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The Early Acheulian of north-western Europe
Abstract
The introduction of biface technology in the Lower Palaeolithic arguably marked a fundamental change in how early hominins dealt with their world. It is suggested to reflect changes not just in tool form and innovative shaping, but also in planning depth, landscape use and social structures. This paper examines in detail the chronology of the first Acheulian industries in north-west Europe with the earliest sites from c. 700 ka through to later sites at c. 400 ka. It asks whether evidence from these sites can further our understanding of how the Acheulian and the bifacial technology emerged in this region, but more critically whether it was the underlying behavioural changes that enabled the more sustained occupation of northern latitudes. In particular the paper assesses whether cultural signatures can be identified and whether this reflects changes in group dynamics and social structures that could be a fundamental aspect of surviving in more seasonal, cooler climates.
... The earliest Acheulean occurrence in Europe has been the subject of extensive inquiry in recent years, based on both new archaeological sites and updates on previously recognized locations. An Acheulean presence earlier than the formerly accepted dates for its first appearances from MIS 13 (Moncel et al., 2015;Ashton, 2018) has been documented at early Middle Pleistocene sites such as Bois de Riquet (US4) (Bourguignon et al., 2016;Viallet et al., 2022), La Noira (Moncel et al., 2013;Moncel et al., 2021;García-Medrano et al., 2022), Moulin Quignon (Antoine et al., 2019;Moncel et al., 2022) in France, Notarchirico in Italy (Piperno, 1999;Moncel et al., 2020b), and Brandon Fields and Fordwich in the United Kingdom (Davis et al., 2021;Key et al., 2022). ...
... Our hypothesis about the presence of the Acheulean in Western Europe during the late Early Pleistocene was initially supported by qualitatively significant but quantitatively scarce evidence, which led to unequal acceptance among colleagues and a general requirement for more diagnostic elements (Moncel et al., 2015;Moncel et al., 2020a;Moncel et al., 2020b;Méndez-Quintas et al., 2018). To address this challenge, based on the proven richness of Unit II at Barranc de la Boella in three discrete localities, we decided in 2016 to significantly enlarge the excavated surface area at two of them: Pit 1 and La Mina. ...
... As the results of our first period of fieldwork started to be echoed by the scientific community, an unequal acceptance of our claimed Acheulean evidence emerged (Rolland, 2013;Moncel et al., 2015;Moncel et al., 2016;Moncel et al., 2020a;Moncel et al., 2020b;Bourguignon et al., 2016;Méndez-Quintas et al., 2018;Muttoni et al., 2018;Rosell and Blasco, 2021;Haynes, 2022;Viallet et al., 2022), demonstrating the importance of the site and, at the same time, that more substantiation was needed to properly assess its significance in the context of Western Europe. Accordingly, the research team decided to actively increase the evidence by excavating extensive areas in some of the known archaeological deposits. ...
Since the oldest known Acheulean lithic techno-typological features in Europe were reported at the site of Barranc de la Boella (Tarragona, Spain), continuous fieldwork has been conducted there in archeological deposits of the late Early Pleistocene age (0.99–0.78 Ma). As a result, excavations in two of the three open-air localities have significantly expanded the collection of lithic and faunal remains, allowing us to make progress in the interpretation of the hominin behaviors in an open-air fluvial-deltaic sedimentary environment. This includes examples of cumulative palimpsests, such as those found at the locality of La Mina, in which hominins only had a minimal role as modifying agents, as well as the extraordinary mammoth butchery site recorded at the Pit 1 locality. The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive update of the collection of large shaped tools and to assess its significance in the framework of the earliest occurrence of the Acheulean in Europe. This cultural entity is increasingly well-documented for the early Middle Pleistocene, but very little is known about its presence in Europe before the Brunhes–Matuyama boundary. Large shaped tools appear in the three localities explored in the Unit II of Barranc de la Boella, including choppers (unifacial and bifacial) and standard Acheulean forms, such as picks, knives, and cleaver-like forms. Techno-typological and morphometrical analyses revealed a basic heavy-duty component obtained through simple shaping sequences coupled with significantly more elaborate tools produced on various large blanks (cobbles, slabs, or flakes). The complete bifacial and bilateral shapings have yet to be documented, but the present specific tool assemblage attests to the Early Acheulean technological threshold. Hence, the archaeological data from Barranc de la Boella provide insights into the first appearance of the Acheulean technology in Europe and add critical information to the debate on the technological variability of the Early Pleistocene hominin occupation of the continent. The results of this study revealed a technological assemblage unique in the known late Early Pleistocene archeological record from Europe, different from the rest of ancient Acheulean sites in this continent, which are dated at the Middle Pleistocene. This lends support to the hypothesis that Barranc de la Boella may represent a previously unrecognized Early Acheulean dispersion out of Africa connected to its first evidence at the gates of Eurasia, potentially moving over the northern Mediterranean coastal road to reach Western Europe.
... Recent fieldwork and the revision of lithic collections over the past decade have renewed our interpretation of the timing and characteristics of the earliest Acheulean techno-complexes in Western Europe over a large geographical area, extending from Northwest Europe to the Mediterranean coast (i.e., Moncel et al., 2015;;Schreve et al., 2015;Voinchet et al., 2015;Abruzzese et al., 2016;Ollé et al., 2013;Ollé et al., 2016;Moncel and Ashton, 2018). Core-and-flake or Mode 1 assemblages are recorded as early as 1.4 Ma, particularly in Southern Europe, attesting to sporadic occupations mainly under warm and humid conditions, mostly during glacial/ interglacial transition phases (Arzarello et al., 2006;Blain et al., 2021). ...
... Moulin Quignon is the northernmost site with biface production, and is earlier than the Acheulean British records dated by ESR and ESR/U-series to MIS 15/14 or MIS 13 for microfauna (Candy et al., 2015;Voinchet et al., 2015;Antoine et al., 2019;Lewis et al., 2021). Three hypotheses are currently advanced for the origin of these new behaviours in Western Europe, which led to the settlement of larger territories, the in situ evolution or an introduction by new groups or an influx of new ideas that soon reached a large part of Western Europe (i.e., Moncel et al., 2013;Martínez et al., 2014;Moncel et al., 2015;Mosquera et al., 2018;Méndez-Quintas et al., 2018;Moncel et al., 2018a;Moncel et al., 2018b). In sum, studies either describe a chronological and behavioural shift at 700 ka or gradual evolutionary trends with arrivals of new populations or at least new ideas, in relation to Homo heidelbergensis or other unknown hominins (McPherron, 2006;Stringer, 2011;Stringer, 2012;Mounier et al., 2009;Wagner et al., 2010;Dennell et al., 2011;Martinón-Torrès et al., 2007;Martinón-Torres et al., 2011;Sharon et al., 2011;MacDonald et al., 2012;Bermúdez de Castro et al., 2013;Bermúdez de Castro et al., 2013;Moncel et al., 2018a;Moncel et al., 2018b, Moncel et al., 2020b. ...
... The position of the artefacts between the deposition of slope materials on the limestone bedrock and later phases of gelifluction and cryoturbation, would suggest that hominins were present after the period of river incision at the beginning of a cold climatic stage. ESR dates (mean age of 655 ± 55 ka) place this stage at the beginning of MIS 16 (Moncel et al., 2013;Moncel et al., 2015, Moncel et al., 2020cMoncel et al., 2021a). ...
Current data seem to suggest that the earliest hominins only occupied the Northwest of Europe during favourable climatic periods, and left the area when the climate was too cold and dry, in the same way as Neandertal and even Homo sapiens. However, several sites in England and the North of France indicate that the earliest hominins, possibly Homo antecessor and/or Homo heidelbergensis, could adapt to cool environments and open grasslands without the use of fire. Recent discoveries of Acheulean lithic assemblages in early glacial fluvial deposits at Moulin Quignon in the Somme Valley in the Northwest of France reveal new knowledge on the earliest occupations in north-western territories and indicate hominins’ capacity to live above the c. 45th N. under a cold climate. The site shows evidence of occupations at the beginning of MIS 16 at around 650–670 ka. These findings bring to the forefront the possible ability, flexibility and resilience of Acheulean hominins at around 700 ka to extend to northern territories during transitional climatic periods (interglacial/glacial events), even if the climate was not fully favourable. Recent fieldwork has changed our interpretation of the timing and characteristics of the earliest Acheulean techno-complexes in Western Europe over a large geographical area, from Northwest Europe to the Mediterranean coast. In Western Europe, the earliest evidence, Moulin Quignon, is now dated to a narrow timeframe, between 700–650 ka, and is the northernmost evidence of biface production. This latter is earlier than British Acheulean records. Based on new findings at Moulin Quignon, we explore whether Acheulean traditions and associated new technological abilities could have facilitated the dispersal of hominins in Western Europe over large territories, regardless of climatic conditions. Changes in behavioural flexibility, and not only phenotypic changes in Homo groups, have to be investigated. Here, we examine the behavioural and technological abilities of hominins in north-western Europe in light of the available environmental data and compare them to those in southern areas between 700 and 600 ka. This event occurred at the end of the “Middle Pleistocene Transition” (MPT), a period marked by cyclical climate changes and vegetation and faunal turnovers (less competition with big carnivores). The extension of the grassland habitat into higher latitudes could have led to the opening and/or closing of migration corridors in these regions, probably favouring hominin expansion depending on tolerance to climate variability.
... In recent years, a major focus of research of the Middle Pleistocene human record of northwest Europe has been identifying the timing of human presence and its relationship to changing climate, environments and palaeogeography (e.g. Antoine et al., 2015;Ashton & Lewis, 2002;Ashton et al., 2011;Dennell et al., 2011;Moncel et al., 2015;Parfitt et al., 2005Parfitt et al., , 2010Roebroeks, 2006;White & Schreve, 2000;White et al., 2018). Alongside this has been continued interest in temporal patterning in the archaeological record and whether spatially and temporally discrete variation in lithic technology can be attributed to cultural differences or ecological and/or behavioural situational circumstances (e.g. ...
... Alongside this has been continued interest in temporal patterning in the archaeological record and whether spatially and temporally discrete variation in lithic technology can be attributed to cultural differences or ecological and/or behavioural situational circumstances (e.g. Davis & Ashton, 2019;Moncel et al., 2015;Ravon, 2019;Shipton & White, 2020;White et al., 2018White et al., , 2019. Our understanding of these issues is gained from a record that provides a range of resolutions, from the brief moments in time that represent single events of past human behaviour, sites in primary context that represent human occupation of a specific place over a limited time period, to the time-averaged lithic assemblages found in secondary context in fluvial gravels, which may represent the aggregate of human technological behaviour in a river valley across tens of thousands of years. ...
... In addition, the context of many of the historic collections of handaxes from river systems such as the Somme is less certain than for example the Thames, due to the considerably thicker sequences of loess that overlie the fluvial gravels. Despite these problems, progress has been made in recent years that enables comparisons to be made (Antoine et al., 2015(Antoine et al., , 2019Moncel et al., 2015;Voinchet et al., 2015). ...
Fluvial terrace sequences of Pleistocene rivers provide a chronological framework for examining broad patterns of change in the Palaeolithic record. Collections of artefacts recovered from individual terraces represent a time-averaged sample of the range of lithic technology discarded in a river valley over thousands of years. These can be compared and contrasted with other terraces to identify the timing of the appearance of key technological innovations and chronological variation in lithic technology. In Britain, the punctuated nature of human presence during the Pleistocene means that archaeological variation across a river terrace sequence is likely to relate in part to successive phases of occupation by human groups derived from populations in mainland Europe. This paper presents an analysis of the Lower and early Middle Palaeolithic record of the River Test, Hampshire, which was a tributary river of the former River Solent. The timing of the first appearance of handaxes and Levallois technology is established, and chronological patterning in handaxe typology and technology is identified. The Test record is placed in its regional context, and its implications for understanding the human occupation history of northwest Europe during the Middle Pleistocene are discussed.
