Landscape Learning during the Early Upper Paleolithic of Southeastern Europe

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology and Landscape Learning for a Climate-Changing World" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The initial settlement of western Eurasia by anatomically modern humans is thought to have taken place in discrete dispersal phases ca. 50–40 ka ago. Here, lithic toolkits are thought to be linked to founding phases indicative of discrete, rapid, westward movements into and across Europe triggered by climate amelioration during the last glacial. Under such a model, these initial incursions are routinely thought to have set the stage for a more consolidated colonization for thousands of years to come. Here, using data from southeastern Europe as a case study, I will demonstrate that the first anatomically modern humans in Europe did not simply trek across the continent but made deliberate seasonal use of persistent places in the landscape. Rather, behavioral plasticity, technological solutions, and hybridization with indigenes set the stage for their sustained occupation of the continent for millennia to come.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)   •
• Archaeology and Landscape Learning for a Climate-Changing World

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36494.0