Introduction
In 1868, here in the rock shelter of Cro-Magnon in the Vézère Valley of Southwestern France the remains of four adults and a fetus were discovered. Dating to about 30,000 years ago, they were found with stone tools and the remains of extinct animals. This CD celebrates the accomplishments of such anatomically and culturally modern humans, the Cro-Magnons, as they existed in Europe from 40,000 to 12,000 years ago, a period known to archaeologists as the Upper Paleolithic, or late Ice Age.
The record we have found of their life provides one of the most exciting stories of new ideas and practical advances in the whole span of the human past. During this time, we see a virtual explosion of symbolic behavior, best exemplified by the cave and portable art of western Europe. Recently, dramatic evidence of their accomplishments was discovered in the Grotte Chauvet in SE France, where paintings such as that shown here are dated to about 30,000 years ago. This revolutionary period of human achievement contrasts sharply with the longer, quite stagnant period beginning around 100,000 years ago or earlier, when the Neandertals lived scattered over many of the same areas.
