The distribution of human settlement in the extra-tropical Old World 24000-15000BP

In 1982 the INQIJA commission with responsibility for compiling a Palaeo-geographical Atlas of the Quaternary decided to produce a series of maps at the scale of 1 : 30 000 000 for the extra-tropical regions of the northern hemisphere during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) 20 000-18 000 BP. Several maps are currently being prepared on glaciation ( J. Mojski), vegetation (B. Frenzel & V. R. Grichuk), zoogeography (A. K. Markova), loess (M. Pecsi), palaeoclimates (A. Hecht & A. A. Velichko) and geomorphology (I. Spasskaya). In this chapter I present some preliminary conclusions based on my work on the map the distribution of human settlement at the LGM.