Cro Magnons are associated with the Aurignacian culture, (occurred between 38,000 and 22,000 years ago) and hunted mainly with spears, (bow and arrows were later developed). Cro Magnon made tools from blades of Flint stone, used for preparing animal skins. Significant innovations was pierced shells, tooth and bone pendants used for body ornamentation. Their art extended to Venus figures, ritual statuettes of bone, and they made outline cave wall drawings of wolly rhinos, mammoths, cave lions and cave bears. Cro-Magnons used colors like red, black and brown from different types of berries and other materials, like fire coal. Both Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon feasted on a wide variety of ungulate species including reindeer, roe deer and horse. But although the Cro Magnon belonged to a hunting culture, were semi-nomadic following the movements of the animals during the seasons, and sometimes made huts and dwellings constructed of mammoth bones and lined with limestone slabs, tooth analysis indicates that they were not as extreme carnivorous as Neanderthals, they probably ate a wide range products, including collected plants. Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) people hunted mammoths, as is evidenced by remains of the animals found together with tools, and may have contributed to the extinction of mammoths and other species.
Cave paintings of mammoth made by Cro Magnons.
More information: Mann A. & Minugh N., "Cro-Magnon man", Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, 1995
