Archaeological Evidence of Adaptation

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Archaeological Evidence of Human Adaptation

Archaeology provides a long-term record of how humans and earlier hominins responded to environmental change, resource scarcity, climatic instability, and unfamiliar landscapes. Evidence from stone tools, animal and plant remains, settlement patterns, fire, water-management systems, isotopes, ancient DNA, sediments, and other archaeological materials shows that human survival has depended heavily on behavioral flexibility.

Rather than relying on a single strategy, human populations repeatedly changed their mobility, technologies, diets, settlement patterns, social relationships, and methods of obtaining water and food. Archaeological evidence documents adaptations to deserts, tropical forests, coastlines, islands, high mountains, glacial environments, Arctic regions, and agricultural landscapes.

The record also demonstrates that environmental change did not produce identical responses everywhere. Communities facing similar climatic pressures often adopted different strategies depending on available resources, existing technologies, social organization, population density, and local geography.

Early Hominin Environmental Flexibility

Some of the earliest evidence for human adaptation comes from African archaeological sites associated with early members of the genus Homo. Stone-tool assemblages and environmental reconstructions indicate that early hominins occupied landscapes that changed substantially over time.

At Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania, early hominins repeatedly used environments ranging from woodland and lakeshore habitats to grasslands and arid settings. Their continued occupation of changing landscapes suggests considerable ecological flexibility.

Evidence from Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley shows that Oldowan toolmakers transported stone into areas where suitable raw materials were limited. Such behavior indicates planning and an understanding of how resources were distributed across the landscape.

Other sites reveal surprisingly sophisticated selection and transport of particular stone types. Obsidian exploitation in Ethiopia more than one million years ago demonstrates that early humans sometimes concentrated activities around valuable raw-material sources and developed organized technological strategies.

Together, these findings challenge older views of early hominins as narrowly adapted to a limited ecological setting. Instead, archaeological evidence suggests that behavioral flexibility was an important feature of human evolution from a very early period.

Technology as an Adaptive Strategy

Technology repeatedly allowed humans to reduce environmental risks and exploit resources that would otherwise have been difficult to obtain.

Stone tools were not simply implements for cutting or hunting. Their manufacture required knowledge of suitable raw materials, transportation routes, and production techniques. Archaeological sites show that stone was sometimes moved considerable distances, suggesting planning and familiarity with large territories.

Changes in stone-tool technology also correspond with changing environments in many regions. During the Middle Stone Age of Africa, technological diversification occurred alongside increased environmental variability. Long-distance movement of raw materials and more selective use of stone indicate increasingly complex technological and social networks.

In glacial Eurasia and northern Japan, changes in tool design often accompanied changes in mobility, prey availability, and vegetation. Technologies could therefore be modified as ecological conditions changed.

Later technologies included grinding stones, fishing equipment, watercraft, storage facilities, irrigation systems, clothing, animal transport, and specialized agricultural tools. Each expanded the range of environments humans could successfully occupy.

Fire and Human Adaptation

Fire became one of the most important technologies in human history.

Archaeological evidence for early fire use includes burned sediments, heated stone, charcoal, hearths, and fire-altered artifacts. Some early evidence remains debated, but by the Middle Pleistocene fire was increasingly incorporated into human activities.

Fire provided warmth in cold climates and may have helped protect camps from predators. It also allowed food to be cooked, improving digestibility and expanding the range of edible resources.

Repeated hearth use at archaeological sites indicates that fire eventually became an organized part of domestic life. Fire may also have supported social interaction, food sharing, and technological activities.

The ability to deliberately make and maintain fire would have greatly reduced the risks associated with colonizing colder regions. Nevertheless, archaeological research also suggests that some populations may have survived periods of severe cold without constant access to fire, relying instead on clothing, shelter, diet, mobility, and other strategies.

Adaptation to Cold and Glacial Environments

Humans repeatedly occupied regions characterized by freezing temperatures, strong seasonality, and limited winter food supplies.

Neanderthals provide an important example. Their survival in Pleistocene Europe probably depended on a combination of anatomical and behavioral adaptations. Archaeological evidence indicates the use of fire, animal hides, specialized hunting strategies, and possibly clothing.

Early modern humans developed increasingly sophisticated cold-weather technologies. Faunal evidence has been interpreted as suggesting more intensive use of animals suitable for producing warm clothing.

During the Last Glacial Maximum, populations in parts of Europe contracted into environmentally favorable refugia. Archaeological settlement patterns indicate that people concentrated in regions where food, shelter, and other resources remained sufficiently reliable.

After glaciers retreated, hunter-gatherers rapidly recolonized newly available landscapes. Subsistence strategies became increasingly regional, incorporating hunting, fishing, plant gathering, and other resources according to local conditions.

High-Altitude Adaptation

High mountains presented another major challenge. Low oxygen levels, cold temperatures, short growing seasons, and highly seasonal resources make permanent human settlement difficult.

Archaeological sites in the Andes demonstrate that humans reached elevations exceeding 4,000 meters relatively soon after entering South America. Early inhabitants relied heavily on mobility and hunting before increasingly establishing permanent highland settlements.

Isotopic evidence indicates movement between different ecological zones, suggesting that mobility helped early highland populations obtain resources that were unevenly distributed across the landscape.

The Tibetan Plateau provides another extensive record of high-altitude adaptation. Archaeological evidence documents hunting, fishing, agriculture, pastoralism, and exchange between mobile foragers and farming communities.

Dairying became particularly important in some Tibetan regions. Milk proteins preserved in ancient dental calculus show that dairy products provided nutrient-rich foods in environments where many crops could not be grown successfully.

Over time, combinations of millet agriculture, livestock herding, fishing, and locally available resources helped support increasingly permanent settlement.

Biological adaptation also played a role. Genetic evidence indicates that Tibetan populations acquired variants associated with high-altitude physiology, demonstrating that human adaptation involved interactions between cultural practices and biological evolution.

Desert and Arid-Land Adaptation

Deserts contain some of the clearest archaeological examples of adaptation to changing water availability.

Evidence from Arabia shows repeated human occupation during wetter intervals when lakes, rivers, and grasslands expanded across regions that are desert today. Archaeological sites reveal that populations followed changing water sources and exploited temporary ecological opportunities.

Other evidence shows that humans were sometimes capable of surviving much drier conditions than previously assumed.

The Sahara provides a particularly detailed record. During the African Humid Period, lakes, grasslands, and wetlands supported large populations of hunter-gatherers, fishers, and pastoralists. As rainfall declined, communities altered their mobility, settlement patterns, diets, and livestock strategies.

Pastoralism became one important response to increasing aridity. Mobile herders could move animals between seasonal grazing areas and water sources, allowing communities to survive across increasingly dry landscapes.

Traditional wells, cisterns, runoff farming, and other water-management techniques later allowed pastoralists and farmers to occupy regions with highly unpredictable rainfall.

Tropical Forest Adaptation

Tropical forests were once thought to have represented major barriers to early human settlement because resources can be difficult to locate and preserve in dense forest environments.

Archaeological discoveries increasingly challenge this view.

Evidence from West Africa indicates that humans occupied wet tropical forests far earlier than once believed. Sites in Sri Lanka similarly demonstrate long-term rainforest occupation supported by hunting, plant gathering, and specialized technologies.

Small stone tools and projectile technologies appear to have helped rainforest populations hunt agile animals living in forest canopies and dense vegetation.

Plant foods were also important. Isotopic and archaeological evidence suggests that prehistoric rainforest communities increasingly exploited diverse plant resources long before agriculture developed.

These findings reinforce the broader archaeological pattern that humans became successful not because they specialized in one environment, but because they developed flexible strategies that could be adjusted to many ecological settings.

Plant Foods and Dietary Flexibility

Archaeological evidence increasingly shows that plant foods played an important role throughout human prehistory.

Grinding stones containing starch residues demonstrate systematic plant processing tens of thousands of years before farming. Paleolithic populations processed grasses, tubers, seeds, cereals, and other wild plants.

At Ohalo II in the Levant, exceptionally preserved plant remains reveal the exploitation of a remarkably broad range of wild foods thousands of years before domestication.

Similar evidence has been found in Europe, China, North Africa, and the Sahara.

Grinding, crushing, soaking, heating, and cooking allowed humans to consume foods that would otherwise have been difficult to digest or nutritionally inefficient.

This dietary flexibility reduced dependence on any single food source and may have helped populations survive periods when preferred animal or plant resources became scarce.

Coastal and Maritime Adaptation

Coasts offered productive but technically demanding environments.

Archaeological evidence from South Africa indicates that humans were exploiting shellfish and other marine resources at least tens of thousands of years before the development of agriculture.

Shell middens preserve extensive records of marine subsistence and show repeated exploitation of coastal ecosystems.

Fishing required specialized knowledge and technology. Archaeological discoveries include fishhooks, nets, shell tools, fishing equipment, and large quantities of fish remains.

In Island Southeast Asia and the western Pacific, maritime adaptations became particularly important. Humans crossed substantial stretches of open water and colonized islands that could never have been reached by walking.

Sites in the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Micronesia, and other island regions document long traditions of fishing and marine-resource exploitation.

These activities required understanding of tides, currents, coastal habitats, seasonal fish movements, boat technology, and navigation.

Maritime adaptation therefore represents both an ecological and technological expansion of the human niche.

Arctic and Subarctic Adaptation

Arctic environments impose extreme seasonal constraints, including prolonged cold, sea ice, limited vegetation, and highly variable animal resources.

Archaeological evidence shows that northern communities developed highly specialized strategies for surviving these conditions.

Marine mammals, fish, caribou, and other animals provided food as well as raw materials for clothing, tools, shelter, and transportation.