... Particularly, a significant ecological reorganization occurred during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 16, around 700 ka (e.g., Manzi et al., 2011). The recurring Homo dispersals may be regarded, therefore, as a component of the faunal renewal that arose during the late Early Pleistocene and at the onset of the Middle Pleistocene, when large mammals of ultimate African and Asian origin spread in Western Europe (e.g., Moncel et al., 2013Moncel et al., , 2015Palombo, 2014). ...
... Fluctuations in global climate and the resulting ecological changes were probably one of the main constraints also for the subsequent hominin evolution in Europe, involving the relevant Paleolithic assemblages (McNabb, 2005;Moncel et al., 2015). Nevertheless, the exact relationship between the possible dispersal in Eurasia of hominins referred to Homo heidelbergensis (Rightmire, 2008;Mounier et al., 2009Mounier et al., , 2011Stringer 2012;Manzi, 2016) and the onset of bifacial or "Acheulean" technology remains questioned . ...
... A large-scale expansion over Western Europe of Acheulean assemblages occurs after the cold phase of MIS 12, when various regional traditions were developing in both the north and south of Europe (Nicoud, 2013;Moncel et al., 2015;Ashton and Scott, 2016). The period of MIS 11-9 is thus a second crucial period, recording evidence of behavioural changes towards the early Middle Paleolithic, such as more complex and standardized core technologies, organized hunting, or changes in land use patterns . ...
The Ceprano human calvarium, dated around 400,000 yr, is a well-known fossil specimen. It represents significant evidence of hominin presence in the Italian peninsula during the Middle Pleistocene and may be considered representative of an archaic variant of the widespread and polymorphic species Homo heidelbergensis . Since its discovery (March 1994), systematic surveys in the Campogrande area near Ceprano, central Italy, identified 12 localities (CG1-12) with archaeological and/or paleontological assemblages. On this basis, fieldwork was carried out at Campogrande between 2001 and 2006, including drilled cores and excavations, allowing a detailed description of the stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental context associated with the human fossil specimen and the archaeological materials. In the present paper we focus on the stratigraphy and sedimentological features of the uppermost deposits, coupled with a detailed appraisal of the available lithic assemblages that mostly belongs to overlying sediments (CG9 and CG10 localities). We conclude that the Ceprano hominin died in a floodplain environment with a low topographic gradient, where a fluvial meandering channel occurred. The archaeological materials describe a network of sites that document common behavioural features of human groups of the mid-to-late Middle Pleistocene, representing evidence of the regionalization observed across Europe after Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 12.
... Recent studies of the European Acheulean technocomplex have enabled improved reconstructions of complex human occupation patterns during the Middle Pleistocene (Santonja and Villa, 2006;Moncel et al., 2015;Gallotti, 2016;Rocca et al., 2016;Santonja et al., 2016;Sharon and Barsky, 2016). However, significant debate surrounds the spatial and temporal dynamics of the Acheulean technological tradition Voinchet et al., 2015;Santonja et al., 2016;Villa et al., 2016a), particularly at individual regional scales (Santonja and Villa, 2006), owing to non-trivial gaps in the Middle Pleistocene archaeological and chronological record. ...
... However, significant debate surrounds the spatial and temporal dynamics of the Acheulean technological tradition Voinchet et al., 2015;Santonja et al., 2016;Villa et al., 2016a), particularly at individual regional scales (Santonja and Villa, 2006), owing to non-trivial gaps in the Middle Pleistocene archaeological and chronological record. From a pan-European perspective, the Acheulean technocomplex is a phenomenon restricted to the occidental and southern regions; the manifestation of which appears to become increasingly weak northwards along the Rhine River, and is, as-Acheulean covers a time period spanning MIS 16, and possibly even earlier (see an overview in Moncel et al., 2018), to MIS 6 (676-130 ka) (Santonja and Villa, 2006;Moncel et al., 2015;Ollé et al., 2016;Rubio-Jara et al., 2016;Santonja et al., 2016;Duval et al., n.d.), which is significantly shorter than the documented age range of the African Acheulean technocomplex (~1.7-0.3 million years ago or Ma) (Asfaw et al., 1992;Clark, 1994;Lepre et al., 2011;Diez-Martín et al., 2015;Gallotti, 2016;Sharon and Barsky, 2016;Deino et al., 2018). ...
... Whenever there is a large range of raw materials available and flint is found among them, quartzite is the preferred rock for shaping LCTs, while flint is selected to obtain flakes or flake tools (Santonja and Villa, 2006;Rubio-Jara et al., 2016). The use of coarse raw materials, such as quartzite, basalt or sandstone is recurrent in the Acheulean record of Africa, Near East and India (Sharon, 2007), but these signal an important difference when compared to the raw materials used in northern Europe (Santonja and Villa, 2006;Tuffreau et al., 2008;Sharon, 2011;Moncel et al., 2015). ...
The arrival and disappearance of the Acheulean technocomplex in Europe, and specifically in the Iberian Peninsula, is a longstanding topic of discussion with relevance for unravelling the Middle Pleistocene human occupation dynamics of the continent. Despite containing one of the first Acheulean sites excavated in Europe (As Gándaras de Budiño site), the Miño River basin (north-western Iberian Peninsula) remains understudied and has yielded relatively limited information on the temporal and spatial dynamics of the regional Acheulean technocomplex over the last fifty years. Here we present a systematic archaeological and numerical dating study of a previously undocumented Acheulean site located in the lower Miño River basin (Arbo site, Pontevedra, Spain). This newly discovered site preserves a late Middle Pleistocene Acheulean assemblage that has been dated to pre-Marine Isotope Stage 5 by a combination of post-infrared infrared stimulated luminescence (pIR-IR) and electron spin resonance (ESR) dating of sedimentary silicates. The new excavations reveal that the site preserves a dense concentration of artefacts made from allochthonous raw materials. Detailed lithic analyses show that the industry has some elementary flake production systems devoid of Levallois cores, but with supplementary non-standardised flake tool types and some large cutting tools (LCTs) - mainly handaxes that are usually finalized with soft-hammer. The results obtained at Arbo complement those obtained recently at the nearby Porto Maior site, as well as the seminal study of As Gándaras de Budiño, and demonstrate an important Acheulean and hominin presence in the Miño River basin during the second half of the Middle Pleistocene.
... While the Levallois method was once widely viewed as a Middle Paleolithic innovation, the idea that it was practiced in the Levantine Acheulian, and especially the late Acheulian assemblages, is no longer outside the mainstream. Its roots in the Lower Paleolithic Acheulian have been demonstrated by a plethora of studies during the last four decades in sites in Africa (Rolland, 1995;Tryon, 2006;de la Torre, 2010;Wilkins et al., 2010), Europe (Villa, 2009;Despriée et al., 2010;Nowell and White, 2010;Moncel et al., 2011;Moncel et al., 2011;Rodríguez et al., 2011;Ollé et al., 2013;Picin et al., 2013;Moncel et al., 2015;Hérisson et al., 2016), the Levant (Gilead and Ronen, 1977;Goren, 1979;Ronen et al., 1980;Goren-Inbar, 1985;Chazan, 2000;DeBono and Goren-Inbar, 2001;Goren-Inbar, 2011;Shimelmitz et al., 2016;Zaidner and Weinstein-Evron, 2016;Goren-Inbar et al., 2018;Chazan 2020), and the Caucasus (Adler et al., 2014). Additionally, recent publications demonstrate that the Levallois method appears earlier than previously thought in India (Akhilesh et al., 2018) and perhaps even in China (Hu et al., 2019, although see Li et al., 2019. ...
... Pre-Middle Paleolithic cores displaying Levallois characteristics are defined differently for the different sites, seriously impeding any effort to clearly portray the chronogeographic distribution of these items. The various definitions include, for example, prepared cores, centripetal cores, mode 3 technology, hierarchical cores, radial cores, proto-Levallois cores, and more (White and Ashton, 2003;Wilkins et al., 2010;Moncel et al., 2015;Picin, 2017;Leader et al., 2018, to name but a few). To try and mitigate the confusion arising from the multiplicity of terms used to describe these items, we will consider all of them to be prepared cores, sharing new concepts of flake production technology, as will be described in detail later. ...
The life cycle of a successful technological innovation usually follows a well-known path: a slow inception, gradual assimilation of the technology, an increase in its frequency up to a certain peak, and then a decline. These different phases are characterized not only by varying frequency of use but also by degree of standardization and distinguishability. The Levallois method, a sophisticated Middle Paleolithic technology aimed at producing desired stone items of predetermined morphology, is one such innovation. It has been repeatedly suggested that the Levallois method originated within earlier Lower Paleolithic Acheulian industries, and this work contributes to this discussion. We analyze the reduction trajectory of prepared cores and predetermined blanks from the late Acheulian sites of Jaljulia and Revadim, adding important new evidence for the Lower Paleolithic origins of the Levallois method and its adoption and assimilation in the human stone-tool repertoire of this period in the Levant. Revadim and Jaljulia also provide a rare opportunity to study patterns in the early assimilation of technological innovations. These sites yielded rich lithic assemblages typical of the late Acheulian in the Levant. The assemblages include handaxes but are mostly dominated by flake production technologies and flake-tools. The early appearance of prepared cores at both sites signals, in our view, the inception of concepts related to the Levallois method, termed here proto-Levallois, in the late Acheulian Levant. Through a detailed analysis of prepared cores and their products, we are able to characterize the early stages of assimilation of this method, using it as a case study in a broader discussion of the adoption and assimilation of technological innovations during Lower Paleolithic times.
... Improved understanding of terrace formation processes and new methods of dating have enabled correlation of the terraces of several river systems with the Marine Isotope sequence. Work on terrace formations of rivers such as the Somme, Seine and Loire has allowed a broad understanding of the timing of the earliest human occupation, the introduction of handaxe technology and the transition from the Lower to the Middle Palaeolithic (Antoine et al., 2003(Antoine et al., , 2007(Antoine et al., , 2019(Antoine et al., , 2007Despri ee et al., 2011;Moncel et al., 2015;Voinchet et al., 2015a). ...
... This was based on the recognition of a distinctive suite of quartzose fluvial gravels, overlying bedrock and overlain by Anglian glacigenic sediments that could be traced from Warwickshire in the west into East Anglia and to the North Sea coast. Subsequent work has generated a considerable body of data on the stratigraphy, sedimentology and clast lithology of these fluvial sediments and the Bytham River has become an established component of the early Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy and palaeogeography for southern Britain (Wymer, 1999;Lee et al., 2004;Westaway, 2009;Hosfield, 2011;Bridgland et al., , 2015Bridgland et al., , 2015Moncel et al., 2015;Lewis et al., 2019a). ...
The Bytham River was one of the major pre-Anglian (MIS 12) rivers of eastern England. Flowing from the Midlands to the East Anglian coast, it has been recognised at numerous sites by its distinctive lithological suite, containing significant quantities of quartzite, quartz and Carboniferous chert that originate from central England. In the Breckland of Suffolk and Norfolk, deposits of the Bytham River can be identified at 26 sites by this distinctive clast lithological composition. These sediments, referred to as the Ingham Formation, consist of a series of sand and gravel aggradations, which due to their differences in elevation can be interpreted as at least four early Middle Pleistocene terrace remnants of the former river, and a final phase of deposition along the river valley prior to its destruction. This paper reports on recent fieldwork at six of these sites, which through stratigraphic and lithological analyses, together with new Electron Spin Resonance age estimates, contribute to a revised geological framework for the Bytham River as represented in the Breckland. These sites can be attributed to the four lowest fluvial aggradations, with the lowest and youngest of these aggradations shown to be early Anglian in age. The river was subsequently overrun by Anglian ice during Marine Isotope Stage 12. This revised geological and chronological interpretation provides an important framework for understanding the Lower Palaeolithic artefacts that have been found within these gravel aggradations, and contributes to the understanding of the human occupation of north-west Europe during the early Middle Pleistocene.
