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In the last twenty years the Archaeological Service of Florina has conducted extensive surface surveys and large-scale excavations in the Prefecture of Florina, situated in Northwestern Greece. This research has identified the establishment of a great number of prehistoric settlements in the area of the four lakes (Lake Chimaditis, Lake Zazari, Lake Vegoritida and Lake Petron) that date back from the Greek Early Neolithic (6700/6500-5800/5600 BC) to the Greek Late Bronze Age (1700/1500-1100 BC). One of the extended settlements of the region is the former lakeside settlement Anarghiri IXb which was situated on the north-eastern shore of Lake Chimaditis and was inhabited almost uninterruptedly from the middle of the 6th millennium BC to the end of the 5th millennium BC. Extensive investigation so far yielded thousands of wooden piles, thousands of figurines, chipped stone tools as well as antler and osseous artifacts. The bone tool assemblage from the Neolithic layers of the settlement forms one of the numerous assemblages in Greece and the Balkans. The present study of the material seeks to assess the raw material preferences, the typology and the technology of the osseous tools which seem to have played a significant role in the everyday activities inside and outside of the settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatiotemporal distribution of settlements and their environmental context since the Neolithic is one of the vital components for exploring past changes in human-land relations. However, little attention has been paid to the relationship between the evolution of the social organization, settlement patterns, and the corresponding environmental settings. In this study, the spatiotemporal distribution and rank-size of settlements revealed crucial aspects of the hydrogeomorphic conditions, cultural inheritance, and social evolution in northern Shandong Province based on the GIS analytical methods. The prehistoric settlements were primarily distributed in the pre-mountain plains and low mountain hills due to the change of water volume of big rivers and sea level fluctuations until the expansion to the northern plains during the Longshan period. Determined cultural sequences were demonstrated to be accompanied by different settlement development patterns. Most settlements in an older period were abandoned in the subsequently younger period except the Shang-Zhou period, indicating poor inheritance. The emergence of a middle and high-rank regional settlement system in the Dawenkou-Longshan period suggests a fundamental change in social organization, reflecting the transition from complex chiefdoms to early city-state kingdoms. Such a regional social stratification was intensified during the Shang-Zhou periods when a four-tier settlement system emerged. In addition, the solid cultural importation from the Dawenkou-Longshan period to the central and southern regions brought about the exchange and advancement of production technologies, which once established a solid position in agriculture. However, this was broken by drought and cold climatic events, and the complexity of the Yueshi cultural settlement system that subsequently emerged was substantially weakened. As an important area of Haidai culture, the natural driving force and social organization of ancient culture development from the Neolithic Age to the Bronze Age are of great significance for understanding the interrelationship between the origin and process of Chinese civilization and environmental evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous syntheses of palaeoclimate and archaeological data from the Kashmir Valley have proposed that climate changes drove prehistoric settlement of the valley, based on the adaptation of West Asian winter crops to mid-Holocene warm-humid conditions ca. 5000 BP. It has been argued that these conditions enabled population growth that became unsustainable following the onset of a cold-arid phase ca. 3000 BP, with these cycles of growth and collapse again repeating ca. 2000 and 1000 BP. Here we present multi-proxy palynomorph, charcoal and sediment data indicating that from ca. 4500-1500 BP the environment of the valley was characterised by drier conditions, comparable to other regional records indicating weakening Westerly precipitation over Central Asia. Considering recent archaeobotanical data indicating the presence of both West Asian winter crops and East Asian summer millets in the valley as early as 4500 BP, we argue that rather than Malthusian cycles of growth and collapse in Kashmir, early populations likely drew on a broad range of available domesticates and varied ecotopes across the valley to allow a Boserupian response to changing Holocene climate conditions. These adaptations were likely more oriented towards flexible systems of agro-pastoralism practiced throughout the Inner Asian mountains, rather than towards developing large urban settlements as was the case in the river basins and plains south of Kashmir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is twofold: first, we strive to find routes of flint supply that may have been used systematically on the northern Alpine Foreland during the fourth millennium BCE, based on the origin of the siliceous raw materials; second, these routes will be interpreted as a part of cultural entanglements. Using the sedimentary microfacies method for sourcing the raw materials of artefacts recovered in prehistoric sites makes it possible to study the provenances of large series' pieces in a non-destructive manner. Besides insights into the economy of flint raw material