Food storage was especially important because resources were often abundant only during short seasonal periods. Archaeological caches and storage facilities allowed communities to preserve food for winter and periods of scarcity.

Transportation technologies greatly increased mobility. Sleds and eventually dog-powered transport allowed people to move efficiently across snow and ice while carrying substantial loads.

Arctic settlement patterns were closely linked to predictable ecological features such as open-water areas, migration routes, and seasonal hunting grounds.

Large migrations by Paleo-Inuit and later Thule Inuit populations demonstrate how specialized technologies could enable rapid movement across enormous areas of the Arctic.

Agriculture and Adaptation

The development of agriculture did not eliminate environmental risk. Instead, farming created new adaptive challenges.

Farmers depended heavily on rainfall, soil fertility, growing seasons, and access to water. Drought or climatic instability could therefore threaten entire communities.

Archaeobotanical evidence shows that prehistoric farmers frequently changed crops or diversified cultivation strategies when conditions changed.

At Çatalhöyük in Anatolia, farmers altered cultivation practices and crop choices during centuries of environmental and social change.

Across Eurasia, crop exchange increased agricultural flexibility. Crops originating in different climatic zones were transported along expanding social networks, allowing farmers to diversify their food production.

In some regions, farming remained combined with hunting, fishing, gathering, or pastoralism. Mixed subsistence economies reduced dependence on any single resource.

Water Management and Irrigation

Water management became one of the most important forms of adaptation in agricultural societies.

Archaeological evidence from Iran documents dams, canals, qanats, and other systems designed to capture and transport scarce water.

In dry regions of North Africa, communities constructed cisterns and systems for collecting runoff. Rain-fed agriculture was carefully timed to exploit brief periods of precipitation.

Irrigation transformed deserts and semi-arid landscapes into productive agricultural zones.

Ancient farmers along the north coast of Peru combined river irrigation with floodwater farming, enabling cultivation in extremely dry environments.

In the North American Southwest, canal networks redistributed water across agricultural landscapes and allowed cultivation beyond naturally well-watered areas.

Water infrastructure often required substantial cooperation. Construction and maintenance of canals, reservoirs, wells, and drainage systems therefore represented social as well as technological adaptations.

Maya Responses to Drought

The Maya archaeological record provides extensive evidence for adaptation to seasonal rainfall and prolonged drought.

Many Maya communities constructed reservoirs capable of storing large quantities of rainwater. Some incorporated wetlands and aquatic plants that may have helped maintain water quality.

Settlement location strongly influenced resilience. Communities with dependable access to wetlands or permanent water sources could sometimes persist longer during drought than settlements in more vulnerable locations.

Agricultural systems were also diverse. Maya farmers managed fields, forests, gardens, wetlands, and tree crops rather than relying exclusively on maize.

Dietary diversity may have provided additional protection against agricultural failure.

However, technological adaptation did not eliminate vulnerability. Political organization, population growth, resource demands, and prolonged climatic stress could combine to overwhelm existing systems.

The Maya example demonstrates that resilience depends on interactions among environment, technology, economy, and society.

Mobility as Adaptation

Mobility is one of the most persistent adaptive strategies visible in the archaeological record.

Hunter-gatherers often moved between ecological zones as resources became seasonally available. Pastoralists moved livestock between grazing areas and water sources. Coastal communities shifted settlements as shorelines changed.

During severe drought or climatic deterioration, populations sometimes abandoned vulnerable areas entirely.

Mobility therefore should not automatically be interpreted as failure or collapse. In many cases, relocation was an effective strategy for reducing environmental risk.

Archaeological settlement patterns repeatedly show cycles of occupation, abandonment, and recolonization as environmental conditions changed.

Diversification and Resilience

One of the strongest patterns emerging from archaeological studies is the importance of diversification.

Communities relying on multiple food sources were often better positioned to cope with environmental instability than populations dependent on a narrow range of resources.

Hunter-gatherers combined hunting, fishing, shellfish collecting, and plant gathering. Farmers combined different crops with livestock or wild foods. Maritime communities exploited marine and terrestrial environments simultaneously.

Diversification also occurred technologically. Different tool types, storage systems, transportation methods, and water-management technologies allowed communities to respond to changing conditions.

Social networks provided another form of resilience. Exchange networks allowed food, stone, livestock, crops, technologies, and information to move across regions.

Adaptation was therefore rarely based on a single innovation. It usually involved combinations of technologies, economic strategies, mobility, social organization, and environmental knowledge.

Archaeology and Climate Change

Archaeology provides unusually long records of interactions between humans and climate.

Pollen, sediments, lake cores, cave deposits, isotopes, radiocarbon dates, animal remains, and archaeological settlements can be combined to reconstruct past climatic conditions and human responses.

These records demonstrate that climate change influenced human history but did not determine it in a simple way.

The same drought could produce migration in one region, technological innovation in another, and intensified agriculture or pastoralism elsewhere.

Political organization, inequality, population size, access to resources, social cooperation, and accumulated ecological knowledge all influenced outcomes.

For this reason, archaeological research increasingly emphasizes resilience and adaptation rather than explaining cultural change solely through environmental determinism.

Conclusion

Archaeological evidence demonstrates that human adaptation has been a continuous process extending deep into prehistory. Early hominins adjusted stone-tool production and mobility to changing African landscapes. Later populations learned to use fire, process diverse foods, construct clothing and shelters, navigate coastlines, colonize islands, occupy high mountains, manage livestock, cultivate crops, and engineer water systems.

No single adaptive strategy explains human success. Instead, the archaeological record repeatedly reveals combinations of mobility, technological innovation, dietary diversification, social cooperation, environmental knowledge, and flexible settlement patterns.

Humans adapted to deserts by following water and developing pastoral mobility, to cold environments through fire, clothing and shelter, to tropical forests through specialized hunting and plant use, to coasts through fishing and maritime technology, and to agricultural uncertainty through crop diversification, storage, irrigation and water management.

The archaeological record also demonstrates that adaptation has limits. Some communities migrated, reorganized, or declined when environmental pressures exceeded the capacity of existing systems.

Overall, archaeology shows that resilience is not simply the ability to resist change. It is the ability to modify behavior, technology, social organization, and resource use as circumstances change. The deep history of human adaptation therefore provides an important record of both the remarkable flexibility of human societies and the consequences of environmental stress.

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Early Hominin Environmental and Technological Adaptation

1. A Regional-Scale Mobility Model for the Early Hominin Occupation of the Lower Omo Valley

[DOI:10.1038/s41598-026-39972-9 | Anne Delagnes et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026] Landscape-scale analysis indicates that early Oldowan populations transported stone resources to biologically productive but stone-poor parts of the Omo River landscape.

2. Specialised and Persistent Raw Material Procurement by Humans in the Middle Pleistocene

[DOI:10.1038/s41467-026-70783-8 | Manuel Will et al. | Nature Communications | 2026] Excavations at Jojosi in South Africa show repeated visits to a particular hornfels source over tens of thousands of years, indicating specialized resource procurement and landscape knowledge.

3. Homo erectus Adapted to Steppe-Desert Climate Extremes One Million Years Ago

[DOI:10.1038/s43247-024-01919-1 | Julio Mercader et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2025] Multidisciplinary evidence from Oldupai Gorge indicates that Homo erectus repeatedly occupied extremely arid steppe-desert environments, using river corridors and dependable water sources to reduce ecological risk.

4. Earliest Evidence of Making Fire

[DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-09855-6 | Rob Davis et al. | Nature | 2025] Evidence from Barnham in Britain, including heated sediments, fire-altered tools and transported pyrite, indicates deliberate fire-making approximately 400,000 years ago.

5. Early Oldowan Technology Thrived During Pliocene Environmental Change in the Turkana Basin, Kenya

[DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-64244-x | Various authors | Nature Communications | 2025] Archaeological evidence from Namorotukunan shows that Oldowan toolmakers maintained a stable stone-flaking tradition between about 2.75 and 2.44 million years ago despite substantial environmental and climatic change.

6. Climate Seasonality and Predictability During the Middle Stone Age and Implications for Technological Diversification in Early Homo sapiens

[Scientific Reports | Various authors | Scientific Reports | 2025] Climate reconstruction suggests changes in seasonality and predictability helped shape technological diversification among Middle Stone Age populations in eastern Africa.

7. Long-Term Behavioral Adaptation of Oldowan Toolmakers to Resource-Constrained Environments

[DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-40793-3 | Anne Delagnes et al. | Scientific Reports | 2023] Oldowan toolmakers in Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley repeatedly transported and used stone in an environment where suitable raw material was scarce, demonstrating flexible technological planning around 2.3 million years ago.

8. A Surge in Obsidian Exploitation More Than 1.2 Million Years Ago at Simbiro III

[DOI:10.1038/s41559-022-01970-1 | Margherita Mussi et al. | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2023] A concentrated obsidian workshop in Ethiopia demonstrates surprisingly early planning, raw-material selection and standardized handaxe production in a seasonally flooded landscape.

9. Pyrotechnology in the Pleistocene: Understanding the Domestication of Fire Through Material Engagement Theory

[DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192895950.013.37 | Various authors | Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology | 2023] Examines evidence from sites including Gesher Benot Ya'aqov and Qesem Cave to explore how habitual fire use altered cognition, social life and human interaction with material environments.

10. Oldowan Technology Amid Shifting Environments ~2.03–1.83 Million Years Ago

[Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution | Various authors | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution | 2022] Evidence from Ewass Oldupa in Tanzania shows that early humans retained flexible Oldowan technology while repeatedly occupying landscapes that changed from woodland to grassland and other habitats.

