LA RÉPONSE DES VÉGÉTATIONS AUX VARIATIONS CLIMATIQUES QUATERNAIRES AUTOUR DES SITES ARCHÉOLOGIQUES DU SUD DE LA FRANCE ET DU NORD-EST DE L'ITALIE

Abstract

In the attempt of identifying vegetal associations which could serve as a reference point and a chronostrathigrafic guide for the paleolithic complexes, we have analyzed the reponse of vegetal dynamics to the climatic variations occurred from lower Pleistocene to Holocene. Pollen diagrams (often discontinuous and incomplete) of many prehistoric deposits in SE France and NE Italy were compared to one another. The deposits are believed to be coeval because of the cultural fades of the finds and also because of absolute age data in some cases. By this comparison it is possible to conclude that in NE Italy the vegetation has been directly under the Balkan influence since some phases of lower and middle Pleistocene (see conclusive tables). This is the reason for the more temperate aspect of vegetal associations in SE France. The geographic position of SE France in the Mediterranean area justifies very well the presence of thermophile plants, which are still present in this area, and it contributed certainly to mark better the climatic oscillations occurred in the past. To point out climatic variations in the studied Italian sites is more and more difficult, particulary during Pleniglacial and Tardiglacial times when the climatic and vegetal situations show an Asiatic continental character. The alternation of steppe and steppe-grassland with rare trees is indicative of localized variations of humidity.