Europe]]
[[Category:Upper Paleolithic cultures of Europe]]
[[Category:11th millennium BC]]