Beyond the Alps and Tatra Mountains—the 20–14 ka Repopulation of the Northern Mid-latitudes as Inferred from Palimpsests Deciphered with Keys from Western and Central Europe

Abstract

The timing and course of the recolonisation of Central Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum are intensively debated. Particularly puzzling is the distribution of sites between 19,000 and 18,000 calBP, attributed to the so-called Magdalenian ‘a navettes’, where the easternmost site (Maszycka, Poland) is located 1300 km away from its closest neighbour to the west (Grappin, France). The question of early recolonisation pulses into Central Europe is linked to the problem of identifying weak occupation signals within archaeological palimpsests, whose largest parts have accumulated during later periods of more intensive human activities. In order to disentangle palimpsest assemblages and identify components of early occupation events, we set aside traditional archaeological units such as Middle Magdalenian and instead focus on artefact associations. Under this premise, we review the evidence of faunal assemblages, radiocarbon dates, artefact morphology, technology and artisan craftwork of sites in Central Europe between roughly 20,000 and 14,000 calBP. We identify numerous, previously overlooked evidence for early occupations, particularly for the periods from 19,000 to 18,000 calBP and 18,000 to 15,800 calBP. Our findings add new tesserae to the mosaic picture of the repopulation process in Central Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum and significantly alter the current view on its timing and course.