Quaternary Geography and the Human Past - A Companion to Environmental Geography - page 219

records in the Mediterranean basin. A key challenge is to explore the relationship
between the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic records in Europe and this new palaeo-
climatic framework. However, much of what we know about the human past comes
from material preserved in rockshelter and cave sediment records. These records are
discontinuous and dating control is often inadequate (Woodward and Goldberg,
2001). New approaches are therefore needed to establish the environmental context
of the archaeological record of the last cold stage. Important progress has already
been achieved and the next decade will see further advances. If calibration of the
radiocarbon timescale back to 50,000 years BP becomes routine practice, it may
soon be possible to explore population dynamics across the Middle and Upper Pal-
aeolithic transition in the same way that Gamble et al. (2004) have done for the
period between 30,000 and 6,000 years BP. Also, as a more robust dating frame-
work emerges for Upper Palaeolithic cave paintings (using direct AMS dating of the
materials used to produce the images), it would be fascinating to explore the rela-
tionship between the faunal elements they depict and the records of rapid climate
and ecosystem change. The geography of the last cold stage was highly dynamic -
both temporally and spatially - with evidence for rapid change in geomorphological
processes and ecosystems. The reality of the new records of rapid and high-
amplitude climate change means that a geographical perspective on the Quaternary
is now more relevant than ever.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to thank Noel Castree for the invitation to write this chapter,
John Lewin for helpful comments on the manuscript and Nick Scarle for drawing
the fi gures.

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