The Neanderthals move into Europe around 150,000 BCE.

The game-hunting occupants of the Grotte du Lazaret (English: Cave of Le Lazaret), now in the eastern suburbs of the French town of Nice and now overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, dating to about this time, make tents, probably of animal hides stretched over a wooden framework, with the tent entrances facing away from the cave opening.

A wolf skull is situated inside the doorway of each tent.

As humans develop more advanced skills and techniques, evidence of early construction begins to emerge.

Fossil remains of Cro-Magnons, Neanderthals, and other Homo sapiens subspecies have been found alongside foundation stones and stone pavements arranged in the shape of houses, suggesting a shift toward settled lifestyles and increasing social stratification.

In addition to building on land, early humans also develop seafaring technology. The proto-Australians appear to be the first known people to cross open water to an unseen shore, ultimately peopling Australia—a remarkable achievement in early maritime exploration.

Around 55,000 years ago, global weather patterns begin to fluctuate dramatically, shifting from extreme cold to milder conditions and back within just a few decades.

By 50,000 years ago, the Wisconsin glaciation (known in Europe as the Würm glaciation) is well advanced. Expanding ice sheets in North America and Europe push climatic zones southward, transforming the temperate regions of Europe and North America into Arctic tundra-like landscapes. Meanwhile, rain bands typical of temperate zones shift south, reaching as far as northern Africa.

Neanderthals and Climate Adaptation

The Neanderthals, well adapted to cold climates with their barrel chests and stocky limbs, are better suited than Cro-Magnons to retain body heat. However, the rapid and unpredictable climate fluctuations cause ecological upheavals, replacing familiar plants and animals within a single lifetime—a shift to which Neanderthals struggle to adapt.

One major challenge is the replacement of forests by grasslands during the Mousterian Pluvial, an effect of the last Ice Age’s climatic shifts. This change disrupts the Neanderthals’ ambush-based hunting techniques, making it harder for them to secure food. As a result, large numbers of Neanderthals likely perish due to food scarcity and environmental stress, with the crisis peaking around 30,000 years ago.

Neanderthal Burial and Final Strongholds

Despite their decline, Neanderthals appear to be the first humans to intentionally bury their dead, often in simple graves. The last known traces of Mousterian culture, though lacking human remains, have been discovered at Gorham’s Cave on Gibraltar’s remote south-facing coast, dating between 30,000 and 24,500 years ago.

Possible Scenarios for Neanderthal Extinction

Several hypotheses attempt to explain the disappearance of the Neanderthals from the fossil record around 25,000 years ago:

1. Complete Extinction and Replacement: Neanderthals were a separate species from modern humans and became extinct due to climate change and/or competition with Homo sapiens, who expanded into their territories starting around 80,000 years ago. Anthropologist Jared Diamond suggests that violent conflict and displacement played a role in their demise.

2. Interbreeding and Absorption: Neanderthals were a contemporary subspecies that interbred with modern humans, gradually disappearing through genetic absorption.

3. Volcanic Catastrophe: A Campanian Ignimbrite super-eruption around 40,000 years ago, followed by a second eruption a few thousand years later, may have severely impacted Neanderthal populations. Evidence from Mezmaiskaya Cave in the Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia supports this theory, with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis showing a distinct Neanderthal lineage separate from modern humans.

Energy Needs and Survival Challenges

Neanderthals had higher caloric requirements than any other known human species. They required 100 to 350 more calories per day than an anatomically modern human male (68.5 kg) or female (59.2 kg). This higher energy demand may have made them especially vulnerable when food sources became scarce, further contributing to their extinction.

Ultimately, by 25,000 years ago, Neanderthals disappear from the fossil record, leaving behind traces of their culture—but no direct descendants in the modern human genetic lineage.

South America (49,293 – 28,578 BCE): Upper Pleistocene I — Refugia, Shelves, and the Two Southern Worlds

Geographic & Environmental Context

Late-Pleistocene South America was not one world but two adjoining worlds that barely overlapped:

• South America Major—from the Northern Andes (Quito–Cuzco–Titicaca–Altiplano) across the Amazon–Orinoco trunks, the Guianas Shield, and the Atlantic Brazil shelf, down through Paraguay–Uruguay–northern Argentina to northern Chile—was a continent of depressed cloud belts, fragmented rainforests, and broadened coastal plains.

