Abstract During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 30 to 16.5 ka ago), the Great Adriatic-Po Region (GAPR) was deeply affected by the spread of glaciers from the Alps to the southern foreland and by the dropping of the sea level to ~ -120 m amsl. The combination of these two events triggered the aggradation of the Great Po Plain (GPP), a vast flat area between the Alpine chain, the Italian Peninsula and the north-western Balkan Peninsula, physically and ecologically featured through a range of palaeogeographic and palaeoecological conditions. The low-elevated Prealpine sectors and the Alpine foothills supported more extensive forest stands, due to increased orographic rainfall. These were open boreal forests which persisted throughout the LGM, while open woodlands, steppes, semideserts and wetlands occupied the lowlands. A complex ecogradient, including both an Alpine and a continental timberline, is documented by the fossil records at the NE Alpine border, with a larch-pine forest-steppe belt, in contact with steppes and loess areas extending in the plain, on the dry extreme of the gradient. Still, edaphic wetlands occupied the waterlogged silty soils in the lowlands. Other areas, marked by active geodynamic processes, supported semideserts, i.e. grooves of xerophytic herbs and shrubs. Enhanced aridity and the development of deflation areas, prompted the accretion of loess cover at the northern and southern margins of the GPP. Fauna recorded the gradual disappearance of mammoth, woolly rhino and giant deer, together with cave bear. Gravettian and Epigravettian hunter-gatherer groups inhabited the GPP, although their presence and settlement dynamics at the margins and across this region has long been questioned. As a matter of fact, a handful of archaeological sites composes a patchy record of the peopling of the plain itself. At the northern rim of the GAPR, characterized by a well-developed karst region, several caves and rock shelters record the presence of hunters of bisons and horses at the margins of the GPP and ibexes and cave bears in some hilly landscapes. Nonetheless, evidence of contacts across this area is provided by the exploitation of chert sources and by stylistic and technical similarities in the lithic industries. The work resumes the currently available multidisciplinary data and adds new petroarchaeological evidence for reconstructing the settlement dynamics of the Gravettian - Epigravettian hunter-gatherers in this vast region up to the early Late Glacial, when the Prealpine and the Apennine foothills, along with the Dinarids, were persistently settled.

中文翻译：

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末次盛冰期大亚得里亚波地区的狩猎采集者：环境和文化动态

摘要 在末次盛冰期（LGM，30～16.5 ka前），大亚得里亚波地区（GAPR）受到冰川从阿尔卑斯山向南部前陆蔓延以及海平面下降至～ -120 米 amsl。这两个事件的结合引发了大波平原 (GPP) 的加剧，这是位于阿尔卑斯山脉、意大利半岛和巴尔干半岛西北部之间的广阔平坦区域，具有一系列古地理和古生态条件的物理和生态特征. 由于地形降雨量增加，低海拔的前高山地区和高山山麓支持了更广阔的林分。这些是开放的北方森林，在整个 LGM 期间一直存在，而开放的林地、草原、半沙漠和湿地则占据了低地。一个复杂的生态梯度，包括一条高山林线和一条大陆林线，在 NE 阿尔卑斯山边界的化石记录中得到了记载，有落叶松-松林-草原带，与平原中延伸的草原和黄土区接触，位于梯度干燥的极端. 尽管如此，土壤湿地仍然占据了低地浸水的粉质土壤。以活跃的地球动力学过程为标志的其他地区支持半沙漠，即旱生草本和灌木的凹槽。干旱加剧和通缩区的发展，促使 GPP 北部和南部边缘的黄土覆盖层增加。动物群记录了猛犸象、长毛犀牛和巨鹿以及洞熊的逐渐消失。Gravettian 和 Epigravettian 狩猎采集群体居住在 GPP，尽管他们在边缘地区和整个地区的存在和定居动态长期以来一直受到质疑。事实上，少数考古遗址构成了平原本身人口的零散记录。在以发育良好的喀斯特地区为特征的 GAPR 北缘，几个洞穴和岩石庇护所记录了 GPP 边缘的野牛和马猎人以及一些丘陵景观中的野山羊和洞熊的存在。尽管如此，该地区接触的证据是通过对燧石资源的开发以及石器行业的风格和技术相似性提供的。