Editing History of Europe (section)

=== Paleolithic ===
[[File:Ice_age_fauna_of_northern_Spain_-_Mauricio_Antón.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Late Pleistocene]] saw [[Quaternary extinction event|extinction]]s of numerous predominantly [[megafauna]]l species, coinciding in time with the [[early human migrations]] across continents.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Smith|first1=Felisa A.|display-authors=etal.|date=20 April 2018|title=Body size downgrading of mammals over the late Quaternary|journal=Science|volume=360|issue=6386|pages=310–313|doi=10.1126/science.aao5987|pmid=29674591|bibcode=2018Sci...360..310S|doi-access=free}}</ref>]]

''[[Homo erectus]]'' migrated from Africa to Europe before the emergence of modern humans. ''[[Homo erectus georgicus]]'', which lived roughly 1.8&nbsp;million years ago in [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], is the earliest [[hominid]] to be discovered in Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal|author1=A. Vekua|author2=D. Lordkipanidze|author3=G.P. Rightmire|author4=J. Agusti|author5=R. Ferring|author6=G. [[Maisuradze]]|year=2002|title=A new skull of early ''Homo'' from Dmanisi, Georgia|journal=Science|volume=297|pages=85–89|doi=10.1126/science.1072953|pmid=12098694|issue=5578|display-authors=etal|bibcode=2002Sci...297...85V|s2cid=32726786}}</ref> The earliest appearance of [[anatomically modern humans|anatomically modern people]] in Europe has been dated to 45,000 BC, referred to as the [[Early European modern humans]]. Some locally developed transitional cultures ([[Uluzzian]] in Italy and Greece, Altmühlian in Germany, [[Szeletian]] in Central Europe and [[Châtelperronian]] in the southwest) use clearly [[Upper Paleolithic]] technologies at very early dates.

[[File:18 PanneauDesLions(PartieDroite)BisonsPoursuivisParDesLions.jpg|thumb|[[Chauvet Cave]] painting, [[Aurignacian culture]], France, c. 30,000 BC]]

Nevertheless, the definitive advance of these technologies is made by the [[Aurignacian]] culture, originating in the [[Levant]] (Ahmarian) and Hungary (first full Aurignacian). By 35,000 BC, the Aurignacian culture and its technology had extended through most of Europe. The last [[Neanderthals]] seem to have been forced to retreat to the southern half of the [[Iberian Peninsula]]. Around 29,000 BC a new technology/culture appeared in the western region of Europe: the [[Gravettian]]. This technology/culture has been theorised to have come with migrations of people from the [[Balkans]] (see [[Kozarnika]]).

Around 16,000 BC, Europe witnessed the appearance of a new culture, known as [[Magdalenian]], possibly rooted in the old Gravettian. This culture soon superseded the [[Solutrean]] area and the Gravettian of mainly France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Ukraine. The [[Hamburg culture]] prevailed in Northern Europe in the 14th and the 13th millennium BC as the [[Creswellian]] (also termed the British Late Magdalenian) did shortly after in the [[British Isles]].
Around 12,500 BC, the [[Würm glaciation]] ended. Magdalenian culture persisted until {{Circa}} 10,000 BC, when it quickly evolved into two ''[[microlith]]ist'' cultures: [[Azilian]] ([[Federmesser]]), in Spain and [[southern France]], and then [[Sauveterrian]], in southern France and [[Tardenoisian]] in Central Europe, while in Northern Europe the [[Lyngby culture|Lyngby complex]] succeeded the Hamburg culture with the influence of the [[Federmesser]] group as well.