• South America Minor—Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and the Magellan–Beagle archipelagos—was an ice-marginal realm of fjords, loess steppe, and shelf banks along two oceans, largely unpeopled at this time.

These natural subregions looked outward more than inward: South America Major was knit to the Pacific and Amazonian basins; South America Minor leaned into the Southern Ocean and subantarctic winds. Their contrasts anchor The Twelve Worlds claim that “region” is a loose envelope—the living units are the subregions.

---

Climate and Environmental Shifts

The interval spans the build-up to the Last Glacial Maximum:

• Andes & Altiplano: Temperatures were ~3–7 °C lower; glaciers expanded on high cordilleras; puna–páramo belts shifted downslope; springs and rock-shelter margins persisted.

• Amazon/Guianas: Rainforest contracted into riparian and montane refugia, separated by savanna corridors; evapotranspiration fell; seasonality sharpened.

• Atlantic Brazil shelf: Sea level ~100 m below modern exposed broad strand-plains; estuaries and deltas migrated seaward.

• Atacama & high basins: Hyper-arid, cold plateaus with oasis springs and small lagoons.

• Patagonia–Fuegia: Strong westerlies, permafrost or seasonal frost on the interior steppe; Cordilleran icefields calved into fjords; outer shelves widened on both coasts.

Heinrich/Dansgaard–Oeschger pulses toggled the continent between slightly wetter interstadials (refugia expand) and drier stadials (savannization and ice advance).

---

Lifeways and Settlement Patterns

Human presence before ~30 ka is debated. If present in this window, occupations were sparse and refugium-tethered; robust, widespread sites appear later, during deglaciation. The likely pattern:

• South America Major
  • Coasts (Pacific and Atlantic Brazil): Opportunistic foraging in upwelling coves and exposed strand-plains—shellfish, fish, seabirds—with short-stay dune or beach-ridge camps.
  • Riparian lowlands (Amazon–Orinoco): Small groups anchored to gallery forests and levees—fish, turtles, capybara, supplemented by deer/peccary and palm fruits.
  • Andean foothills & basins: Rock-shelter use near perennial springs; small-game, rodents, camelids at high elevations; wild tubers and chenopods along wet margins.
  • Atacama oases: Patchy use of springlines and saline lagoons where available.

• South America Minor
  • Likely unoccupied this early. Though kelp-forest corridors and rich fjord/shore ecologies existed (shellfish, pinnipeds, seabirds), sustained use is later (post-LGM, >14.5 ka north of the zone at Monte Verde).

Across the continent, potential foragers would have practiced short-radius mobility between water-secure nodes: coves ⇄ levees ⇄ springs ⇄ rock shelters.

---

Technology and Material Culture

Toolkits, where present, fit late Middle/early Upper Paleolithic expectations:

• Stone: expedient flake–blade industries in quartz/quartzite and local cherts; retouched scrapers, burins, backed pieces late.

• Organic: bone awls/points, digging sticks, nets/cordage (poorly preserved).

• Pigment & ornament: ochre for body/adhesive use; simple beads (shell/seed) in later parts of the span are plausible.

These reflect light, portable technologies optimized for riparian and springline mobility, not heavy residential investment.

---

Movement and Interaction Corridors

Even with low population density, the continent’s natural corridors were already set:

• Pacific littoral “kelp highway”: cove-to-cove reconnaissance along upwelling margins (Peru–N. Chile).

• Andean valley strings: spring/rock-shelter chains linking puna to foothills.

• Amazon–Orinoco trunks: Solimões–Madeira–Xingu–Tapajós–Negro and Orinoco–Casiquiare provided levee driftways and portage nodes.

• Atlantic strandlines: broad Brazilian shelf plains connected estuaries and lagoon belts.

In South America Minor, the Magellan–Beagle coasts and wide shelf banks were ecological scaffolding for the later maritime florescence.

---

Cultural and Symbolic Expressions

If present in this span, symbolic behaviors would mirror the global Upper Paleolithic repertoire at low intensity: ochre use, hearth structuring, simple ornament caches in shelters. The richest, unequivocal material appears after the interval, as deglaciation improves site survivorship and territory size.

---

Environmental Adaptation and Resilience

The operating logic of the age was refugium tethering:

• Water-secure nodes—gallery forests, springlines, upwelling coves—anchored seasonal rounds.

• Broad portfolios—aquatic + terrestrial—buffered aridity and cold snaps.

