Late Glacial Maximum - Western Europe and The North European Plain

Western Europe and The North European Plain

Climate amelioration begins to occur rapidly throughout Western Europe and the North European Plain ca. 16,000-15,000 years ago. The environmental landscape becomes increasing boreal except in the far north, where conditions remain arctic. Sites of human occupation reappear in northern France, Belgium, northwest Germany, and southern Britain between 15,500 to 14,000 years ago. Many of these sites are classified as Magdalenian though other industries containing distinctive curved back and tanged points appear as well. As the Fennoscandian ice sheet continued to shrink, plants and people began to repopulate the freshly deglaciated areas of southern Scandinavia. Between 12,000 to 10,000 years ago, the western coast of Norway and southern Sweden up to latitude 65° north becomes occupied by sites belonging to the Fosna-Hensbacka complex. They are defined by the appearance of tanged points and other artifacts similar to those found earlier in Northwest Germany. Komsa sites are found ca. 7000 years ago along Norway's Finnmark county above 70° north and further east on the Kola Peninsula. They are defined by surface finds of tanged points, burins, scrapers, and adzes. The primary game of Magdalenian hunters appears to have been reindeer, though evidence of bird and shellfish consumption persist as well.