Paleolithic People

The ways of life of the Upper Palaeolithic people are known through the remains of meals scattered around their hearths, together with many tools and weapons and the debris leftover from their making. The people were hunter-gatherers who lived exclusively from what they could find in nature without practicing either agriculture or herding. They hunted the bigger herbivores, while berries, leaves, roots, wild fruit, and mushrooms probably played a major role in their diet. Their hunting was indiscriminate; perhaps because so many animals were about, they did not need to spare pregnant females or the young. In the cave of Enlene, for example, many bones of reindeer and bison foetuses were found. Apparently, Upper Palaeolithic people hunted like other predators and killed the weakest prey first. They did, however, sometimes concentrate on salmon runs and migrating herds of reindeer. Contrary to popular beliefs about cavemen, Upper Palaeolithic people did not live deep inside caves. They lived rather close to the foot of cliffs, especially when an overhang provided good shelter. On the plains and in the valleys, they used tents made from hides of the animals they killed. At times, on the great Russian plains, they built huts from huge bones and tusks collected from mammal skeletons.