... In general terms in the whole of Europe there still seems to be a threshold for longer-term hominin settlement at around 500-600 ka, with a marked increase in the number of sites (now not only during temperate climatic intervals, but also during colder and drier phases) and the sizes of the assemblages. It is also from around 600-700 ka onward that we observe the first presence of Acheulean tools in Europe [14], about a million years later than their first appearance in eastern Africa [15]. The first occupants of Europe seem to have done without handaxes, the earliest European assemblages only comprising simple stone flakes, cores and core-like tools, with a lack of standardized design and usually with limited modification only. ...
... This gives special importance to the study of the geological context of inferred early sites: rocks can fracture naturally and edges can be modified by natural processes in sediments such as cryoturbation, transport and volcanic activities, and a wide variety of such processes has been documented to mimic hominin modification and to produce "artefact-like" geofacts, [16][17][18][19] (see also below, Discussion). Interestingly, the emergence of the Acheulean signal in southern [20] as well as northwestern Europe from 600-700 ka [14,21,22] onward is in the same time range as the current estimate for the beginning of the Neandertal lineage [23]. ...
The database regarding the earliest occupation of Europe has increased significantly in quantity and quality of data points over the last two decades, mainly through the addition of new sites as a result of long-term systematic excavations and large-scale prospections of Early and early Middle Pleistocene exposures. The site distribution pattern suggests an ephemeral presence of hominins in the south of Europe from around one million years ago, with occasional short northward expansions along the western coastal areas when temperate conditions permitted. From around 600,000-700,000 years ago Acheulean artefacts appear in Europe and somewhat later hominin presence seems to pick up, with more sites and now some also present in colder climatic settings. It is again only later, around 350,000 years ago, that the first sites show up in more continental, central parts of Europe, east of the Rhine. A series of recent papers on the Early Pleistocene palaeontological site of Untermassfeld (Germany) makes claims that are of great interest for studies of earliest Europe and are at odds with the described pattern: the papers suggest that Untermassfeld has yielded stone tools and humanly modified faunal remains, evidence for a one million years old hominin presence in European continental mid-latitudes, and additional evidence that hominins were well-established in Europe already around that time period. Here we evaluate these claims and demonstrate that these studies are severely flawed in terms of data on provenance of the materials studied and in the interpretation of faunal remains and lithics as testifying to a hominin presence at the site. In actual fact any reference to the Untermassfeld site as an archaeological one is unwarranted. Furthermore, it is not the only European Early Pleistocene site where inferred evidence for hominin presence is problematic. The strength of the spatiotemporal patterns of hominin presence and absence depend on the quality of the data points we work with, and data base maintenance, including critical evaluation of new sites, is crucial to advance our knowledge of the expansions and contractions of hominin ranges during the Pleistocene.
... Important differences also exist in the specific technological features of the Acheulean tradition across Europe. In particular, there are notable regional differences in the occurrences of cleavers (on flakes), the use of large flake blanks for the configuration of LCTs and the first occurrence of the standardized core reduction pattern (Levallois method) between the Iberian Acheulean tradition (Santonja and Pérez-González 2010;Santonja and Villa 2006;Sharon 2011;Sharon and Barsky 2016) and industries found in northwest Europe (Lhomme 2007;Tuffreau et al. 2008;Moncel et al. 2015Moncel et al. , 2020bHérisson et al. 2016a, b;Lamotte and Tuffreau 2016;Locht et al. 2019). In this context, the site of Porto Maior (with its extensive LCT accumulations) provides noteworthy behavioural evidence to support the relationship between the Iberian and African Acheulean industries (Méndez-Quintas et al. 2018b). ...
... Over this age range, there are many examples of archaeological sites across the region that display distinctly different technological features to those of the African Acheulean tradition; including the middle stratigraphic unit of Ambrona, Level TD10.1-2 at Gran Dolina (Atapuerca), Bolomor Cave, Cuesta de la Bajada and possibly Gruta da Aroeira (Ollé et al. 2013;Santonja et al. 2014;Santonja et al. 2016). Among the main technological features found at these sites are systematically and pre-configured core exploitation patterns (as Levallois or Quina types), chaîne opératoire ramifications, repetitive and standardized flake tools and limited occurrences (or total absences) of macro-tools (mainly recovered as handaxetool support) (Ashton and Scott 2016;Moncel et al. 2015Moncel et al. , 2020aHérisson et al. 2016a, b;Locht et al. , 2019Turq et al. 2010). ...
This article provides a synthesis of the Middle Pleistocene hominin record of West Iberia, which comprises sites displaying abundant concentrations of large flake Acheulean (LFA) assemblages, as well as isolated examples of Early Middle Palaeolithic (EMP) technology. These sites typically have age ranges spanning marine isotopic stages (MIS) 11–6, within the second half of the Middle Pleistocene, and are primarily located in fluvial environments related to the main regional river basins. The LFA sites display extensive occurrences of handaxes and cleavers on flake blanks (detached from large cores), with a large number of knapping remains, such as flakes or small-medium cores, showing simple reduction patterns. Over the identified age range of these sites, especially during the MIS 9–6 interval, we observe constant technological stability, without strong variations over time, and independent of the functionality of individual sites. These fixed technological and behavioural patterns reinforce the African affinities of the southwestern European Acheulean, in contrast to Acheulean assemblages identified in the northernmost areas of Europe.
... The discovery of new early sites with handaxes in Europe in the 2010s led to the construction of a new chrono-cultural model (Moncel et al., 2013;García-Medrano et al., 2014;Mosquera et al., 2016). These early occupations (Arzarello et al., 2012;Ollé et al., 2013;Michel et al., 2017;Despriée et al., 2018) brought to light a new conception of tools in Europe from about 0.8/0.7 Ma, based on the handaxe or Large Cutting-Tool, called the Early Acheulean (Moncel et al., 2015Moncel and Schreve, 2016). Thus paradoxically, after a short parenthesis focusing on the reduction sequence and technical diversity, we are now returning to a very typological definition based on the Acheulean guiding fossil: the biface. ...
... presenting a partial or roughly made shaping without management of the bifacial volume) bifacially worked tools were recovered (Mosquera et al., 2016;Vallverdú et al., 2014). The archaeological evidence that characterises the final stages of the Lower Pleistocene ( Fig. 1) features the homogeneous presence of core and flake assemblages such as Atapuerca (levels TE08-TE09, 1.2 Mya; Ollé et al., 2013), Barranco Leòn (1.3-1.1 Mya; Agustí et al., 2015), Pont-de-Lavaud (1.0 Ma; Despriée et al., 2018), Happisburgh 3 (900 ka; Parfitt et al., 2010), Monte Poggiolo (850 ka; Peretto et al., 1998), Pradayrol (900 ka; Guadelli, 2012), and Cueva Negra (900-772 ka; Walker et al., 2020), making the findings of la Boella a unique case and raising questions whether a local development of this technology-versus the hypothesis of an African intrusion-might have taken place (Moncel et al., 2015;Mosquera et al., 2013). With the 800 ka threshold approaching (i.e. ...
The earliest evidence of bifaces in western Europe is dated to the initial phase of the Middle Pleistocene (la Noira, Notarchirico, Moulin Quignon, 700–670 ka), with the findings of Barranc de la Boella (1.0–0.9 Ma) considered to be an earlier local evolution. No transition assemblages are recorded during this time frame, and the “abrupt” appearance of bifaces during this time frame is associated with significant cognitive shifts in human technological behaviours (Acheulean techno-complex). The new investigations conducted at the site of Notarchirico unearthed 30 ka of repeated human occupation (695–670 ka, layers F-I2) during MIS 17, with evidence of bifacial tools in layer G (680 ka) and F along with other heavy-duty implements (LCTs, pebble tools, etc.). Massive production of debitage products realised on local raw materials collected in situ through simple and efficient core technologies characterises a large part of the lithic assemblage with a high ratio of diversified light-duty tools, including modified chert nodules. Despite core and flake assemblages being a recurrent trait of Lower Pleistocene contexts, the increase in retouched implements recorded at the onset of the Middle Pleistocene has been considered a significant technological shift. The technological analysis of the debitage products presented in this work highlights recurrent and systematic technological behaviours of the hominins of Notarchirico—who proved to efficiently overcome the raw materials dimensional constraints—even in the layers without bifaces. This may shed light on the meaning of cultural and behavioural innovation that the Acheulean techno-complex is thought to bring over Europe. It is plausible that given the substantial homogeneity of the lithic strategies within the sequence of Notarchirico, which only the “introduction” of the bifaces in the upper layers seems to interrupt, a supposed behavioural or cultural change in the site might have already occurred in the lowermost portion of the sequence. In this work, we evaluate the degree of change—if any—from a technological perspective by analysing the debitage reduction sequences.
... Though this recent growth of discoveries, the sporadicity of the archaeological evidence (both chronologically and geographically) still prevents the scientific community from getting a homogeneous framework, and several hypotheses have been suggested to explain the arrival of the Acheulean in the European region (Martínez and Garcia Garriga 2016;Moncel 2017;Moncel et al. 2018c). Within the present state of the art, a dual case scenario is usually assumed concerning either a local origin suggesting evolution from previous occupations (Mode 1, core-and-flake traditions) or an allochthonous introduction (whether episodical or continuous) of new populations alongside the diffusion of new technical traditions (Manzi 2004;Moncel et al. 2015;Voinchet et al. 2015). ...
The onset of the Middle Pleistocene (780 ka) in the European continent is associated with significant environmental variations
(Middle Pleistocene Revolution), innovative behavioural strategies (bifacial productions, land-use patterns, raw material
management) and a global increase in the archaeological evidence from 600 ka onward. Whether these changes are related
to the rise of the Acheulean, the informative potential carried by these contexts is currently being explored through multidisciplinary
approaches, allowing us to infer the role of these sites and the type of activities conducted. From this perspective,
the Italian peninsula is a hot spot to compare the different technical behaviours and strategies human groups employ, given
its crucial geographic location and solid archaeological record, both culturally and functionally speaking (the presence of
sites with and without bifaces and core-and-flake assemblages). The site of Isernia La Pineta (590 ka), offering a rich lithic
and faunal record, is an excellent case to join together the lithic technological study (i.e. “cultural” and technical tradition)
with the functional analysis (i.e. activities conducted and exploited materials). Here, we present the result of the combined
approach of these two disciplines on flint assemblages from layers t.3a and t.3coll. The new data will be discussed within the
chrono-cultural framework of the Middle Pleistocene Revolution, linking the degree of complexity of the lithic production
of Isernia with its function as a butchery site.
... Acheulean handaxes are often found associated with simpler flake tools (Clark, 1994;de la Torre et al., 2008;Isaac, 1982;Shipton et al., 2014). Some scholars have suggested that each of these tools fulfilled different functional roles, allowing hominins to accomplish different tasks with these two tools (Diez-Martín et al., 2016;Domínguez-Rodrigo et al., 2014;Moncel et al., 2015). Key and Lycett (2017) meanwhile, have specifically argued that in tasks requiring combinations of different cutting parameters (e.g., heavy duty cutting actions combined with more delicate and precise bouts of cutting) handaxes and flakes may have been used together in the completion of a single task, in a manner similar to the way in which chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) have been observed to combine multiple tools as a 'tool kit'. ...