• Topographic stacking (coast ↔ foothill ↔ puna; levee ↔ terra firme) created short-range substitutes when one niche failed.

In South America Minor, kelp forests, guanaco steppe, and shelf banks formed the “later-use” safety net awaiting Holocene colonists.

---

Transition Toward Deglaciation

By 28,578 BCE, Andean ice began its slow retreat, rainforest corridors poised to reconnect, and coastal/riverine pathways to improve:

• South America Major was primed for the unequivocal Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene occupations—shell-midden coasts, levee hamlets, puna caravan trails—that will define its next chapter.

• South America Minor held its ecological stage set—fjords, archipelagos, and kelp lanes—for the post-LGM maritime foragers who would turn the far south into a canoe world.

In short, the continent already displayed the dual structure central to The Twelve Worlds: a peopled northern–central theater of refugia and corridors beside an unpeopled southern theater of ready-made ecologies—two neighboring worlds whose destinies would diverge as the ice let go.

South America Major (49,293–28,578 BCE)

South America Major includes Colombia (except Darién), Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, Ecuador (excluding the Capelands), Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, northern Argentina, northern Chile.

Anchors: Northern Andes (Quito–Cuzco–Titicaca–Altiplano), Amazon Basin (Solimões–Madeira–Xingu–Tapajós–Marajó), Orinoco–Llanos, Atlantic Brazil coastal shelf, Guianas shield, Atacama oases.

Geographic & Environmental Context

• Andes: extensive glaciation on high cordilleras; puna and páramo belts depressed downslope.

• Amazon/Guianas: rainforest contracted into riparian and montane refugia, with intervening savanna corridors.

• Atlantic shelf: sea level ~100 m lower exposed broad coastal plains; estuaries migrated seaward.

• Atacama/Altiplano: cold, hyper-arid plateaus; oasis springs persistent.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

• Last Glacial Maximum (LGM): cooler (~3–7 °C lower), drier interiors; stronger seasonality; widespread glaciation in the Central Andes; reduced Amazonian evapotranspiration.

• Heinrich/D-O oscillations toggled between slightly wetter interstadials (refugia expand) and drier stadials (savannization).

Subsistence & Settlement

• Human presence before ~30 ka is debated (claims in eastern Brazil and Andean foothills exist but are contested). If present, foragers would have favored riparian refugia, coastal upwelling zones, and montane spring belts.

• Likeliest robust occupations in the later part of this window: coastal foraging (shellfish, fish, seabirds), riparian hunting (deer, peccary, capybara), and puna/basin small-game procurement.

Technology & Material Culture

• Late Middle/early Upper Paleolithic flake–blade industries; expedient quartz/quartzite; bone awls/points; ochre pigments.

• Portable organic technologies (nets, digging sticks) likely but poorly preserved.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Pacific littoral (upwelling coves, dune-sheltered landings), Andean valley strings (springs/rock shelters), Amazonian trunk rivers (Solimões–Madeira–Xingu–Tapajós), Orinoco–Casiquiare links to the Negro–Amazon.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• If present, ochre and bead use, hearth structuring, and rock-shelter ritual spaces would mirror broader Upper Paleolithic patterns.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Refugium strategy: tethering to evergreen gallery forests, springlines, and productive coasts; broad-spectrum aquatic + terrestrial foraging buffered aridity.

Transition

• As deglaciation accelerates, rainforest corridors re-connect, Andean ice withdraws, and coastal/riverine pathways improve — enabling the unequivocal Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene occupations that follow.

Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites (45,000–43,000 BCE), located on the Dniester River in the present Chernovtsy (or Chernivtsi) province, which include a mammoth bone dwelling.

The Near and Middle East (28,577 – 7,822 BCE): Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene — Warming Shores, Spring Worlds, and Broad-Spectrum Economies

Geographic & Environmental Context

Across the millennia of deglaciation, the Near and Middle East cohered as a chain of water-anchored landscapes:

• Southeast Arabia—the Dhofar escarpments with khareef fog-forests, the Ḥaḍramawt–Mahra wadi fans, the al-Wusta/Sharqiyah gravel and dune seas, and Socotra’s Hagghier uplands—turned inward to springs and outward to a retreating Aden–Arabian Sea shoreline.

• The Middle East—Zagros–Upper Mesopotamia, the Tigris–Euphrates corridors, the Caucasus piedmont, Khuzestan/Fars lowlands, and the advancing Gulf shelf—oscillated between pluvial recovery and steppe stress before stabilizing in the Early Holocene.