11. A Spatiotemporally Explicit Paleoenvironmental Framework for the Middle Stone Age of Eastern Africa

[PMC8901736 | Various authors | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2022] Archaeological sites indicate Middle Stone Age populations occupied ecotones as well as increasingly extreme hot, dry, cool and high-altitude environments.

12. Pleistocene Climate Variability in Eastern Africa Influenced Hominin Evolution

[Nature Geoscience | Various authors | Nature Geoscience | 2022] Long palaeoclimate records show repeated shifts between wetter and drier environmental states that would have altered habitats, migration corridors and resource availability for early humans.

13. Earliest Olduvai Hominins Exploited Unstable Environments ~2 Million Years Ago

[DOI:10.1038/s41467-020-20176-2 | Julio Mercader et al. | Nature Communications | 2021] Archaeological and environmental evidence from Oldupai Gorge shows early hominins repeatedly exploiting rapidly changing habitats ranging from woodlands and lakesides to burned landscapes and arid steppes.

14. Middle Pleistocene Fire Use: The First Signal of Widespread Cultural Diffusion in Human Evolution

[DOI:10.1073/pnas.2101108118 | Katharine MacDonald et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2021] The increasingly widespread archaeological signal of fire around 400,000 years ago may represent an early example of technological knowledge spreading between geographically separated hominin populations.

15. The First Evidence of Controlled Use of Fire by Prehistoric Humans During the Middle Paleolithic in India

[DOI:10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.110151 | Various authors | Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology | 2021] Charcoal evidence from the Belan Valley suggests intentional fire use by Middle Paleolithic populations approximately 55,000–50,000 years ago and continued pyrotechnological traditions into later periods.

16. Human Adaptations in Mediterranean Environments

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2021.06.003 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2021] Archaeological research across Mediterranean landscapes demonstrates diverse adaptations involving mobility, resource scheduling, maritime exploitation, agriculture and technological innovation.

17. Geochemical Evidence for the Control of Fire by Middle Palaeolithic Hominins

[DOI:10.1038/s41598-019-51433-0 | Alex Brittingham et al. | Scientific Reports | 2019] Geochemical analysis of archaeological sediments helps distinguish anthropogenic burning and contributes evidence that Middle Palaeolithic populations deliberately controlled fire.

18. Environmental Dynamics During the Onset of the Middle Stone Age in Eastern Africa

[DOI:10.1126/science.aao2200 | Alison S. Brooks et al. | Science | 2018] Records from the Olorgesailie Basin associate the emergence of Middle Stone Age technologies with increased climatic variability, changing landscapes, long-distance raw-material transport and more selective toolstone use.

19. The Structure of the Middle Stone Age of Eastern Africa

[Journal article | Christian A. Tryon and colleagues | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2018] Comparative archaeological evidence reveals substantial technological diversity during the Middle Stone Age as humans expanded into new landscapes and adjusted their behavior to varied ecological settings.

20. Facing Climatic Hazards: Paleolithic Foragers and Neolithic Farmers

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.11.037 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2017] Compares archaeological responses to environmental uncertainty among mobile hunter-gatherers and agricultural communities, emphasizing mobility, diversification and food storage as adaptive strategies.

21. Human Colonization of Asia in the Late Pleistocene: The History of an Invasive Species

[DOI:10.1086/694174 | Various authors | Current Anthropology | 2017] Reviews archaeological evidence for the rapid dispersal of Homo sapiens through highly varied Asian environments and the behavioral flexibility that made continental expansion possible.

22. Fire in the Plio-Pleistocene: The Functions of Hominin Fire Use

[DOI:10.4436/JASS.93006 | Laura Attwell, Kris Kovarovic and Jeremy Kendal | Journal of Anthropological Sciences | 2015] Reviews how fire provided warmth, predator protection, cooking and landscape modification, potentially helping hominins expand into colder environments and alter their evolutionary niche.

23. Fire at Will: The Emergence of Habitual Fire Use 350,000 Years Ago

[DOI:10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.07.005 | Ron Shimelmitz et al. | Journal of Human Evolution | 2014] Burned flints from Tabun Cave and other Levantine sites suggest fire became a habitual component of human adaptation roughly 350,000–320,000 years ago.

24. Environmental and Behavioral Evidence Pertaining to the Evolution of Early Homo

[DOI:10.1086/667704 | Various authors | Current Anthropology | 2012] Reviews archaeological evidence showing how early Homo responded to environmental variability through stone transport, technological behavior, dietary flexibility and changing patterns of landscape use.

25. Early Archaeological Sites, Hominid Remains and Traces of Fire from Chesowanja, Kenya

[DOI:10.1038/294125a0 | J. A. J. Gowlett et al. | Nature | 1981] Burned clay associated with Early Pleistocene artifacts at Chesowanja provided important early evidence in the debate over hominin use of fire.

Cold, Glacial, Fire and High-Altitude Adaptation

26. The Emergence, Development, and Impact of Prehistoric Agriculture on the Tibetan Plateau

[DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2025.106216 | Jishuai Yang, Yu Gao and Xiaoyan Yang | Journal of Archaeological Science | 2025] Synthesizes archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological evidence showing how farming and livestock became important cultural adaptations to high-altitude environments.

27. The Adaptation of Prehistoric Human Activities to Environmental Changes Recorded in a Lake Core on the Tibetan Plateau

[DOI:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2025.104xxx | Various authors | Global and Planetary Change | 2025] Lake sediments document changing combinations of farming, grazing, fishing and hunting as prehistoric communities adjusted their economies to climatic changes across the plateau.

28. Local Cultivation of Millets-Based Agriculture on the Tibetan Plateau Around 3400 BP

[DOI:10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105217 | Various authors | Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports | 2025] Phytolith evidence from Qugong indicates local millet cultivation at high elevation, illustrating agricultural adjustment to changing ecological opportunities.

29. Climate Influence on the Early Human Occupation of South America During the Late Pleistocene

[DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-58134-5 | Various authors | Nature Communications | 2025] Chronological modeling suggests climate influenced the timing and geography of early settlement, including expansion into high-altitude Andean environments.

30. Neandertal Cold Adaptation: Technological, Anatomical, and Physiological Responses to Cold Stress in One of Our Closest Fossil Relatives

[DOI:10.1002/ajhb.70150 | Scott D. Maddux and Trenton W. Holliday | American Journal of Human Biology | 2025] Reviews archaeological and biological evidence that Neanderthals combined fire, hide processing, possible clothing, body proportions and physiological traits to survive Pleistocene cold.

31. Earliest Sustained Settlement by Farmers and Symbiotic Relationship with Foragers at High Altitude on the Tibetan Plateau

[DOI:10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109305 | Hairong Yang et al. | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2025] Archaeological evidence suggests high-altitude farmers and mobile foragers developed complementary economic relationships that facilitated permanent settlement.

32. 3,600 Years of Human Adaptation to Drought Intensification on the Southern Tibetan Plateau

[DOI:10.1038/s43247-024-01745-5 | Various authors | Communications Earth & Environment | 2024] Lake records indicate communities shifted from agriculture-dominated subsistence toward intensified pastoralism as drought increased on the southern Tibetan Plateau.

33. Lake-Centred Sedentary Lifestyle of Early Tibetan Plateau Indigenous Populations at High Elevation 4,400 Years Ago

[Nature Ecology & Evolution | Various authors | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2024] Archaeological evidence near high-elevation lakes indicates surprisingly sedentary communities supported by fishing, hunting and local resource exploitation.

34. The Archaeology of Human Permanency on the Tibetan Plateau

[DOI:10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108211 | Yuchao Zhao, Michael Obie and Brian A. Stewart | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2023] Reviews archaeological and genetic evidence suggesting hunter-gatherers may have maintained sustained or year-round occupations of the Tibetan Plateau before widespread agriculture.

35. Prehistoric Human Occupation and Adaptation on the Hinterland of the Tibetan Plateau in the Early Holocene

[DOI:10.1177/03091333231197168 | Sunmei Jin et al. | Progress in Physical Geography | 2023] Reviews archaeological evidence for early Holocene occupation of plateau margins and the strategies humans used to exploit high-altitude landscapes.

36. Paleoproteomic Evidence Reveals Dairying Supported Prehistoric Occupation of the Highland Tibetan Plateau

[PMC10096579 | Various authors | Science Advances | 2023] Milk proteins preserved in dental calculus show dairying provided a nutrient-rich food that helped pastoral communities survive high-elevation environments unsuitable for many crops.

37. Human Sedentism and Use of Animal Resources on the Prehistoric Tibetan Plateau

[DOI:10.1007/s11442-023-2156-0 | Qing Wang et al. | Journal of Geographical Sciences | 2023] Faunal assemblages show changing exploitation of wild and domestic animals as communities became increasingly sedentary in high-altitude environments.

38. Shivering in the Pleistocene: Human Adaptations to Cold Exposure in Western Europe

[DOI:10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.102966 | Jesús Rodríguez, Christian Willmes and Ana Mateos | Journal of Human Evolution | 2021] Modeling and archaeological evidence suggest Middle Pleistocene humans combined physiological responses with shelters, fur coverings and other behavioral strategies to survive severe European winters.

39. Early Agropastoral Settlement and Cultural Change in Central Tibet in the First Millennium BC

[DOI:10.15184/aqy.2020.185 | Various authors | Antiquity | 2021] Excavations at Bangga reveal flexible combinations of agriculture and pastoralism that supported permanent settlement in high-altitude central Tibet.

40. Between a Rock and a Cold Place: Neanderthal Biocultural Cold Adaptations

[PMID:33797824 | Various authors | American Journal of Human Biology | 2021] Examines how anatomical characteristics and learned technologies probably worked together to enable Neanderthals to inhabit cold and strongly seasonal environments.

