Modeling foraging ranges and spatial organization of Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in the southern Levant - A least-cost GIS approach

The results of the study reveal that potential maximum daily foraging ranges as well as habitats and habitat zone heterogeneity within these foraging ranges differed greatly across the region. Due to variance in potential plant and animal productivity, settlement patterns undoubtedly differed significantly across the southern Levant particularly with respect to the number of moves per year, the importance of fusion-fission strategies, the seasonality of relocation tactics, and the importance of group territoriality. These variances in annual settlement options and emerging patterns within the southern Levant at the height of the Last Glacial Maximum provide baseline conditions for understanding divergences in adaptive trajectories within the wider region.