The Magdalenian colonization of southern Germany

Although the topics of migration and colonization have received renewed arc haeological attention in recent years, their relevance to the deep past of hunter-gatherer archaeology has been debated. The Magdalenian colonization of southern Germany after the last glacial maximum, ca. 15,000-13,000 B.P., presents a case study in which many of the debated is sues can be explored . Environmental change and relative demographic pressure played a causal ro le in population movements, leading to a gradual, discontinuous expansion f rom the Franco-cantabrian refugium. Active social strategies to overcome th e risks facing frontier groups helped maintain remarkable uniformity in mat erial culture across hundreds of kilometers, despite shifts in subsistence and settlement patterns required in the newly occupied areas.