41. Adaptive Trade-Offs Towards the Last Glacial Maximum in North-Western Europe: A Multidisciplinary View from Walou Cave

[DOI:10.1007/s41982-021-00078-5 | Various authors | Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology | 2021] Archaeological evidence from Belgium shows changing mobility, hunting and technological choices as humans confronted deteriorating climatic conditions before the Last Glacial Maximum.

42. Paleoenvironments and Human Adaptations During the Last Glacial Maximum in the Iberian Peninsula: A Review

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2020.08.005 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2021] Reviews evidence that Iberian populations survived severe glacial conditions through refugial settlement, flexible mobility, hunting strategies and regional technological traditions.

43. 2,100 Years of Human Adaptation to Climate Change in the High Andes

[DOI:10.1038/s41559-019-1056-2 | Christine M. Åkesson et al. | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2020] Pollen, charcoal and sediment records from Peru show repeated adjustments in forest clearance, maize cultivation and settlement as moisture conditions changed.

44. Foraging and Farming: Archaeobotanical and Zooarchaeological Evidence for Neolithic Exchange on the Tibetan Plateau

[DOI:10.15184/aqy.2020.35 | Lele Ren et al. | Antiquity | 2020] Plant and animal remains from Zongri document interaction between hunter-gatherers and farmers and the gradual integration of crops and livestock into highland subsistence.

45. Human Genetic Adaptation to High Altitudes: Current Status and Future Prospects

[PMC5784843 | Various authors | Frontiers in Genetics | 2018] Reviews archaeological, physiological and genetic evidence for long-term settlement and adaptation in the Andes, Himalayas and Ethiopian Highlands.

46. Human Response to Habitat Suitability During the Last Glacial Maximum in Western Europe

[DOI:10.1002/jqs.3004 | Various authors | Journal of Quaternary Science | 2018] Spatial modeling suggests hunter-gatherer settlement contracted toward environmentally suitable refugia as Last Glacial Maximum conditions reduced habitable territory.

47. Exploring Human Responses to Climatic Fluctuations and Environmental Diversity: Two Stories from Mesolithic Norway

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.12.019 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2018] Norwegian archaeological records reveal different local strategies of mobility and resource use as postglacial communities occupied rapidly changing northern landscapes.

48. Mobility, Subsistence, and Technological Strategies of Early Holocene Hunter-Gatherers in the Bolivian Altiplano

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2017.08.070 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2018] Early high-altitude populations combined residential mobility, hunting and flexible lithic technologies to exploit widely dispersed Andean resources.

49. Investigating Mobility and Highland Occupation Strategies During the Early Holocene at Cuncaicha Rock Shelter Through Strontium and Oxygen Isotopes

[DOI:10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.10.023 | Various authors | Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports | 2018] Isotopic evidence from human remains indicates patterns of movement between ecological zones while people increasingly established themselves in the Peruvian highlands.

50. How Did Hominins Adapt to Ice Age Europe Without Fire?

[DOI:10.1086/692628 | Harold L. Dibble et al. | Current Anthropology | 2017] Questions assumptions about continuous fire use and explores alternative behavioral, dietary and technological mechanisms that allowed hominins to survive cold European environments.

51. Control of Fire in the Paleolithic: Evaluating the Cooking Hypothesis

[DOI:10.1086/692113 | Richard Wrangham | Current Anthropology | 2017] Reviews the archaeological chronology of fire and considers cooking, warmth, protection and social organization as increasingly important components of human adaptation.

52. Neanderthal Cooking and the Costs of Fire

[DOI:10.1086/692095 | Various authors | Current Anthropology | 2017] Evaluates the energetic costs and benefits of fuel collection, cooking and fire maintenance in Neanderthal subsistence systems.

53. Fire for a Reason: Barbecue at Middle Pleistocene Qesem Cave, Israel

[DOI:10.1086/691211 | Ran Barkai, Jordi Rosell, Ruth Blasco and Avi Gopher | Current Anthropology | 2017] Hearths and animal remains at Qesem Cave indicate structured fire use for food preparation and repeated domestic activities hundreds of thousands of years ago.

54. Between Atlantic and Mediterranean: Changes in Technology During the Late Glacial in Western Europe and the Climate Hypothesis

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.01.056 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2017] Stone-tool changes are examined against rapid Late Glacial climatic oscillations to assess technological responses to changing prey, vegetation and mobility requirements.

55. Humans Permanently Occupied the Andean Highlands by at Least 7 ka

[PMC5493927 | Various authors | Royal Society Open Science | 2017] Archaeological and biological evidence suggests permanent high-altitude occupation emerged relatively rapidly after initial human arrival in South America.

56. Habitats of Ancient Hunter-Gatherers in the Puna: Resilience and Discontinuities During the Holocene

[Journal article | Various authors | Journal of Anthropological Archaeology | 2017] Settlement patterns in the high Andes show repeated occupation, temporary abandonment and recolonization in response to changing water and resource distributions.

57. Faunal Evidence for a Difference in Clothing Use Between Neanderthals and Early Modern Humans in Europe

[DOI:10.1016/j.jaa.2016.07.010 | Various authors | Journal of Anthropological Archaeology | 2016] Animal remains associated with species commonly used for warm clothing suggest early modern humans may have developed more specialized cold-weather garments than Neanderthals.

58. High-Altitude Adaptation and Late Pleistocene Foraging in the Bolivian Andes

[DOI:10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.03.006 | José M. Capriles et al. | Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports | 2016] Archaeological evidence demonstrates sustained use of the Bolivian highlands during the Late Pleistocene despite hypoxia, cold temperatures and highly seasonal resources.

59. Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Decisions and Synchronous Climate Change in the Southern Andes

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.12.011 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2016] Occupations at ARQ-18 indicate that changes in water availability and regional climate affected the timing and organization of hunter-gatherer mobility.

60. Altitude Adaptation in Tibetans Caused by Introgression of Denisovan-Like DNA

[DOI:10.1038/nature13408 | Emilia Huerta-Sánchez et al. | Nature | 2014] Genetic evidence indicates that a Denisovan-related EPAS1 variant contributed to Tibetan adaptation to low-oxygen environments, complementing archaeological evidence of ancient occupation of the plateau.

61. Paleoindian Settlement of the High-Altitude Peruvian Andes

[DOI:10.1126/science.1258260 | Kurt Rademaker et al. | Science | 2014] Sites more than 4,000 meters above sea level demonstrate that humans reached and successfully exploited extreme Andean environments by about 12,400 years ago.

62. Neanderthal Extinction and Modern Human Behaviour: The Role of Climate Change and Clothing

[DOI:10.1080/00438240701680492 | Ian Gilligan | World Archaeology | 2008] Argues that increasingly severe Late Pleistocene cold favored more complex fitted clothing among modern humans and may have affected competition with Neanderthal populations.

63. Adaptations to Altitude: A Current Assessment

[DOI:10.1146/annurev.anthro.30.1.423 | Cynthia M. Beall | Annual Review of Anthropology | 2001] Reviews biological and cultural adaptations that allowed long-term human settlement of the Tibetan Plateau and Andean highlands despite hypoxia and climatic extremes.

Desert, Arid-Land, Pastoral and Water-Limited Adaptation

64. Evidence from Buhais Rockshelter for Human Settlement in Arabia Between 60,000 and 16,000 Years Ago

[DOI:10.1038/s41467-026-70681-z | Various authors | Nature Communications | 2026] Archaeological deposits in the United Arab Emirates demonstrate repeated human occupation during periods previously considered extremely difficult for habitation.

65. Nonlinear Response of Human Ecology to Holocene Climate Change in Africa

[DOI:10.1016/j.earscirev.2026.105614 | Various authors | Earth-Science Reviews | 2026] More than 15,000 dated archaeological assemblages reveal large-scale but nonlinear changes in settlement geography as African rainfall belts shifted during the Holocene.

66. Decadal-Scale Droughts Disrupted the African Humid Period in the Sahara

[DOI:10.1038/s41586-026-10336-7 | Various authors | Nature | 2026] Lake Yoa sediments reveal short but severe drought episodes during the otherwise humid Holocene Sahara, emphasizing the climatic variability faced by prehistoric communities.

67. The Natufian Epipalaeolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic in the Desert of Northern Arabia

[Scientific Reports | Various authors | Scientific Reports | 2026] Newly documented archaeological evidence extends early sedentary and food-producing traditions into northern Arabian desert environments.

68. Major Expansion in the Human Niche Preceded Out of Africa Dispersal

[DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-09154-0 | Various authors | Nature | 2025] A large database of African archaeological sites indicates Homo sapiens greatly expanded its ecological niche after about 70,000 years ago, increasingly occupying both forests and deserts.

69. Monumental Rock Art Illustrates That Humans Thrived in the Arabian Desert During the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition

[DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-63417-y | Various authors | Nature Communications | 2025] Archaeological sites and monumental animal engravings document communities using networks of seasonal water bodies as they expanded into northern Arabia.

70. Africa-Wide Diversification of Livelihood Strategies: Isotopic Insights into Holocene Human Adaptations to Climate Change

[Various authors | One Earth | 2025] Isotopic evidence documents increasing diversification among hunting, fishing, farming and pastoralism as African communities responded to major Holocene climatic transitions.

71. Early Warning Signals of the Termination of the African Humid Period(s)

[DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-47921-1 | Various authors | Nature Communications | 2024] High-resolution environmental records document recurring droughts before the final termination of humid conditions, providing context for archaeological evidence of human adjustment.

72. Water as a Problem and a Solution in Arid Landscapes: Resilient Practices and Adapted Land Use in Eastern Marmarica

[Land 12:1109 | Various authors | Land | 2023] Ancient communities in northwestern Egypt used cisterns, runoff farming and landscape engineering to manage highly variable rainfall and chronic water scarcity.

