Note: Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Preface -- The Authors -- Table of Contents -- Chapter 1 African Research -- 1.1 Millennial spaces have always structured the African continent -- 1.1.1 Genetics, archaeology and geography -- 1.1.2 The genetic narrative -- 1.1.3 The role of archaeology -- 1.1.4 The build of the African continent -- 1.1.5 Longstanding contexts -- 1.1.6 The centre of Africa, void of Pleistocene humans -- 1.1.7 The volatile bow around the centre -- 1.1.8 The self-sufficient subcontinent to the south -- 1.1.9 The patchy east -- 1.1.10 Sahara Desert and Nile Valley -- 1.1.11 Remote margins: Atlas Mountains, Niger Inland Delta, Namib desert: oblivion and loss -- 1.2 Palaeoanthropological background -- 1.2.1 Early hominins -- 1.2.2 Origin of Homo and first expansions out of Africa -- 1.2.3 Archaic Homo sapiens in Africa -- 1.2.4 Anatomically modern humans -- 1.2.5 Biocultural evolution of Homo sapiens -- 1.3 Ethiopian lakes as paleoenvironmental and palaeoclimate archives -- 1.3.1 Regional setting of the Chew Bahir basin -- 1.3.2 Materials and Methods used for the analysis of the Chew Bahir record -- 1.3.3 Palaeoecological results based on the Chew Bahir record -- 1.3.4 Conclusion from a palaeoecological point of view -- 1.4 The role of tropical highlands in the dispersal of Homo sapiens -- 1.4.1 Introduction -- 1.4.2 Environmental background -- 1.4.3 The Middle Stone Age archaeological record -- 1.4.4 The earliest evidence of high-altitude occupation -- 1.4.5 The influence of climate in the dispersal of Homo sapiens from Africa -- 1.4.6 Conclusion -- 1.5 Ephemeral but not remote - Insights into the Late Pleistocene of North-East Africa -- 1.5.1 Introduction -- 1.5.2 Regional context -- 1.5.3 Environmental and climatological setting -- 1.5.4 Late Pleistocene record from Sodmein Cave. , 1.5.5 Open-air sites in Sodmein area and Wadi Qena area -- 1.5.6 Reconstructing the Late Pleistocene environment of the Eastern Desert -- 1.5.7 Re-occupation model of the Sahara after the hyper-arid Pleistocene -- 1.5.8 Conclusion -- 1.6 Hunter-gatherer mobility: Anthropological models of the first African frontier -- 1.6.1 Introduction -- 1.6.2 Frontiers of rationalism and colonial expansionism -- 1.6.3 The internal African frontier and the first African frontier -- 1.6.4 Fission and fusion pattern -- 1.6.5 The effects of nested developmental cycles -- 1.6.6 The Changing Composition Group Model -- 1.6.7 Modelling marriage rules -- 1.6.8 Conclusion -- 1.7 Summary -- 1.8 References -- Chapter 2 Middle East/Levant -- 2.1 The southern Levant as migration corridor and barrier -- 2.1.1 Physiographic and geologic settings -- 2.1.2 Climate -- 2.1.3 Present-day vegetation -- 2.1.4 Vegetation history: Dry or wet glacial in the Levant? -- 2.1.5 Lake-level history: increased glacial wetness or decreased evaporation? -- 2.2 The palaeoenvironment of the southern Levant during the last interglacial- glacial cycle -- 2.2.1 Vegetation history -- 2.2.2 Climate reconstruction -- 2.2.3 Biome modelling -- 2.2.4 Regional synthesis and implications for hominids -- 2.3 The Levantine Upper Palaeolithic seen from the Wadi Sabra archaeological and environmental record -- 2.3.1 Human migration crossed the latitudes -- 2.3.2 Various biomes share the Middle East -- 2.3.3 Environment, culture and human migration related -- 2.3.4 Middle Palaeolithic -- 2.3.5 Upper Palaeolithic -- 2.3.6 Early phase: only Lower Wadi Sabra occupied by humans -- 2.3.7 Evolved phase: occasional human visits to the Upper Wadi Sabra -- 2.3.8 Late phase: a human refuge in arid times? -- 2.3.9 The onset of the Epipalaeolithic: Wadi Sabra as marginal habitat. , 2.3.10 Geomorphological and sedimentological setting of the archaeological sites in the Wadi Sabra -- 2.3.11 Conclusion -- 2.4 Summary -- 2.5 References -- Chapter 3 South-Eastern Europe -- 3.1 South-Eastern Europe: The gateway for human migration towards Europe? -- 3.1.1 Physiographic and geological setting, climate and present-day vegetation -- 3.1.2 Outline and investigations presented in this chapter -- 3.2 Early Homo sapiens in South-East Europe: the evidence from Apidima Cave A -- 3.2.1 Homo sapiens: evolution and dispersal -- 3.2.2 The site of Apidima -- 3.3 Orbital and millennial climate oscillations and environment evolution in the Marmara-Balkan migration route since the Last Glacial -- 3.4 The speleothem record of the Mediterranean and Balkan region -- 3.4.1 The last glacial's speleothem record in the wider Mediterranean region -- 3.4.2 Rapid climate change at the transition from Neanderthals to modern humans -- 3.4.3 Towards process-understanding of environmental change during last glacial's