Glacial and post-glacial adaptations of hunter-gatherers: Investigating the late Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic subsistence strategies in the southern steppe of Eastern Europe Keiko Kitagawa a, * , Marie-Anne Julien a, b , Oleksandra Krotova c , Alexander A. Bessudnov d , Mikail V. Sablin e , Dmytro Kiosak f , Natalia Leonova g , Boris Plohenko g , Maryl ene Patou-Mathis a a Unite Histoire Naturelle de l’Homme Prehistorique (UMR 7194), Sorbonne Universites, Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, 1 rue Rene Panhard, 75013, Paris, France b Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins, Archaeology Department, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Southampton, SO17 1BF, United Kingdom c National Ukrainian Academy of Science, Institute of Archaeology,12, Geroiv Stalingrada ave., 04210, Kyiv e 210, Ukraine d Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya Nab.18, 191186, Saint Petersburg, Russia e Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya Nab. 1, 199034, Saint Petersburg, Russia f Department of Archaeology and Ethnology of Ukraine, I.I. Mechnikov State University, Dvoryanskaya 2, UA-65082, Odessa, Ukraine g Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of History, Department of Archaeology, GSP-1, Lomonosovsky Prospekt, 27-4, Moscow,119991, Russia article info Article history: Received 20 June 2016 Accepted 8 January 2017 Available online 18 May 2017 Keywords: Late Upper Paleolithic Mesolithic Subsistence practices Steppe Hunter-gatherers abstract Diverse landscapes and ecosystems stretching across Europe led to diverse hunter-gatherer cultural records during the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic. In response to abrupt climatic forcing, starting around the Late Glacial Maximum and followed by climatic events such as the BøllingeAllerød and the Younger Dryas in the Terminal Pleistocene, archaeological data pertaining to cultural and behavioral shifts of hunter-gatherers continue to be explored on a regional and pan-regional scale. Here we present an initial summary, which includes new and published data on faunal analyses from multiple open air sites that span the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene, dated between the Late Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic (20,000e6000 uncal 14 C BP) in the southern steppe of Eastern Europe. For this area, this is the first study to compile the cultural and faunal data with geo-referenced localization and radiometric dates of the archaeological sites. Taken together, faunal assemblages from the Epigravettian are characterized by low diversity and are often dominated by one species of large game, including bison and equids, whereas the Mesolithic diet is characterized by higher inter-site variability subsisting on large ungulate and greater emphasis on freshwater resources. This study contributes to the general knowledge con- cerning the last phases in the evolution of the Eurasian hunter-gatherers. © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction The past adaptation of Paleolithic and Mesolithic hunter- gatherers in Europe is a result of their interaction with the diverse landscapes and ecosystems. Unlike other cultural transitions where the relationship between climatic forcing and human behavior remains to be demonstrated, the shift from the Late Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic has been linked to and framed in terms of abrupt climatic changes occurring between the Late Glacial and the Holocene. In response to abrupt climatic forc- ing starting around the Late Glacial Maximum and followed by climatic events such as the BøllingeAllerød and the Younger Dryas in the Terminal Pleistocene, archaeological data pertaining to cul- tural and behavioral shifts of hunter-gatherers have been explored on a regional and pan-regional scale (Crombe et al., 2011; Donahue and Lovis, 2006; Huntley et al., 2013; Lovis et al., 2006). Within the * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: kkitagawa@gmail.com, keiko.kitagawa@mnhn.fr (K. Kitagawa), M.Julien@soton.ac.uk (M.-A. Julien), okrotova@ukr.net (O. Krotova), bessudnov_a22@mail.ru (A.A. Bessudnov), msablin@yandex.ru (M.V. Sablin), dkiosak@ukr.net (D. Kiosak), nbleonova@gmail.com (N. Leonova), koschmarik2008@yandex.ru (B. Plohenko), patmath@mnhn.fr (M. Patou-Mathis). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.01.005 1040-6182/© 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Quaternary International 465 (2018) 192e209