supply practices of single precisely-dated sites, this cross-regional comparison allows us to gain a deeper understanding of the economic relations and thus the mobility pattern of the respective settlement communities in different time periods. The method used for raw material sourcing is described in Affolter et al., 2021 (this issue) in detail. In this paper, we present as a first research step new raw material determinations from four Late Neolithic wetland sites on the northern Alpine Foreland that encompass several dendrochronologically-dated settlements: Twann Bahnhof (3838–3532 BCE) and Sutz-Lattrigen Hauptstation innen/Hafen (3827–3566 BCE) at Lake Biel and Hornstaad Hörnle IA (3919–3902 BCE) as well as Sipplingen Osthafen A and B (3919–3904 and 3857–3817 BCE) at Lake Constance. Thanks to the precise dating of the settlements and the finds deriving from the respective stratigraphic layers, not only regional differences but also transformations over time in raw material supplies can be approached with an extraordinarily high temporal resolution. Hence, this article demonstrates the interpretative potential of flint provenance determination to study the spatial mobility of prehistoric settlement communities. In addition to the presentation of previously unpublished materials, the aim here is to show an initial approach to the study of spatial mobility and entanglements using flint data, which is to be expanded in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most parts of the Circumpolar Arctic have only discontinuous evidence for long-term human settlement. In contrast, Northern Norway has an unbroken archaeological record that extends back to the early Holocene. Numerous high-resolution archaeological and palaeoenvironmental records have been generated by commercial excavations and surveys, offering archaeologists unique opportunities to investigate long-term human ecodynamics in an Arctic coastal setting. To date, however, deeper analysis of the new datasets has yet to be undertaken. This paper aims to present a new synthesis of early and mid Holocene archaeological and paleoenvironmental sequences for Western Finnmark (11500-2000 cal BP). This enables us to identify three major phases of culture change that broadly correlate with climatic and environmental shifts. We then present emerging results from our multi-scalar analysis of the processes driving these transformations. At supra-regional and regional scales, our palaeodemographic modelling indicates major population events centered around 6000 cal BP and 4000 cal BP. At intra-regional scales, we are identifying spatial clustering of prehistoric settlements into local socio-economic communities. At the scale of local settlements, our analysis of house-pit chronologies is clarifying the degree of simultaneous occupation and re-use. We also draw on recent research into rock art and ritual landscapes in an effort to reconstruct the relationship between settlement clusters and general interaction patterns. Integration of these diverse lines of evidence is generating a vivid picture of thriving Arctic coastal communities, with indications that the timing and pace of cultural responses to climatic and environmental changes were more complex than previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Holocene geomorphic changes have fundamentally shaped the spatial-temporal distributions of prehistoric and historical settlements in North China. Through intensive field surveys and careful field examination of typical sedimentary sequences, we reconstructed the Late-Pleistocene and Holocene geomorphic history in the two major basins of the mid-lower Fen River, central-south Shanxi, China. Our first-hand data provides crucial information for reconstructing the dynamic relationship between the characteristics of Holocene geomorphic changes and settlement distribution patterns in the two basins from the Neolithic period to the Bronze-Age Xia-Shang Dynasties. In the Taiyuan Basin, due to river downcutting processes from the end of the Late Pleistocene to the Early Holocene, edge of the basin emerged and evolved into tablelands. The elevation of the flat lands atop the tablelands that was significantly above the level of floodwater provided an ideal environment for early settlements. The Holocene geomorphic changes are characterized by continous fluvio-lacustrine aggradation, and the central basin became void of human settlements due to uninhabitable hydrological and gemorphic conditions and especially due to frequent floods. Instead, most settlements were located along the basin, displaying a unique "around-basin" distribution pattern. In the Linfen Basin, following large-scale incision of the main channels and branches of the Fen River during the Late Pleistocene, platform-type plain with deep incised valleys was formed. Similar to the surrounding loess tableland, the central basin became an optimal environment for human activities and settlement construction, forming a "full-basin" like settlement distribution pattern that is distinctively different from the "around-basin" distribution pattern in the Taiyuan basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-term variation in archaeological site distribution in alluvial settings results from how changing environmental conditions and drainage basin evolution interplay with cultural needs and choices to configure site distribution. These relationships are often believed synchronous with large-scale climate and environmental changes. Research results within the White River valley drainage basin, central Indiana, USA, aimed to understand the fluvial and alluvial processes