• The Near East—the Nile Valley and Delta, Sinai–Negev–Arabah, the southern Levant, western Anatolia’s Aegean littoral, and the Hejaz–Asir–Tihāma—saw drowned shelves, maturing estuaries, and rejuvenated floodplains.

Rising seas re-shaped coasts (Gulf transgression; Aegean embayments), while thawing headwaters revived perennial flow in the great river systems.

---

Climate & Environmental Shifts

• Bølling–Allerød (c. 14.7–12.9 ka): Warmer, wetter conditions expanded Zagros gallery woods and Caucasus belts; Ḥaḍramawt/Dhofar wadis ran strong; Nile floods strengthened; Aegean and Gulf coasts grew more productive.

• Younger Dryas (12.9–11.7 ka): Cooler, drier snapback: steppe spread across Upper Mesopotamia, wadis intermittently failed in SE Arabia, Nile discharge weakened; foragers pivoted to resilient wetland/coastal patches.

• Early Holocene (post-11.7 ka): Sustained warmth and more reliable monsoons/westerlies: Zagros springs and Tigris–Euphrates marsh–riparian mosaics stabilized; Dhofar fog-forests rebounded; Nile and Aegean floodplains/estuaries matured as the Gulf flooded landward.

---

Subsistence & Settlement

A triad of broad-spectrum adaptations converged on semi-sedentary water nodes:

• Southeast Arabia: Seasonal hamlets clustered at springheads and lagoon margins; diets paired gazelle–oryx–ibex with fish, shellfish, turtles, and mangrove resources. Inland rounds gathered fruits/nuts and hunted in the Mahra/Wusta belts; Socotra remained a wooded outpost likely without permanent settlement.

• Middle East (Zagros–Upper Mesopotamia–Caucasus–Gulf rim): Spring-terrace camps and riparian hamlets exploited gazelle, onager, boar, riverine fish/mollusks, and seeds, acorns, pistachio/almond. In the Early Holocene, some groups tethered wild caprines, edging toward management on Zagros slopes; marsh fishing/waterfowling intensified in the lower Tigris–Euphrates as the Gulf advanced.

• Near East (Nile–Levant–Aegean–Hejaz/Tihāma): Nile communities deepened fish–fowl–reed economies; Levantine and Aegean foragers harvested shellfish and nearshore fish alongside deer/boar; Red Sea shorelines with relict mangroves supported intermittent foraging.

Settlement was nodal and recurrent—springs, levees, dune spurs, and lagoon bars accruing hearths, pits, and cemeteries across centuries.

---

Technology & Material Culture

• Microlithic bladelet/geometrics dominated hunting kits; hafted composite points and resins common.

• Grinding stones, mortars/querns for nuts/seeds spread widely; bone harpoons/fish gorges, net weights, basketry, and ropework underpinned marsh/estuary fisheries.

• Ground-stone tools rose late; incipient pottery appeared by the end of the period on the northern Iranian/Caspian and Anatolian fringes, initially for boiling and storage.

• Early dugouts/rafts and reed craft likely on Nile backwaters and sheltered lagoons; cabotage along Aegean/Gulf/Arabian rims feasible during stable seasons.

---

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Zagros passes (Kermanshah–Khuzestan) funneled goods/people between uplands and Khuzestan plains; Karkheh–Karun–Shatt al-Arab backwaters linked to the Upper Gulf.

• Caucasus Kura–Araxes fans connected highlands to Iranian forelands.

• Ḥaḍramawt–Mahra–Dhofar wadis stitched coast and interior; short maritime hops likely reached the Horn of Africa.

• The Nile remained the subregion’s master axis; Aegean island-hops and Red Sea shore lanes tied capes and wadi mouths.
  These intertwined routes provided redundancy: when wadis failed or steppe widened, marsh, lagoon, and coast supplied calories and salt.

---

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Ochre burials and river/spring offerings recur from Zagros to the Nile; house-based ritual—hearth deposits, ancestor interments, stone slab markers—emerged in semi-sedentary camps.

• Petroglyphs on Dhofar/Haima desert margins and Zagros outcrops (caprids, equids, processions) may root in these horizons.

• Shell terraces and levee mounds served as feasting grounds and mnemonic landmarks, formalizing access to water and fisheries.

