Late Pleistocene environmental dynamics and human occupation in Southwestern Europe

Abstract

This paper focuses on palaeoenvironmental conditions and climate variability during the Upper Late Pleistocene (c. 28,000–11,700 cal BP) in SW Europe (Iberian Peninsula) and their influence on human settlement patterns. All the palaeoenvironmental and archaeological sequences available for this period are analysed, together with a new palaeoenvironmental study related to a key deposit: Verdeospesoa mire (northern Iberian Peninsula). The multiproxy analysis (pollen, spores, non-pollen palynomorphs, magnetic susceptibility, organic content and macrocharcoal) of this sequence, with the support of six Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates, shows the climatic variability of that period, with some dry/cold and humid/temperate episodes. While in vast regions of central and northern Europe very few archaeological sites of this age are known, in the Iberian Peninsula no occupation gaps have been detected in all this period, supporting the idea of SW Europe as a glacial refugium for human groups during the worst periods of the Upper Late Pleistocene.