Adaptation to resources and environments during the Last Glacial Maximum by hunter-gatherer societies in Atlantic Europe

Abstract

Solutrean culture has been interpreted as a response to the Last Glacial Maximum in western Europe. However, to establish a link depends of our knowledge of the impact of global climatic changes at a local level and of the differential preservation and significance of the record. The identification of lithic sources, technology, function, and place of discard, is an effective way to mitigate some of these biases and to improve our understanding of hunter-gatherer societies. We present the results of a study of flint materials found in several rockshelters and openair sites preserving Upper Solutrean lithic assemblages from France and Portugal, using a Geographic Information System. The network defined by a least-cost algorithm is considered a proxy for social and territoriality reconstruction. Our goal is to identify recurrences and differences in Solutrean raw material network and management as compared with Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic assemblages in the same areas, considering environmental changes.