ART AT THE END OF THE ICE AGE

ACROSS THE RIVER from the port town of Brest in western Brittany, a quartzite outcropping rises above a forested coastline dotted with stately homes. Known as Rocher de l’Imperatrice, or “Rock of the Empress,” in honor of Napoleon III’s wife Eugenie, it was the home of hunter-gatherers who lived in a rock shelter nestled below its cliffs some 14,000 years ago. Sea levels then were approximately 300 feet lower and the site was about 60 miles inland. The view from the shelter took in a wide open steppe dotted with junipers and birches, where horses, elk, and smaller animals gathered near the region’s rivers.

For the prehistoric people who sought refuge in the shelter towards the end of the last Ice Age, this was a rapidly evolving landscape. Europe was undergoing dramatic environmental changes. The glaciers that once covered the northern part of the continent were retreating. Tundras were transforming into grasslands and forests. The vast herds of animals adapted to the cold, such as reindeer, which humans once relied upon for food, were disappearing from their old habitats. Bands of hunter-gatherers were expanding into unfamiliar places. The tools they made were changing, too. Whether in response to