and chronology responsible for landform development and associated human settlement. Two long-term processes characterized the White River since local deglaciation. The first occurred between ∼18 ka (local deglaciation) and 6 ka when channel incision and erosion/lateral migration processes dominated along the trunk. The second occurred after 6 ka when cyclical intervals of overbanking, levee formation, and vertical accretion, separated by intervals of flood plain stability, characterized the White River floodplain. Because channel migration and lateral accretion processes predominated before 6 ka, Paleoindian and Early-Middle Archaic sites are unlikely to be preserved in the valley bottom. Conversely, episodic terrace accretion process after 6 ka means that Late Archaic and Woodland sites, which occur in surface contexts on all terraces, may also be common in buried or stratified floodplain contexts. Our data indicate that the modern distribution of archaeological sites in the valley is incomplete due to geomorphic processes. Our conclusions are relevant to other drainage networks because similar processes and chronologies occur elsewhere in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, a French-Brazilian archaeological mission has studied the economic, social, cultural and symbolic dimensions of the oldest prehistoric settlements found to date in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. The ongoing examination of these habitats, settlements and rock-art sites seeks to better understand the territories and cultures of the precolonial groups who inhabited the southernmost part of Mato Grosso. In the course of these decades, systematic prospections in the region of the Vermelho River uncovered over a hundred sites decorated with both figurative and non-figurative paintings, drawings and carvings that depict images such as animals, humans and signs. This article analyzes the most recent discoveries of rock-art sites identified on the banks of the Vermelho and Gavião rivers. It contextualizes the region and the researches undertaken in its territory, and outlines the previous approaches and the methodology adopted at its rock-art sites. It then describes these rock-art sites and discusses the originality and the symbolic continuity of the marks left by precolonial groups in their landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a series of new radiocarbon dates we examine the vertical mobility of cattle in the Alps by means of strontium isotope analysis on samples from the prehistoric settlement of Ramosch-Mottata (Canton of Grisons, Switzerland). By identifying variations in the strontium isotope ratios of high-crowned cattle molars, we investigate the seasonal use of alpine pastures (vertical transhumance) and changes in cattle husbandry practices between the early and later stages of the site's occupation. Combined with the evidence of multiple high-altitude sites, indications of dairying and ethno-archeological observations, we see an economic shift and a reorganization of domestic animal exploitation from the early to the late Bronze/early Iron Age in the Alps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Măgura 'Buduiasca' (‘Boldul lui Moş Ivănuş’) settlement has an important place among the Prehistoric settlements from the Balkans. It is characterized by continuous habitation from the Early Neolithic through to the Early Chalcolithic allowing an understanding of the development of utilitarian objects and personal adornments in respect of the raw materials used and their processing patterns. One group consists of local bivalves ( Unio sp.) which were exploited in an opportunistic manner: first as an important source of food and second as a source material for producing artefacts after recovery from domestic waste. The local gastropods shells ( Lithoglyphus sp., Theodoxus danubialis, Esperiana sp., Ansius/Planorbis sp.) are without any nutritional value and used only as a source of raw materials. They could be collected during specialized expeditions organized for this purpose at certain times of the year. Imported elements are a third category which most likely arrived at Măgura ‘Buduiasca’ as finished objects. They provide evidence for complex exchange networks at this period in prehistory. Species like Mytilus or Cardium most likely come from the Black Sea, while Spondylus or Glycymeris may have their origins in the Mediterranean Sea. The presence of these raw materials demonstrates different transformation methods with their origin influencing the processing procedure: allogene valves for adornments, while Unio sp. are especially transformed into utilitarian tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The summed probability distribution of 162 radiocarbon dates from Gotland was analysed with reference to archaeological and environmental data in order to evaluate possible variations in settlement intensity on the island. The data indicated variations in demographic development on the island, with probably several different colonization events and external influences; the pioneer settlement reached the island around 9200 cal. BP. After the initial colonization, the radiocarbon dates were rather evenly distributed until around 7700–7600 cal. BP, then there was a drop in the number of dates between 8300 and 8000 cal. BP that may be associated with the 8200 cold event. A marked decline in the number of dates between 7600 and 6000 cal. BP may be associated initially with the Littorina I transgression, but this transgression cannot explain why the Late Mesolithic period is not well represented on Gotland: the climatic development was favourable but