D-O cycles -- 3.5 Palaeoclimatic evolution in Central and South-Eastern Europe during the last glacial based on aeolian sediments -- 3.5.1 The Banat - a geoarchaeological key area -- 3.5.2 The palaeoclimatic archive of the Middle Danube loess deposits -- 3.5.3 The palaeoclimatic archive of the Lower Danube loess deposits -- 3.5.4 Supraregional and global implications -- 3.6 Chronological constraints from tephra in South-Eastern European loess records -- 3.6.1 State-of-art of tephrochronological research in South-Eastern European loess -- 3.6.2 The Campanian Ignimbrite/Y-5 tephra (CI) -- 3.6.3 The so-called L2 tephra -- 3.6.4 The Bag tephra -- 3.6.5 Other prominent tephra layers -- 3.6.6 The Carpathian tephras -- 3.6.7 Outlook -- 3.7 The Upper Paleolithic in the Carpathian Basin: The European heart of Our Way to Europe. , 3.7.1 The early Upper Palaeolithic of the Carpathian Basin: Patterns of disorder -- 3.7.2 Ideas in motion: The technological approach and the contribution to human dispersal -- 3.7.3 Discussion: No clear direction -- 3.7.4 Conclusions: A weak vanguard -- 3.8 Summary -- 3.9 References -- Chapter 4 Population dynamics, mobility and human-environment interaction from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic - a view from Central Europe to the world -- 4.1 Representations of demographic dynamics -- 4.1.1 Three types of representation -- 4.1.2 Relationship between the dominant and the segmentary representation -- 4.1.3 Comparison of interpretations -- 4.1.4 Stages and oscillations -- 4.1.5 Biological patterns -- 4.1.6 Vertical social differentiation -- 4.1.7 The fallacy of the so-called Malthusian trap -- 4.1.8 The fallacy of exhausting the environmental carrying capacity -- 4.1.9 Conclusion -- 4.2 Population dynamics of the Palaeolithic -- 4.2.1 Demographic estimates -- 4.2.2 The Cologne Protocol - approaching prehistoric demography -- 4.2.3 Upscaling - mind the gap -- 4.2.4 Diachronic population dynamics during the Upper and Final Palaeolithic of Europe -- 4.2.5 A spatially explicit, regional perspective on population dynamics -- 4.2.6 Demographic developments at global scale -- 4.2.7 Conclusion -- 4.3 Human-environment interaction -- 4.3.1 Cultural connectivity -- 4.3.2 A multisphere perspective on population dynamics, human-environment interaction and mobility in prehistoric Central Europe -- 4.3.3 Lithosphere/reliefsphere and population dynamics -- 4.3.4 Pedosphere and population dynamics -- 4.3.5 Pedosphere and human occupation during the Upper Palaeolithic -- 4.3.6 Terrestrial Hydrosphere and population dynamics -- 4.3.7 Biosphere and population dynamics -- 4.3.8 Biosphere, atmosphere and population dynamics -- 4.3.9 Fire and population dynamics. , 4.3.10 Conclusion -- 4.4 Summary -- 4.5 References -- Chapter 5 The Westernmost Mediterranean -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Palaeoecology and human settlement pattern (50-5 ka) -- 5.2.1 Geoarchives and palaeoenvironment -- 5.2.2 Human settlement pattern -- 5.3 Key Sites in Andalusia and the Eastern Rif -- 5.3.1 Sites in Andalusia -- 5.3.3 Sites in the Eastern Rif -- 5.4 On the Relevance of Borders - The Strait of Gibraltar and the Ebro Frontier Model -- 5.4.1 The Strait of Gibraltar - Bridge or Barrier -- 5.4.2 The Ebro Frontier Model - 20 years after -- 5.5 Summary -- 5.6 References -- Chapter 6 Modelling Human Dispersal in Space and Time -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Model Framework -- 6.2.1 Human Existence Potential -- 6.2.2 Human Mobility Model -- 6.2.3 Constrained Random Walk Model -- 6.3 Archaeological data -- 6.4 Human existence potential and kinematic applications -- 6.4.1 Probability of human existence: Aurignacian -- 6.4.2 Probability of human existence: Last Glacial Maximum -- 6.5 Impact of regional climate on human dispersal -- 6.6 Dynamic simulation of our way to Europe -- 6.7 Impact of the Heinrich Event 4 on human population in the Iberian Peninsula -- 6.8 Summary -- 6.9 References -- Chapter 7 Methods -- 7.1 Scientific Drilling -- 7.2 Palaeomagnetism and environmental magnetism -- 7.3 Varve chronology -- 7.4 Radiocarbon dating -- 7.5 Pollen dating and flow cytometry -- 7.6 Luminescence dating -- 7.7 U-Th dating of carbonates -- 7.8 Stable isotopes in speleothems as palaeoclimatic indicators -- 7.9 Pollen analysis -- 7.10 Black carbon analyses -- 7.11 Laboratory analysis of Loess palaeosol sequences -- 7.12 Palaeoclimate reconstructions based on botanical-climatological transfer functions -- Chapter 8 Epilogue: School needs science! - Approaches to Model and Promote Comparative Competences in Geography Education -- 8.1 Introduction. , 8.2 Theoretical approaches to comparison.