From Rifle to Kalashnikov

At the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (20,000 ya) global temperatures started to increase. During this climatic shift, known as the Bølling-Allerød interstadial, the open tundra vegetation in the alluvial plains was slowly replaced with dense forests, pushing the mammoth and later the reindeer further and further north. Hunted animals shifted from steppe species, such as large bodied auroch and reindeer, to temperate forest species dominated by moose, ibex, chamois antelope and red deer.

As mentioned in The Big Game Hunters of the Vézère Valley post, this transforming landscape and subsequent changes in the hunting staple resulted in significant adaptations in weaponry used by the Late Upper Palaeolithic toolmakers. Hunting in the dense forests required smaller and lighter tools that could be propelled over shorter distances and with great force. During the Upper Palaeolithic flint projectile points already became smaller, lighter and more sophisticated and this technological development reached its peak during the period called the Magdalenian (19,000 - 12,000 ya).

The Late Magdalenians

The Late Magdalenian technocomplex is still dominated by their main staple food, the reindeer. Their toolkit is characterised by small carinated prismatic cores, slender end-scrapers, burin/end-scraper composite tools, specialised burins for bone and antler work and denticulated saws. In later phases these tools are complemented with harpoons made of bone, antler, and ivory that are the ‘type fossils’, so to speak, the chronological markers of this era.

Magdalenian reindeer processing toolkit (Laugerie Haute and Basse, France), clockwise from the left: burin/end-scraper and end-scraper, two burins, two denticulates and two perforators (zinken).

During the Bølling-Allerød warming we can start to see the first Magdalenian adaptations to the transforming landscape with the emergence of a microlithic blade component. Some of these blades were so small that some believe that they were used in arrows. Some of the sharp edged blades with steeply trimmed backs, so called lamelles à bord abattu, were most certainly used as barbs hafted into composite projectiles made from antler, bone or wood.

Magdalenian microlithic barb (L=2cm), lamelle à bord abattu, from Laugerie Basse (Dordogne)

Such armatures may have been tipped with sharp leaf-shaped points, known as fléchettes. Examples of these little arrows or darts have been found in Laugerie Basse, a Magdalenian site in the Vézère valley located under a deep limestone abri 15 meters above the level of the river (see a reconstruction of this Magdalenian rockshelter here). These fléchettes are characterised by direct semi-abrubt retouch along one of the edges and partial inverse retouch on the other, limited to the tip in this example. (for other examples see: Aggsbach and Don's maps).

Pointe de Laugerie (L=4cm)

Rather than being used as arrows, the Late Magdalenians most likely used them in light spears propelled by spear throwers for hunting horses, reindeer, aurochs and other species living in this, still open, landscape. This pronounced trend toward increased microlithisation suggests a smooth transition from the Magdalenian into the Mesolithic era, however nothing could be further from the truth.

Around the same time in continental Northern Europe we start seeing the development of new projectile points such as the shouldered (pointes á cran) and tanged points, which were probably still launched with spear throwers like the Magdalenian composite projectiles, but they may have been fired from bows. These assemblages, known as the Hamburg culture, also contain a large fraction of antler working tools such as zinken perforators and burins indicating that reindeer were still a significant part of their staple diet. British equivalents of this culture are known from the south coast in Dorset, with the Hengistbury Head site being one of the most famous. In Britain this period is succeeded with the Creswellian culture, named after Creswell Crags in Nottinghamshire, characterised by Creswell and Cheddar points.

This point from North Somerset shows some of the Hamburgian projectile point characteristics, including the shoulder and tang. The tang would have aided the mounting of these tips to the arrow shaft and perhaps mark the first use a new means to propel arrows, the bow.

This Late Upper Palaeolithic toolkit contains a large fraction of bone and antler working tools such as burins and zinken, indicating that reindeer still were part of the hunting staple, at least in during the winter season.

As a result of the continued warming during the Allerød (~15,000 ya), with a rise in the mean annual temperature from around -8 to 7°C in Britain, profound changes were required in hunting and processing strategies, as evidenced by the loss of old technologies, including antler and bone working tools. In continental Europe the descendants of Hamburgians further refined their shouldered/tanged projectile points into Federmesser points. These points, derived from the German word for penknife, are small arrow points with regularly curved backs, which represent almost half of the assemblages. Federmesser points are usually seen as arrow tips propelled by bows and the invention of the bow may have been a necessary adaptation to hunting in dense birch and pine forests where long spears propelled by atlatls or spearthrowers may have been too unwieldy. Another major advantage of the bow is that arrows can be fired at every angle imaginable, in ways that would be impossible with a spear.

