Late Glacial Archaeology

This short paper reports on the absolute dating of a bone tool found in the Late Glacial Moervaart lake, NW Belgium (Crombe et al., 2012). A collagen sample, which was pretreated by means of a cross flow nanofiltration, yielded a radiocarbon date of 8671 ± 43 BP (RICH-20191). This situates the bone artifact in the first half of the 8th millennium cal BC, when the Moervaart area was densely occupied by Early Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.

The lithic projectile points of the Late Upper Palaeolithic (~14.7-11.7 ka BP) in Northern Europe display a marked variation in size and design. The small tanged points characteristic of the latest phase in the sequence can be directly associated with finds of arrow-shafts and bow fragments, benchmarking the presence of archery. In the absence of such organic evidence during the older phases, size differences between tip designs may be used, with reference to ballistic principles, to derive hypotheses about ancient weapon systems. By calculating tip cross-sectional area values for a large sample of shouldered, backed, and tanged points from sites across the Northern Europe, we here explore likely changes in weapon use through time. In this context we specifically investigate the likelihood of the smallest of these tips as having been used with poison to increase hunting success. Our results show that: (i) bow-and-arrow technology most likely was in use already during the earliest phases of human occupation in the region; (ii) later on, different weapon systems equipped with different tip designs were used in parallel; and (iii) the smallest of lithic armatures align well with ethnographically documented poisoned arrows. To assist with future studies in the use of arrow poisons in Europe, we provide a list of potential poison sources, where they are currently distributed in the context of our study area.

 During road construction work, material attributed to the Final Palaeolithic was discovered at Skovmosen I, near Kongens Lyngby on Zealand, eastern Denmark. Although it is regularly mentioned in reviews of the southern Scandinavian Final Palaeolithic, the Skovmosen I assemblage has hitherto remained poorly described. We here review the site’s discovery history and its context. Aided by a three-dimensional digital recording protocol, this article details the assemblage composition and its technology. The assemblage is comprised of tanged points, scrapers and burins, alongside blades and cores as primary reduction products. Although evidently disturbed by the road construction that led to the site’s discovery, the material likely reflects the remains of a small Final Palaeolithic locale, where diverse activities were carried out.

Over twelve thousand years ago, our planet weathered a sequence of three devastating upheavals: the Bölling Interstadial, the Younger Dryas, and the Preboreal warming phase. These episodes etched profound changes into the world's weather patterns, terrain, and the foundations of early human civilizations. Though unique in their consequences, they share a common thread in their chronology and worldwide repercussions. They remain classified as: CAUSE UNKNOWN.

The article presents a multifaceted analysis of two collections of flint products from Late Palaeolithic pits discovered during the excavations of sites Ludowice 6 (Ryńsk commune), and Paliwodzizna 29 (Golub-Dobrzyń commune). Both sites are located in the Chełmno-Dobrzyń Lake District in central Poland. The research included raw material analysis, technological and morphological analysis, studies using the refitting method, and usewear analysis. As a result of the conducted study, it was shown that both features are most likely a remnant of refuse pits in the type of so-called waste heaps, but their detailed functional origins are different.

 During road construction work, material attributed to the Final Palaeolithic was discovered at Skovmosen I, near Kongens Lyngby on Zealand, eastern Denmark. Although it is regularly mentioned in reviews of the southern Scandinavian Final Palaeolithic, the Skovmosen I assemblage has hitherto remained poorly described. We here review the site’s discovery history and its context. Aided by a three-dimensional digital recording protocol, this article details the assemblage composition and its technology. The assemblage is comprised of tanged points, scrapers and burins, alongside blades and cores as primary reduction products. Although evidently disturbed by the road construction that led to the site’s discovery, the material likely reflects the remains of a small Final Palaeolithic locale, where diverse activities were carried out.

This paper describes a new Federmessergruppen site at Lubrza in the Łagów Lake District of western Poland. Here, rescue excavations preceding motorway construction uncovered a surface of close to two hectares, revealing episodes of occupation extending from the late Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages. Seven concentrations of flint artefacts with a total of over 10 000 lithics were assigned to late Palaeolithic (Federmessergruppen and Swiderian) or Mesolithic contexts. Concentrations 1 and 5 (Federmessergruppen) are described here. The former assemblage seems to represent a domestic unit, while the second is a workshop. After a description of the technological and typological aspects of the two inventories the paper examines the chronology and affinities of Polish assemblages of the Arch Backed Piece technocomplex in a broader European perspective. Zusammenfassung -Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt den neuen Federmessergruppen-Fundplatz Lubrza im Seenbezirk Łagów im westlichen Polen. Bei Rettungsgrabungen im Zuge eines Strassenbaus wurde eine Fläche von knapp zwei Hektar freigelegt, wobei Begehungshorizonte vom Spätpaläolothikum bis zum Mittelalter zum Vorschein kamen. Sieben Konzentrationen mit über 10 000 Artefakten konnten dem Spätpaläolithikum (Federmessergruppen und Swiderian), oder Mesolithikum, zugewiesen werden. Konzentration 1 und 5 (Federmessergruppen) werden hier beschrieben. Erstere scheint einen Wohnbereich zu repräsentieren, während die zweite einen Werkplatz darstellt. Nach einer Darstellung der technologischen und typologischen Aspekte der beiden Inventare werden die Chronologie und Verbindungen der polnischen Inventare des Arch Backed Piece-technokomplexes in einer breiteren europäischen Perspektive untersucht.