The relationship between tool form and function is fundamental to hominin behavior and evolution. Acheulean handaxes are known for their general consistency across more than a million years and three continents, albeit with some variation in size and shape. However, the influence of this variation on cutting has only rarely been studied, mostly in either butchery or generalized cutting tasks. Yet evidence indicates that handaxes were used for woodworking by at least 1.5 mya. Here, we experimentally tested whether woodworking could have exerted selective pressures on handaxe form. Additionally, these data were compared to a previous experiment, which tested flakes during woodworking. For handaxes, no significant relationships were detected in woodworking efficiency. Accordingly, woodworking likely did not exert strong selective pressures on handaxe variability. However, the effectiveness shown by handaxes further demonstrates the functional flexibility of this technology, which is likely a factor contributing to their use over broad temporal, geographical, and ecological spans. When comparing handaxes to flakes, only the smallest flakes were found to be significantly less efficient than handaxes. Therefore, the functional demands of woodworking were likely influencing hominin technological decisions about flake morphology, or the selection of flakes for woodworking, more than they were handaxe morphology.
... Within the present state of the art, the framework of expedient technologies has been significantly reconsidered as an attitude, applied to lithic industries as a whole, in which concepts as complexity might still coexist, albeit with an apparent lack of time, energy and predetermination invested for their realisation (Daffara et al., 2021;de Lombera-Hermida et al., 2016;Moncel et al., 2015Moncel et al., , 2021Romagnoli et al., 2018;. On the other hand, opportunistic behaviours remained as notions designating the complete absence of complexity and planning in lithic assemblages (Antoine et al., 2016(Antoine et al., , 2019Bermúdez de Castro et al., 2013;Gallotti & Peretto, 2015;Nicoud et al., 2016;Santagata et al., 2017). ...
The informative potential taken on by lithic artefacts has increased over the years. They gradually grew into proxies to detect the most relevant features of human material culture, including cognitive abilities to realise stone tools or, in other words, to track down the delineation of behavioural complexity. Consequently, notions like predetermination, standardisation (morphologically likewise) and hierarchisation have been intensely used in lithic technology as markers of such complexity, leading to ruling out contexts lacking any trace of these traits. Within the present state of the art, the use of the terms expedient and opportunism has characterised, in a negative way, the dichotomy between complex and simple within prehistoric contexts. Even if a requalification of expedient technologies has been recently observed, opportunistic behaviours still connote the complete absence of planning and complexity (even in terms of the mental scheme) within lithic industries. This background often prevented a consideration as relevant, from a technological and methodological perspective, these assemblages, primarily when Lower Palaeolithic contexts were addressed. With the definition and use of the term opportunistic debitage, this work questions the possible methodological implications of assemblages known as complexity- and planning-free and that can be found throughout different chronological and cultural phases.
... For Europe, questions of cultural transmission are particularly acute, as long-term cyclical changes in climates and environments led to ebbs and flows of population either between north and south or potentially with depopulation of the entire continent (Roebroeks, 2006;Dennell at al., 2011;Moncel et al., 2015). Often characterized as the 'source and sink' model, questions still remain about the boundaries between these zones, and whether cultural transmission was maintained throughout the Middle Pleistocene within Europe, or was dependent on source areas beyond. ...
The appearance of the Acheulean and the production of new bifacial tools marked a revolution in human behavior. The use of longer and complex operative chains, with centripetal and recurrent knapping, adapted to different raw materials, created long useful edges, converging in a functional distal end. How and why these handaxes vary has been the subject of intense debates. Britain provides a clearly defined region at the edge of the hominin occupied world for discussing variation in Acheulean assemblages. The environmental changes from MIS 15 to MIS 11 are significant in understanding population change, with probable breaks in evidence during MIS 14 and MIS 12, followed by several sites during the long stable climate of MIS11c. In this latter period, different Acheulean technological expressions appear to coexist in Britain. This paper draws together different studies, combining technology and geometric morphometrics to analyze handaxes from six British sites: Brandon Fields, Boxgrove (Q1B), High Lodge, Hitchin, Swanscombe (UMG), and Elveden. Compared to the earlier Acheulean of MIS 15, the assemblages of MIS 13 show increased standardization and the use of soft hammer percussion for thinning mid-sections and butts of tools, or sharpening tips through tranchet removals. Although there is regional population discontinuity through MIS12 there is no evidence of a marked change in technology after this glacial period. Rather, there is a development towards more intense shaping with the same underlying techniques, but with flexibility in imposed handaxe form. From MIS11 there appear to be distinctive localized traditions of manufacture, which suggest that a recognition of place and territories had developed by this time. These are expressed over medium time-scales of several thousand years and have significance for how we view cultural expression and transmission.
... Although soft hammers, which were usually made from antler, bone, or wood (Sharon & Goren-Inbar, 1999), are not always preserved at archaeological sites, their presence can be indirectly inferred from flakes and the handaxes themselves, which exhibit morphological attributes that are distinct from those produced by hard hammer percussion (Sharon & Goring-Morris, 2004). There are many late Acheulian sites at which there is lithic evidence for soft hammer use, including Boxgrove, England, La Noira, France, Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, and others (Leakey, 1951;Moncel et al., 2015;Sharon & Goren-Inbar, 1999). Bone and antler billets, which can be identified by pitting and embedded microflakes (Bello et al., 2013), also have been described at Lower Paleolithic sites, such as La Micoque, Dordogne, France, and Boxgrove (Langlois, 2004;Roberts & Parfitt, 2015). ...
A crucial design feature of language useful for determining when grammatical language evolved in the human lineage is our ability to combine meaningless units to form a new unit with meaning (combinatoriality) and to further combine these meaningful units into a larger unit with a novel meaning (compositionality). There is overlap between neural bases that underlie hierarchical cognitive functions required for compositionality in both linguistic and nonlinguistic contexts (e.g., tool use). Therefore, evidence of compositional tool use in the archaeological record should signify, at the very least, the cognitive capacity for grammatical language by that point in time. We devise a novel system to evaluate the level of hierarchical nesting of tool components in single tool use activities. In the application of this system, we demonstrate that nonhuman primates, and by extension, the last common ancestor shared by Pan and Homo, are capable of basic combinatoriality; however, their technology does not approach the compositionality observable in modern human tool use. The prehistoric archaeological record supports a continuous evolution of combinatorial tool use into compositional tool use, with evidence for human-like levels of by 0.93 million years ago (Ma), or possibly as early as 1.7 Ma. While compositional language could have lagged behind compositional tool use, if language and technology coevolved according to the Technological Origin for Language hypothesis, which proposes a feedback system between the two, then evidence for hierarchical tool use structures implies a similar level of complexity in linguistic structures.
... These flaking methods globally lead to small-and medium-sized flakes . Regarding the retouched tool component, most of the samples were denticulates and notches, which is common for MIS11 sites (Ashton 2016;Connet et al. 2020;Moncel et al. 2015). ...
In this manuscript, we present the first systematic refitting results of the small-scale Middle Pleistocene (MIS11) rock shelter site of La Cansaladeta. The lithic materials that have been recovered from the archaeological levels E and J were the main study materials. These levels were investigated regarding spatial pattern analysis and analyzed with auxiliary methods such as quantitative density mapping demonstration and technological analysis of the lithic clusters. Thus, the spatial patterns of the two levels were compared and discussed, in terms of connections, clusters, and movement of the lithic elements. Undoubtedly, the well preservation of the archaeological levels offered a great opportunity for the interpretation of the spatial patterns in a high-resolution perspective. La Cansaladeta has not been paid attention adequately so far may be due to the small dimension of the excavation surface or to the scarcity of faunal record. Our results show that small-scale sites without long-distance refit/conjoin connections can provide significant spatial information. Indeed, if the sites have very well-preserved archaeological levels, the absence of long connections can be supported by the auxiliary methods.
... The first, which starts around 1.8 Myr, corresponds to Mode 1 assemblages described as 'Developped Oldowan', with only core-and-flake technology with pebble tools (Arzarello & Peretto, 2010;Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen, 2001;Carbonell et al. 2010;Lumley et al., 2009;Mgeladze et al., 2011;Moncel, 2010). The second migration corresponds to Mode 2, or 'Acheulean', with which we see the emergence of bifacial tools or other large cutting tools (Barsky & Lumley, 2010;Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen, 2001;García-Medrano et al., 2014;Moncel et al., 2015Moncel et al., , 2019Moncel et al., , 2020Mosquera et al., 2016;Piperno, 1999). Indeed, these iconic tools first appear in Western Europe around 700 ka, in sites like La Noira in central France (Moncel et al. 2013) and Notarchirico in southern Italy (Moncel et al., 2019(Moncel et al., , 2020Piperno, 1999). ...
Technical and socio-economic behaviours of Middle Pleistocene human groups in Western Europe still remain under-studied. In addition to the so-called Acheulean industries that include bifacial tools, other lithic traditions that are focused on flake production are present. This is the case of the ‘L’ stratigraphic layer of the Caune de l’Arago site in Tautavel, France. Here, we present the results of the techno-economic and techno-morpho-functional study conducted on the lithic industry, which was well-defined and well-preserved in the Caune de l’Arago sequence. Dated to approximately 540 ka and correlated with the end of the MIS 14, it contains 4428 lithic artefacts that are associated with numerous remains of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). This occupation has been culturally attributed to the Acheulean. However, the layer L assemblage does not contain bifacial tools and presents a lithic production chaîne opératoire only oriented towards flake production. This study is carried out within a previously refined stratigraphic framework, thereby allowing a relevant return on the lithic material. Despite different raw materials, there are recurrences in the selection of volumes, the production methods, the choice of tool blanks and the desired techno-functional objectives. Additionally, the prehensile components are integrated into the production of tools. Some of the chaînes opératoires are fragmented, and we can see techno-economic dynamics with some tool movements more widely across the landscape. These results lead us to question the activities carried out during this occupation and to highlight the diversity of lithic technical expressions during Lower Palaeolithic.
... Further findings at the turn of the century from Pakefield (Parfitt et al., 2005) and Happisburgh III (Parfitt et al., 2010) extended the evidence of human occupation northwards to southern Britain, and back in time to the late Early Pleistocene. It remains apparent, however, that a change in the occupation pattern of mid-latitude Europe occurred from 500 ka onward, when the number of archeological assemblages markedly increased and Acheulean technology spread throughout Western Europe (Haidle and Pawlik, 2010;Moncel et al., 2015Moncel et al., , 2018. ...
During the mid-Middle Pleistocene MIS 14 to MIS 11, humans spread through Western Europe from the Mediterranean peninsulas to the sub-Arctic region, and they did so not only during the warm periods but also during the glacial stages. In doing so, they were exposed to harsh environmental conditions, including low or extremely low temperatures. Here we review the distribution of archeological assemblages in Western Europe from MIS 14 to MIS 11 and obtain estimates of the climatic conditions at those localities. Estimates of the mean annual temperature, mean winter and summer temperatures, and the lowest temperature of the coldest month for each locality were obtained from the Oscillayers database. Our results show that hominins endured cold exposure not only during the glacial stages but also during the interglacials, with winter temperatures below 0 C at many localities. The efficacy of the main physiological and behavioral adaptations that might have been used by the Middle Pleistocene hominins to cope with low temperatures is evaluated using a simple heat-loss model. Our results suggest that physiological and anatomical adaptations alone, such as increasing basal metabolic rate and subcu-taneous adipose tissue, were not enough to tolerate the low winter temperatures of Western Europe, even during the MIS 13 and MIS 11 interglacials. In contrast, the use of a simple fur bed cover appears to have been an extremely effective response to low temperatures. We suggest that advanced fire production and control technology were not necessary for the colonization of northern Europe during MIS 14 and MIS 12. We propose that Middle Pleistocene European populations were able to endure the low temperatures of those glacial stages combining anatomical and physiological adaptations with behavioral responses, such as the use of shelter and simple fur clothes.
