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In this paper we illustrate how different internal and external forcings conditioned postglacial vegetation in southern Mediterranean areas. By comparing seven Holocene sequences, we emphasize the role of glacial refugia as postglacial vegetation dispersal centers. We also identify the importance of the system's inertia in the time lags observed for vegetation response to climate change and human pressure. Finally, we explore the cascade of effects triggered by the human-climate interface, specifically the vegetation and the environmental feedbacks implicated in the collapse of the Argaric culture that emerged in arid southeastern Spain about 4,000 years before the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of marked environmental changes took place during the transition from Pleistocene to Holocene, to which the hunter-gatherers adapted by modifying their technology and subsistence practices. In parallel with these changes, territoriality increased and significant transformations in artistic expression occurred. This paper assesses the archaeological record of the Iberian Mediterranean watershed to analyze various aspects. of this adaptive process, which unfolded gradually from the end of the Magdalenian to the beginning of the Neolithic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]