Humans confront the Last Glacial Maximum in Western Europe: Reflections on the Solutrean weaponry phenomenon in the broader contexts of technological change and cultural adaptation

Lithic weapon tips have existed at least since the Middle Paleolithic. Beginning in the Early Upper Paleolithic of Europe, bladelet (a.k.a. microblade) elements used as edges, barbs or tips were added to the repertoire of weapon technology. Various forms thereof are present in Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian assemblages. In the Solutrean, they are found together with large stone points (foliate, shouldered, stemmed), presumably used on different kinds of weapons (thrusting spears, hand-thrown javelins, atl-atl darts and perhaps even bow-propelled arrows). These different kinds of weapon systems existed throughout the Upper Paleolithic under both stadial and interstadial conditions and, once invented (or re-invented) seem to have been variations on the same classes of projectiles whose functional distinctions remain to be identified. Nonetheless, in the Solutrean context during the Last Glacial Maximum (c. 25-20 cal ka), developments in weaponry (including the use of bladelets along with the better-known Solutrean points) were parts of a suite of adaptations to extreme environmental conditions ranging from territorial contraction into refugia in SW Europe to subsistence intensification.