... The emergence of the Acheulean in northern Europe, as well as in the Italian Peninsula, appears to have taken place earlier than in the Iberian Peninsula (Moncel et al., 2013;Pereira et al., 2015;Voinchet et al., 2015;Antoine et al., 2019), excluding the La Boella site, which contains material of questionable Acheulean nature (see discussion in Santonja et al., 2016). However, the age of the main Acheulean sequences in the northern regions, such as those of the Somme or Thames rivers (Tuffreau and Lamotte, 2010;Ashton et al., 2011;Moncel et al., 2015Moncel et al., , 2018White et al., 2018), do follow the chronological range (mainly from MIS 11 onwards) observed in SW Europe, including the Iberian Peninsula. These current regional age ranges refute the chronological trends initially proposed by Sharon (2010) for the LFA in Europe (disappearance after~500 ka), but they do not reject the technological features used to characterise the LFA. ...
The Miño River basin represents one of the main fluvial catchments draining the Atlantic side of the Iberian Peninsula. The extensive sedimentary deposits of this basin have been documented since the 19th century, but limited research has been undertaken on these features historically, and the Quaternary record of the basin has remained understudied until recently. Research carried out over the last decade on the Spanish margin of the Miño River has enabled more detailed classification and mapping of the main fluvial landforms, as well as numerical (luminescence, electron spin resonance, cosmogenic) dating of some of the deposits associated with Palaeolithic archaeological sites. Here we synthesise the existing Quaternary fluvial record for the basin, and present new geospatial and chronological analyses for the lower catchment area. Our latest examination has enabled the identification of nine fluvial terrace levels and other regionally significant sedimentary features (e.g., alluvial fans) formed in response to tectonics, eustatic changes and associated global climate changes. The chronological data and calculated incision rates indicate that the various fluvial terraces were formed during the Early to Late Pleistocene. Numerous Palaeolithic sites have been found in association with the middle terrace levels (between +40 and + 13 m above present-day river level). Primarily, these archaeological sites preserve assemblages that feature large flake Acheulean (LFA) tools, though a number of Middle Palaeolithic sites have also been documented. Direct dating of these sites, together with morphostratigraphic correlations across the terrace system, suggest that the basin has been extensively occupied by human populations during the last 300 thousand years.
... The clear association between fauna and very rich lithic assemblages, together with hominin remains attributed to Homo heidelbergensis and early Neanderthals makes them two of the key sites for interpreting the Acheulean and occupation of Britain (Conway et al. 1996;Hillson et al. 2010;Overy 1964;Roberts & Parfitt 1999a;Schreve 2004;Stringer et al. 1998). In the last few years, the differences between them from both an occupational and technological point of view have been highlighted (McNabb et al. 2018;Moncel et al. 2015;Smith 2013). In this case, we have focused on the morphological differences between the handaxes and the methods of analysis. ...
Nowadays, the fruitful discussion regarding the morphological variability of handaxes during the Middle Pleistocene has reached a decisive moment with the use of more accurate statistical methods, such as geometric morphometrics (GM) and multivariate analyses (MA). This paper presents a preliminary methodological approach for checking the utility of these new approaches on the analysis of the tools" shape. It goes beyond the simple description of morphology and isolates the variables which define the final morphology of a tool. We compared two Middle Pleistocene sites, Boxgrove and Swanscombe, which are morphologically very different. Then, we applied the GM analysis on 1) 2D images, with two semi-landmark distributions: 28 semi-landmarks, specially concentrated on the tip and butt, and 60 equally spaced points; and 2) on 3D models using a new software (AGMT3-D Software) including 5000 semi-landmarks. The more points used to define the tool"s outline, the more accurate will be the interpretation of the variables affecting shape. On the other hand, if the semi-landmarks are localized on specific sectors of the tool, a bias is created, by concentrating on those sectors, rather than the general tool shape. The 3D models offer a new dimension on the shape analysis, as their results mean the combination of plan-shape, profile-shape and the tool"s topography.
... In addition, we have a small amount of flakes possibly produced from these cores having a shaped striking platforms (for preliminary results see Rosenberg-Yefet 2016 and for an update study Rosenberg-Yefet et al. in preparation). Early use of the Levallois method at the end of the Lower Paleolithic period is evident in Africa (Tryon 2006; de la Torre 2010; Wilkins et al. 2010), Europe (Moncel et al. 2011;Nowell and White 2011;Olle et al. 2011;Picin et al. 2013;Moncel et al. 2015;Hérisson et al. 2016), the Levant (Gilead and Ronen 1977;Goren 1979;Ronen et al. 1980;Goren-Inbar 1985;Chazan 2000;DeBono and Goren-Inbar 2001;Goren-Inbar 2011b;Zaidner and Weinstein-Evron 2016;Goren-Inbar et al. 2018) and the Caucasus (Adler et al. 2014). Recent publications demonstrate that the Levallois method appears earlier than previously expected in India as well (Akhilesh et al. 2018). ...
In the context of the Western European Acheulean Project, this study aims to characterize Acheulean technology in Western Europe through the analysis of handaxes and cleavers from 10 key sites (Britain 4, France 4, and Spain 2) to acquire a regional view of the occupation. The historically different systems used to categorize and analyze the data have made it difficult to compare results. Here we apply a unified and simple method (Western European Acheulean Project) that combines the traditional technological and metrical analysis of assemblages containing handaxes and cleavers with an in-depth geometric morphometric approach using three-dimensional models. This approach allows us to achieve a regional interpretation that identifies innovations through time and shaping strategies across the area. Our findings indicate the existence of two main technological groups in the sampled record: 1) northwestern and central France and Britain, from MIS 17/16 to MIS 11, and 2) Atlantic edge (Atapuerca in Spain and Menez-Dregan in France), from MIS 12/11 to MIS 8. Based on our technological analysis, the shaping of handaxes and cleavers was developed through time as a continuum of accumulative actions, with longer and more complex shaping strategies over time. Shaping technology shows traditions of manufacture over both time and geographical areas, which suggest cultural diffusion. Our geometric morphometric analysis further helped to identify not only general trends but also local adaptations in handaxe forms. Based on our findings, there were no apparent sudden innovations, but rather the application and development of specific techniques to refine size and shape.
The transition from the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 12 glacial (ca. 478–424 ka BP) to the MIS 11 interglacial (ca. 424–365 ka BP) is one of the most remarkable climatic shifts of the Middle Pleistocene and is regarded as a phase of major behavioural innovation for hominins. However, many of the available pollen records for this period are of low resolution or fragmented, limiting our understanding of millennial-scale climatic variability. We present a high-temporal resolution pollen record that encompasses the period between MIS 12 and MIS 10 (434–356 ka BP), recovered from the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 976 in the Alboran Sea. This study aims to provide new insights into the response of vegetation during the transition and to highlight patterns of climatic variability during MIS 11.
The ODP Site 976 pollen record shows the shift from glacial to interglacial at 426 ka BP, highlighted by the transition from Pinus, herbaceous and steppic taxa to temperate and Mediterranean taxa. A climatic optimum for temperate and Mediterranean taxa is identified around 426–400 ka BP, equivalent to substage MIS 11c and synchronous with the maxima in SSTs, greenhouse gas concentrations and insolation. A phase with increased Pinus and Cedrus indicates the return to colder and more arid conditions during substage MIS 11b (400–390 ka BP). Substage MIS 11a (390–367 ka BP) is marked by a period of short-term warming followed by gradual cooling, until the return of glacial conditions during MIS 10. Forest contractions have been linked with high- and moderate-intensity climate events also observed in other pollen records and proxies from the Mediterranean and North Atlantic.
Our results confirm the intense shift during the MIS 12/11 transition and show that this region is sensitive to millennial-scale climatic variation during MIS 11. The forest contractions observed in our record during events of millennial-scale variability appear to be less intense than in the central and eastern Mediterranean. This suggests that the southwestern Mediterranean may have been less variable during periods of climatic deterioration, thereby representing a possible ecological niche for vegetation. This may have provided a source of subsistence for hominins during harsher conditions, thus contributing to their demographic expansion and technological innovations.
Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 13–11 saw a major transformation in the hominin occupation of Europe, with an expansion in the scale and geographical distribution of sites and artifact assemblages. That expansion is explored here in the context of paleoenvironmental variability, focusing on geographical and chronological trends in climatic and habitat conditions at and between key Lower Paleolithic sites in Western Europe. Climatic conditions at British sites are compared across MIS 13–11, and used to test predicted values from the Oscillayers data set. Conditions at hominin and nonhominin sites are compared to explore possible limitations in hominin tolerances during MIS 13–11. Trends in conditions are explored with reference to long-term global patterns, short-term substage events, and seasonal variations. The apparent increase in the scale of hominin activity in north-western Europe during MIS 13 is surprising in light of the relatively harsh conditions of late MIS 13, and is likely to reflect significant physiological and/or behavioral adaptations, a mild south-north temperature gradient in western Europe during MIS 13, and the relatively mild, sustained conditions spanning MIS 15–13. The expanded occupation of north-western Europe during MIS 11 probably reflects the extended mild conditions of MIS 11c, since marked seasonal temperature differences and substantial behavioral changes between hominin sites in MIS 13 and 11 are not clearly evident. Site-specific conditions in south-western Europe during MIS 11 suggest milder winters, warmer summers, and reduced seasonal variability compared to north-western Europe. Some or all of these conditions may have supported larger, core populations, as may the relatively mild conditions associated with south-western European sites during MIS 12. Finally, comparisons between north-western and north-central European sites indicate relatively small differences in seasonal temperatures, suggesting that climate may only be a partial factor behind the smaller-scale occupations of north-central Europe during MIS 13–11.
The establishment of the Acheulean in Europe occurred after MIS 17, but it was after the harsh glaciation of MIS 12 and during the long interglacial of MIS 11 that human occupation of Western Europe became more sustained, with an increased number of sites. Menez-Dregan I (Brittany, France) is one of the key sites in Western Europe that dates from this threshold, with an alternating sequence of 16 occupation levels and four marine deposits, from MIS 12 to 8. The large lithic assemblages of more than 154,000 artifacts from knapping (cores, flakes) and shaping (macrotools and shaping flakes) show the varying use of raw materials and activities at the site through the sequence. This work focuses on the study of the handaxes and cleavers using technological and metrical methods with multivariate analysis, in combination with geometric morphometrics, and places these analyses within the context of other technological changes at the site. Collectively, results show the persistent use through the sequence of the same lithic raw materials and technologies, including fire use and the import of glossy sandstone from 20 km away, but with variation in activities at the site. These findings suggest that Menez-Dregan I shows the development of a specific material culture that reflects the local resources and environment. Results further indicate that the site shows the sustained hominin occupation of the area, despite varying climate and environment, with strong traditions of social learning that were maintained through flexibility of site use, deep understanding of the local territory, and the innovation of new technologies, such as the use of fire. Evidence from the site is placed within the wider context of Europe, and contrasted with areas to the north, such as Britain, where hominin occupation was more sporadic and driven by cyclical climate change.