did not result in increased human activity. The number of radiocarbon dates indicated that the population size remained low until around 6000 cal. BP, after which there was a gradual increase that reached a first ‘threshold’ after 5600 cal. BP and a second ‘threshold’ after 4500 cal. BP. The first apparent population increase was associated with the appearance of the Funnel Beaker Culture (FBC) and the second with Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) complexes. A decline in the number of dates occurred after 4300 cal. BP, i.e. towards the Late Neolithic. There was an association between the frequency distributions of the radiocarbon dates and the number of stray finds from different time periods but any correlation was not straightforward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A geoarchaeological investigation that included soil-stratigraphic and paleoecological analyses was conducted at Richard Beene, a deeply stratified open-air site associated with an alluvial terrace of the Medina River in south-central Texas. The sequence of cultural and alluvial deposits at the site is one of the most complete records of Holocene human occupation and sedimentation documented in North America, and is very important to the interpretation of the cultural history of the Inner Gulf Coastal Plain and adjacent areas of the Southern Plains. The most salient ecological characteristics of the site are its riparian setting and location in the ecotone between North America's western grasslands and eastern woodlands. The cultural record spans the past 10,000 years and is buried in 14 m of fine-grained flood deposits with multiple buried paleosols. Excavations totaling 730 m 2 sampled 20 stratigraphically distinct archaeological components in valley fill beneath the Applewhite terrace, yielding more than 80,000 artifacts, including flakes, tools, bones, mussel shells, and fire-cracked rocks left by Archaic and Late Pre-Columbian hunter-gatherers. Seven primary stratigraphic units and five laterally traceable buried paleosols were identified at the site. The oldest stratigraphic unit consists of coarse-grained channel deposits that accumulated soon before 33,000 14 C yr B.P. Most of the units, however, consist of fine-grained alluvium that accumulated between ca. 10,000 and 1000 14 C yr B.P. The δ 13 C values of organic matter from the site's soil-stratigraphic sequence indicate increased C 4 production during the Younger Dryas (11,000–10,000 14 C yr B.P.), and C 4 productivity generally increased throughout the Holocene, culminating in peak warm intervals at ca. 5000 and 2000 14 C yr B.P. Although during relatively dry periods grasses expanded at the expense of trees, a mosaic of trees and grasses (i.e., a savannah) typical of a grassland-forest ecotone prevailed at the site throughout the Holocene. Such a food-rich environment characterized by an abundance of deer and geophytes, as well as mussels from the Medina River accounts for repetitive human occupation spanning at least 10,000 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prehistoric human settlement activities in northern Hungary have been well studied for several decades. Recent studies from the Great Hungarian Plain provide evidence of human impact starting as early as in the Neolithic (c. 8200 cal BP). Archaeological records suggest that with establishment of the Baden culture (c. 5500 cal BP), settlements were moved from Tisza River towards the northern mountainous area. Although Quaternary landscape development of the Bükk Mountains is well studied, Holocene human environment interactions in particular, have not been focused on so far. Here, we present Holocene landscape history around Bogács in the southern Bükk mountain foreland. Sediment records were sampled from fans of secondary tributaries in the middle course of the Hór valley. Morphology of the tributary valleys suggests different incision phases with older forms and less human impact in the northern part of the studied valley section (type 1) and younger forms and stronger human impact in the southern part (type 2). However, 14 C dates from the fan of a type 2 valley in the southern part suggest initial incision between 9000 and 8000 cal BP, whereas human activity is not reflected in the sediments. In the fan sediments of a type 1 tributary in the northern part of the studied valley section, daub was found in the context of deposits dated to 3000 cal BP. Here, thickness of Holocene sediments suggest significant soil erosion. It can be summarised that post-Pleistocene valley incision was restricted to short periods of extreme climate conditions during the Early-to Mid Holocene. Human activities did not contribute to initial valley incision. Nevertheless, human activities seem to have enhanced soil erosion in the catchments of type 1 tributaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological surveys have progressed from a secondary discipline to a solid and consistent working method which is evolving in tune with the goals of prehistoric research. Almost 60 years have passed since New Archaeology began to point out the importance of archaeological surveys for the study of prehistoric settlement patterns, and this issue has been discussed in many meetings and correspondence. Nowadays, it is not only individual sites that matter. In order to understand the lives of human groups, we have become aware that we also have to study their interactions with other sites and the environment in which they operated, i.e., their territory. Within this context, we began a survey aimed at documenting all the prehistoric settlements found in Sierra de Atapuerca, as