Limiting factors on early modern human dispersals: The human biogeography of late Pleniglacial Europe

Modern humans can be described as a colonizing species expanding its range from pole to pole in the course of the Holocene. The range shifts during the Late Pleniglacial in Europe form a case study in the limiting factors of early modern human colonizing behaviour. The paper provides an overview of the settlement history of Late Pleniglacial Europe (29–12.4 ka BP). The patterns of presence and absence are described in terms of biogeographical processes of abandonment, stasis and expansion. These trajectories differ from region to region, probably in response to climatic change. I explore the relationship between climate change and settlement history by focusing on the role of herbivore diversity. Patterning in herbivore diversity in relation to plant abundance and quality is proposed as an important factor in determining long-term settlement patterns in Late Pleniglacial Europe.