North‐West Europe yields few traces of early human occupation, in particular for the Acheulean. In this context, the Somme Valley in northern France offers a route to Britain during various Pleistocene low sea levels, and has provided numerous evidence of Lower Palaeolithic human occupation through fieldwork initiated during the 19th century. These localities are associated with the original definition in the 1930s by the French prehistorian Abbé Henri Breuil of the ‘Abbevillien’ (Abbevillian facies), based on lithic pieces including crudely made bifaces recovered in particular in some famous key localities of Abbeville, Carpentier, Léon and Moulin Quignon quarries. The history of the term and its definition subsequently gave rise to debates concerning the chronocultural framework of Palaeolithic assemblages among the scientific community of prehistorians over time, from Jacques Boucher de Perthes, Gabriel de Mortillet, Geoffroy d'Ault du Mesnil, Victor Commont, Henri Breuil and François Bordes. New investigations at these three localities, all associated with the High Terrace of the Somme system, pushed back the age of the expansion of the Acheulean both in northern France and in Western Europe to c. 670–650 000 years. They imply that early hominins were able to settle in North‐West Europe during both climatic temperate and cold phases. Our work, including new excavations and associated field observations of the three Abbeville localities involved at the onset of the controversy, allows a re‐examination of the Abbevillian and contributes to the discussion of the history of Prehistoric Science and the Earliest ‘Acheuleans’ in North‐West Europe.
La industria lítica del yacimiento de Galería (complejo de Atapuerca, Burgos), datado en la segunda mitad del Pleistoceno Medio, ha sido interpretada como uno de los más notables conjuntos del tecnocomplejo achelense que se conocen en la península ibérica y en el sur de Europa. Se ha estimado que su prolongada secuencia estratigráfica permitiría observar la evolución del Achelense en la segunda mitad del Pleistoceno Medio. Esta propuesta ha sido objeto por nuestra parte de una revisión reciente, en la que se destaca el carácter discontinuo de la estratigrafía de Galería y se valora negativamente la posibilidad de establecer cualquier tipo de secuencia arqueológica basada en el limitado registro que contiene. A partir del análisis nivel por nivel de la representatividad de la industria lítica publicada, se discutía además en ese trabajo la atribución exclusiva al tecnocomplejo achelense de los conjuntos arqueológicos de Galería. Con objeto de valorar en profundidad la atribución achelense y de contrastar la consistencia de las tendencias evolutivas que han sido propuestas para este tecnocomplejo a través de la estratigrafía de Galería, presentamos aquí un estudio detallado de todos los artefactos interpretados en publicaciones precedentes como LCT (bifaces, hendedores y otros macro-útiles). Este trabajo, complementario de nuestra revisión anterior, se ha efectuado sobre las colecciones obtenidas en las campañas realizadas en Galería en 1982-1996, actualmente depositadas en el CENIEH y en el Museo de la Evolución Humana (Burgos). Las conclusiones alcanzadas corroboran la débil y discontinua presencia de elementos achelenses característicos en este yacimiento, descartando la posibilidad de llegar a reconocer cualquier tipo de secuencia evolutiva en estos materiales. Nuestra principal conclusión es que las interpretaciones que proponen ver en la industria de Galería una secuencia representativa del Achelense europeo con una evolución progresiva, carecen de fundamento.
The period between 600 and 400 ka is a critical phase for human evolution in Europe. The south and northwest saw a dramatic increase in sites, the spread of handaxe technology alongside bone and wooden tool manufacture, efficient hunting techniques, and the use of fire. Lithic assemblages show considerable variation, including the presence/absence of handaxes and tool morphology. To explain this variation, we propose the Cultural Mosaic Model, which suggests that there is a range of expressions of the Acheulean, with local resources being instrumental in creating distinct material cultures with or without handaxes. We argue that if typologically and technologically distinct assemblage types are regionally distributed, chronologically separated, and persistent over time, then they are unlikely to be caused purely by raw material constraints or functional variation but rather reflect populations with different material cultures. We initially assess the model using British data. Britain was a northwestern peninsula of Europe, and oscillations in climate led to episodic occupation. The terraces of the pre-MIS 12 Bytham River provide a framework for dating occupation to MIS 13 and 15, while during MIS 11, archaeological sites with rich environmental records can be dated to substage level. We suggest there are six chronologically and typologically distinct assemblage types that reflect a series of population incursions into Britain. We review the broader European lithic record, which is consistent with the Cultural Mosaic Model. In developing the model, we suggest that during stable climate, localized cultures developed, while climatic change led to shifts in population, with increased knowledge exchange and gene flow. We suggest that group expression through material culture was an important stage in social development by promoting group cohesion, larger group size, better cooperation, improved knowledge transfer, and enabling populations to survive in larger foraging territories in northern Europe.
Some areas in Western Europe indicate hiatuses in human occupations, which cannot be systematically attributed to taphonomic factors and poor site preservation. The site of la Noira in the center of France records two occupation phases with a significant time gap. The older one is dated to around 700 ka (stratum a) with an Acheulean assemblage, among the earliest in Western Europe, and the upper phase of the sequence (stratum c) is dated to ca. 450 ka. Humans left the area at around 670 ka, at the beginning of the marine isotope stage (MIS) 16 glacial stage, when cold conditions became too severe. No sites between 650 and 450 ka have yet been discovered in the center region despite systematic surveys over the past three decades. The archaeological evidence indicates that populations returned to the area, at the end of MIS 12 or the beginning of the long interglacial MIS 11. Here, we use technological behaviors common to the two levels of la Noira—strata a and c to evaluate their differences. Compared to other key European sequences, this site can be used to address the evolution of the behavioral strategies in Europe between MIS 17 and 11. We formulate two hypotheses concerning the human settlement of this area: (1) local behavioral evolution over time of populations occasionally occupying the region when the climate was favorable or (2) dispersal and arrival of new populations from other areas. The results focus on (1) changes in land-use patterns with the extension of the territory used by hominins in the upper level, (2) the introduction of new core technologies, including some evidence of early Levallois debitage, and (3) more intensive shaping of bifaces and bifacial tools. Results attest that the la Noira archaeological assemblages record similar regional behavioral evolution as observed at a larger scale in Europe.
The Early and early Middle Pleistocene archaeological record in Britain from c. 900 to 500 ka marks a critical shift in human occupation of northwest Europe, from occasional pioneer populations with simple core and flake technology to more widespread occupation associated with the appearance of Acheulean technology. Key to understanding this record are the fluvial deposits of the extinct Bytham River in central East Anglia, where a series of Lower Palaeolithic sites lie on a 15 km stretch of the former river. In this paper we present the results of new fieldwork and a reanalysis of historical artefact collections of handaxes and scrapers to: 1) establish the chronostratigraphic context of the Bytham archaeological record; 2) examine variability in lithic artefact typology and technology through time; and 3) explore the implications for understanding variation in lithic technology in the European record. Six phases of occupation of Britain are identified from at least marine isotope stage (MIS) 21 to MIS 13, with the last three phases characterised by distinctive lithic technology. We argue that this relates to the discontinuous occupation of Britain, where each phase represents the arrival of new groups derived from different European populations with distinctive material culture.
Archaeological remains have highlighted the fact that the interglacial Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 was a threshold from the perspective of hominin evolution in Europe. After the MIS 12 glaciation, considered one of the major climate-driven crises experienced by hominins, the archaeological records show an increasing number of occupations, evidence of new subsistence behaviors, and significant technical innovations. Here, we used statistical and geographic techniques to analyze the amphibian- and reptile-based paleoclimate and habitat reconstructions generated from a large data set of the Iberian Peninsula to (1) investigate if temperature, precipitation, and/or forest cover may have impacted the hominin occupation of the territory during the Early and Middle Pleistocene, (2) propose an ‘Iberian’ ecological model before and after the MIS 12/11 transition, and (3) evaluate, based on this model, the potential hominin occupation at a European scale. The results indicate the existence of climatic constraints on human settlement related to rainfall and environmental humidity. The Early Pleistocene and the first half of the Middle Pleistocene are dominated by the occupation of relatively humid wooded areas, whereas during the second part of the Middle Pleistocene, a broadening of the earlier ecological niche is clearly observed toward the occupation of more open arid areas. Based on the estimated occupational niche for hominins, a maximum potential distribution for early hominins is proposed in Europe before and after 426 ka. Results also indicate that parts of the Iberian Peninsula may not have been suitable for early hominin occupation. Our ecological model is consistent with the pattern of hominin occupation observed in northern and central Europe, where the earliest evidence reflects only pioneering populations merely extending their ranges in response to the expansion of their preferred habitats, as compared with a more sustained occupation by 400 ka.
Handaxes, the hallmark of the Acheulian cultural complex, were occasionally recycled at the end of the Lower Paleolithic period as cores for the production of predetermined blanks. It appears that Late Acheulian flint knappers were well acquainted with both handaxe manufacture and the application of prepared core technologies. Following previous suggestions, we propose here that Late Acheulian knappers took advantage of handaxes convexities as a “shortcut” in the reduction sequence, enabling the detachment of predetermined blanks with minimal preparatory steps. The two phases of use of late Acheulian handaxes, first as handaxes and later as cores, were documented at several late Acheulian sites in the Old World and seem to be integral to late Acheulian lithic technologies and core reduction systems.
The multi-layered late Acheulian site of Revadim and the newly discovered late Acheulian site of Jaljulia (both in Israel) yielded rich lithic assemblages typical of the late Acheulian Levant. The assemblages include handaxes but are mostly dominated by flake-production technologies and flake tools. Both sites provide late Acheulian evidence for what is termed here “proto-Levallois” core technology that later, in fully fledged form, characterized the Middle Paleolithic Levallois method. Here we consider handaxes transformed into cores for the production of predetermined blanks from these two sites and discuss this phenomenon in the framework of human cultural evolution. We further propose that these two key cultural markers, the Lower Paleolithic handaxes and the Middle Paleolithic Levallois method, which are linked by means of this special late Acheulian reduction strategy, can be seen as an early archaeological example of cumulative culture.
In this article, we provide a review of the few European sites where the Acheulean appears in Europe. The oldest traces of occupation in Europe, without bifaces and mainly located in the south, are late, around 1.5-1.4 Ma, while the first signs of biface production can be observed in the Levant as early as 1.4 Ma. In Western Europe, there are sporadic evidence from 900 ka before the multiplication of bifaces with already developed technology, at around 700 ka. Three sites in France and Italy suggest a rapid expansion of this techno-complex throughout Western Europe from 700-650 ka, whatever the climate. The diversity of strategies may be due to the successive arrivals of different hominins, with or without extinction, bringing and spreading new ideas, traditions and expertise and adapting to new environments. In view of the archaeological data available to us, we adopt the hypothesis of an "introduction" of new behaviors, which gives the image of an "abrupt transition", although it took place over a long period.
Notarchirico is the earliest Acheulean Italian site. On account of the wide variety of artefacts (cores, flakes, pebble tools and bifaces for some levels) and raw materials, it is also a key site for analysing behavioural variability in the Acheulean record before 600 ka, and for investigating the significance of occupation levels with and without bifaces. In this paper, we focus on the upper part of the sequence, which was excavated by M. Piperno in the 1980s and recently securely dated between 610 and 670 ka by 40Ar/39Ar. The deposits of Notarchirico consist of a superimposition of sandy and silty sediments, with more or less intense occupation levels interspersed with sterile layers. Here we present the technological analysis of the lithic assemblages of three paleosurfaces, F, E/E1 and B. The lithic corpus from levels F and B yielded some bifaces, whereas no bifaces were found in levels E/E1, where artefacts are mainly on small flint nodules and small limestone pebbles. Technological strategies are described in the three levels, in particular previously unpublished core technologies, and compared to the rest of the site sequence and to comparable Southern European sites. We present the different hominin strategies, their modes of adaptation to diverse types and geometries of raw materials and the concomitant cultural shifts and discussed by this way the role of activities and traditions.
Notarchirico (Southern Italy) has yielded the earliest evidence of Acheulean settlement in Italy and four older occupation levels have recently been unearthed, including one with bifaces, extending the roots of the Acheulean in Italy even further back in time. New 40Ar/39Ar on tephras and ESR dates on bleached quartz securely and accurately place these occupations between 695 and 670 ka (MIS 17), penecontemporaneous with the Moulin-Quignon and la Noira sites (France). These new data demonstrate a very rapid expansion of shared traditions over Western Europe during a period of highly variable climatic conditions, including interglacial and glacial episodes, between 670 and 650 (i.e., MIS17/MIS16 transition). The diversity of tools and activities observed in these three sites shows that Western Europe was populated by adaptable hominins during this time. These conclusions question the existence of refuge areas during intense glacial stages and raise questions concerning understudied migration pathways, such as the Sicilian route.
