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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]

The 8.2 ka BP event may represent the largest, most abrupt Holocene climate event. This paper examines the impact of this event on human activity in the middle Mesolithic. It produces Bayesian statistical models for the chronology of anthropogenic sites in northwest Atlantic Europe for a 1000 year time window around the event to explore evidence for human responses to climate change or resilience in the face of this climate change event. By approaching evidence for activity at sites in Denmark, Belgium, France, Ireland and Britain we explore evidence for differential temporally- and spatially-transgressive local responses to climate change in this period to move to sub-continental scales of activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, climatic, faunistic, and ecological changes could produce social readjustments and technological innovations in human populations that were exploring and colonizing the low southeastern plains of South America. In this paper, paleoecological and archaeological data are integrated to systematize and discuss different aspects of early human settlement in Uruguay and the south of Brazil. It is possible to recognize evidence of initial human dispersion by the region between ~14,000 and 13,100 cal BP (12,000 to 11,320 14C BP) during the late Pleistocene, when dry and cold climatic conditions prevailed in the region. Later, between 12,800 and 10,065 cal BP, a low plains Paleoamerican stemmed bifacial tradition emerged with three different techno-complexes, represented by Fishtail, Tigre, and Pay Paso projectile points. These groups were adapted to the grassland plains and characterized by the presence of wide-stemmed projectile points. The Fishtail point had been supplanted by the Tigre point, showing diversification in design of projectile points during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Approximately 12,000 to 11,200 cal BP in the middle Uruguay River, a social and technological reorganization occurred, along with the emergence of the Tigre techno-complex during post-Fishtail times. The advent of Tigre groups coincided with warmer and wetter climatic conditions, indicating the beginning of the Holocene. By 11,080-10,928 cal BP, new weaponry changes occurred in the region, including the production of the Pay Paso points, a regionally distinctive projectile-point style for the early Holocene. These aspects allow start discussions of cultural transmission, technological innovations and morphological variation in projectile point styles over the time and space. The field research developed over the past 15 years, in conjunction with the previous research conducted in southern Brazil, the relative high density of early sites with radiocarbon ages (n = 22), and the chronological base (67 radiocarbon ages), allow to formulate an archaeological and behavioral model about the initial peopling of the Uruguayan and southern Brazil plains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]