Identification of exotic raw-materials discovered within the context of Late Glacial societies of the North European Plain is a crucial factor in discussion about far-reaching exchange systems of goods and ideas. The present paper considers the occurrence of obsidian finds on the Polish Lowlands, hundreds of kilometers away from its sources located south of the Carpathians. The focus is on chemical recognition and identification of a large and unique assemblage of obsidian artefacts from two Polish localities based on non-invasive Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA). As a result, a clear connection of northern Polish obsidians with its outcrops located on the northern (Slovakian) fringe of the Tokaj Mountains was established that is the first detailed identification of obsidian finds from the territory of Poland ever. A review of Polish and Slovakian obsidian assemblages from the Late Glacial times and the importance of obsidian exchange and mobility for Late Palaeolithic societies of Central Europe are discussed supported by analytical results of PGAA.

The paper discusses the state-of-the-art of a chronology and a stratigraphy of the Late Glacial in the context of current analyses of dead-ice cores from Greenland and Antarctic, analyses of laminated lake and marine sediments, and dendrochronological and palaeobotanical research. The results obtained from Greenland ice cores directly influence archaeological studies on the Late Palaeolithic in Central European Lowlands. A complete sequence of climatic changes obtained from the analysis enables a more precise observation of cultural alteration in the context of dynamically changing climate conditions

During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), much of the familiar insect fauna of Northern Europe today was confined to the warmer areas south of the Alps. Chemical and microscopic analysis of hafting residues on a Final Palaeolithic barbed point from Westphalia in Germanyhas,for the first time, yielded evidence for the use of beeswax as a major component of adhesive during the later stages of the LGM. Analysis also confirmed that the beeswax was tempered with crushed charcoal. AMS dating of the Bergkamen barbed point suggests direct association with the Final Pleistocene Federmessergruppen, approximately 13000 years ago. Furthermore, the adhesive provides the first direct evidence of the honeybee, Apis mellifera, in Europe following the LGM

In my phenomenological approach of religion it is a series of conscious repeated actions that are not apparently useful and are extra-human directed. The earliest traces of those go back to the middle paleolithic with their burial and hunting rites. More pronounced are the cave paintings and carved figurines of the upper paleolithic. The transition to the neolithic is explained not as revolution out of an urgent need but as a slow process of trial and error triggered by symbolic thinking. Among the cult places of the neolithic are listed those in the Middle-East with their sculpted pillars, fresco's and small statues. Following the agricultural diffusion appeared the burial mounds in Mid-Europe and the megalithic structures in Brittany with a special mention of Malta. Arguments are provided supporting the claim that the change from hunting-gathering to agriculture was due to a mental turnover and that the psychological origin of religion lies within the human brain that in comparison to animals is more suitable in discovering the causality between events in time and space.

The Belvédère pit has yielded a consideratie amount of information about the life-style of Middle Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers and the environment in which they performed their various activities. We decided to perform a functional analysis of the flint assemblage with the hope that this would shed more light on the role of the flint artefacts in the subsistence pattern.

In februari werd in het gerenommeerde archeologische tijdschrift Antiquity een artikel gepubliceerd over de oudste mens van Nederland en de oudste kunst uit de Noordzee (Amkreutz et al. 2018). Beide vondsten zijn meer dan 13.000 jaar oud. Ze zijn uiterst zeldzame aanwijzingen voor de herbewoning van noordelijk Europa door de moderne mens na de kou van het laatste glaciale maximum van de laatste ijstijd. Deze bijdrage is een samenvatting van het betreffende artikel.

Archaeological evidence from the submerged North Sea landscape has established the rich diversity of Pleistocene and Early Holocene ecosystems and their importance to huntergatherer subsistence strategies. Comparatively little of this evidence, however, dates to the Late Glacial, the period when Northern Europe was repopulated by colonising foragers. A human parietal bone and a decorated bovid metatarsus recently recovered from the floor of the North Sea have been dated to this crucial transitional period. They are set against the background of significant climatic and environmental changes and a major technological and sociocultural transformation. These discoveries also reaffirm the importance of continental shelves as archaeological archives.

Comparative macro-archaeological investigations of the human deep past rely on the availability of unified, quality-checked datasets integrating different layers of observation. Information on the durable and ubiquitous record of Paleolithic stone artefacts and technological choices are especially pertinent to this endeavour. We here present a large expert-sourced collaborative dataset for the study of stone tool technology and artefact shape evolution across Europe between ~15.000 and 11.000 years before present. The dataset contains a compendium of key sites from the study period, and data on lithic technology and toolkit composition at the level of the cultural taxa represented by those sites. The dataset further encompasses 2D shapes of selected lithic artefact groups (armatures, endscrapers, and borers/perforators) shared between cultural taxa. These data offer novel possibilities to explore between-regional patterns of material culture change to reveal scale-dependent processe...

