Reassessment of the ‘Abbevillien’ in the perspective of new discoveries from the Lower Palaeolithic and Quaternary sites of Abbeville (Somme, northern France)

Abstract

ABSTRACTNorth‐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.