Settlements dotted the land between the Danube and the northern foothills from just west of Vienna east to the river’s confluence with the Morava during the Gravettian era.
Bohuslav Klíma originally thought the archaeological site at Pavlov represented one large village with 13 huts. At Dolní Vìstonice he believed five or six huts were used at one time, and that each held 20 to 25 people. The area was enclosed by low walls of mammoth bones.
Since then, carbon dating has shown that there were multiple occupations of the areas, with long periods when bands, and probably mammoths, were elsewhere. Some of the huts served special functions. Four at Pavlov looked like they once were workshops with remnants of stone knapping. Two at Dolní Vìstonice were kilns. Another was open to the sky.
Settlements themselves seem to have served different functions. Many on the south side of the Danube-Baltic watershed may have been winter camps. The recently excavated Dolní Vìstonice VI had a central hearth surrounded by large pits where at least two mammoths were processed. The artifacts found at Pavlov I and Dolní Vìstonice suggest they were centers of communal activities.
If you look carefully at the list of dates below you notice the recurrent stops began around 26,650 years ago and continued to about 25,530 years ago. That was the millennium before the Scandinavian and Alpine glaciers began expanding. One guesses woolly mammoths were already responding to climatic change when they wintered in the Danube valley. There bands using Gravettian technology made the difficult change to become mobile hunters.
In addition to developing shelters in open fields, they were clothed. None of the Moravian burials preserved clothing, only beads, pierced teeth, and shells. From their positions on or near the body, some have been interpreted to be the remains of trim on caps at sites in Russia and Italy. Caps or hoods are one of those things we take for granted that are universal in cold climates.
The burials themselves also showed adaptations to an open environment. A woman in her 40s was found under two shoulder bones from mammoths at Dolní Vìstonice I, while an infant at DV III also was protected by shoulder blades. Three adolescents had been covered with spruce logs and branches at Dolní Vìstonice II.
In each case, the body had been covered with red ochre, and animals remains were left with each. Bones of an arctic fox were found near the left hand of the woman; the right hand still held ten fox canine teeth. The infant had the remains of a necklace of 27 fox teeth. The heads of the two young men were surrounded by pierced canines from arctic foxes and grey wolves, along with ivory beads from mammoth tusks.
Archaeologists assumed the buried individuals had some special status. The woman had signs of a disfigured face. The three adolescents were probably related because they shared rare genetic traits: no frontal sinuses, impacted upper wisdom teeth, and bony spurs in their ears. In addition, the girl laying between the two boys had a shortened, curved thigh, which would have made walking difficult. She also had shortened forearm bones.
As important as their physical attributes were the symbolic grave goods that reflected the same notions as the clay figurines. Next to the woman were some flint flakes and an ivory statue bearing an echo of her facial disfigurement. Most statuettes, like the one found at Willendorf, were generic females with exaggerated breasts, bellies or buttocks.
In addition to clay models, artisans also made images of bears, foxes, and cave lions at Dolní Vìstonice. At Pavlov they created bears and woolly rhinoceroses. Jean Clottes said that of the total 67 statuettes so far identified, 21 were bears, 11 were small carnivores, 9 were felines of some kind, 8 were mammoths, and 4 were rhinoceroses.
Like the statuettes of women mentioned in the last post, most had been fired while they were still wet and shattered. Archaeologists assumes that since they had mastered kiln making and mixed powdered bone with the clay, the fractures were deliberate.