Within a period of a few weeks toward the end of the Allerød Interstadial, the major Plinian eruption of the Laacher See volcano produced some 20 km3 of eruptiva, covering and preserving the late-glacial landscape in the German Central Rhineland over an area of more than 1000 km2. Correlation of terrestrial archives with the Greenland ice-core records and improved calibration of the radiocarbon timescale permit a precise, accurate age determination of the Laacher See event some 200 yr before the onset of the Younger Dryas cold episode. Carbonized trees and botanical macrofossils preserved by Laacher See Tephra permit detailed regional paleoenvironmental reconstruction and show that open woodland were typical for the cool and humid hemiboreal climatic conditions during the late Allerød. This woodland provided the habitat for a large variety of animal species, documented at both paleontological and Final Paleolithic archeological sites preserved below Laacher See deposits. Of special ...

The presented paper is an attempt to analyse the available paleoenvironmental and settlement data not only to demonstrate that already at the end of the pleniglacial (greenland stadial gs-2) the conditions on the plain were favourable for the existence of human societies, but also to present evidence for the development of the lowland settlement before the gi-1e phase of the late glacial.

a wooden artefact with traces of intentional processing excavated in the late palaeolithic biogenic sediments at the site in wojnowo belongs to group of unique finds on a european plain scale. this paper presents the results of interdisciplinary analyses of the artefact, an attempt to reconstruct its history and to determine its taxonomic affiliation. key words: wojnowo, plenivistulain, vistulian, late Glacial, c 14 dating, wooden artefact, settlement przemysław BoBrowski, iwona soBkowiak-taBaka, tomasz Goslar, michał koBusiewicz, maria lityńska-zając, iwona okuniewska-nowaczyk dzieło neandertalczyków, czy późnoplejstoceńskich łowców? (drewniany przedmiot z wojnowa, Gm. karGowa, woj. luBuskie) the neanderthals or late pleistocene hunters' work? (a wooden artefact from wojnowo, karGowa commune, luBuskie proVince) wstęp wytwory organiczne zachowują się do czasów współczesnych dzięki specyficznym warunkom depozycji w utworach trawertynowych, ilastych czy torfach. najstarsze artefakty wykonane z surowców organicznych, np. kości, drewna, kory czy włókien roślinnych w postaci różnego rodzaju opraw narzędzi, oszczepów, kijów do rzucania, "pałeczek perforowanych" czy przypominających narzędzia do kopania ziemi, znane są ze środkowopaleolitycznych stanowisk w schöningen (dolna saksonia) oraz Bilzingsleben (turyngia) i łączone z działalnością przedstawicieli Homo erectus (mania, mania 1998). Bardzo liczne, zróżnicowane typologicznie (np. ostrza, fragmenty strzał, wiosła, ornamentowane płytki) i wykonane przy użyciu zaawansowanych metod obróbki artefakty drewniane pochodzą w głównej mierze ze stanowisk mezolitycznych, zachowanych dzięki konserwującym właściwościom torfów (Gramsch 2002). w trakcie badań wykopaliskowych prowadzonych na stanowisku mezolitycznym wojno-

This paper focuses initially on the 2005 discovery of a small Early Palaeo-Indian site along the Otonabee River in the northeast part of the city of Peterborough and broadens to discuss the regional context of occupation in the South Kawartha Lakes/Otonabee River and Rice Lake watersheds based on 40 years of intermittent survey and excavations. The Waverly Heights site (BcGn-13) was found during a shovel test survey with a single positive shovel test leading to a full Stage 4 excavation. The site is on the gentle north slope of a small glacial drumlin between two branches of the Otonabee River. Assigned to time period on the basis of distinctive channel flakes from the manufacture of fluted points, the site had a small hearth with bifacial debitage, a projectile point basal ear and calcined mammal bone. The calcined bone from the site indicates not just the hunting of large cervids but also consumption of fish. Proximity to a possible caribou water crossing of the glacial Otonabee River is raised. Channel flake width measurements suggest a Parkhill or later phase Palaeo-Indian occupation, perhaps Holcombe at the end of the Early Palaeo-Indian fluting tradition.
    Waverly Heights provides new information on small resource extraction sites and indicates there may be much larger regional networks of small Early Palaeo-Indian site types, originally predicted from comprehensive survey work in the Rice Lake region 20 km to the south (Jackson 1990). More than a dozen Early Palaeo-Indian sites in the western Rice Lake area include logistical game processing, hunting ambush, and multi-purpose residential camps. Significantly, reconstruction of palaeogeographic
landscapes indicates that the entire western lakebed of Rice Lake would have been a mosaic of small wetlands and dry land in the late glacial period circa 12,000 to 10,000 years BP. Multiple discoveries of fossil caribou remains from later Holocene contexts at Rice Lake, circa 6,000 to 3,000 years BP strongly indicate that caribou was a persistent resource for human occupants of the area. It is highly likely that many Early Palaeo-Indian sites are currently inaccessible below the now flooded western
Rice Lake basin because of the Holocene effects of isostatic rebound. Among these sites will be interception points for game animals, ambushes, and perhaps major processing camps similar to the Gainey Phase Sandy Ridge site on the north shore terrace of Rice Lake. The Rice Lake evidence, combined with that of Waverly Heights situated between two branches of the Otonabee River and the Chemong Portage site along a portage route between the Otonabee River and the south end of Chemong Lake, clearly
indicates a complex network of interactions between hunters, game and the myriad waterways of the late glacial period when meltwater flooded the land.