Late Upper Palaeolithic fléchette (L=3.5cm) from Siorac-en-Périgord (Dordogne) showing great similarity to the curve-backed points from the Northern European Federmesser and Tjonger cultures. A bow-propelled projectile point, the Kalashnikov of the stone age, the product of adaptations to hunting in thick forests in an ever-warming world.

A comparable adaptation occured in more recent history. Since the middle of the 19th century until after World War I the rifle was the standard infantry arm of many nation’s armies but during close-quarter fighting in dense forests the powerful rifle was over-ranged and the bayonet, attached to the excessively long barrel, often unwieldy. Just like the bow-and-arrow, lighter and shorter arms such as the Kalashnikov type weapons, developed after WWI, were much more suitable under these conditions because of the excellent close-range fire power, high rate of fire, large magazine capacity and lighter cartridge. The video with Lars Andersen shows the agility and fire rate you can achieve with a bow.

The oldest indication for the use of bow-and-arrow comes from the Late Upper Palaeolithic site of Stellmoor (10,800 ya) in the Ahrensburg valley north of Hamburg, Germany. Bows eventually replaced spear-throwers as the predominant means for propelling projectiles on all continents except Australia.

Although the Federmesser hunters experienced a short cold period called the Older Dryas between Bølling and Allerød warm periods, lasting a few hundred years, they weren’t prepared for what was going to hit them next. Things were going to get worse. Whilst the Federmesser culture was used to short distance deer hunts in dense forests, their descendants had to readapt to a treeless tundra landscape, hunting reindeer over long distances.

The Big Freeze

The Bølling-Allerød warming period was interspersed by a sequence of ‘cold spells’ following the Last Glacial Maximum, which include the already mentioned Older (~14,000 ya) and Oldest Dryas (~15,000 ya). Between 12,700 and 11,500 years ago global warming is interrupted by third cold period which this time resulted in a climatic catastrophy in the Northern Hemisphere, apparently resulting from the deglaciation of the North American ice sheets, reducing the Gulf stream heat conveyor.

The woodland adapted Late Magdalenian Federmesser hunters were suddenly confronted with an extensive cold and dry period of approximately 1500 years long, resulting in deforestation and the return of tundra vegetation, which included the cold-loving alpine species Dryas octopetala, whose pollen gave witness to the frigid tundra wasteland and after which this period is named: the Younger Dryas. Nitrogen-isotope analysis of Greenland ice cores estimate that the mercury may have dropped by 15˚C during the ‘peak’ of the Younger Dryas compared to today’s averages. Image by Jürgen Grensing, Panoramio/Google Maps.

Temperature fluctuations over the past 15,000 years, showing the overall global warming during the Bølling-Allerød interstadial followed by the extended Younger Dryas cold period. (source: wattsupwiththat.com).

The returning reindeer herds from the north prompted dramatic adaptations in hunter-gatherer subsistence and mobility behavior, which probably happened in less than one generation’s time. The new generation of reindeer and elk hunters had to follow the herds moving south, which meant that some northern regions, including Britain, experienced a steep drop in population and may have been unoccupied at times. This 'cold snap' also had a visible impact on hunter-gathers toolkits and we see the appearance of a variety of tanged point groups in Northern Europe, including the bow propelled Ahrensburgian points from the Ahrensburg valley. These cultures appear to have adapted very well to local environment niches in spite of difficult climatic conditions, however things were about to change again.

The ending of the Younger Dryas came even faster than it had begun and ice core data suggest that the climate warmed up by 10˚C in over just 40–50 years. During one of the three discrete five-year warming steps the mean annual temperature went up by 7 ˚C in just a few years. With this rapid improvement of climate, around 11,500 years ago, the tanged point cultures either moved northward or adapted to the returning forests and changed their technology accordingly. Abandoned Britain populated again around 11,000 years ago and we're entering the Mesolithic period when the Late Magdalenian composite arrows, set with small stone barbs and tips, were 'reinvented' and dominated the hunting toolkit for 5,000 year, until agriculture arrived.

Mesolithic microliths from North Somerset.

*Thanks to Chris Brace for useful discussions on rifles, Kalashnikovs and bows.