The group sizes inferred from Upper Paleolithic site distributions and ethnographic parallels with historically documented hunter-gatherers range from perhaps fifteen to fifty individuals for the immediate co-residential group, with networks of relationship and exchange extending to larger coalitions of hundreds or even thousands of people across a landscape.

These extended networks were maintained through periodic aggregation — gatherings at favorable locations during resource-rich seasons — and through the exchange of mates, goods, and information.

The personal ornaments found in Upper Paleolithic sites — beads, pendants, engraved objects — are understood by archaeologists as markers of identity and social affiliation.

Who you were, in a small mobile group in ice-age Europe, was defined in part by what you wore, what symbols you carried, what materials you had obtained through trade or exchange.

These objects signaled membership in social groups and networks and facilitated interaction across the distances between groups.