AFTER THE ICE - Forager Uses of "Persistent Places” in the Late Upper Palaeolithic of the Circum-Adriatic Region: Perspectives from the Riparo Tagliente (Verona, Italy) and Badanj (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

The project aims to understand the nature of human adaptations in the Mediterranean part of Europe during the period of dramatic climatic, environmental and landscape changes at the end of the Pleistocene. It focuses on the circum-Adriatic area where such changes were particularly pronounced due to significant landscape and territorial alterations. In the face of such uncertainties, these hunter-gatherers developed adaptable technologies in the form of stone and osseous industries and specific toolkits and seem to have been well connected among themselves through the existence of extensive social networks beyond maximal band territories, sharing a repertoire of similar culture traits. By focusing our research on two sites on opposing ends of the circum-Adriatic region (Riparo Tagliente, Italy and Badanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina) we aim to understand the detailed settlement histories of these two locales; the nature of their uses and changes that affected scheduling of everyday activities in these places over time; and identify common points of comparison between the two sites/subregions in order to identify wider evolutionary trends connected with these types of adaptations and settlement organisation in the functioning of prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups more generally. These objectives will be achieved through the study of technological and functional aspects of material culture (stone and osseous industries) and ecofacts (faunal and microbotanical remains) in conjunction with a dedicated approach to chronological modelling in order to obtain a fine chronological resolution for both sites.