THE CONTRIBUTION OF ANTHRACOLOGY TO THE STUDY OF THE LATE QUATERNARY VEGETATION HISTORY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION AND AFRICA

Anthracological studies in the Mediterranean area and in Africa cover a time span of more than 40.000 years. Significant changes in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene charcoal spectra indicate large-scale climatic fluctuations. During the middle and late Holocene, the Medite rranean climax vegetation was transformed by human impact into various degraded formations. A detailed Holocene chronology has been establis hed for the northwestern Mediterranean area. However, in the centre, t he east and the south of the Mediterranean, anthracological studies ar e scarce and cannot be put together Into a common framework. Regional chronologies exist for Italy, Algeria/Morocco and Israel. The first re sults from Africa demonstrate the contribution anthracology can make t o the study of the vegetation history of desert, shrubland, savanna an d min forest under changing climatic conditions and anthropogenic infl uence.