Seasonal Camps
Upper Paleolithic people had to schedule their activities accordingly. The best indication of this is that they occupied sites for only a portion of the year before moving on to other places and other resources. Their existence was a mobile one but by no means one of aimless wandering. They regularly returned to the same locations each year to hunt the same animals and gather the same plants. Frequently, they left behind small hoards, or caches, of materials such as high-quality stone or even spear-points, undoubtedly in anticipation of their return. Seen here is a cache of flint blade cores that were hidden beneath a pile of river cobbles in a Gravettian level at Le Flageolet I, France. Whoever left this behind must have intended to return, perhaps in the same season the following year.
