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2004. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon chronologies: examples from the European Late-glacial.ABSTRACT: Although there are many Late-glacial (ca. 15 000-11 000 cal. yr BP) proxy climate records from northwest Europe, some analysed at a very high temporal resolution (decadal to century scale), attempts to establish time-stratigraphical correlations between sequences are constrained by problems of radiocarbon dating. In an attempt to overcome some of these difficulties, we have used a Bayesian approach to the analysis of radiocarbon chronologies for two Late-glacial sites in the British Isles and one in the Adriatic Sea. The palaeoclimatic records from the three sites were then compared with that from the GRIP Greenland ice-core. Although there are some apparent differences in the timing of climatic events during the early part of the Late-glacial (pre-14 000 cal. yr BP), the results suggest that regional climatic changes appear to have been broadly comparable between Greenland, the British Isles and the Adriatic during the major part of the Late-glacial (i.e. between 14 000 and 11 000 cal. yr BP). The advantage of using the Bayesian approach is that it provides a means of testing the reliability of Late-glacial radiocarbon chronologies that is independent of regional chronostratigraphical (climatostratigraphical) frameworks. It also uses the full radiocarbon inventory available for each sequence and makes explicit any data selection applied. Potentially, therefore, it offers a more 'objective' basis for comparing regional radiocarbon chronologies than the conventional approaches that have been used hitherto.

The hunter-gatherer transhumance model presents foragers as specialised hunters of migratory ungulates, which moved seasonally between coastal lowlands and interior uplands. We studied six animal teeth of horse (Equus hydruntinus) and red deer (Cervus elaphus) from four different archaeological sites: the Grotta di Vado all'Arancio, Grotta di Settecannelle, Grotta Polesini and Grotta di Pozzo, in central Italy to test whether the migratory patterns and seasonal variations recorded in their teeth were consistent with expectations of the transhumance model for this region during the late Upper Palaeolithic. Sequential sub-samples of enamel were analysed from each tooth for oxygen, carbon and strontium isotope ratios to reconstruct mobility and yearly seasonal variations. The results show little evidence that these animals were moving over different geological terrains throughout the year, although small variations in Sr isotope ratios and concentrations were detected that corresponded to probable seasonal variations as shown by variability in oxygen isotope sequences. The results do, however, demonstrate that Cervus elaphus and Equus hydruntinus had different ranging behaviours, with the former moving over wider areas than the latter. This methodology produces results appropriate to assess animal migratory behaviour and, in turn, to test the consistency of proposed models of hunter-gatherer subsistence and mobility strategies. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Eurasian hunter-gatherer populations experienced rapid and extreme environmental changes from the Last Glacial Maximum to the early Holocene (ca. 18 000 to 8000 BP). e.g. 1,2 During this period profound socio-economic changes and technological developments took place that culminated with the transition to agriculture. Various models have been applied to explore the relationship between the environment and hunter-gatherer behaviour during the late-glacial in Mediterranean Europe. The hunter-gatherer transhumance model, a variation of the seasonal mobility model originally developed by Higgs, 3,4 presents foragers as specialised hunters of migratory ungulates that moved seasonally between coastal lowlands and interior uplands. In Italy, Barker hypothesised that hunter-gatherers of the late Pleistocene followed seasonally migratory herd species including Cervus elaphus and Equus hydruntinus between the Apennine uplands and the coastal plains. 5,6 These two locations offer seasonally distinct opportunities for grazing species: in winter the mountains are inhospitable and cold while the coastal plains remain grass-covered. In summer, instead, the lowlands are dry with little vegetation and the mountains remain vegetated. These distinctions would have been intensified in the late Pleistocene, and Barker argued that the seasonal climatic variations of this Mediterranean landscape would have suited wild species of grazing herbivores that could migrate between these two regions. 6 Although the hunter-gatherer transhumance model is attractive for various reasons...