---

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

A shared risk-spreading grammar took shape:

• Dietary breadth + storage (dried meat/fish, nut pastes) buffered Younger Dryas shocks.

• Flexible rounds (wetland–upland–coast) tracked shifting isohyets and resource pulses.

• Proximity to springs/marshes anchored overwintering; early caprine tethering and focused seed processing foreshadowed managed food webs.

• Lagoon/marsh anchoring during arid pulses sustained semi-sedentism without agriculture.

---

Long-Term Significance

By 7,822 BCE, the Near and Middle East had become a water-anchored, semi-sedentary world: mapped wadi networks in SE Arabia; spring-terrace and marsh hamlets in Zagros–Mesopotamia edging toward herd and seed management; and Nile–Aegean–Red Sea littorals refining wetland and coastal economies.
These intertwined traditions—grinding and storage, spring/levee fidelity, caprine protomanagement, marsh and lagoon fisheries, and seasonal cabotage—constituted the operating code from which the region’s first Neolithic cultivation and herding communities would soon crystallize.

The Middle East (28,577 – 7,822 BCE) Upper Pleistocene II — Bølling–Allerød Abundance, Younger Dryas Stress, Early Holocene Recovery

Geographic and Environmental Context

The Middle East includes Iraq, Iran, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, eastern Jordan, most of Turkey’s central/eastern uplands (including Cilicia), eastern Saudi Arabia, northern Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, northeastern Cyprus, and all but the southernmost Lebanon.

• Anchors: the Tigris–Euphrates alluvium and marshes; the Zagros (Luristan, Fars), Alborz, Caucasus (Armenia–Georgia–Azerbaijan); northern Syrian plains and Cilicia; Khuzestan and Fars lowlands; the Arabian/Persian Gulf littoral (al-Ahsa–Qatar–Bahrain–UAE–northern Oman); northeastern Cyprus and the Lebanon coastal elbow (north).

Climate & Environment

• Bølling–Allerød (c. 14.7–12.9 ka): rainfall rose; gallery woodlands expanded along Tigris–Euphrates and Zagros springs.

• Younger Dryas (12.9–11.7 ka): cooler–drier snapback; steppe patches widened.

• Early Holocene: stabilizing warmth; perennial springs recharged; Gulf shoreline advanced landward.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Broad-spectrum foraging intensified (gazelle–onager–boar–fish–mollusks; seeds, acorns, pistachio/almond); semi-recurrent springhead hamlets in Zagros and Upper Mesopotamia (preludes to later Epipaleolithic “Natufian-like” economies outside our zone).

• Seasonal coastal foraging at northeastern Cyprus and the Gulf rim.

Technology & Material Culture

• Microlithic toolkits diversified; grinding stones and mortars for seeds/nuts; bone harpoons/fish gorges in marshy reaches.

• Hafting resins, compound points; early basketry inferred.

Corridors

• Zagros spring belts (Luristan–Kurdistan) and Upper Mesopotamian flanks; Caucasus piedmont fans; Gulf shelf retreat reshaped coastal access.

Symbolism & Ritual

• Persistent ochre burials; ritual deposits at springs; engraved motifs (caprids, equids).

Adaptation & Resilience

• Diet breadth + storage (dried meat/fish, nut pastes) buffered Younger Dryas shocks; flexible camp scheduling maintained returns.

Transition

Early Holocene stability primed semi-sedentary river–spring villages and the seed economies that will underpin later plant management.

---

(7,821 – 6,094 BCE) Early Holocene — Semi-Sedentary Spring Villages & Seed Processing

Climate & Environment

• Thermal optimum onset: marsh–riparian mosaics in Lower Mesopotamia; wooded Zagros; productive Caucasus belts; Gulf continued transgression.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Semi-sedentary hamlets on springheads/low terraces (Zagros–Upper Mesopotamia) combined hunting with seed–nut processing; wetland fishing/waterfowling in Tigris–Euphrates backwaters.

• Early caprine management likely began on Zagros slopes (wild → managed herds).

Technology & Material Culture

• Ground-stone mortars/querns proliferated; larger storage pits; microliths persisted; incipient pottery appears on the northern Iranian/Caspian periphery by late in the epoch.

Corridors

• Zagros passes (Kermanshah–Khuzestan) linked uplands to Khuzestan plains; Karkheh–Karun marshes tied to the Upper Gulf.

