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Human Response to Climate Change in the Northern Adriatic During the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene

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Climate Change and Human Responses

Part of the book series: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology ((VERT))

Abstract

Climate and sea level constrain the abundance of primary producers (plants) and habitat size. These directly affect the seasonal density and distribution of animal species, which inevitably have implications for human decisions regarding what to eat, where to live, how long to stay there, and when to move. Are diversification strategies such as the inclusion of low-ranked terrestrial resources and marine species in the diet effective coping mechanisms for climate-driven environmental change and habitat loss due to sea level rise? Is intensification of resource exploitation indicative of dietary stress? How might these adaptations affect the seasonal round? Our paper discusses these questions, spanning the transition from post-glacial foraging lifestyles at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary (12,000 BP) to the introduction of pastoralism during the early Neolithic (7,000 BP), using zooarchaeological material from the upland cave site of Vela Špilja on the island of Lošinj in the Kvarner Gulf of Croatia.

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Acknowledgements

This paper presents results from SEPB’s MPhil research at the University of Cambridge in 2009, presented at the 2010 International Council for Archaeozoology meeting in Paris, France. The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the Gates Cambridge Trust and the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge for research funding and support. Many thanks are also due to the volume editor, Greg Monks, and three reviewers, whose thoughtful comments and edits helped improve the final version. SEPB would also like to thank English Heritage and the ICAZ organizational committee for partially funding her participation in the session from which this volume originated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology and Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Suzanne E. Pilaar Birch

  2. Division of Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Preston T. Miracle

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  1. Suzanne E. Pilaar Birch
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  2. Preston T. Miracle
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Correspondence to Suzanne E. Pilaar Birch .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba Department of Anthropology, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

    Gregory Monks

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Pilaar Birch, S.E., Miracle, P.T. (2017). Human Response to Climate Change in the Northern Adriatic During the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. In: Monks, G. (eds) Climate Change and Human Responses. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1106-5_5

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