In the Mediterranean, the island dwarf megafaunas became extinct around the end of the Pleistocene, during a period of rapid and global climate change. In Cyprus, this coincided with the first human presence on the island, as attested by the rock shelter of Akrotiri-Aetokremnos where an Epipaleolithic anthropogenic layer (stratum 2) was found overlying a massive accumulation of pygmy hippopotam...

Abstract This paper presents a micro-geoarchaeological study carried out on the sedimentary sequence exposed at entrance of Sefunim Cave, Israel, that spans from Middle Paleolithic to early Epipaleolithic periods. Using FTIR and micromorphological techniques, we investigated stratigraphic reconstruct patterns site use archaeological formation processes. We identified processes are common among ...

Club-rush (Bolboschoenus spp. (Asch.) Palla) is one of the most common edible wild plant taxa found at Epipaleolithic and Neolithic sites in southwest Asia. At Early Natufian site Shubayqa 1 (Black Desert, Jordan) thousands club-rush rhizome-tuber remains hundreds fragments prepared meals were found. The evidence indicated that underground storage organs this recurrently used as a source food 1...

There are extensive data indicating that some glacial refuge zones of southern Europe (Franco-Cantabria, Balkans, and Ukraine) were major genetic sources for the human recolonization of the continent at the beginning of the Holocene. Intriguingly, there is no genetic evidence that the refuge area located in the Italian Peninsula contributed to this process. Here we show, through phylogeographic...

Throughout prehistory, landscapes were repeatedly subjected to both global and localized climatic fluctuations that changed the regional environments where human groups lived. This instability demanded constant adaptation and, as a result, functionality of some sites over time. In this light, western coast Iberia represents an exceptional case study due proximity between at least oceanic cores ...

Sonqor Koliyaie is a mountainous plain in central Zagros that has attracted the attention of human societies because of its appropriate environmental characteristics from long ago. Generally, the findings obtained from systematic archaeological surveys show that human settlements have been established in this area from Middle Paleolithic period through contemporary period. Three seasons of surv...