Symbolism

• House-based ritual (hearths, ancestor interments); stone slab markers; continued ochre.

Adaptation

• Storage + proximity to springs anchored overwintering; mixed wetland–upland rounds hedged variability.

Transition

These lifeways foreshadow Neolithic cultivation/herding communities across the Zagros and Upper Mesopotamia.

Southeast Arabia (28,577 – 7,822 BCE) Upper Pleistocene II — Deglaciation, Coastal Productivity, and Wadi Networks

Geographic and Environmental Context

Southeast Arabia covers the southern and eastern margins of the Arabian Peninsula:

• Eastern Yemen (Hadhramaut, eastern Aden interior, al-Mahra).

• Southern Oman (Dhofar Highlands with the khareef monsoon, al-Wusta gravel plains, Sharqiyah Desert fringes).

• The Empty Quarter (Rubʿ al-Khālī) margins in adjoining Saudi territory.

• The offshore island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea.

• Anchors: Wādī Ḥaḍramawt–Shibam–Tarim, Dhofar escarpments (Ẓafār/Al-Balīd, Mirbat), al-Mahra dunes, al-Wusta plains, Sharqiyah sands, Socotra’s Hagghier Mountains and dragon’s-blood groves.

• As glaciers melted, sea level rose; Gulf of Aden–Arabian Sea coasts retreated inland.

• Hadhramaut wadis deepened; Dhofar fog-forests fluctuated with monsoon strength.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

• Bølling–Allerød warming (14,700–12,900 BCE): lush monsoons, wadis flowed, upland belts expanded.

• Younger Dryas (12,900–11,700 BCE): renewed aridity, wadis dried, dune advance.

• Early Holocene (after 11,700 BCE): warm stable monsoon, reliable khareef in Dhofar.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Broad-spectrum foragers: hunting gazelle, oryx, ibex; intensified fishing and shellfish harvests during wet phases.

• Seasonal hamlets along wadis and coastal terraces, abandoned in dry pulses.

• Socotra: rich woodlands sustained seabirds and goats, but permanent human settlement is still unlikely.

Technology & Material Culture

• Bladelet industries matured; ground-stone tools appeared late.

• Fish gorges, shell scrapers, net weights.

• Basketry and rope-making inferred from toolkits.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Hadhramaut–Mahra wadis critical wet-phase corridors.

• Coastal cabotage feasible during stable periods; possible short-haul to Red Sea Horn.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Ritual feasting likely at perennial springs.

• Petroglyphs in Dhofar/Haima desert margins may trace back to these horizons.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Flexible settlement and diet shifts buffered against Younger Dryas drought.

Transition

By 7,822 BCE, foragers had mapped wadi networks and sustained a dual economy of coast + upland.

The Near East (28,577 – 7,822 BCE) Upper Pleistocene II — Bølling–Allerød Nile Bounty, Younger Dryas Stress, Early Holocene Recovery

Geographic and Environmental Context

The Near East includes Egypt, Sudan, Israel, most of Jordan, western Saudi Arabia, western Yemen, southwestern Cyprus, and western Turkey (Aeolis, Ionia, Doris, Lydia, Caria, Lycia, Troas) plus Tyre (extreme SW Lebanon).

• Anchors: the Nile Valley and Delta; Sinai–Negev–Arabah; the southern Levant (with Tyre as the sole Levantine node in this subregion); Hejaz–Asir–Tihāma on the Red Sea; Yemen’s western uplands/coast; southwestern Cyprus; western Anatolian littoral (Smyrna–Ephesus–Miletus–Halicarnassus–Xanthos; Troad).

Climate & Environment

• Bølling–Allerød: Nile floods more generous; Levantine–Aegean woodlands expanded.

• Younger Dryas: aridity spike; Nile floods weakened; Early Holocene restored stability.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Intensified fish–fowl–reed economies in Nile; broad-spectrum foraging in Levant; shellfish and nearshore fish along Aegean Turkey; Red Sea relict mangroves used intermittently.

Technology

• Microlithic composites; grinders/mortars for seeds; fishing gear (gorges, traps); early dugout/raft precursors.

Corridors

• Nile remained the main artery; Sinai–Negev link; Ionia–Carian capes for seasonal forays.

Symbolism

• Cemeteries at levee ridges; ritual disposal in dune/shore settings; persistent ochre.

Adaptation

• Storage + wetland scheduling mitigated Younger Dryas volatility.