Heterogeneity in Late Glacial Environments of Southwest Germany and Implications for Magdalenian Settlement

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During the Late Glacial (~18-11.6 k cal yr BP), Magdalenian peoples recolonized southwest Germany, which was uninhabited during the Last Glacial Maximum (~27.2-23.5 k cal yr BP). Past research has generally characterized the landscape in this region as tundra or steppe during this time but making smaller-scale interpretations can be difficult due to the nature of the fossil record. To tackle this problem, we pair stable isotope analysis of large ungulates with the analysis of a micromammal assemblage from Langmahdhalde, a Magdalenian site in the Swabian Jura of southwest Germany. We apply bioclimatic models to the micromammal assemblage to predict several climate variables, including temperature and length of vegetative activity period. Additionally, we present carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data from bone collagen of reindeer and horse. We reconstruct a mostly tundra environment with pockets of denser vegetation, including trees, and argue that this heterogeneous environment was likely more productive and had a higher diversity of species than modern tundra environments. This may have been one of the reasons that Magdalenian settlement was successful in this region and may, at least in part, explain the regional nature of Central European settlement strategies during this time.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32130