What were the climatic changes 40,000 to 10,000 years ago?

Question

and more importantly how did this influence the technological and cultural innovations of Upper Paleothic humans?

Answer 1

The major climate change was the ending of the last ice age.This allowed humans to expand throughout the planet and lead to them developing new means to live.

Human history is divided into the Old Stone Age, New Stone Age (Neo- new, Lithic- stone) Bronze Age and Iron Age. Some add a Copper Age and it has been suggested that our age be called the Silicon Age due to the heavy use of computers.

As for the climate during the period you asked about, one site reported:

"After a brief milder interval about 40,000 years ago, the cold intensified again, peaking about 18,000 years ago. A rapid amelioration began about 15,000 years ago, and the world's climate reached near-modern conditions by 6000 B.C.E."

http://www.bartleby.com/67/18.html

The Neolithic, or New Stone Age, generally covers the period from 10,000 years ago. It is marked by the "Neolithic Revolution" that coincided with the end of the last ice age. The revolution consisted of domestication of animals, intensive cultivation of certain food plants, and ground stone tools. This lead to the rise of permanent habitations. One of the greatest advances was the development of artistic expression. This is highlighted by the great Neolithic cave paintings and stone "Venus's" Venus figurines are some of the oldest examples of art in the world. They are small figures of the female form. Those physical characteristics of the female are greatly enlarged. The face is lacking in detail and is often just hinted at. Some figures are deliberately broken; some are very detailed, while some are plain, shaped only roughly. They are thought to represent a fertility religion. They are found spread throughout Europe and Asia.

While stone was still the main material for tools, people changed their techniques to get more tools out of the same amount of rock. Grinding stone tools became common. This greatly increased their effectiveness. A ground stone axe has 80% of the cutting power of a filed steel axe. The ungrounded hand axes couldn't compete.

Prior to that, was the Old stone Age or Paleolithic. The period from 10,000 years ago to about 40,000 years ago was marked by many innovations: extensive use of bone and antler for tools, the first representative art forms, spear throwers, needles and extensive colonization of the planet. However, the paleolithic goes back almost 2.4 million years to the first stone tools.

The establishment of the 3 age system is credited to Christian Thomsen of Denmark. He organized the exhibits in the Copenhagen Museum of Antiquities under Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. Generally the material the tool was made out of determined the age it was placed in. Later, the Stone Age was divided into the paleolithic and neolithic.