By 13,000 BP human populations were present across North America, but the exact date of arrival to the continent, especially areas south of the continental ice sheets, remains unclear. Here we examine patterns in the stratigraphic integrity of early North American sites to gain insight into the timing of first colonization. We begin by modeling stratigraphic mixing of multicomponent archaeological sites to identify signatures of stratigraphic integrity in vertical artifact distributions. From those simulations, we develop a statistic we call the Apparent Stratigraphic Integrity Index (ASI), which we apply to pre- and post-13,000 BP archaeological sites north and south of the continental ice sheets. We find that multiple early Beringian sites dating between 13,000 and 14,200 BP show excellent stratigraphic integrity. Clear signs of discrete and minimally disturbed archaeological components do not appear south of the ice sheets until the Clovis period. These results provide support fo...

Wiosną 1983 r. autorzy niniejszego sprawozdania podjęli próbę odszukania śladów osadnictwa mezolitycznego nad rzeką Karasiówką w okolicach wsi Baraki Stare i Nowe. Liczne kolekcje krzemienne zebrane na tym terenie przez nauczyciela Michała Pękalskiego w latach pięćdziesiątych 1 i Kazimierza Cieślickiego w roku 1966 2 , stanowią pokaźne zbiory liczące łącznie kilkaset zabytków. Materiały M. Pękalskiego, zebrane z powierzchni niemetodycznie, nie posiadają bliższej lokalizacji, w związku z czym niemożliwa jest próba zweryfikowania ich w terenie. Zbiory te, częściowo opracowane przez S. K. Kozłowskiego 3 i M. Rapnickiego 4 , reprezentują ubogie ślady osadnictwa późnopaleolitycznego, bogate osadnictwo kultury janisławickiej oraz bliżej nie określone późnomezolityczne. Inwentarze K. Cieślickiego pochodzą z Baraków Nowych i będą przedmiotem oddzielnego opracowania. Penetracja powierzchniowa w maju 1983 r. ciągu wydm w okolicach Baraków potwierdziła obecność śladów osadnictwa pradziejowego, głównie mezolitycznego. Zlokalizowano wówczas kilka stanowisk, z których jedno o czytelnym i zwartym układzie zabytków krzemiennych, oznaczono numerem 2, wytypowano do badań wykopaliskowych 5. Na powierzchni wydmy, w nowo odwianej niecce, odsłonięty został materiał krzemienny oraz nieliczny ceramiczny. W promieniu kilkudziesięciu metrów wokół tego skupiska zarejestrowano również ubogi materiał zabytkowy. Stanowisko 2 położone jest w pasie wydm na prawym poziomie terasowym rzeki Karasiówki 6. wyznaczających północny skraj Niziny Sandomierskiej, na przedpolu wyraźnej krawędzi 1 Zbiory M. Pękalskiego przechowywane są w Muzeum Okręgowym w Lublinie (nr inw. ML/A/331) oraz w Muzeum Rzemiosł Ludowych w Biłgoraju.

An updated discussion on the continuity of Paleolithic art in Cantabria
has not yet been addressed in depth. Known data in neighbouring
regions such as Galicia, Burgos or the Basque Country, leave the Cantabrian seaboard with no references to this continuity. We point to some new lines of research that suggest that Paleolithic art lived on in its classical form and at the same time it maintained symbolic expressions that are directly linked to the V style. C14 direct dates of some parietal surfaces from the 9th and 8th millennium B.C., which were questioned for not fitting in the previously agreed interpretative framework, should be considered as a starting point for a necessary revision of old perspectives.

 During road construction work, material attributed to the Final Palaeolithic was discovered at Skovmosen I, near Kongens Lyngby on Zealand, eastern Denmark. Although it is regularly mentioned in reviews of the southern Scandinavian Final Palaeolithic, the Skovmosen I assemblage has hitherto remained poorly described. We here review the site’s discovery history and its context. Aided by a three-dimensional digital recording protocol, this article details the assemblage composition and its technology. The assemblage is comprised of tanged points, scrapers and burins, alongside blades and cores as primary reduction products. Although evidently disturbed by the road construction that led to the site’s discovery, the material likely reflects the remains of a small Final Palaeolithic locale, where diverse activities were carried out.

