http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6003 Entrées d’index fr 0 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6110 Recently, environmental studies in Moravia concentrate on the Dolní Věstonice–Pavlov project, and the related period of 30,000 – 20,000 B.P. The sites of Dolní Věstonice, Předmostí, and the peat-bog at Bulhary were continuously studied by methods of palynology (E. Rybnǐčková, H. Svobodová), palaeopedology (L. Smolíková), and malacozoology (V. Ložek, J. Kovanda). The cultural layers developed in an unstable period of climatic oscillations between the relatively temperate Wurmian Interglacial, and the Upper Pleniglacial maximum. Archaeology reflects changing behavioural patterns: an intensive land-use in the Aurignacian, resulting in a network of sites, and preference of marginal highlands, where deposition of the last loess cover was limited. The Gravettian, partly contemporary, is usually found in extended side-clusters under loess deposits near river valleys. By the end of the Gravettian, a horizon of sites with eastern-reminiscent articulated elements, emerges on strategic points along the passage from the Danube valley to the North European Plain. After 20,000 B.P., the Epigravettian constitutes a thin network of small sites, mostly in sheltered valley locations. Further inter-cultural differences are observed in strategies of subsistence, raw material exploitation, and transport. Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:31:09 +0100 Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:31:19 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6110 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6008 Under the conditions of the ultimate glacial, i.e. the Weichselian respectively Vistulian in the northern part of Central Europe and the Würmian of the Alpine area in the southern part the range of territory that was accessible and utilizable to man has been narrowly confined. The narrowing was on either side - by inland glaciation in the lowlands adjoining the Baltic Sea and by Alpine glaciers in the southern belt. On the other hand the glacial sea lowering has provided expansion of land, especially in the present North Sea, enabling a land connection to the British Islands. Above all the environmental record within the interposing belt between the glaciated areas can be based on palaeontological observations. Suitable findings are available due to the preservation of skeletal remains evidencing fossil mammals and of mollusc shells in calcareous sediments. Frequently they occur as in the basin areas in the northern foreland of the Central European highlands. They permit, moreover, correlations to the manifold and differentiated evidences of regional loess stratigraphy. The deposition of Central European loess covers took place under the conditions of glacial cold steppes, and the report circulates that actually no equivalent ecosystem can be found. However, detailed investigations prove a suitable actualistic model of the glacial environmental conditions in the non‑glaciated belt of Central Europe, deduced from present Central Asia. Such comparison may be enabled by the well‑known and intensively studied ecology of recent animals comparable with species recorded by Central European loess sequences. The actualistic model of glacial environmental conditions in Central Europe may be connected with a chronological resolution by means of mollusc shells reflecting changing of faunal assemblages due to the variations of environment in the course of glacial periods as recorded by loess stratigraphy. There, alternating loess covers and buried soils record climatic oscillations analogous to those during the Holocene. However, a superordinated trend of increasing continentality as a rule has effected and increasing inclemency of mean climatic conditions in a comparison of consecutive stadial phases or interstadial ones. The most extreme continentality took place immediately before the transition from the ultimate glacial to the Holocene warming. Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:24:34 +0100 Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:24:41 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6008 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6001 There are only a very few sites or archaeological horizons which are appropriate for the reconstruction of former environments and the recognition of man's relationship to these conditions. First, it is very important to dispose of some deposits rich in fossiles and, if possible, to have many geological and geomorphological phenomenons as well as an archaeological culture preserved in its primary situation. A necessary precondition for this research are some archaeological horizons of travertine and some limnic-telmatic deposits containing various plant and animal fossil groups, in particular macro plant remains, molluscs, ostracods, micro and macro vertebrates, and special indications for the existence of former biotopes. In a larger range, they enable the reconstruction of environments beyond the biotope in wandering ranges and hunting districts. The preserved cultural evidence allows the inference of behavioural and reactive patterns towards this environment. This is demonstated by the travertine site of Bilzingsleben, Lower Palaeolithic, Middle Pleistocene/Holstein complex. Wed, 28 Jan 2026 16:07:39 +0100 Wed, 28 Jan 2026 16:07:47 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6001