73. Neolithic Hydroclimatic Change and Water Resources Exploitation in the Fertile Crescent

[PMC9839760 | Various authors | Scientific Reports | 2023] Palaeoclimate and archaeological evidence demonstrate how early farming communities adjusted settlement and water use as hydroclimatic conditions changed.

74. Environmental Influences on Human Innovation and Behavioural Diversity in Southern Africa 92–80 Thousand Years Ago

[DOI:10.1038/s41559-022-01667-5 | Various authors | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2022] Archaeology from the arid Succulent Karoo links changing rainfall patterns with shifts in ostrich-eggshell technology, marine-shell transport and stone-tool production.

75. Changes to Water Management and Declining Pastoral Resilience in Marsabit County, Northern Kenya: The Example of Gabra Wells

[DOI:10.1002/wat2.1609 | Various authors | WIREs Water | 2022] Long-term evidence surrounding traditional wells illustrates how specialized communal water-management institutions support pastoral survival in arid environments.

76. Multiple Hominin Dispersals into Southwest Asia Over the Past 400,000 Years

[DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03863-y | Various authors | Nature | 2021] Archaeological sites associated with ancient lakes in Arabia document repeated expansions into the desert during temporary humid phases.

77. Innovative Homo sapiens Behaviours 105,000 Years Ago in a Wetter Kalahari

[DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03419-0 | Jayne Wilkins et al. | Nature | 2021] Finds from Ga-Mohana Hill show symbolic and technological innovations developing far inland, demonstrating that early behavioral complexity was not restricted to coastal environments.

78. Lithic Technological Organization of the Elmenteitan Early Herders in Southern Kenya

[DOI:10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101259 | Various authors | Journal of Anthropological Archaeology | 2021] Stone-tool production and raw-material movement reveal highly mobile pastoral networks capable of coping with environmental uncertainty in East African grasslands.

79. Dark Side Archaeology: Climate Change and Mid-Holocene Saharan Pastoral Adaptation

[PMC7445821 | Various authors | African Archaeological Review | 2020] Archaeological evidence from the Sahara shows mobile pastoralists changing settlement, herd management and mobility as progressive aridification transformed grasslands into desert.

80. Early Pastoral Mobility and Seasonality in Kenya Assessed Through Stable Isotope Analysis

[DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2020.105099 | Anneke Janzen, Marie Balasse and Stanley H. Ambrose | Journal of Archaeological Science | 2020] Isotopic analysis of livestock teeth reconstructs seasonal herd movement and shows how early pastoralists organized mobility around water and grazing availability.

81. The Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology of Rain-Fed Cultivation in Arid and Hyper-Arid North Africa

[Antiquity | Various authors | Antiquity | 2019] Archaeological and ethnographic evidence shows farmers using rainfall harvesting, runoff management and carefully timed planting to cultivate crops in extremely dry landscapes.

82. “All Sunshine Makes a Desert”: Survival Strategies of Ancient Communities in the Arid Zerqa Triangle, Jordan Valley

[DOI:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2018.11.006 | Various authors | Journal of Arid Environments | 2019] Interdisciplinary research documents settlement, agriculture and water-management strategies that permitted long-term habitation in an increasingly dry landscape.

83. Homo sapiens in Arabia by 85,000 Years Ago

[DOI:10.1038/s41559-018-0518-2 | Huw Groucutt et al. | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2018] A Homo sapiens finger bone and associated environmental evidence from Al Wusta show humans penetrating Arabia when increased rainfall transformed desert landscapes.

84. Holocene Human Adaptation in the Namib Desert

[DOI:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2018.05.003 | Various authors | Journal of Arid Environments | 2018] Settlement patterns indicate hunter-gatherers responded to increasing aridity through mobility, episodic occupation, resource intensification and use of mountain refugia.

85. Pastoralism May Have Delayed the End of the Green Sahara

[DOI:10.1038/s41467-018-06321-y | Various authors | Nature Communications | 2018] Archaeological and ecological modeling suggests adoption of livestock pastoralism provided an effective human response to increasing Saharan aridity.

86. Environmental Change and Human Occupation of Southern Ethiopia and Northern Kenya During the Last 20,000 Years

[DOI:10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.10.026 | Verena Foerster et al. | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2015] Archaeological and palaeoclimate records suggest mobile hunter-gatherers used lakeshores and mountain refugia as environmental conditions fluctuated.

87. Lakeside View: Sociocultural Responses to Changing Water Levels of Lake Turkana, Kenya

[DOI:10.1007/s10437-015-9185-8 | Various authors | African Archaeological Review | 2015] Archaeological settlement patterns around Lake Turkana reveal how communities adjusted mobility, subsistence and social practices as lake levels fluctuated dramatically.

88. The Demographic Response to Holocene Climate Change in the Sahara

[DOI:10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.07.003 | Katie Manning and Adrian Timpson | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2014] Thousands of archaeological radiocarbon dates reveal major population expansion during the African Humid Period followed by contraction as the Sahara became increasingly arid.

89. Re-entering the Central Sahara at the Onset of the Holocene

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2013.10.xxx | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2014] Settlement evidence from southwestern Libya shows hunter-gatherers recolonizing desert landscapes as rainfall returned after the Pleistocene.

90. From Nomadic Herder-Hunters to Sedentary Farmers in South-Eastern Arabia

[DOI:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2011.xxx | Various authors | Journal of Arid Environments | 2012] Increasing aridity encouraged Neolithic herder-gatherers to retreat toward environmental refugia, while later wetter conditions coincided with oasis agriculture and more permanent settlements.

91. Transport and Subsistence Patterns at the Transition to Pastoralism, Koobi Fora, Kenya

[DOI:10.1111/j.1475-4754.2011.00595.x | Various authors | Archaeometry | 2011] Material sourcing and archaeological evidence illuminate mobility and resource transport as eastern African communities increasingly incorporated livestock into their economies.

92. Early to Middle Holocene Landscape Exploitation in a Drying Environment: Central Sahara

[DOI:10.1016/j.crte.2009.05.001 | Various authors | Comptes Rendus Geoscience | 2009] Comparative archaeological evidence from southwestern Libya shows communities adopting different settlement and subsistence responses as formerly humid landscapes dried.

93. Human Influence, Plant Landscape Evolution and Climate Inferences from the Archaeobotanical Records of the Wadi Teshuinat Area, Libyan Sahara

[DOI:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2008.04.008 | Various authors | Journal of Arid Environments | 2008] Archaeobotanical evidence tracks changing vegetation, plant use and human landscape modification during the transition from humid to increasingly arid Saharan conditions.

94. Building Monuments, Creating Identity: Cattle Cult as a Social Response to Rapid Environmental Changes in the Holocene Sahara

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2006.01.014 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2006] Cattle burials and monuments are interpreted as social and ritual responses by pastoral communities facing periods of severe climatic uncertainty.

95. What Is the Impact of Holocene Climatic Changes on Human Societies? West African Neolithic Dietary Customs

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2006.01.015 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2006] Human remains and archaeological evidence show dietary changes accompanying major Holocene environmental transformations in West Africa.

96. Environmental Change and Archaeology: Lake Evolution and Human Occupation in the Eastern Sahara

[DOI:10.1016/S0031-0182(01)00211-5 | Various authors | Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology | 2001] Archaeological and geological evidence from former Saharan lake basins documents close relationships between changing water availability and Holocene occupation.

Tropical Forests, Plant Foods, Diet and Environmental Flexibility

97. Pre-Agricultural Intensification of Plant Use in Pleistocene Sri Lankan Rainforests

[DOI:10.1038/s41559-026-03082-6 | Nicolas Bourgon et al. | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2026] Isotope evidence indicates rainforest hunter-gatherers increasingly relied on plant foods long before agriculture, complementing evidence for specialized hunting and sophisticated projectile technology.

98. Humans in Africa's Wet Tropical Forests 150 Thousand Years Ago

[DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-08613-y | Various authors | Nature | 2025] Archaeological artifacts associated with rainforest sediments in West Africa show humans occupied dense wet tropical forests far earlier than traditionally assumed.

99. The Broad Spectrum Species: Plant Use and Processing as Deep-Time Adaptations

[DOI:10.1007/s10814-025-09214-z | Various authors | Journal of Archaeological Research | 2025] Reviews evidence that humans have long depended on diverse plant foods and specialized processing technologies rather than following a uniformly meat-centered subsistence strategy.

100. Terminal Pleistocene to Mid-Holocene Rainforest Foragers in Sri Lanka: Multidisciplinary Insights at Kebella-Lena Rock Shelter

[DOI:10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109201 | Various authors | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2025] Archaeological evidence documents long-term tropical rainforest occupation supported by flexible hunting, plant use and technological strategies.

101. Early Sri Lankan Coastal Site Tracks Technological Change and Estuarine Resource Exploitation

[DOI:10.1038/s41598-024-77504-5 | Various authors | Scientific Reports | 2024] A roughly 25,000-year archaeological sequence documents technological adjustments and changing exploitation of coastal and estuarine resources as shorelines moved.

102. Archaeology, Climate Change and Human Adaptation in Southern Africa: Mapela and Little Mapela

[DOI:10.1016/j.qsa.2024.100219 | Various authors | Quaternary Science Advances | 2024] Archaeological evidence shows southern African communities used context-specific social and economic strategies rather than responding uniformly to drought and climatic stress.

103. When to Generalise and When to Specialise? Climate Change and Hominin Biocultural Adaptability

[DOI:10.1016/j.qsa.2024.100218 | Various authors | Quaternary Science Advances | 2024] Presents a framework linking resource variability to shifts in mobility, social networks and technology among African Early and Middle Stone Age populations.

