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The Late Glacial "Great Adriatic Plain": "Garden of Eden" or "No Man's Land" during the Epipalaeolithic? A view from Istria (Croatia)

The Great Adriatic Plain would have been a significant feature in Epipalaeolithic landscapes. Some researchers reconstruct it as rich in game, water, and other resources, and hence a focus for settlement by Epipalaeolithic groups (van Andel 1989, Bailey and Gamble 1990). In this scenario one expects the exposed plain to have linked the opposite sides of the Adriatic, perhaps through the periodic aggregation of bands on it or the transmission of information and personnel through regional networks that spanned the plain. Others, however, reconstruct the plain as a cold, windswept flatland impoverished in game and lithic raw material that was more or less avoided by Epipalaeolithic groups until the end of the Pleistocene (Mussi 2001). In this case the plain would have impeded movement, making links between opposite sides of the northern Adriatic more tenuous than in the first scenario. These contrasting reconstructions of the Adriatic Plain have fundamental implications for our understanding of the demographic history of the wider region and processes of recolonization during the Late Glacial. Faunal remains from sites on the edge of the Adriatic Plain (Šandalja, Vela Špilja /Lošinj/) suggest that the plain supported diverse and large herds of ungulates ; reconstructions of resource poor environments on the northern Adriatic Plain need to be reconsidered. We also compare these sequences to recently excavated sites in northern Istria (Pupićina, Vešanska, and Nugljanska Caves) ; the latter document the process of re-occupation of hinterland environments distant from the northern Adriatic Plain. We conclude that the rapid increase in Epipalaeolithic site number and occupation intensity at the end of the Pleistocene was caused by the flooding of the Adriatic Plain and displacement of Epipalaeolithic groups off the plain and into the hinterland.

Adriatic, Zooarchaeology, Upper Palaeolithic, Istria, Croatia

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