The study examines sedimentology, stratigraphy, and the impact of wildfires on aeolian and soil processes during the Late Glacial Termination in the Korzeniew site, central Poland. The site, within a parabolic dune's central and lee-slope area, presents stacked aeolian sand units intermixed with six charcoal-enriched palaeosols. Thirteen optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates on quartz and six radiocarbon dates establish the chronological framework, dating deposition processes. Initial aeolian sand deposition occurred towards the Late Pleniglacial's end. Climate amelioration during the Bølling interstadial led to permafrost thaw and gleyic soil formation, later overlain by migrating parabolic dunes from the older Allerød interstadial. Wildfires, influenced by vegetation cover, deposited charcoals on the dune's lee slope. These charcoals underwent pedogenic reworking amid episodes of aeolian sand deposition during the Allerød interstadial and Younger Dryas, stabilizing in the earliest Holocene. Wildfires significantly impacted local vegetation development and aeolian activity. Despite the warmth of the Allerød interstadial, increased fires correlated with expanding pine forests and their heightened fire susceptibility. Short-term climate shifts likely destabilized vegetation, fostering fire occurrences during the Allerød interstadial.

The pressure knapping technique develops circa 25,000 cal BP in Northeast Asia and excels at producing highly standardized microblades. Microblade pressure knapping spreads throughout most of Northeast Asia up to the Russian Arctic, and Alaska, in areas where the human presence was unknown. Swan Point CZ4b is the earliest uncontested evidence of human occupation of Alaska, at around 14,000 cal BP. It yields a pressure microblade component produced with the Yubetsu method, which is widespread in Northeast Asia during the Late Glacial period. Through the techno-functional analysis of 634 lithic pieces from this site, this study seeks to identify the techno-economical purposes for which the Yubetsu method was implemented. Data show that the microblade production system is related to an economy based on the planning of future needs, which is visible through blanks standardization, their overproduction, their functional versatility, and the segmentation of part of the chaîne opératoire. This expresses the efficiency and economic value of the microblade production system. The flexible use of pressure microblades identified at Swan Point CZ4b is also found in Japan, Korea, Kamchatka, and the North Baikal region, suggesting that their modes of use accompany the spread of early microblade pressure knapping over an immense territory across Beringia. Les débitages par pression émergent ca. 25,000 cal BP au Nord-Est de l'Asie et permettent la confection de lamelles particulièrement standardisées, notamment au moyen de la méthode Yubetsu (i.e., débitage lamellaire à partir de préformes bifaciales). Ce bagage technique novateur accompagne le développement de l'occupation humaine en zone arctique et subarctique pendant le Dernier Maximum Glaciaire et le Tardiglaciaire et se retrouve dans la plupart de l'Asie du Nord-Est jusqu'à l'Arctique russe, et en Alaska. Swan Point CZ4b livre les plus anciennes industries connues en Alaska (ca. 14,000 cal BP) et c'est également le seul site d'Amérique du Nord où le débitage lamellaire est exclusivement réalisé selon la méthode Yubetsu. À partir de l'analyse techno-fonctionnelle d'un corpus de 634 pièces lithiques de ce site, l'objectif est d'identifier les finalités techniques pour lesquelles était mise en oeuvre la méthode Yubetsu, en questionnant le fonctionnement et l'économie de l'outillage. Les données acquises révèlent que le débitage lamellaire par pression était lié à une forte anticipation des besoins (i.e., standardisation des lamelles permettant de répondre aux contraintes de l'emmanchement ; surproduction en prévision des besoins futurs en outils non usés ; possible transport de préformes bifaciales permettant de différer leur utilisation ; production de préformes bifaciales utilisées comme outil et comme nucléus) et ne répond pas à une spécialisation fonctionnelle : les lamelles ont servi en armature de couteau pour la découpe voire le raclage, et en armature de projectile. Cette flexibilité fonctionnelle des lamelles par pression est également présente au Japon, en Corée, au Kamtchatka et en Sibérie orientale, ce qui suggère que leurs modalités de mise en oeuvre ont accompagné la diffusion des premières technologies lamellaires par pression sur un territoire immense, de part et d'autre du détroit de Béring.

The work is a monographic study of research conducted in recent decades on the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Pomerania. It presents the characteristics of cultural complexes, thier development, and the way they adapted to chaning environmental conditions. An important part of the work is a catalog of sources for all the more significant sites of this period in Pomerania.

Åarjelsaemien tsoevtsh – South Sámi snow patches: Reindeer (Rangifer Tarandus Tarandus) was the first ungulate to migrate into the Scandinavian peninsula after the great melt at the end of the last Ice Age. The people who followed soon after, were well aware of the reindeers’ behavior, as it was the animal they had hunted and depended upon for several thousands of years. In the Sámi herder culture, a wealth of knowledge about much of the reindeer's behavior, at various times of the year and in different situations is preserved. There is therefore every reason to try and include this knowledge when trying to understand past traditions and practices in connection with, for example hunting and herding reindeer in alpine areas. The results from the project show that there is still a rich and vibrant tradition of Sami use of these areas. The areas of snow and ice during the summer months are still important for both humans and reindeer. Sami knowledge is valuable for understanding ho...