Decades of fieldwork in the Frosinone-Ceprano basin (Latin Valley, Latium, central Italy) have shed light on numerous open-air Lower Palaeolithic localities, delivering a human fossil calvarium, thousands of scattered faunal remains and a large collection of lithic industries, including core-and-flake type lithic series (mode 1) and Acheulean assemblages (mode 2). The continuously growing number of available geochronological data (obtained by 40Ar/39Ar on volcanic minerals, ESR/U-series on large mammal teeth and ESR on bleached fluvial quartz) allow today the construction of a reliable and precise chronological framework for the Lower Palaeolithic sites of this area of the Latin Valley. The archaeological horizons with bifaces all appear to belong to a relatively short Middle Pleistocene time range, between about 410 and 350 ka, coeval to the end of the interglacial MIS 11 and to the beginning of the following glacial MIS 10. The Acheulean tools are often associated with cores and flakes. Bifaces are mainly made on limestone, secondary flint and quartz. The archaeological corpus also yielded tools on fragments of large herbivore bones. Comparisons between technological strategies and palaeo-anthropological data at the global scale are now meaningful and enable us to decipher hominin behaviour at a more regional scale. Such careful work is becoming essential in the frame of the recent discoveries showing that the MIS 11–10 period was a pivotal period characterized by the appearance of several new archaeological features later associated with the Neanderthal lineage in Western Europe. We present here the first in-depth technological study of the Acheulean lithic corpus from the major archaeological sites from the Frosinone-Ceprano basin including the Campogrande localities (CG9 and CG10, intermediate and upper levels), Colle Avarone, Selvotta, Isoletta (level 4), Lademagne (upper and lower levels) and Masseria Castellone. For this work, we focus on biface shaping strategies and demonstrate technological features suggesting the existence of networks connecting the different human occupation sites. Technological data are compared with other penecontemporaneous Italian sites to discuss the hypotheses and characteristics of such early evidence of regionalization in Europe in this specific area of Central Italy. It seems to indicate that glacial conditions characterized by millennial rapid climatic oscillations could have been favourable to the development of specific vegetation propitious to human settlement in South-western Europe. European vegetation, as it drives the biomass availability for large herbivores, seems hence to have played a crucial role in the mobility and settlement of human groups.
One of the defining characteristics of Acheulean handaxes is the presence of a substantial length of sharp cutting edge, often covering the majority or entirety of their plan-form outline. Recently, factors affecting the efficiency and effectiveness of handaxes for cutting have come under increased scrutiny. Most studies investigate how shape, size, symmetry and other metrics influence cutting performance characteristics. This includes investigations of edge morphology. To date, it is unknown how cutting performance may vary within an individual handaxe dependent on which aspect of its edge is used. Here, we experimentally investigate how loading capabilities (applied forces) vary along the edges of handaxes, from tip to base. Significant differences were identified dependent on the edge-point loaded, with greater forces recorded at the tip of tools relative to more proximally located edges. Notably, at ~20% of a handaxe's length away from the tip, loading levels were reduced by around 24%. Acheulean hominins concerned with maximising cutting stress potential during tool use should, therefore, have preferentially used the tip portion of handaxes when possible. During broader, sweeping cutting motions that use substantial lengths of cutting edge, our data suggest different portions of the edge create variable cutting-stress levels. Such differences likely derive from increases and decreases in torque creation, and the interaction between cutting forces and ergonomic relationships at the hand-tool interface. We discuss how these relationships may have influenced handaxe design during the Acheulean period, including tip focused modifications such as tranchet flake removals, thinning, and increased resharpening.
This paper presents a unified methodology to describe critical features in lithic assemblages, in order to better interpret the Middle Pleistocene hominin occupation of western Europe, in the context of the Western European Acheulean Project (WEAP). This project aims to characterise the Acheulean technology of the western side of Europe by the analysis of 10 key assemblages in this area, to generate an in depth regional comparison in particular of the large cutting tools (LCTs). Nevertheless, to go beyond the local perspective and gain a regional point of view requires a deep understanding of the underlying technology to identify the differences or similarities in processes and traditions of manufacture. The different criteria to analyse and to categorise the results make it difficult to compare data from different research traditions (British, French and Spanish). Nevertheless, after decades of intense work on technological analysis and although many technological approaches have been developed, there are still differences in methods between the different countries. It was necessary to develop a unified, yet flexible, protocol to characterise the LCTs that could be adapted to the technological characteristics of each area or site. It also had to be a system that could describe tool technology and morphology, combined with a proper statistical treatment, to summarise all of the data and to compare the results. In addition, due to the recent development of innovative technologies, it is timely to move research forward to make more detailed comparisons between sites. In this paper, we test the WEAP method with three very different European sites, Galería and Gran Dolina-subunit TD10.1 (both in Atapuerca, Spain) and Boxgrove (Sussex, UK).
In this paper, we present the results of a technological analysis of an unpublished Acheulian assemblage from Western-Central France from a preventive excavation at Londigny (Charente). The lithic pieces were found in an archaeological layer preserved at the bottom of the infilling of two karstic depressions on the Jurassic plateau. A large series of handaxes found during gravel quarrying in the Charente river valley and sparse assemblages from karstic cavities south of the large meander formed by the Charente river are amongst the main discoveries dating to the Lower Palaeolithic in Charente. In the Poitou region, Londigny is the first open air Lower Palaeolithic industry TL dated to MIS 11 recovered in a stratigraphic context. Only a handful of sites date to this period in North-West Europe. Our study of this assemblage however allows us to describe in detail the lithic production that is characteristic of the Acheulian technocomplex. Despite of the unusual use of small Jurassic flint nodules, both bifacial shaping and flake production highlight a technical package shared by most of the Acheulian industries at that time from North-West Europe to South-West France. The Londigny site, located in a position between north and south, extends the geographical range of the Acheulian in France.
Early Levallois core technology is usually dated in Europe to the end of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 9 and particularly from the beginning of MIS 8 to MIS 6. This technology is considered as one of the markers of the transition from lower to Middle Paleolithic or from Mode 2 to Mode 3. Recent discoveries show that some lithic innovations actually appeared earlier in western Europe, from MIS 12 to MIS 9, contemporaneous with changes in subsistence strategies and the first appearance of early Neanderthal anatomical features. Among these discoveries, there is the iconic Levallois core technology. A selection of well-dated assemblages in the United Kingdom, France, and Italy dated from MIS 12 to 9, which include both cores and flakes with Levallois features, has been described and compared with the aim of characterizing this technology. The conclusion supports the interpretation that several technical features may be attributed to a Levallois technology similar to those observed in younger Middle Paleolithic sites, distinct from the main associated core technologies in each level. Some features in the sample of sites suggest a gradual transformation of existing core technologies. The small evidence of Levallois could indicate occasional local innovations from different technological backgrounds and would explain the diversity of Levallois methods that is observed from MIS 12. The technological roots of Levallois technology in the Middle Pleistocene would suggest a multiregional origin and diffusion in Europe and early evidence of regionalization of local traditions through Europe from MIS 12 to 9. The relationships of Levallois technology with new needs and behaviors are discussed, such as flake preference, functional reasons related to hunting and hafting, an increase in the use of mental templates in European populations, and changes in the structure of hominin groups adapting to climatic and environmental changes.
New fieldwork and the revision of lithic collections during the past decade have renewed our interpretation of the timing and characteristics of the earliest Acheulean techno-complexes in western Europe. The lower level of the la Noira site is a crucial snapshot for evaluating the technological abilities and strategies of Middle Pleistocene hominins at 700 ka in Europe at the beginning of elaborate biface production and associated behavioural changes. The site of la Noira is located in the central part of France, where climatic conditions may have had a stronger impact on occupations than in southern Europe. New excavations between 2011 and 2018, over a surface of 100 m2, yielded a large corpus of artefacts including cores, flakes, bifaces and a large heavy-duty component. We analysed the lithic corpus composed of almost 1000 artefacts from a taphonomic perspective, identified the chaînes opératoires and all the reduction processes involved at the site, and examined the spatial distribution of the archaeological remains. The results offer a broad overview of the types of lithic management and related cognition and skills of Middle Pleistocene hominins living on a riverbank under cool conditions, at the beginning of a glacial stage. A comparison with penecontemporaneous sites indicates that a technological shift possibly occurred in western Europe between 700 and 600 ka. The technological strategies used indicate (1) common abilities in core technologies including some sporadic independence from stone shape, (2) a diversity of technical solutions and morphological results for biface shaping with evidence of a bifacial or bilateral equilibrium and a preconceived form on some tools, and (3) a large and diversified heavy-duty component. Biases related to activities, raw material types and various traditions are discussed. The chronology of the emergence of new behaviours, such as an early biface shaping ability, seems to have been identical in the northwest and south of Europe.
Past climates and environments experienced by the Saharo-Arabian desert belt are of prime importance for palaeoclimatic and palaeoanthropological research. On orbital timescales transformations of the desert into a grassland landscape in response to higher precipitation provided “windows of opportunity” for hominin dispersal from Africa into Eurasia. On long timescales, palaeoenvironmental reconstructions for the region are predominantly derived from marine sediments and available terrestrial records from the Arabian Peninsula are limited to 450 ka before present (BP). Here, we present a new stalagmite-based palaeoclimate record from Mukalla Cave in Yemen which extends back to ∼1.1 million years BP or Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 31, as determined by Uranium-lead dating. Stalagmite Y99 grew only during peak interglacial periods and warm substages back to ∼1.1 Ma. Stalagmite calcite oxygen isotope (δ¹⁸O) values show that every past interglacial humid period was wetter than the Holocene, a period in which large lakes formed in the now arid areas of southern Arabia. Carbon isotope (δ¹³C) values indicate habitable grassland environments developed during these pluvial periods. A total of 21 pluvial periods with precipitation of more than 300 mm yr⁻¹ occurred since ∼1.1 Ma and thus numerous opportunities for hominin dispersals occurred throughout the Pleistocene. New determinations of hydrogen (δDFI) and oxygen (δ¹⁸OFI) isotopes in stalagmite fluid inclusion water demonstrates that enhanced precipitation in Southern Arabia was brought by the African and Indian Summer Monsoons. When combined with sub-annual calcite analysis of δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C, these data reveal a distinct wet (summer) and dry (winter) seasonality.
Identification of cultural groups is rare in the early Palaeolithic due to site formation processes including taphonomy and the effect of raw material and site function. This paper reviews a critical period in Europe at about 400 ka (MIS 11) when we may be able to identify such groups. This period, sees more sustained occupation and evidence of new technologies, including bone and wooden tools, hunting and fire-use. Importantly, brain size had begun to approach modern capacity. The fine-tuned record from Britain enables correlation of sites and new models of human behaviour to be developed. Millennial-scale changes in material culture can now be recognised, which can be interpreted as brief incursions by different cultural groups into Britain from mainland Europe. We suggest that population movement was primarily driven by changes in climate and environment. We further propose that variation in material culture is a reflection of local resources and landscape and that during stable environment localised expressions of culture emerge. This can be applied to Europe, where it is suggested that a complex mosaic of small-scale cultural groupings can be identified, some with and some without handaxes, but underpinned by a common set of technologies and behaviours.
