Per Sonal or Na Ments in the Early up per Paleolithic of West Ern Eur Asia: an Eval U a Tion of the Re Cord

The ear li est oc cur rences of per sonal or na ments in West ern Eur asia are known from as sem blages that are placed at the Mid dle to Up per Paleolithic Tran si tion (Chatelperronian, Uluzzian, Blattspitzengruppen, Bachokirian). How ever, the pau city of sites dat ing to this pe riod which have pro duced such or na ments, the of ten doubt ful con tex tual as so ci a tion of the finds, and the lim ited num ber of per sonal or na ments known to date from this pe riod, bring into ques tion their uti li za tion prior to the Protoaurignacian. In con trast, per sonal or na ments are a reg u lar com po nent of Aurig na cian as sem blages, show ing a broad spec trum of form, raw ma te rial and tech niques of at tach ment. In this pa per we ar gue that per sonal or na ments did not oc cur in Eu rope be fore about 38.0 ka C BP and that their ap pear ance on the con ti nent is linked to the ar rival of An a tom i cally Mod ern Hu mans.