Abstract
Based on the different bifacial elements that occur in the last glacial cycle it is established that at least three technocomplexes can be distinguished in continental northwestern Europe: Mousterian of Acheulean Tradition (small, symmetric, cordiform and triangular handaxes), Micoquian or Keilmessergruppe (asymmetric bifacial elements, often with backing and noncovering retouched) and a leaf point industry. Moreover, the analyses show that some lithic assemblages in continental northwestern Europe do not fit into this current framework of Middle Palaeolithic industries. More specifically assemblages that contain a contemporary presence of Micoquian and Mousterian bifacial elements occur regularly, leaving a typological dilemma to assign them to one of these two technocomplexes. This leads to the question: do Micoquian and Mousterian industries represent behaviourally discrete entities and how do ‘mixed’ assemblages fit into this? After exploring the techno-typological characteristics of these ‘mixed’ assemblages, possible reasons for the variability in bifacial elements and the causes for the occurrence of mixed assemblages, including the relationship between the Micoquian and Mousterian, are presented. Interpreting this phenomenon is preliminary since the evidence is coarse-grained due to many old excavations and a lack of chronostratigraphic information. Most likely the mixed occurrences can be explained in relation to population migrations caused by climate change.
Highlights
While handaxes are the dominant feature of many Lower Palaeolithic assemblages during the main part of the Middle Palaeolithic, especially in western Europe, they occur no more than sporadically
This leads to the conclusion that the Mousterian of Acheulean Tradition (MTA) and Micoquian are both characterised by different bifacial tool types
The cluster analysis shows that the mixed assemblages have more similarities with the Micoquian than with the MTA, indicating a clear Micoquian influence in these assemblages
Summary
While handaxes are the dominant feature of many Lower Palaeolithic assemblages during the main part of the Middle Palaeolithic, especially in western Europe, they occur no more than sporadically It is only during the last glacial cycle, and in the period between Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 5d and 3 (c.120-30 ka BP), that they again constitute an important part of many European sites. In western Europe these handaxe-rich assemblages have traditionally been classified as Mousterian of Acheulean Tradition (MTA) (Bordes 1961) and in central and eastern Europe as Micoquian (Bosinski 1967) These two Middle Palaeolithic technocomplexes do have separate geographical expansions (Soressi 2002: 257), they differ in their characteristic bifacial tool types.
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