Hunter-gatherers across the Great Adriatic-Padanian Region during the Last Glacial Maximum: environmental and cultural dynamics.

During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the Adriatic Sea basin was deeply affected by considerable geomorphological and sedimentological processes mainly due to the extension of the alpine glaciers to the plain and dropping of the sea level to -120 a.s.l. The combination of these two processes contributed to the formation of the Great Adriatic Plain (GAP), a vast area covering the center of the Great Adriatic Region (GAR) between the Alpine chain, the Italian Peninsula and the north-western Balkan Peninsula. The GAP has been physically and ecologically featured through a range of palaeogeographic and palaeocological data. Within the lower prealpine belts of the Lombardy, Veneto and Friuli some lake and fine-grained alluvial successions provided palaeocological data. These indicate the persistence of boreal forests of boreal forests throughout the LGM in moist habitat on stable areas and wetland margins, while open woodlands, steppe and semideserts occupied the uplands. Here, a tree cover persisted until the Late-glacial. Extensive wetlands occupied the water-satured silty soils in the lowlands. Other ecozones, marked by active geodynamic processes, got extensive semideserts, i.e. sparse grooves by xerophytic herbs and shrubs. The low mountain belt of the Forealps supported more extensive forest stands, in reason of increased orographic rainfall. Increased aridity and wind intensity prompted the accretion of widespread loess cover throughout MIS 2 at the northern and southern margins of the Po Plain and along the foothills bordering the Adriatic Plains, as documented by the occurrence of loess layers dating to the LGM in several localities. During this period, the Great Adriatic Plain was inhabited by Gravettian and Epigravettian hunter-gatherer groups although their presence and settlement dynamics at the margins and across this region raised up questions for decades. Actually, a handful of archaeological sites compose a patchy record of the peopling of the plain itself. Nonetheless, evidence of contacts across this area is provided by the exploitation of common chert sources and by stylistic and technical similarities in the lithic industries documented in northern and central eastern Italy, Slovenia, Istria and Dalmatia. At the northern rim of the GAR, characterized by a well developed karstic region, a handful of caves and shelters yielded evidence of the presence of these Gravettian hunter-gatherers.