With the exception of foxes, none of the reproduced animals were hunted or used by Gravettians. However, bones of lions and rhinoceros have been found at both Dolní Vìstonice and Pavlov in numbers that suggest they were neither rare nor common. Jirí Svoboda thought some were killed because the attacked the site or tried to raid the supplies. Some of species also would have competed with humans for rights to weakened or young mammoths.
| Site | Date C14 yrs ago | Years Between | 20 Year Genera- tions | Notes on Timing |
| DV I | 27,790 | |||
| DV II hearth | 27,660 | 130 | 6.5 | |
| DV II hearth | 27,080 | 580 | 29 | |
| DV II hearth | 27,070 | 10 | 0.5 | |
| DV II hearth | 26,970 | 100 | 5 | |
| DV II hearth | 26,920 | 50 | 2.5 | |
| Pavlov I | 26,730 | 190 | 9.5 | |
| Gap of 80 years | ||||
| Pavlov I | 26,650 | 80 | 4 | |
| DV II burial | 26,640 | 10 | 0.5 | 5 generations in 100 years |
| Pavlov I | 26,620 | 20 | 1 | |
| Pavlov I | 26,580 | 40 | 2 | |
| DV II hearth | 26,550 | 30 | 1.5 | |
| Gap of 120 years | ||||
| DV I hearth | 26,430 | 120 | 6 | |
| Pavlov I | 26,400 | 30 | 1.5 | 2 generations in 10 years |
| DV II | 26,390 | 10 | 0.5 | |
| Gap of 200 years | ||||
| DV IIa | 26,190 | 200 | 10 | |
| Pavlov I | 26,170 | 20 | 1 | 2 generations in 30 years |
| DV III | 26,160 | 10 | 0.5 | |
| DV II | 26,100 | 60 | 3 | |
| Gap of 160 years | ||||
| Pavlov I | 26,000 | 100 | 5 | |
| DV I | 25,950 | 50 | 2.5 | 2.5 generations in 50 years |
| Gap of 60 years | ||||
| DV IIa | 25,890 | 60 | 3 | |
| DV IIa | 25,870 | 20 | 1 | 7.5 generations in 150 years |
| Pavlov I | 25,840 | 30 | 1.5 | |
| DV I middle | 25,820 | 20 | 1 | |
| DV I | 25,790 | 30 | 1.5 | |
| DV II hearth | 25,740 | 50 | 2.5 | |
| Gap of 170 years | ||||
| DV II burial | 25,570 | 170 | 8.5 | |
| Pavlov I | 25,530 | 40 | 2 | 2 generations in 40 years |
| Pavlov I | 25,160 | 370 | 18.5 | |
| Pavlov I | 25,020 | 140 | 7 | |
| DV III hearth | 24,560 | 460 | 23 | |
| DV I | 22,840 | 1720 | 86 |
Dates from Don Hitchcock from material provided by Jirí Svoboda
DV = Dolní Vìstonice
Notes:
Clottes, Jean. "Art between 30,000 and 20,000 bp," in Wil Roebroeks, Margherita Mussi, Jiøí Svodoba and Kelly Fennema, Hunters of the Golden Age, 1999; the other animal statues were 6 birds, 6 horses, 1 caprid (ibex), and 1 deer.
Hitchcock, Don. "Dolní Vìstonice and Pavlov Sites," Don’s Maps website.
Jochim, Michael. "The Upper Paleolithic," in Sarunas Milisauskas, European Prehistory, 2011 second edition.
Soffer, O., J. M. Adovasio, and D. C. Hyland. "The ‘Venus’ Figurines: Textiles, Basketry, Gender, and Status in the Upper Paleolithic," Current Anthropology 41:511-537:2000.
_____, _____, _____, B. Klíma, and J. Svoboda. " Perishable Industries from Dolní Vìstonice I: New Insights into the Nature and Origin of the Gravettian," Society for American Archaeology, annual meeting, 1998.
Svoboda, Jirí. "The Pavlov Site, Czech Republic: Lithic Evidence from the Upper Paleolithic," Journal of Field Archaeology 21:69-81:1994.
_____. "The Gravettian on the Middle Danube," Paleo 19:203-220:2007.
_____, V. Formicola, and A. Pontrandolif. "The Upper Paleolithic Triple Burial of Dolní Vìstonice: Pathology and Funerary Behavior," American Journal of Physical Anthropology 115:372-374:2001.
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