Upper Palaeolithic hunter–gatherer societies in the Basque Country (Iberian Peninsula) in the light of palaeoenvironmental dynamics in the last Glacial Period: cultural adaptations and the use of biotic resources

• Published in: Annals of Glaciology
• Main Authors: Maria-Jose Iriarte-Chiapusso, Miren Ayerdi, Naroa Garcia-Ibaibarriaga, Arantzazu J. Pérez-Fernández, Aritza Villaluenga, Jon Arrizabalaga-Iriarte, Lide Lejonagoitia-Garmendia, Alvaro Arrizabalaga
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press 2023
• Subjects: Climate change; geomorphology; palaeoclimate; Meteorology. Climatology; QC851-999; Annals of Glaciology
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2023.60; https://doaj.org/article/f9b99a22721a412092f83ffc18627140

Upper Palaeolithic archaeological sites in the Basque Country have been excavated for over a century. They have yielded a rich palaeoenvironmental record with zoological and botanical remains that have been obtained in stratigraphic series dated precisely by radiocarbon. This information reveals cyclical environmental changes from climates similar to today to drier and extremely cold conditions, when species in current boreal biomes and others now extinct but with similar ecological preferences were present in the region. Moreover, the archaeological sites have provided high-resolution information about the resilience mechanisms of the communities of our own human species. This information allows us to increase the corpus of palaeoclimate data regarding the Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 2 and MIS 3 for a critical region within the human population of Eurasia. The aim of this paper is to show how an extraordinary capacity for adaptation to drastic climate changes Upper Palaeolithic hunter–gatherer societies displayed, even though their subsistence depended on biotic resources that alter rapidly.