'Its significance can scarcely be overstated, and its contribution, in presenting up-to-date regional syntheses and discussions of the key issues, could hardly be more timely...Throughout this volume fascinating and important issues were presented...extremely well edited.' Antiquity, September 1997 '[An] excellent volume on this important period of time.' Geoarchaeology: An International Journal ' 'This book fills a significant gap and makes and important contribution to the literature.' The Holocene 8, 1998

• I. Introduction.- 1. The World at the End of the Last Ice Age.- II. The Pleistocene–Holocen Transsition in Africa and the Near East.- 2. At the Transition: The Archaeology of the Pleistocene—Holocene Boundary in Southern Africa.- 3. Plus Ça Change: The Pleistocene—Holocene Transition in Northeast Africa.- 4. The Impact of Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Climatic Changes on Humans in Southwest Asia.- III. The Pleistocene–Holocen Transsition in Europe.- 5. The Archaeology of the Pleistocene—Holocene Transition in Southwest Europe.- 6. Resource Exploitation, Subsistence Strategies, and Adaptiveness in Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Northwest Europe.- 7. The North European Plain and Eastern Sub-Balticum between 12,700 and 8,000 BP.- 8. The Pleistocene—Holocene Transition on the East European Plain.- IV. Asia and Australia during the Pleistocene–Holocen Transsition.- 9. The Pleistocene—Holocene Transition in Greater Australia.- 10. Human Activities and Environmental Changes during the Late Pleistocene to Middle Holocene in Southern Thailand and Southeast Asia.- 11. The Pleistocene—Holocene Transition in Japan and Adjacent Northeast Asia: Climate and Biotic Change, Broad-Spectrum Diet, Pottery, and Sedentism.- 12. Siberia in the Late Glacial and Early Postglacial.- V. Environment and Peoples at the Pleistocene–Holocen Boundary in the Americas.- 13. Human Adaptation at the Pleistocene—Holocene Boundary (circa 13,000 to 8,000 BP) in Eastern Beringia.- 14. The Pleistocene—Holocene Transition along the Pacific Coast of North America.- 15. The Pleistocene—Holocene Transition on the Plants and Rocky Mountains of North Americas.- 16. The Pleistocene—Holocene Transition in the Eastern United States.- 17. The Pleistocene—Holocene in Southern SouthAmericas.- VI. Conclusion.- 18. Surprises, Recurring Themes, and New Questions in the Study of the Late Glacial and Early Postglacial.