The lithic assemblage studied here comes from Cova Rosa, one of the main Upper Palaeolithic sites in Asturias (northern Spain). The remains were found in Layer B5, which was excavated by F. Jordá Cerdá and A. Gómez Fuentes in 1978 and are associated with an osseous assemblage and archaeozoological remains. This occupation has been dated by radiocarbon to about 16,400 BP (ca. 19.8-19.6 ka cal BP), corresponding to Archaic/Lower Magdalenian. The present study combines the determination of the raw materials and the identification of the production systems to achieve an understanding of the management of lithic resources by hunter-gatherer groups in the Late Pleistocene. The sourcing of mostly local materials (mainly Piloña flint), the wide variety of rock types of diverse provenances (up to 10 types), and the presence of wellrepresented lithological tracers (Flysch, Chalosse) turn Cova Rosa into an important case for studying different lithic raw material procurement models. The predominance of microlaminar production and the variability in the exploitation strategies used to obtain backed tools, as well as the poor standardisation of flake production, follow the dynamics observed in other occupations of similar chronology in a wide geographical area that includes Cantabrian Spain and southwest France.

The lithic assemblage studied here comes from Cova Rosa, one of the main Upper Palaeolithic sites in Asturias (northern
Spain). The remains were found in Layer B5, which was excavated by F. Jordá Cerdá and A. Gómez Fuentes in 1978 and
are associated with an osseous assemblage and archaeozoological remains. This occupation has been dated by radiocarbon
to about 16,400 BP (ca. 19.8–19.6 ka cal BP), corresponding to Archaic/Lower Magdalenian. The present study combines
the determination of the raw materials and the identification of the production systems to achieve an understanding of the
management of lithic resources by hunter-gatherer groups in the Late Pleistocene. The sourcing of mostly local materials
(mainly Piloña flint), the wide variety of rock types of diverse provenances (up to 10 types), and the presence of wellrepresented
lithological tracers (Flysch, Chalosse) turn Cova Rosa into an important case for studying different lithic raw
material procurement models. The predominance of microlaminar production and the variability in the exploitation strategies
used to obtain backed tools, as well as the poor standardisation of flake production, follow the dynamics observed in
other occupations of similar chronology in a wide geographical area that includes Cantabrian Spain and south-west France.

Little is known about human settlement in prehistoric times in the low mountain ranges in central Germany. One of these ranges, the Spessart mountains, are known from written sources of the 1850s to have been a very poor area, where people suffered from starvation and numerous diseases. New interdisciplinary research in one catchment provides evidence that the region has first

Qu a rtä r In te rn a tio na le s J a hrbu c h z u r Eis z e ita lte r-u nd Ste C and OSL dating, as well as for malacological, micromorphology, microtephra and magnetic susceptibility analyses were collected from the entire stratigraphy. The excavations show that find-bearing areas are still preserved throughout the Willendorf II sequence.

As a result of the rescue excavation at 11 Vídeňská Street in 2021, we can specify the extension of a previously excavated area in the cadastral territory of Štýřice. A small collection of chipped stone industry and animal bones was unearthed. The form of these finds, their stratigraphic position, and a radio carbon date retrieved from one of the animal bones enable us to connect this location with a previously excavated Epigravettian settlement, located just tens of metres to the west from the newly excavated site. The composition of the chipped stone industry (predominance of burins) together with the burin blows indicates the possibility of a shortterm site for processing hunted fauna.

Nowa Biała 1 is a unique site of the Federmesser culture in the area of Carpathian Mountains, and also one of the few Final Palaeolithic sites known from this territory. From taxonomic point of view the artefacts represent the Federmesser culture as an element of Arch-backed points technocomplex (APT)-well known from the European Plain and practically quite unknown from the mountains till now. Hunters' camp, with the dwelling structure and workshop, was situated on a terrace of the Białka River close to its gorge, and in the proximity of a rocky hill (the Obłazowa Rock)-which itself was a great observation spot. The cultural layer found in the site was connected with an initial soil, the presence of which was observed within the aeolian loess-like deposits. Thie age of pedogenic processes (based on OSL dating) was undoubtedly younger than 14.7 ka and older than 11 ka. Radiocarbon dating suggests the Late Allerød age of the site. The present paper contains the results of

El Cierro Cave (Ribadesella, Asturias, Spain) possesses one of the most complete Upper Palaeolithic stratigraphic sequences
in northern Spain. Magdalenian occupations, particularly the lower Magdalenian, are well represented in its full sequence.
This article presents the zooarchaeological analysis of the levels Cierro G1, Cierro G and Cierro F, dated by 14C to between
20,000 and 17,000 cal BP. The remains correspond to vertebrates (mainly large mammals and to a lesser extent fish and birds)
and invertebrates (almost exclusively marine molluscs). The taphonomic analysis of the bones and shells has determined
the role that the different animal resources played in the diet of the Magdalenian hunter-gatherers at El Cierro. The results
obtained in each level of the sequence are compared and included in their regional context. This study also considers the
way in which the Magdalenian groups at El Cierro processed the meat and fat of the different animal species and establishes
the operational chain in the strategies of procurement, preparation and consumption of the prey.