104. Climate Change, Human Health, and Resilience in the Holocene

[DOI:10.1073/pnas.2209472120 | Various authors | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2023] Archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence shows that responses to climatic stress varied greatly according to inequality, subsistence, social organization and local environmental conditions.

105. A Multi-Proxy Approach to Exploring Homo sapiens Arrival, Environments and Adaptations in Southeast Asia

[DOI:10.1038/s41598-021-99931-4 | Various authors | Scientific Reports | 2021] Faunal and environmental records illuminate how Homo sapiens encountered changing tropical forests during expansion into mainland Southeast Asia.

106. Late Pleistocene Human Paleoecology in the Highland Savanna Ecosystem of Mainland Southeast Asia

[DOI:10.1038/s41598-021-96260-4 | Kantapon Suraprasit et al. | Scientific Reports | 2021] Archaeological and faunal evidence demonstrates successful human use of highland landscapes in mainland Southeast Asia during the Late Pleistocene.

107. CLIOdynamic ARCHaeology: Computational Approaches to Final Palaeolithic/Early Mesolithic Archaeology and Climate Change

[DOI:10.15184/aqy.2020.85 | Various authors | Antiquity | 2020] Describes computational approaches for testing links between rapid climatic change, cultural transmission and adaptive changes around the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.

108. First Direct Evidence of Wild Plant Grinding Process from the Holocene Sahara

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2019.07.028 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2020] Ground stone tools from Farafra Oasis preserve microscopic residues showing systematic processing of wild plants by hunter-gatherers living in the prehistoric Sahara.

109. Pots, Plants and Animals: Broad-Spectrum Subsistence Strategies in the Early Neolithic of the Moroccan Rif Region

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2019.12.009 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2020] Archaeological evidence shows early farming communities mixing domestic livestock and crops with substantial hunting, gathering and wild-plant exploitation.

110. Microliths in the South Asian Rainforest ~45–4 ka: New Insights from Fa-Hien Lena Cave, Sri Lanka

[DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0222606 | Various authors | PLOS ONE | 2019] Miniaturized stone tools and faunal remains show sophisticated hunting technology associated with persistent human occupation of tropical rainforest environments.

111. Plant Behaviour from Human Imprints and the Cultivation of Wild Cereals in Holocene Sahara

[DOI:10.1038/s41477-017-0098-1 | Various authors | Nature Plants | 2018] Plant impressions from Takarkori indicate systematic harvesting, storage and possible cultivation of wild cereals before fully domesticated crops became established.

112. Earliest Direct Evidence of Plant Processing in Prehistoric Saharan Pottery

[DOI:10.1038/nplants.2016.194 | Julie Dunne et al. | Nature Plants | 2016] Lipid residues in pottery from the Libyan Sahara show vessels were used to process leafy plants, grains and aquatic vegetation during the early Holocene.

113. Lithics and Climate: Technological Responses to Landscape Change in Upper Palaeolithic Northern Japan

[DOI:10.15184/aqy.2015.23 | Various authors | Antiquity | 2015] Changes in Japanese Upper Palaeolithic stone technology track rapidly shifting landscapes and illustrate technological adjustment to new climatic circumstances.

114. Multistep Food Plant Processing at Grotta Paglicci, Southern Italy, Around 32,600 Cal BP

[PMC4593080 | Various authors | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2015] Grinding stones and starch residues indicate Paleolithic people used complex sequences of crushing and processing wild plants to improve digestibility and nutritional value.

115. The Development of Plant Food Processing in the Levant: Insights from Early Epipalaeolithic Ground Stone Tools

[DOI:10.1098/rstb.2014.0357 | Laure Dubreuil et al. | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B | 2015] Use-wear analysis demonstrates increasingly intensive processing of wild plants before agriculture, reflecting changing food-production strategies among hunter-gatherers.

116. Paleolithic Human Exploitation of Plant Foods During the Last Glacial Maximum in North China

[PMC3619325 | Li Liu et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2013] Starch residues demonstrate processing of grasses, tubers and other plant resources during severe glacial conditions, showing broad dietary adaptation.

117. Plant Exploitation of the Last Foragers at Shizitan in the Middle Yellow River Valley, China: Evidence from Grinding Stones

[Journal article | Various authors | Journal of Archaeological Science | 2012] Residues and use-wear on grinding stones show intensive exploitation of grasses, tubers and other plants among late hunter-gatherers in northern China.

118. Conceptualising Climate Change Archaeology

[DOI:10.1017/S0003598X00068472 | Robert Van de Noort | Antiquity | 2011] Explains how archaeology's long-term record of human responses to environmental change can contribute to understanding adaptation and resilience.

119. Thirty Thousand-Year-Old Evidence of Plant Food Processing

[PMC2973873 | Anna Revedin et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2010] Starch grains on grinding tools from Italy, Russia and the Czech Republic demonstrate systematic processing of plant foods by Upper Paleolithic populations.

120. Climates of Change: Human Dimensions of Holocene Environmental Change in Low Latitudes

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2003.09.xxx | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2004] Reviews how Holocene climatic instability encouraged technological innovation and diversification of subsistence strategies across tropical Australasia.

121. The Broad Spectrum Revisited: Evidence from Plant Remains

[PMC470712 | Ehud Weiss et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2004] Extraordinary plant remains from Ohalo II demonstrate intensive exploitation of a wide range of wild seeds and cereals thousands of years before agriculture.

Coastal, Maritime and Island Adaptation

122. Neolithic Coastal Adaptation and Resilience in Relation to Environmental Dynamics in the Eastern Mediterranean

[DOI:10.3389/fearc.2026.1775646 | David E. Friesem and Gilad Shtienberg | Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology | 2026] Submerged Carmel Coast settlements show communities responding to sea-level rise and salinization with wells, seawalls and diversified subsistence.

123. Shell Fishhooks, Shell Tools and Maritime Adaptation in West Wallacea: New Evidence from Selayar Island, Indonesia

[DOI:10.1016/j.qsa.2026.100326 | Rintaro Ono et al. | Quaternary Science Advances | 2026] Shell artifacts demonstrate specialized fishing and marine technology among prehistoric island communities occupying the Wallacean archipelago.

124. Prolonged Drought on Rapa Nui During the Decline of Megalithic Monument Construction

[DOI:10.1038/s43247-025-02801-4 | Various authors | Communications Earth & Environment | 2025] Sediment evidence indicates a prolonged drying trend coincided with major changes in settlement geography, land use and ceremonial practices on Rapa Nui.

125. ZooMS as a Tool for Understanding Prehistoric Pelagic Fishing: Fais Island, Micronesia

[Journal article | Various authors | Journal of Archaeological Science | 2025] Protein identification of shark and tuna remains reveals sustained exploitation of offshore species requiring specialized fishing knowledge and technology.

126. Changing Subsistence Practices in Pre-European Populations of South Vanuatu

[Various authors | Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports | 2024] Isotopic evidence reveals flexible combinations of marine, mangrove and terrestrial foods among island populations facing different ecological and climatic circumstances.

127. Earliest Neolithic Occupation and Maritime Adaptation on the West Pacific Coast

[DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2023.105874 | Keyang He et al. | Journal of Archaeological Science | 2023] The submerged Jingtoushan shell midden documents intensive maritime subsistence combined with early rice cultivation approximately 8,000 years ago.

128. 30,000 Years of Fishing in the Philippines: New Ichthyoarchaeological Investigations in Occidental Mindoro

[Journal article | Various authors | Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports | 2023] Fish remains document persistent exploitation of coastal and offshore resources over tens of thousands of years in the Philippine archipelago.

129. Pleistocene Hunter-Gatherer Coastal Adaptations in Atlantic Iberia

[DOI:10.3389/feart.2022.957214 | Various authors | Frontiers in Earth Science | 2022] Reviews shell middens, fish remains and other coastal proxies to reconstruct changing use of Atlantic shorelines by Pleistocene hunter-gatherers.

130. Technology, Adaptation, and Mobility in Maritime Environments in the Philippines

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2020.11.007 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2021] Reviews seafaring, marine-resource exploitation, obsidian exchange, shell technology and changing mobility across the prehistoric Philippines.

131. Climate, Environment and Cognition in the Colonisation of the Eastern Mediterranean Islands During the Pleistocene

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2020.09.012 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2021] Reviews evidence for sea crossings to Cyprus and considers how maritime technology and cognition enabled adaptation to isolated island environments.

132. Shell Middens and Coastal Prehistory

[Various authors | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology | 2020] Reviews the archaeological importance of shell middens for reconstructing coastal subsistence, settlement organization and changing human use of aquatic ecosystems.

133. Island Migration and Foraging Behaviour by Anatomically Modern Humans in Wallacea

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2020.03.054 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2020] Archaeological evidence from Sulawesi documents island migration, changing foraging behavior and technological responses to shifting ecological conditions.

134. Forty-Thousand Years of Maritime Subsistence Near a Changing Shoreline on Alor Island

[DOI:10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.xxx | Various authors | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2020] Cave deposits on Alor contain abundant marine shell, fish, crab and sea-urchin remains, demonstrating long-term reliance on maritime food resources.

135. Coastal Adaptation at Klasies River Main Site During MIS 5c–d from a Southern Cape Perspective

[DOI:10.1080/15564894.2020.1774444 | Various authors | Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology | 2020] Faunal and archaeological remains show early Homo sapiens repeatedly integrating marine foods into subsistence along South Africa's changing Pleistocene coastline.

136. The Coastal Migration Theory: Formulation and Testable Hypotheses

[Quaternary Science Reviews | Various authors | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2020] Reviews archaeological and ecological predictions for human dispersal along productive coastlines and considers how maritime adaptations may have facilitated rapid migrations.