For the past decade, debates on the earliest evidence of bifacial shaping in Western Europe have focused on several key issues, such as its origin (i.e., local or introduced), or on what should define the Acheulean culture. Whatever hypotheses are proposed for its origin, the onset and technological strategies for making Large Cutting Tools (LCTs), including biface production, are key issues and are often associated with other behavioural changes, such as increased core technology complexity. Current archaeological patterns do not support the existence of transitional industries. Rather, the scant evidence suggests that biface production associated with the management of bifacial volume was widespread around 700 ka. Among the earliest sites, the site of Notarchirico in Southern Italy stands out as one of the most significant examples. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages and ESR dates recently provided a revised chronology for the whole sedimentary sequence and constrained the archaeological levels between ca. 610 and 670 ka. Five archaeosurfaces (A, A1, B, D and F) yielded LCTs, including bifaces, during Marcello Piperno’s excavations from 1980 to 1995. In light of this new chronological framework, which is much shorter than previously thought, we propose in this contribution a revision of the bifaces by applying the “chaine opératoire” method for the first time (analysis of reduction processes). Our goals are to assess biface production in this early Western European locality and to characterize the strategies applied at the site throughout the sequence. A corpus of 32 tools was selected from the A-A1, B, D and F archaeosurfaces. The technological analysis shows that hominins had the capacity to manage bifacial volumes, when raw material quality was adequate. Clear differences do not emerge between the different levels in terms of shaping modes or final forms. However, we demonstrate that the oldest level (level F), with the richest corpus, lacks flint and displays a higher diversity of bifaces. This ability to manage bifacial and bilateral equilibrium, as well as the diversity of the morphological results, is observed in a few penecontemporaneous sites (700–600 ka), both in the north-western and southern parts of Western Europe. These patterns suggest that hominins mastered well-controlled and diversified biface production, combining intense shaping and minimal shaping, and shared a common technological background regardless of the geographical area, and applied this technology regardless of the available raw materials. The degree of skill complexity of hominins in Western Europe between 700 and 600 ka, the current lack of evidence suggesting “gradual industries” between core-and-flake series and Acheulean techno-complexes, raise numerous questions on the origin of new behaviours in Western Europe, their mode of diffusion, and their association with Homo heidelbergensis or other Middle Pleistocene populations.
the dispersal of hominin groups with an Acheulian technology and associated bifacial tools into northern latitudes is central to the debate over the timing of the oldest human occupation of europe. new evidence resulting from the rediscovery and the dating of the historic site of Moulin Quignon demonstrates that the first Acheulian occupation north of 50°N occurred around 670-650 ka ago. The new archaeological assemblage was discovered in a sequence of fluvial sands and gravels overlying the chalk bedrock at a relative height of 40 m above the present-day maximal incision of the Somme River and dated by ESR on quartz to early MIS 16. More than 260 flint artefacts were recovered, including large flakes, cores and five bifaces. This discovery pushes back the age of the oldest Acheulian occupation of northwestern Europe by more than 100 ka and bridges the gap between the archaeological records of northern france and england. it also challenges hominin dispersal models in europe showing that hominins using bifacial technology, such as Homo heidelbergensis, were probably able to overcome cold climate conditions as early as 670-650 ka ago and reasserts the importance of the Somme valley, where Prehistory was born at the end of the 19 th century.
This paper reviews some of the main advances in our understanding of human evolution over the last 1 million years, presenting a holistic overview of a field defined by interdisciplinary approaches to studying the origins of our species. We begin by briefly summarizing the climatic context across the Old World for the last 1 million years before directly addressing the fossil and archaeological records. The main themes in this work explore (i) recent discoveries in the fossil record over the last 15 years, such as Homo naledi and Homo floresiensis; (ii) the implications of palaeogenetics for understanding the evolutionary history of, and relationships between, Neanderthals, Denisovans and Homo sapiens; (iii) the interplay between physiology and metabolic demand, landscape use, and behavioural adaptations in the evolution of morphological and behavioural innovation; and (iv) recent advances in archaeological understanding for the behavioural record, in particular that of the Neanderthals. This paper seeks to provide a broad‐scale, holistic perspective of our current understanding of human evolution for the last 1 Ma, providing a reference point for researchers that can be built upon as new discoveries continue to develop the landscapes of human evolution.
The Cueva del Angel archaeological site is an open-air sedimentary sequence, remnant of a collapsed cave and part of a karst complex. The faunal assemblage dominated by Equus ferus, large bovids and cervids has been subjected to intense anthropic actions reflecting selective predation. The fauna may be correlated with European faunistic associations of the end of the Middle Pleistocene to the beginning of the Upper Pleistocene. The Cueva del Angel lithic assemblage (dominated by non-modified flakes and abundant retouched tools with the presence of 46 handaxes) appears to fit well within the regional diversity of a well developed non-Levallois final Acheulean industry. A preliminary 230 Th/ 234 U age estimate, the review of the lithic assemblage and faunal evidence would favour a chronological positioning of the site in a period stretching from the end of the Middle Pleistocene to the beginning of the Upper Pleistocene (MIS 11eMIS 5). The Acheulean lithic assemblage found at the Cueva del Angel fits very well with the hypothesis of a continuation of Acheulean cultural traditions in the site, distinct from the contemporaneous uniquely Mousterian complexes witnessed in other parts of the Iberian Peninsula, and Western Europe.
The Vernon tufa is a complex formation, accumulated during at least two phases. The oldest part of the unit contains a rich malacofauna assemblage which is identical to the assemblages found in tufa at St-Pierre-les-Elbeuf and La Celle-sous-Moret (Seine valley), at Arrest (Somme valley) and at a few sites in England and Germany. According to recent aminoacids and U/Th datings, this fauna is related to the ante-penultimate interglacial (isotopic stage 9) or is older. -from English summary
Isernia La Pineta is one of the most important European Middle Pleistocene site. This paper focuses on the results of the experimental program compared with the data gathered during the study of the archaeological materials consisting in raw material analyses, lithic technology and functional analyses. Therefore the scenario which is proposed in this paper is extremely interesting and suggests a new and very different interpretation of the lithic assemblage of Isernia La Pineta which is viewed not only from a morphological standpoint, but is placed in a more articulate ecological context, probably closer to the living style of the human beings who first colonized Europe during the early Middle Pleistocene. The reconstruction of the lithic technological chain, from the choice of raw material and its procurement to production and use of the artifacts, seems to be suitable to open a new behavioural approach for a more ecological interpretation of the lithic assemblages meaning which belong to such an early phase of human evolution.
The evolution of Homo erectus cannot be fully assessed from a palaeo-anthropological point of view without considering the trends of his technological evolution. Furthermore, at this stage of human evolution, technical competence can only be inferred from an evaluation of individual performances collected through analysis of lithic assemblages.
We will try to demonstrate the level of competence of Homo erectus during the Middle Pleistocene in East Africa with examples mainly taken from the Kenyan site of Isenya. Evaluation of the level of technical competence, and its evolution through time, is possible through the reconstruction of various chaînes opératoires involved in the manufacture of large tools, such as handaxes, cleavers and of multifacial of spheroidal tools (polyhedrons, spheroids, bolas), debitage of cores, and making of small retouched tool made of flakes. Reconstruction of the chaînes opératoires depends on experimental replications and refittings.
The various artefacts produced by Homo erectus were developed from conceptual schemes which are extremely different from each other, as well as operational schemes of manufacture. At a further level of analysis, it is possible, for instance, to evaluate the variations of interdependence between the operational scheme and the conceptual scheme (according to the degree of abstraction introduced into the latter) and the complexity of the whole chaîne opératoire.
The antiquity of handaxes was first noted over 200 years ago (Frere, 1800) and since then archaeologists have attempted to categorise and explain them. We are now much closer to elucidating the answers to why and how they were made, what they were used for and what they signify about past hominin behaviour. In a British context, several authors have contributed significant leaps forward in the comprehension of these processes, most notably, Roe (1968), Wymer (1968) and more recently McPherron (1995), White (1998a) and Ashton (2003). The work pioneered by Roe (1968) emphasised the variability present within handaxe-dominated assemblages from the British Palaeolithic and attempted to place this variation within an objective typological framework.
Subsequent authors have utilised Roe’s methodology to attempt to ascertain the basis for this metrical variability both within and between handaxe-dominated assemblages, positing causal factors such as raw material (Ashton and McNabb, 1994; White, 1998a), resharpening (McPherron, 1995) and cultural design (Wenban-Smith, 2004). This study examines the basis and methodology of these hypotheses through the technological analysis of twenty two British Palaeolithic localities. The focus of this examination is Roe’s decision to divide assemblages into Point, Ovate and Cleaver Traditions, groupings which have become the standard through which to understand and classify handaxe variability within Britain.
The results of this analysis indicate that resharpening is a key factor in determining handaxe shape and that metrical classification alone can never deliver us the types of tool-specific information necessary to make sense of observed patterning in the archaeological record. This suggests that it is perhaps time to move towards a new analytical framework for handaxes, one in which the fluidity of form during handaxe use-life (Shott, 1989) is taken into account. Moving beyond Roe’s (1968) paradigm will allow us to engage with the processes and rhythms of the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic chaîne opératoire in a way simply unavailable through metrical classification.
Introduction A major research debate over the past 25 years has been the environmental context of the early human occupation of northern Europe. The groundwork was laid and agendas set by Clive Gamble’s seminal work ‘The Palaeolithic Settlement of Europe’ (1986) which provided a framework for describing the environmental background and understanding the challenges that various climates and habitats presented in six different zones organised east to west and north to south. The work was underwritten by two major premises; first, for the majority of time during the late Middle and Late Pleistocene, environments were characterised by cool, often steppic conditions, rather than the temperate forested peaks of interglacials or the cold troughs of cold, glacial maxima. Second, the distribution, availability and accessibility of usable biomass were higher in such intermediate environments than the two extremes of Pleistocene climate. Therefore humans during these periods were more likely to be better adapted to these intermediate conditions. This led to invigorating debates about human habitats (Gamble 1992a; Roebroeks et al. 1992; Mithen 1993a; Ashton 2002; Ashton and Lewis 2002; Parfitt et al. 2005, 2010; Ashton, Lewis et al. 2008; Ashton and Lewis 2012; Cohen et al. 2012; MacDonald et al.2012) and was the keystone of projects such as EFCHED (The Environmental Factors in the Chronology of Human Evolution and Dispersal; www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/efched/) and AHOB (the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain Project; Stringer 2005; Ashton et al. 2006, 2011). When Gamble first set the agenda (1986) one of the major difficulties of understanding the environmental context was the resolution ofthe environmental record and how directly that related to human occupation. The debates therefore led to improved methods of data collection and filtering of evidence that now provide a clearer indication of the range ofhuman habitats.
A comparative study of Middle Pleistocene assemblages in France shows that the hypothesis of cultural variability is unsupported. Characteristics thought to measure differences in cultural norms appear to mainly reflect differences in the availability and physical properties of raw materials. -from English summary
IntroductionPhysical Setting: The Nachukui Formation, West Turkana, KenyaMethod of Analysis: Volcanic Petrography and Chaîne OpératoireAn Enduringly Local Site ProvisioningVariable Rock Composition of Local SourcesRaw Material Selection and Exploitation Patterns: Diachronic Changes throughout the Plio-PleistoceneMore about Selection in the PleistoceneEarly AcheuleanAcheuleanConclusion
AcknowledgmentsEndnotesReferences
The paleobiogeographical analysis of the malacofaunas of the tufas of Arrest, Vernon, St-Pierre-les-Elbeulf (France), Hitchin and of Icklingham (England) has allowed to characterize an interglacial biome of a temperate deciduous forest developed under a warm oceanic climate in Normandy, Picardy and W Suffolk. The causal analysis sets the problem of the real stratigraphical position of the tufa of St-Pierre-les-Elbeuf. -English summary