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Humans at the End of the Ice Age chronicles and explores the significance of the variety of cultural responses to the global environmental changes at the last glacial-interglacial boundary. Contributions address the nature and consequences of the global climate changes accompanying the end of the Pleistocene epoch-detailing the nature, speed, and magnitude of the human adaptations that culminated in the development of food production in many parts of the world. The text is aided by vital maps, chronological tables, and charts.
List of contents
I. Introduction.- 1. The World at the End of the Last Ice Age.- II. The Pleistocene-Holocen Transsition in Africa and the Near East.- 2. At the Transition: The Archaeology of the Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary in Southern Africa.- 3. Plus Ça Change: The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition in Northeast Africa.- 4. The Impact of Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Climatic Changes on Humans in Southwest Asia.- III. The Pleistocene-Holocen Transsition in Europe.- 5. The Archaeology of the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition in Southwest Europe.- 6. Resource Exploitation, Subsistence Strategies, and Adaptiveness in Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Northwest Europe.- 7. The North European Plain and Eastern Sub-Balticum between 12,700 and 8,000 BP.- 8. The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition on the East European Plain.- IV. Asia and Australia during the Pleistocene-Holocen Transsition.- 9. The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition in Greater Australia.- 10. Human Activities and Environmental Changes during the Late Pleistocene to Middle Holocene in Southern Thailand and Southeast Asia.- 11. The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition in Japan and Adjacent Northeast Asia: Climate and Biotic Change, Broad-Spectrum Diet, Pottery, and Sedentism.- 12. Siberia in the Late Glacial and Early Postglacial.- V. Environment and Peoples at the Pleistocene-Holocen Boundary in the Americas.- 13. Human Adaptation at the Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary (circa 13,000 to 8,000 BP) in Eastern Beringia.- 14. The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition along the Pacific Coast of North America.- 15. The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition on the Plants and Rocky Mountains of North Americas.- 16. The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition in the Eastern United States.- 17. The Pleistocene-Holocene in Southern SouthAmericas.- VI. Conclusion.- 18. Surprises, Recurring Themes, and New Questions in the Study of the Late Glacial and Early Postglacial.
Report
`Its significance can scarcely be overstated, and its contribution, in presenting up-to-date regional syntheses and discussions of the key issues, could hardly be more timely...Throughout this volume fascinating and important issues were presented...extremely well edited.'
Antiquity, September 1997
`[An] excellent volume on this important period of time.' Geoarchaeology: An International Journal '
`This book fills a significant gap and makes and important contribution to the literature.'
The Holocene 8, 1998