137. A New Pleistocene Hominin Tracksite from the Cape South Coast, South Africa

[DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-22059-5 | Various authors | Scientific Reports | 2018] Fossil footprints complement the rich archaeological record of a coastal landscape where early Homo sapiens exploited marine resources, terrestrial foods and diverse habitats.

138. The Earliest Shell Fishhooks from the Americas Reveal Fishing Technology of Pleistocene Maritime Foragers

[American Antiquity | Various authors | American Antiquity | 2017] Shell fishhooks from coastal California provide evidence for sophisticated fishing technologies among terminal Pleistocene maritime hunter-gatherers.

139. Fishing in Life and Death: Pleistocene Fish-Hooks from a Burial Context on Alor Island, Indonesia

[DOI:10.15184/aqy.2017.186 | Various authors | Antiquity | 2017] Fishhooks associated with a human burial demonstrate the technological and cultural importance of marine fishing to Late Pleistocene island populations.

140. An Evolutionary Perspective on Coastal Adaptations by Modern Humans During the Middle Stone Age of Africa

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.xxx | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2016] Archaeological evidence indicates increasingly systematic exploitation of marine foods and repeated coastal settlement by Middle Stone Age populations.

141. Advanced Maritime Adaptation in the Western Pacific Coastal Region Extends Back to 35,000–30,000 Years Before Present

[DOI:10.1073/pnas.1607857113 | Various authors | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2016] Archaeological finds from the southern Japanese archipelago document sophisticated maritime subsistence and technology during the Late Pleistocene.

142. Middle Pleistocene Sea-Crossings in the Eastern Mediterranean?

[DOI:10.1016/j.jaa.2016.04.005 | Various authors | Journal of Anthropological Archaeology | 2016] Palaeolithic artifacts on Mediterranean islands are evaluated as possible evidence that archaic humans possessed watercraft, navigation skills and maritime curiosity.

143. Human Maritime Subsistence Strategies in the Lesser Sunda Islands During the Terminal Pleistocene–Early Holocene

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.07.068 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2016] Archaeological deposits on Alor demonstrate intensive fishing and shellfish collecting as island communities adjusted to changing coastlines and marine habitats.

144. Human History of Maritime Exploitation and Adaptation to Coastal and Marine Environments: Wallacea and the Pacific

[DOI:10.5772/62013 | Rintaro Ono | IntechOpen | 2016] Reviews archaeological evidence for fishing, seafaring, shell technology and other adaptations that enabled human settlement of island environments.

145. Shell Middens and Other Anthropogenic Soils as Global Stratigraphic Signatures of the Anthropocene

[DOI:10.1016/j.ancene.2013.xxx | Various authors | Anthropocene | 2013] Surveys deep archaeological evidence for shellfish exploitation, coastal colonization and long-term human modification of shoreline ecosystems.

146. Large Shell Middens in Lamberts Bay, South Africa: A Case of Hunter-Gatherer Resource Intensification

[Journal article | Various authors | Journal of Archaeological Science | 2010] Large shell deposits indicate periods of intensified marine exploitation associated with changing population, mobility and coastal resource availability.

147. Cultural Responses to a Late Holocene Climatic Oscillation in the Mariana Islands, Micronesia

[Rosalind L. Hunter-Anderson | Human Ecology Review | 2010] Archaeological evidence suggests island communities altered settlement, food production and resource management in response to climatic instability.

148. Avoiding Collapse: Pre-European Sustainability on Pacific Islands

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2007.10.016 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2008] Comparative island archaeology shows that irrigated agriculture, arboriculture and reduced burning allowed some Polynesian societies to maintain long-term sustainability.

149. Early Human Use of Marine Resources and Pigment in South Africa During the Middle Pleistocene

[DOI:10.1038/nature06204 | Curtis W. Marean et al. | Nature | 2007] Pinnacle Point deposits show humans exploiting shellfish around 164,000 years ago, probably broadening their diets during a period of cool and arid environmental stress.

150. Human Responses to Climate Change Around AD 1300: Sigatoka Valley, Fiji

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2006.01.018 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2006] Archaeological evidence suggests climatic and sea-level changes contributed to movement toward fortified inland settlements and changes in landscape use.

151. Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Human Adaptation in Coastal Ecuador: The Las Vegas Evidence

[DOI:10.1016/S1040-6182(02)00200-8 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2003] Las Vegas communities combined marine, estuarine and terrestrial resources while progressively increasing fishing, horticulture and plant management.

152. On the Antiquity of the Single-Piece Shell Fishhook: AMS Radiocarbon Evidence from the Southern California Coast

[DOI:10.1006/jasc.2001.0788 | Torben Rick et al. | Journal of Archaeological Science | 2002] Directly dated shell hooks reveal long-term technological investment in marine fishing along the southern California coast.

153. Fishing Adaptation of Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers at the Nittano Site, Japan

[DOI:10.1016/S0305-4403(80)80039-2 | Takeru Akazawa | Journal of Archaeological Science | 1980] Fish remains and fishing technology illustrate specialized exploitation of aquatic resources by prehistoric Japanese hunter-gatherers.

Arctic and Subarctic Adaptation

154. Exploratory Models of Social Organization and Adaptive Responses to Risk in Subarctic Alaska

[DOI:10.14430/arctic82640 | Ben A. Potter | Arctic | 2026] Models how mobility, cooperation, sharing and social organization could reduce subsistence risk in highly seasonal and unpredictable northern environments.

155. An Ethnographic Framework for Identifying Dog Sledding in the Archaeological Record

[DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2023.105856 | Emma Vitale et al. | Journal of Archaeological Science | 2023] Develops archaeological signatures of dog-powered transport, a technology that dramatically increased mobility and carrying capacity in Arctic landscapes.

156. Subarctic Landscape Adaptations and Paleodemography: A 14,000-Year History of Climate Change and Human Settlement in Central Alaska and Yukon

[DOI:10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107139 | Briana N. Doering | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2021] Archaeological radiocarbon evidence tracks changes in population and settlement as northern communities responded to major postglacial environmental transitions.

157. Neo-Inuit Strategies for Ensuring Food Security During the Little Ice Age Climate Change Episode, Foxe Basin, Arctic Canada

[Sean P. A. Desjardins | Quaternary International | 2020] Archaeological evidence shows Inuit communities diversified hunting, storage and settlement practices to maintain food security during climatic deterioration.

158. Dorset, Norse, or Thule? Technological Transfers, Marine Mammal Contamination, and AMS Dating of Spun Yarn and Textiles from the Eastern Canadian Arctic

[DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2018.06.005 | Michèle Hayeur Smith, Kevin P. Smith and Gørill Nilsen | Journal of Archaeological Science | 2018] Textile evidence illustrates technological complexity and possible cultural interaction among populations adapting to Arctic climatic conditions.

159. Technology, Taphonomy, and Seasonality: Differences Between Dorset and Thule Subsistence Strategies at Iqaluktuuq

[DOI:10.14430/arctic4640 | Lesley Howse and T. Max Friesen | Arctic | 2016] Faunal remains and technology reveal contrasting seasonal hunting strategies among successive Arctic cultural traditions.

160. Living at a High Arctic Polynya: Inughuit Settlement and Subsistence Around the North Water

[DOI:10.14430/arctic4573 | Bjarne Grønnow | Arctic | 2016] Settlement records show how Inughuit communities organized hunting and mobility around a biologically rich area of persistent open water in an otherwise ice-dominated environment.

161. Pan-Arctic Population Movements: The Early Paleo-Inuit and Thule Inuit Migrations

[Oxford Handbook of the Prehistoric Arctic | Various authors | Oxford University Press | 2016] Reviews archaeological evidence for enormous migrations across Arctic North America enabled by specialized clothing, transportation, housing and marine-hunting technologies.

162. Ethnohistoric Analogues for Storage as an Adaptive Strategy in Northeastern Subarctic Prehistory

[DOI:10.1016/S0278-4165(02)00004-1 | Marianne P. Stopp | Journal of Anthropological Archaeology | 2002] Food caches and storage facilities are examined as crucial strategies for surviving strong seasonal fluctuations and unpredictable resource availability in northern environments.

163. Dorset Settlement and Subsistence in Northern Labrador

[DOI:10.14430/arctic2589 | Steven L. Cox and Arthur Spiess | Arctic | 1980] Archaeological evidence reconstructs how Dorset communities positioned settlements and organized marine hunting around seasonally available Arctic resources.

Agriculture, Water Management, Storage and Social Resilience

164. Ancient Maya Settlement Abandonment and Climate Instability in Belize: A Spatial Analysis of Adaptive Resilience

[Various authors | Journal of Archaeological Science | 2026] Analysis of hundreds of Maya settlements indicates communities with dependable water and wetland resources often persisted longer through drought than more vulnerable upland settlements.

165. Local Agricultural Transition, Crisis and Migration in the Southern Andes

[DOI:10.1038/s41586-026-10233-z | Various authors | Nature | 2026] Ancient genomes and archaeological evidence from the Uspallata Valley show local hunter-gatherers adopting agriculture before later economic crisis and population movement.

166. Centuries of Repeated Droughts Linked to the Indus Valley Civilisation's Decline

[Vanita Srivastava | Nature India | 2025] Archaeological and climate evidence suggests Indus communities responded to prolonged drought through crop changes, migration and increasingly decentralized settlement.

167. Mobility and Subsistence Change as Synchronous Adaptation During Holocene Climate Amelioration

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2025.109687 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2025] Evidence from China's Xinglong site links warmer and wetter conditions with reduced mobility, increased ungulate hunting and the beginnings of millet cultivation.