well as the environments that had been preserved. A full-coverage and high intensity archaeological survey was conducted in a 314 km2 area. The results thus obtained are the ones presented in this work, which are compared against those results that would have been obtained if a sampling had been performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares levels IV and VIII of Abrigo de la Quebrada. The study includes knapping technique, raw material, fauna, and the spatial distribution of lithic and bone remains. Although both levels correspond to cumulative palimpsests, patterns of resource management and use of space that suggest changes in the rhythm of occupation and the functionality of the settlements can be discerned. A change in mobility patterns probably underpins the differences between these two levels of Quebrada, but assessing this hypothesis is made difficult by the lack of comparable documentation for other sites in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sessera valley is an under-populated Italian alpine valley located in the north-eastern Piedmont (northwest Italy) between the provinces of Biella and Vercelli. We discuss the data obtained during the first and the second year of the project “ Survey Alta Val Sessera ” held in 2013 and in 2014 under the scientific direction of Soprintendenza Archeologia del Piemonte in collaboration with Associazione Culturale 3P – Progetto Preistoria Piemonte and DocBi – Centro Studi Biellesi that had as its main purpose the identification of new prehistoric human frequentations in the valley. The theoretical scheme employed starts from the one developed for Trentino and the South Tyrolean region (north-eastern Italy) by Broglio and Improta. During the campaigns, surveys in the Sessera and in the neighbouring Dolca valley have been carried out using the patterns of settlement and mobility in the alpine environment developed by Kompatscher and Kompatscher, in order to identify the most interesting areas to investigate. The most important results obtained during the first two survey campaigns indicate that the Sessera valley was occupied by human groups using knapped lithic industries made of local vein quartz. Another important result is the identification of a Late Ancient site located at high altitude (1642 m a.s.l.) along one of the ridge paths investigated. Even if the lithic findings have no diagnostic elements for a precise chronological positioning, the importance of the data obtained consists mainly in having successfully tested a method of research aimed at identifying human frequentations at high altitude in this part of Piedmont, where no comparable research has been carried out until now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the population fluctuation in the central-western region of the Korean Peninsula is investigated using radiocarbon data obtained from prehistoric pit houses in residential bases or settlements during the seventh to third millennium cal BP comprising the Neolithic, Bronze and Early Iron ages in Korea. Fluctuation in radiocarbon date distribution is compared with summed probability distribution of calibrated dates as well as total numbers of settlements and dwellings arranged in chronological order. Results indicate the appearance of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements in the early sixth and the late fourth millennium BC each followed by a rapid growth of population with a peak around 5500 and 3000 cal BP. Population decline is identified from 5300, 4900, 4500 cal BP during the Neolithic and 2800 and 2400 cal BP during the Bronze Age. The period between 4500 and 3500 cal BP corresponds with the lowest density of settlements and dwellings. Agricultural villages collapsed 2400–2000 cal BP. The paper suggests the hypothesis that climate change, especially cold or dry climate induced by weak Asian monsoon events, is possibly responsible for the fluctuation of settlements and population in prehistoric Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Plan di Modzon is a mountain area (2300 m) located in the Verrogne Valley, NW of Aosta (Western Alps). It occurs along the contact between the Middle Penninic (micaschist and gneiss from the Gran San Bernardo Nappe) and the overlying upper units of the Piedmont Zone (carbonate calcschist alternating with marble). This area, largely shaped by Pleistocene glaciers, was involved in a wide deep-seated gravitational slope deformation (Pointe Leysser DSGSD) on the western extension of the Becca France doubled ridges. Several ridges that were affected by glacial erosion, discontinuously covered by glacial sediments, are present throughout the area. Extremely fractured rocks and various gravitational forms (minor scarps and trenches) mark the DSGSD. Several archaeological sites (MF1–MF9) have recently been found between 2242 and 2292 m asl. They have revealed artifacts of rock crystal (hyaline quartz) referred to the Sauveterrian stage of the Mesolithic. An ensemble of other archaeological evidence is referred to the Copper Age. The investigation in progress specifically concerns the systematic excavation of sites MF1 and MF3. Some concomitant morphological factors have created very favorable conditions for prehistoric settlements in the Plan di Modzon area, including the exceptionally wide valley floor directly perched on the main Dora Baltea Valley, in consequence of the Verrogne Glacier diversion promoted by the P. Leysser DSGSD. Easy and direct accessibility to this area is provided by the gently-dipping slope of the Dora Baltea Valley affected by the DSGSD. The ridged and grooved morphology as the result of the glacial and gravitational interaction, offered wide surfaces free from geological hazards (debris flow and avalanche processes). The DSGSD is, therefore, one of the primary causes of the archaeological settlement of this area, contributing to create a morphology adapted to prehistoric settlements. