Cro-Magnon

Cro-Magnon

Population of anatomically modern Homo sapiens dating from the Upper Paleolithic Period (c. 35,000–10,000 BC). First discovered in 1868 at the Cro-Magnon rock shelter in the Dordogne region in southern France, the human skeletons that came to be called Cro-Magnon are now considered representative of humans at that time. Cro-Magnons were relatively more robust and powerful than today's humans, with a somewhat larger brain capacity. The Cro-Magnons are generally associated with the Aurignacian tool industry and artistic tradition (see Aurignacian culture). Cro-Magnons seem to have been a settled people, living in caves or primitive huts and lean-tos, moving only when necessary to find new hunting or because of environmental changes. It is difficult to determine how long the Cro-Magnons lasted and what happened to them; presumably they were gradually absorbed into the European populations that came later.