Le castor (Castor fiber L.) etait en voie de disparition au debut du XXeme siecle, avant d'etre protege puis reintroduit dans la plupart des pays europeens. Aujourd'hui, l'animal recolonise rapidement les hydrosystemes (fleuves, rivieres, lacs...). Sa reintroduction peut etre consideree comme un grand succes ecologique. Lorsqu'une espece fait l'objet de plans de reintroduction, il apparait inexorable de se demander quels sont les objectifs a atteindre et comment les definir... Quelle epoque doit etre consideree comme point de reference ? A partir de quelles donnees et de quels indices caracteriser l'extension, si l'on peut dire, " initiale " des populations ? Ces questions sont particulierement decisives concernant le castor qui modifie intensement son milieu de vie. Le propos de cet article est de determiner les principales zones refuges du castor pendant la glaciation de Wurm et de retracer les grandes etapes de sa colonisation des vallees eur...

Visible and non-visible (cryptotephra) volcanic ash layers are increasingly being used to underpin the chronology and high-precision correlation of sequences dating to the last glacial-interglacial transition (LGIT). As the number of sediment records analysed for tephra content rises, and methodological developments permit the detection, extraction and chemical analysis of increasingly scantily represented glass shard concentrations, greater complexity in shard count profiles is elucidated. Here we present new evidence from sites in Scotland, and review published evidence from sites elsewhere in NW Europe, that indicate complexity in the eruptive history of Katla volcano during the mid-Younger Dryas and Early Holocene. We propose evidence for a previously-overlooked tephra isochron, here named the Abernethy Tephra, which is consistently found to lie close to the Younger Dryas/Holocene transition. It has a major-element chemical profile indistinguishable from that of the Vedde Ash, which was erupted from the Katla volcano at 12,121 ±114 cal a BP. The new data suggest that Katla may have erupted again between 11,720-11,230 cal a BP and the subsequent ash fall increases the potential to assess environmental response to Holocene warming across north and west Europe.

The sudden climatic change of Younger Dryas in the southern and eastern Baltic regions caused a change of birch-pine forests into park tundra and the return of reindeer herds from the north. This environmental impact seems to have led to notable changes in local hunter-gatherer tool-kits and subsistence and mobility behaviors depending mainly on reindeer herds in northern Central Europe. After initial glacial retreat, the Baltic was first an inland lake and at the end of Younger Dryas, the Yoldia Sea. Throughout these regions, various tanged point groups (Brommean, Ahrensburgian, Swiderian and Desnenian) dominated, broadly overlapping one other in time. They were well adapted to local environment niches in spite of difficult climatic conditions. Swiderian and other groups living in Poland, Belarus and Lithuania developed a complex system of lithic raw material procurement and exchange over distances up to 600 km. They used core reduction methods to make straight blades for points. With the improvement of climate in Preboreal, tanged point groups either moved northward or changed their technology into that of Mesolithic microliths.

El Cierro Cave (Ribadesella, Asturias, Spain) possesses one of the most complete Upper Palaeolithic stratigraphic sequences in northern Spain. Magdalenian occupations, particularly the lower Magdalenian, are well represented in its full sequence. This article presents the zooarchaeological analysis of the levels Cierro G1, Cierro G and Cierro F, dated by 14 C to between 20,000 and 17,000 cal BP. The remains correspond to vertebrates (mainly large mammals and to a lesser extent fish and birds) and invertebrates (almost exclusively marine molluscs). The taphonomic analysis of the bones and shells has determined the role that the different animal resources played in the diet of the Magdalenian hunter-gatherers at El Cierro. The results obtained in each level of the sequence are compared and included in their regional context. This study also considers the way in which the Magdalenian groups at El Cierro processed the meat and fat of the different animal species and establishes the operational chain in the strategies of procurement, preparation and consumption of the prey.

