HUMAN RESILIENCE AND THE CLIMATIC IMPACT OF GREENLAND STADIAL 5 ON THE LANDSCAPE OF THE NORTHERN APENNINE WATERSHED. AN ASSESSMENT BASED ON MULTIDISCIPLINARY DATA FROM THE PIOVESELLO GRAVETTIAN SITE

Abstract

The Gravettian settlements of Europe are considered as an expression of the human adaptation to harsh climates. In Southern Europe, however, favorable vegetation-climate conditions supported hunters-gatherers subsistence and the maintenance of their large-scale networks. This was also the case of the North-Adriatic plain and the Apennine mountain ridge in Italy, where the ephemeral site of Piovesello locates at 870 m a.s.l. Cultural and palaeobotanical evidence allows to reconstruct human and vegetation ecology at a glaciated area in the Northern Apennine during Greenland Stadial 5 and also provides hints for the historical biogeography of petrophytic plants and their orographic relics.