The end of the ice age

after 18000 the last glacial maximum ended. when the glacial period ended the Holocene began. the coldest period was the younger Dryas and the warmest was the Bolling. During the warm period plants and grass were productive in the tundra and steppes. Animals like horses, bison, and ibex flourished while others such as mammoth suffered. Evidence have shown mammoth were suffering from nutritional stress during the glacial maximum. by 1200 bp no more mammoth in Europe. Around 1600-1500ya human groups started to expand north out of the Franco-Cantabrian region. these people were know as the magdalenian culture.

the Magdalenian

The Magdalenian culture is the most spectacular of the Upper Paleolithic. There’s evidence for economic innovation, complex social interactions, and elaborate art and ritual activity. This period is characterized by huge numbers of blades and bladelets, burins, and backed blades that were inset into bone or antler to fashion composite tools. There are also numerous bone points which are sometimes carved with barbs designed to detach into wounds. These might have been harpoons. As the Magdalenian culture flourished in western Europe after the last glacial maximum, the Epigravettian culture continued in eastern Europe and Italy