Environmental changes and cultural dynamics along the northern slope of the Pyrenees during the Younger Dryas

Paradoxically, the region of the northern Pyrenean piedmont, a pioneering location for research on the very end of the last glacial period, suffers from a scarcity of recent and well-documented studies. A few recently or soon to be published sites nevertheless enable a presentation of the first elements of analysis and reflection in a global consideration of the societies of this period, which sees the concomitance of the Younger Dryas cold phase and the classic Pyrenean Azilian. A detailed examination of these two phenomena shows that their relationships are more complex than those of simple ecological determinism. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.