The people who inhabited Southwest Europe from 30,000 to 13,000 years ago are often portrayed as big game hunters – and indeed, in some locations (Cantabrian Spain, the Pyrenees, the Dordogne) the archaeological record supports this interpretation. But in other places, notably Mediterranean Iberia, the inhabitants focused their hunting efforts on smaller game, such as rabbits, fish, and birds. Were they less effective hunters? Were these environments depleted of red deer and other large game? Or is this evidence of Paleolithic people’s adaptability? This volume explores these questions, along the way delving into the history of the “bigger equals better” assumption; optimal foraging theory and niche construction theory; and patterns of environmental and subsistence change across the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.

This book offers insight into the relationship between prehistoric and protohistoric human populations and the world around them. It reconstructs key aspects of the palaeoenvironment – from large-scale drivers of environmental conditions, such as climate, to more regional variables such as vegetation cover and faunal communities. The volume underscores how computational archaeology is leading the way in the study of past human-environment interactions across spatial and chronological scales. With the increased availability of high-resolution climate models, agent-based modelling, palaeoecological proxies and the mature use of Geographic Information System in ecological modelling, archaeologists working in interdisciplinary settings are well-positioned to explore the intersection of human systems and environmental affordances and constraints. These methodological advancements provide a better understanding of the role humans played in past ecosystems – both in terms of their impact upon the environment and, in return, the impact of environmental conditions on human systems. They may also allow us to infer past ecological knowledge and land-use patterns that are historically contingent, rather than environmentally determined. This volume gathers contributions that combine reconstructions of past environments and archeological data with a view to exploring their complex interactions at different scales and invites scholars from varying disciplines and backgrounds to present and compare different modelling approaches.

The book assembles new insights into humanity’s social, cultural and economic developments during the Last Glacial Maximum in Western Europe and adjacent regions. It gathers original, up-to-date research results on the Solutrean techno-complex, reflecting four major fields of research: data from current excavations; analysis of lithic assemblages; new results from studies on climatic conditions and human-environmental interactions; and insights into artistic expressions. New methodological and analytical approaches are applied, providing significant contributions to Paleolithic research beyond the Last Glacial Maximum.

Tijeras Pueblo (LA 581) is a late precontact Ancestral Pueblo site, located just east of the modern city of Albuquerque, USA. Research using archaeological collections from the site has been generated over the past 40 years, illuminating the significance of Tijeras Pueblo as a cultural crossroad associated with dynamic social changes typical of the Pueblo IV Period in the American Southwest. In its modern context, this site continues to function as a bridge between cultures, the past, and the present. This book highlights a cross section of diverse perspectives and interests involved in understanding, interpreting, and preserving Tijeras Pueblo, including a summary of recent research on the site, the use of the site and its collections as a source for public education, a discussion of management challenges related to its location on a Forest Service administrative complex, and how interpretation and research have benefited from continued collaboration with descendant communities such as Isleta Pueblo. This book will appeal to a broad and diverse readership, including academics and vocationalists interested in late precontact Ancestral Pueblo archaeology and those with regional and global interests in cultural heritage management, curation of legacy collections, site preservation, and public education. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Kiva: The Journal of Southwestern Anthropology and History.

The House of the Cylinder Jars details the archaeological excavations led by Patricia L. Crown at Pueblo Bonito’s famed Room 28 in Chaco Canyon in 2013. Originally excavated in 1896 by the Hyde Exploring Expedition, Room 28 gained notoriety for its incredible assemblage of 174 whole ceramic vessels. Crown and her team reopened Room 28 after she and Jeffrey Hurst discovered residues of chocolate in cylinder jar fragments from Pueblo Bonito in 2009. Their research revealed the first evidence of chocolate north of the US-Mexico border and possibly linked Chacoan rituals surrounding cacao use to Mesoamerica. The House of the Cylinder Jars documents the re-excavation of Room 28, and places it within the context of other rooms at Pueblo Bonito, and describes the ritual termination by fire of the materials stored in the room. The contributors also offer a modern interpretation of the construction and depositional histories of surrounding spaces at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon.

Contributes to the debate about modern human origins by exploring the diets and foraging patterns of both Neandertals and early modern humans.