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The chronostratigraphic framework of the Magdalenian in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula currently covers the period 21,440–21,040 cal BP (level 2 of the Cueva del Gato site at Epila, Province of Zaragoza) to 12,770–12,570 cal BP (level I of the La Peña de Estebanvela site, Ayllón, Province of Segovia). These dates embrace times of strong climatic oscillation, beginning with very rigorous environmental conditions (stage GS2) and ending with a temperate climate (Alleröd); over this period, extreme events such as Heinrich event 1 occurred. However, little information is available that would allow the environments through which human groups moved during the Late Last Glacial of the Iberian interior to be characterised. The La Peña de Estebanvela site is something of an exception in that its archaeological features allow the reconstruction of the surrounding environment, and provide information on how natural resources may have been used. The faunal remains represented at this site reflect changes in palaeoecology over time. Taphonomic analysis of recovered macromammals and lagomorphs shows that these animals were brought to the site, butchered and consumed. The available data on seasonality fix the occupation of levels I–III from the spring to the autumn. Certain types of wood were collected for use as firewood. Other elements found in the record (personal ornaments, mobiliary art and raw materials) provide evidence that the people that occupied the site moved over a more extensive territory. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The anthropogenic accumulations at the sites are often the product of overlapped activities and/or occupations that also involve disruptive processes such as cleaning, transport or even trampling. The results are palimpsest with a disordered appearance that can confuse the interpretations of the spatial organization of human groups. In this regard, the Abric Romaní site (Capellades, Spain) can provide significant data to interpret these questions. This site, dated in MIS 3, is composed by a sequence of travertine platforms, which are more than 20 m high. The human occupations are located between these platforms, which are isolated from each other. This fact, in addition to a high rate of identified sedimentation, allows analyzing the archaeological accumulations more accurately. The current excavations (approx. 300 m2) have documented several different kinds of anthropogenic assemblages, which go from very simple to complex human occupations. In this study, we present faunal data from Level H and Level Ja. Both levels show the same processing patterns on animal resources, but a different spatial distribution of the faunal remains. Level H presents short distance refits that suggest the presence of isolated activity areas without temporal relationships between them. In contrast, Level Ja shows several long distance refits that connect two or more activity areas. The observed differences between both levels could be explained from dissimilar human occupational patterns: presence of small groups with reduced use of the space at Level H and occupations composed by large groups with important spatial requirements at Level Ja. From this perspective, the aim of this paper is to provide criteria from faunal refits to understand the diversity of human occupations at Abric Romaní. This fact shows the importance of these studies to understand the diversity of occupational patterns and ways of life of the human communities of the European Middle Palaeolithic. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: New investigations of finds from middle Rhone Valley sites (Le Figuier, Abri du Maras, Baume Flandin and Ranc Pointu 2) and from the mountainous southeastern area of the Massif Central (Sainte-Anne I, especially the unpublished data for unit J2) allowed assembly of new data on both chronological and environmental grounds for human occupation and consequently on Neanderthal subsistence strategies in this area. The southeastern Massif Central region makes it possible to examine Neanderthal occupation modes in an area linking medium altitude territories with the plains of the Rhone River corridor. This work aims to determine site occupation events and territory management strategies for these two environments. The variability of the site occupation types in the middle Rhone Valley supports the hypothesis of human groups who anticipated their land use strategies, and suggests a particular type of circulating model for these areas. The evidence suggests that the human presence consists of brief stopping-places, short-term regular camps (interspersed with some occupations by carnivores), or long-term residential camps. The types of occupation observed in the two mountain sites of Velay (Sainte-Anne I cave and Baume-Vallée rock-shelter) a priori do not indicate occupations specific to an environment at this altitude. On the contrary, they suggest the existence of short-term regular camps, probably seasonally utilised and exploited when good seasons favoured the expansion of accessible territories. The sites in the plains of the Rhone Valley corridor indicate a greater variety of occupation types, but still within the framework of strong seasonal mobility. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]