THE WEICHSELIAN LATE-GLACIAL IN SOUTHWESTERN EUROPE (IBERIAN PENINSULA, PYRENEES, MASSIF-CENTRAL, NORTHERN APENNINES)

This paper presents a summary of Late-glacial environmental changes in southwestern Europe (Iberian Peninsula, Pyrenees, Massif Central and the northern Apennines). The emphasis is on palaeoclimatic interpretations inferred from key sites in the region from which the most detailed records are available and which have been radiocarbon dated. The earliest evidence for climatic improvement following the end of the last glacial stage is dated to ca. 15 ka BP and is found at a few sites only. By 1 3 ka BP, a more widespread and marked climatic improvement is evident, although it is difficult to be precise in the timing and magnitude of the event. There are significant variations in detail between the Late-glacial records, but evidence for a significant cooling correlated with the Younger Dryas event is widespread throughout the region. Just two sites in the region provide evidence for an earlier, less emphatic phase of climatic cooling, which is tentatively equated with the 'Older Dryas' of continental northern Europe. Dry conditions appear to have predominated throughout the region in the later part of the Younger Dryas and the early Holocene.