Ryciny 1. Kalibracja oznaczeń C14 2a. Osadnictwo KPL, rozmieszczenie ceramiki 2b. Osadnictwo KPL, rozmieszczenie materiałów krzemiennych 3. Rozmieszczenie ceramiki z epoki kamienia o przynależności innej niż KPL 4. Rozmieszczenie ceramiki z epoki brązu i żelaza 5. Rozmieszczenie zabytków średniowiecznych i nowożytnych 6. Rozmieszczenie grudek polepy 7. Rozmieszczenie kości zwierzęcych 8. Rozmieszczenie muszli Spis rycin Tabele Tabele 15-129 Zestawienia Zestawienie 1. Wyniki analizy ceramiki pochodzącej z badań grobowca nr 1 Zestawienie 2. Wyniki analizy ceramiki pochodzącej z badań grobowca nr 2 Zestawienie 3. Wyniki analizy ceramiki pochodzącej z osady KPL Zestawienie 4. Zbiorczy inwentarz materiałów krzemiennych pozyskanych z nawarstwień nasypu grobowca nr 2 oraz jego najbliższej okolicy, wykonany z podziałem na obiekty eksploracyjne (odcinki, obiekty, warstwy) Zestawienie 5. Zbiorczy inwentarz materiałów krzemiennych pozyskanych z wykopu II i III, dokumentujących relikty osady KPL, wykonany z podziałem na obiekty eksploracyjne (odcinki, obiekty, warstwy) Zestawienie 6. Zbiorczy inwentarz materiałów krzemiennych pozyskanych z pozostałych rejonów stanowiska, wykonany z podziałem na obiekty eksploracyjne (odcinki, obiekty, warstwy).

In februari werd in het gerenommeerde archeologische tijdschrift Antiquity een artikel gepubliceerd over de oudste mens van Nederland en de oudste kunst uit de Noordzee (Amkreutz et al. 2018). Beide vondsten zijn meer dan 13.000 jaar oud. Ze zijn uiterst zeldzame aanwijzingen voor de herbewoning van noordelijk Europa door de moderne mens na de kou van het laatste glaciale maximum van de laatste ijstijd. Deze bijdrage is een samenvatting van het betreffende artikel.

Archaeological evidence from the submerged North Sea landscape has established the rich diversity of Pleistocene and Early Holocene ecosystems and their importance to huntergatherer subsistence strategies. Comparatively little of this evidence, however, dates to the Late Glacial, the period when Northern Europe was repopulated by colonising foragers. A human parietal bone and a decorated bovid metatarsus recently recovered from the floor of the North Sea have been dated to this crucial transitional period. They are set against the background of significant climatic and environmental changes and a major technological and sociocultural transformation. These discoveries also reaffirm the importance of continental shelves as archaeological archives.

The transition from hunting to herding transformed the cold, arid steppes of Mongolia and Eastern Eurasia into a key social and economic center of the ancient world, but a fragmentary archaeological record limits our understanding of the subsistence base for early pastoral societies in this key region. Organic material preserved in high mountain ice provides rare snapshots into the use of alpine and high altitude zones, which played a central role in the emergence of East Asian pastoralism. Here, we present the results of the first archaeological survey of melting ice margins in the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia, revealing a near-continuous record of more than 3500 years of human activity. Osteology, radiocarbon dating, and collagen fingerprinting analysis of wooden projectiles, animal bone, and other artifacts indicate that big-game hunting and exploitation of alpine ice played a significant role during the emergence of mobile pastoralism in the Altai, and remained a core ele...

The pressure knapping technique develops circa 25,000 cal BP in Northeast Asia and excels at producing highly standardized microblades. Microblade pressure knapping spreads throughout most of Northeast Asia up to the Russian Arctic, and Alaska, in areas where the human presence was unknown. Swan Point CZ4b is the earliest uncontested evidence of human occupation of Alaska, at around 14,000 cal BP. It yields a pressure microblade component produced with the Yubetsu method, which is widespread in Northeast Asia during the Late Glacial period. Through the techno-functional analysis of 634 lithic pieces from this site, this study seeks to identify the techno-economical purposes for which the Yubetsu method was implemented. Data show that the microblade production system is related to an economy based on the planning of future needs, which is visible through blanks standardization, their overproduction, their functional versatility, and the segmentation of part of the chaîne opératoire. This expresses the efficiency and economic value of the microblade production system. The flexible use of pressure microblades identified at Swan Point CZ4b is also found in Japan, Korea, Kamchatka, and the North Baikal region, suggesting that their modes of use accompany the spread of early microblade pressure knapping over an immense territory across Beringia.

In a remote desert corner of Sonora, Mexico, the site of El Fin del Mundo
offers the first recorded evidence of Paleoindian interactions with gomphotheres, an extinct species related to elephants. The Clovis occupation of North America is the oldest generally accepted and well-documented archaeological assemblage on the continent. This site in Sonora, Mexico, is the northernmost dated late Pleistocene gomphothere and the youngest in North America. It is the first documented intact buried Clovis site outside of the United States, the first in situ Paleoindian site in northwestern Mexico, and the first documented evidence of Clovis gomphothere hunting in North America. The site also includes an associated upland Clovis campsite. This volume also describes a paleontological bone bed below the Clovis level, which includes a rare association of mastodon, mammoth, and gomphothere.
El Fin del Mundo presents and synthesizes the archaeological, geological,
paleontological, and paleoenvironmental records of an important Clovis site.

Archaeological research conducted in the western part of the Lublin Upland (eastern Poland) has yielded new data on hunter-gatherer settlement in Central Europe in the Late Palaeolithic, and has redefined the eastern boundary of Late Magdalenian and Federmesser Culture settlement.