The Development of Human Creativity: Cognitive Substrates of the Upper Paleolithic Archaeological Record

The Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition (ca. 40,000 years BP) and the following Upper Paleolithic period witnessed a major leap in human creativity. In this period we see far more objets d’art, more complex tool-kits, and evidence for an increase in human capacity for ritual and belief compared to previous stages in human evolution. In correlation with the aforementioned progress perhaps the most significant development in biological history of humankind is the prevalence of a new species of Homo, i.e., Homo sapiens sapiens, aka Behaviorally Modern Human. In this paper it has been attempted to discuss the underlying cognitive abilities for the development of creativity in Homo sapiens sapiens by using archaeological finds left behind from latter change as well as finds indirectly pertaining to developments such as ritual and burial rites, artistic exprssions, abstract reasoning, and ultimately an apparently coherent and structured language, As conclusion, we will explore the ramifications of these novelties in what it means to be human