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This paper presents results of a multidisciplinary research initiative examining human responses to environmental change at the intersection of the southern coastal plain of the Caspian Sea and the foothills of the Alborz Mountains during the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene. Our palaeo-environmental analysis of two sedimentary cores obtained from a lagoon in close proximity to four caves, occupied by human groups during the transition from hunting and gathering to food-producing ways of life in this region, confirms Charles McBurney's 1968 hypothesis that when Caspian Sea levels were high, Mesolithic hunters were reliant on seal and deer, but as water levels receded and a wide coastal plain emerged, hunters consumed a different range of herbivorous mammalian species. Palynological evidence obtained from these two cores also demonstrates that the cool and dry climatic conditions often associated with the Younger Dryas stadial do not appear to have been extreme in this region. Thus, increasingly sedentary hunting and gathering groups could have drawn on plant and animal resources from multiple ecological niches without suffering significant resource stress or reduced population levels that may have been encountered in neighbouring regions. Our analyses of botanical, faunal and archaeological remains from a recently-discovered open-air Mesolithic and aceramic Neolithic site also shows an early process of Neolithization in the southern Caspian basin, which was a very gradual, low-cost adaptation to new ways of life, with neither the abandonment of hunting and gathering, nor a climatic trigger event for the emergence of a low-level, food-producing society.

The Dampier Archipelago (including the Burrup Peninsula), now generally known as Murujuga, is a significant rock art province in north-western Australia which documents the transition of an arid-maritime cultural landscape through time. This archipelago of 42 islands has only existed since the mid-Holocene, when the sea level rose to its current height. Previous excavations across Murujuga have demonstrated Holocene occupation sequences, but the highly weathered rock art depicting extinct fauna and early styles suggests a far greater age for occupation and rock art production. The archaeological record from the Pilbara and Carnarvon bioregions demonstrates human occupation through 50,000 years of environmental change. While the regional prehistory and engraved art suggests that people were producing art here since they first occupied these arid rocky slopes, no clear evidence of Pleistocene occupation has been found across Murujuga, until now. Murujuga Rockshelter (MR1) reveals that occupation of this shelter began late in the Last Glacial Maximum, when the Murujuga Ranges would likely have served as one of a network of Pilbara refugia. In the terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene, and likely in tandem with the last stages of sea level rise, the proportion of artefacts manufactured on exotic lithologies declines sharply, revealing a changed foraging range and increasing territorial focus in this period of increased demographic packing as the coastline advanced. Abandonment of the site as early as 7000 years ago is indicated, suggesting a changing resource focus to the increasingly proximal coastline. This paper provides the first evidence of how Aboriginal people adapted their Pleistocene procurement strategies in response to significant environmental and landscape changes in Murujuga. This changing logistical strategy provides an explanation for the increased rock art production in the terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene.

The Late Upper Palaeolithic of Europe, particularly the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM: 26-19 kyr cal BP), was a time of dramatic climatic changes. Fauna, and the humans that preyed on them, were forced to adapt their behaviours in response to climate changes to survive. The Cantabrian Region of northern Spain was continuously inhabited during this period when many other areas of Europe were inhospitable. The site of Las Caldas (Asturias) was repeatedly occupied by hunter-gatherers during the Solutrean (26.1–20.3 kyr cal BP) and Magdalenian (18.5–14.3 kyr cal BP). This paper uses δ13C and δ15N stable isotope analysis of red deer (Cervus elaphus) and Spanish ibex (Capra pyrenaica) remains to reconstruct past environments, ungulate niches and habitats, and to understand how this impacted on their availability as a prey source. Results show that during the Solutrean, cold and potentially wet LGM conditions were experienced and ibex lived in lower altitudes, likely due to reduced vegetation, and even small glaciers on the higher mountain slopes. Improved environmental conditions in the Magdalenian allowed ibex to live in their preferred habitat of higher altitudes. Ameliorated Late Glacial conditions correspond with changing economic hunting strategies at the site. Humans exploited wider ecological zones, over larger distances, which coincides with population growth, and greater connectivity across the Cantabrian region. This research highlights the importance of characterising the complex interactions between humans, animals and environments during the Late Pleistocene and how they responded to rapidly changing environmental conditions.

This paper reviews past and present distributions of murid (mice and rats) and soricid (shrew) species from the Pinnacle Point fossil sites PP5-6N, PP9C, PP13B, and PP30, as well as the coastal site of Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1. The positioning of these sites on the edge of the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain resulted in the micromammal communities being exposed to rapid landmass changes through sea-level regressions and transgressions, as well as climatic and environmental fluctuations during glacial-interglacial cycling. Together, Pinnacle Point and Knysna preserve a composite coastal sequence from MIS 9 to MIS 1, and provide an opportunity to assess the long term sensitivity of micromammals to environmental change. Modern distributional information for the south coast region was obtained from owl pellet and small-carnivore scat assemblages, and extended the known current distributions of six murids. A uniform suite of micromammals was pervasive throughout all the fossil sites, during both glacial and inter-glacial cycling, and the composition of the majority of fossil micromammal assemblages remained unchanged, despite fluctuations in rainfall amount, seasonality, and the proportion of C3 versus C4 vegetation. This suggests an ability to adapt to, and cope with, climatic and environmental changes with relative ease. The fact that the fossil evidence indicates that many murid taxa occupied different ranges in the past, and, in some cases, had considerably more extensive ranges, and lived in a greater variety of habitats, raises a note of caution regarding using current biogeographies to elucidate palaeoenvironmental and climatic change, and for biogeographic and species distribution modelling.

International audience; South Africa's southwestern Cape occupies a critical transition zone between Southern Hemisphere temperate (winter) and tropical (summer) moisture-bearing systems. In the recent geological past, it has been proposed that the relative influence of these systems may have changed substantially, but little reliable evidence regarding regional hydroclimates and rainfall seasonality exists to refine or substantiate the understanding of long-term dynamics. In this paper we present a mid-to late Holocene multi-proxy record of environmental change from a rock hyrax midden from Katbakkies Pass, located along the modern boundary between the winter and summer rainfall zones. Derived from stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes, fossil pollen and microcharcoal, these data provide a high resolution record of changes in humidity, and insight into changes in rainfall seasonality. Whereas previous work concluded that the site had generally experienced only subtle environmental change during the Holocene, our records indicate that significant, abrupt changes have occurred in the region over the last 7000 years. Contrary to expectations based on the site's location, these data indicate that the primary determinant of changes in humidity is summer rather than winter rainfall variability, and its influence on drought season intensity and/or length. These findings are consistent with independent records of upwelling along the southern and western coasts, which indicate that periods of increased humidity are related to increased tropical easterly flow. This substantially refines our understanding of the nature of temperate and tropical circulation system dynamics in SW Africa, and how changes in their relative dominance have impacted regional environments during the Holocene.