168. Understanding the Spread of Agriculture in the Western Mediterranean with Machine-Learning Tools

[Nature Communications | Various authors | Nature Communications | 2025] Large archaeological datasets show how environmental suitability, geography and human connectivity affected the expansion and adaptation of early farming systems.

169. Isotopes Reveal the Ancient Marvel of Water Engineering

[Various authors | Nature India | 2024] Archaeological and palaeoclimate evidence from southern India links severe monsoon variability with the construction of reservoirs, canals and rainwater-harvesting systems.

170. The Fremont Frontier: Living at the Margins of Maize Farming

[Kenneth B. Vernon et al. | American Antiquity | 2024] Modeling of climate, streams and settlement distribution explores how Fremont farmers maintained maize agriculture near its northern climatic limits.

171. Can We Reliably Detect Adaptive Responses of Hunter-Gatherers to Past Climate Change?

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2023.06.014 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2024] Mid-Holocene hunter-gatherers in the North American Basin-Plateau reduced population density and concentrated around dependable water while intensifying subsistence practices.

172. Climate and Oceanic Condition Changes Influence Subsistence Economic Adaptation on the Central Andean Coasts

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2023.07.002 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2024] Stable-isotope evidence from hundreds of archaeological individuals shows shifts between marine and terrestrial foods as ocean productivity changed over roughly seven millennia.

173. Isotopic Evidence of High Reliance on Plant Food Among Later Stone Age Hunter-Gatherers at Taforalt, Morocco

[DOI:10.1038/s41559-024-02382-z | Various authors | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2024] Isotope evidence indicates substantial plant consumption among Late Stone Age hunter-gatherers, illustrating dietary diversification and plant intensification well before full agricultural economies.

174. Prehispanic Arid Zone Farming: Hybrid Flood and Irrigation Systems Along the North Coast of Peru

[DOI:10.3390/agronomy14030407 | Ari Caramanica | Agronomy | 2024] Archaeological evidence shows coastal Peruvian farmers combining canal irrigation with floodwater farming to exploit highly variable water supplies in one of the world's driest agricultural regions.

175. The Technology, Management, and Culture of Water in Ancient Iran

[DOI:10.1057/s41599-023-01617-x | Various authors | Humanities and Social Sciences Communications | 2023] Reviews archaeological and historical evidence for dams, canals and qanats developed to manage drought, flooding and highly variable water supplies.

176. Roman Water Management Impacted the Hydrological Functioning of Wetlands During Drought Periods

[DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-46010-5 | Various authors | Scientific Reports | 2023] Isotope evidence from southern Iberia demonstrates how Roman water infrastructure altered hydrological systems during a period of reduced rainfall.

177. Drought and Water Management in Ancient Maya Society

[DOI:10.1177/03091333221129784 | Tripti Bhattacharya et al. | Progress in Physical Geography | 2023] Reviews palaeoclimate and archaeological evidence for reservoirs, water storage and settlement strategies developed to cope with highly seasonal rainfall and prolonged drought.

178. Ancient Maya Reservoirs, Constructed Wetlands, and Future Water Needs

[DOI:10.1073/pnas.2306870120 | Lisa J. Lucero | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2023] Maya reservoirs incorporated wetland plants and engineered landscapes that helped store and maintain water supplies through long dry seasons.

179. Early Canal Systems in the North American Southwest

[Gary Huckleberry | American Antiquity | 2023] Archaeological and geomorphological evidence documents early irrigation canals that allowed farmers to redirect scarce water and expand cultivation in arid environments.

180. Maize and Ancient Maya Droughts

[DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-26761-3 | Gerald A. Islebe et al. | Scientific Reports | 2022] Pollen records indicate maize production often intensified during dry phases, suggesting agricultural intensification was one response to climatic stress.

181. Climatic Backdrop for Pueblo Cultural Development in the Southwestern United States

[DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-12220-6 | Victor J. Polyak, Yemane Asmerom and Matthew S. Lachniet | Scientific Reports | 2022] A long cave-climate record suggests Pueblo communities developed increasingly integrated settlements during an unusually dry and climatically variable period.

182. Resilience and Adaptation of Agricultural Practice in Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey

[Various authors | World Archaeology | 2022] Archaeobotanical evidence shows farmers changing crop choices, cultivation locations and land-management practices during centuries of settlement and environmental transformation.

183. Changes of Neolithic Subsistence in the South Hangzhou Bay Coast, Eastern China: An Adaptive Strategy to Landscape Processes

[Frontiers in Plant Science | Various authors | Frontiers in Plant Science | 2022] Plant remains reveal changing reliance on rice, wild foods and other resources as coastal landscapes were transformed by sea-level and sedimentary processes.

184. Agriculture in the Ancient Maya Lowlands: Paleoethnobotanical Residues and New Perspectives on Plant Management

[DOI:10.1007/s10814-022-09180-w | Various authors | Journal of Archaeological Research | 2022] Reviews evidence for diversified Maya plant management involving fields, gardens, forests, tree crops and wetland resources rather than reliance on maize alone.

185. Ancient Agriculture and Climate Change on the North Coast of Peru

[DOI:10.1073/pnas.2017725117 | Jason Nesbitt | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2020] Discusses archaeological evidence for active decision-making and agricultural resilience rather than simple environmental determinism in ancient Peruvian responses to climate change.

186. Late Holocene Droughts and Cave Ice Harvesting by Ancestral Puebloans

[DOI:10.1038/s41598-020-76988-1 | Bogdan P. Onac et al. | Scientific Reports | 2020] Charcoal in a New Mexico ice cave indicates Ancestral Puebloans used fire to melt cave ice for water during repeated drought episodes.

187. Pre-Contact Adaptations to the Little Ice Age in Southwest Alaska: New Evidence from Nunalleq

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2019.05.003 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2020] Zooarchaeology, isotope analysis and bone technology reveal flexible Yup'ik subsistence responses to climatic change in a challenging Arctic coastal environment.

188. A Landscape Perspective on Climate-Driven Risks to Food Security in the Prehispanic U.S. Southwest

[DOI:10.1017/aaq.2020.35 | Various authors | American Antiquity | 2020] Modeling shows that communities faced differing agricultural risks depending on local elevation, precipitation and temperature and adjusted settlement accordingly.

189. The Role of Diet in Resilience and Vulnerability to Climate Change Among Early Agricultural Communities in the Maya Lowlands

[DOI:10.1086/704530 | Claire E. Ebert et al. | Current Anthropology | 2019] Isotope evidence from Cahal Pech indicates that dietary diversity helped some Maya households buffer climatic and agricultural uncertainty.

190. Glacial and Post-Glacial Adaptations of Hunter-Gatherers in the Southern Steppe of Eastern Europe

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2017.01.005 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2018] Faunal evidence shows a transition from heavy reliance on a few large-game species toward more regionally varied hunting, fishing and gathering after the Ice Age.

191. Learning from Ancient Water Management: Archaeology's Role in Modern-Day Climate Change Adaptations

[DOI:10.1002/wat2.1256 | Eva Kaptijn | WIREs Water | 2018] Reviews ancient irrigation, water harvesting and storage systems and argues that archaeological experience offers long-term evidence about resilience to drought.

192. Climate Change Stimulated Agricultural Innovation and Exchange Across Asia

[PMC6209390 | Robert N. Spengler III et al. | Science Advances | 2018] Archaeobotanical evidence shows that climatic pressures and cultural exchange encouraged crops to move across Eurasia and farming systems to diversify.

193. Imperial Resource Management at the Ancient Maya City of Tikal: A Resilience Model of Sustainability and Collapse

[DOI:10.1016/j.jaa.2018.08.005 | Various authors | Journal of Anthropological Archaeology | 2018] Examines water, forests, agriculture and political organization at Tikal to explain both centuries of urban resilience and eventual vulnerability.

194. The Perfect Storm: Climate Change and Ancient Maya Response in the Puuc Hills Region of Yucatán

[Various authors | Antiquity | 2017] Archaeological investigations document reservoirs, cisterns and water-control features used to buffer seasonal rainfall variability and drought.

195. Impacts of Climatic Variability and Population Growth on Virgin Branch Anasazi Cultural Developments

[Daniel O. Larson and Joel Michaelsen | American Antiquity | 2017] Archaeological evidence links drought with intensified agriculture, increased storage and larger cooperative residential groups before eventual regional abandonment.

196. Water and Land at the Ancient Maya Community of La Milpa

[Various authors | Latin American Antiquity | 2017] Archaeological survey documents reservoirs, agricultural modifications and settlement organization that helped a large Maya population manage seasonally limited water.

197. Drought Stress Variability in Ancient Near Eastern Agricultural Systems Evidenced by Carbon Isotopes in Barley Grain

[PMC4151733 | Various authors | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2014] Carbon-isotope measurements from archaeological barley directly reveal changing water stress and show how ancient farming systems operated under variable rainfall.

198. Environmental Change and Cultural Dynamics of Holocene Hunter-Gatherers in Northeast Asia

[DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.07.021 | Various authors | Quaternary International | 2013] Comparative evidence from Siberia and Hokkaido examines how hunter-gatherer subsistence, settlement patterns and social organization changed during Holocene environmental shifts.

199. Kax and Kol: Collapse and Resilience in Lowland Maya Civilization

[PMC3309719 | Various authors | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2012] Archaeological and ecological evidence shows that forest management, agricultural practices and political organization influenced differing levels of resilience during drought.

200. Prehistoric Maya Wetland Agriculture and the Alluvial Soils Near San Antonio Rio Hondo, Belize

[Paul R. Bloom et al. | Nature | 1983] Excavations provided archaeological evidence for raised-field agriculture, demonstrating intensive use of tropical wetlands to sustain Maya food production.