Abstract
The important discoveries of Lower Palaeolithic artefacts in stratigraphical context within Lower and early Middle Pleistocene deposits in the western continental part of Europe along the rift systeme of the Rhine Valley are pointing at the possible continuous presence of hominins since the Lower Pleistocene. This paper reports on lithic industry from its early appearance at around 1.3 million years (Ma) at the site of Münster-Sarmsheim to the latest pre-Elsterian period at around 0.6 Ma at Mauer, Mosbach, and Miesenheim.
Highlights
An increasing dataset and a plethora of new questions have arisen from discoveries in the last two decades concerning the early expansion of late Pliocene and early Pleistocene hominins within theOld World (Rodríguez et al 2011, 2013)
The Caucasian site of Dmanisi (Georgia) bears witness to the earliest known wide-ranging spreading of early man on the Eurasian continent dated to 1.8 myr (Gabunia and Vekua 1993; Gabunia et al 2000; Lordkipanidze et al 2007; Ferring et al 2011)
We report on archaeological materials of several German localities in western Central Europe (Figure 1) recovered from late Lower Pleistocene and early Middle Pleistocene deposits in order to confirm the hypothesis of early dispersals of hominins to the western European mid-latitudes from ca. 1.3 myr onwards
Summary
Old World (Rodríguez et al 2011, 2013). Different explanations have been established to explain the spread of early man beyond the African continent (i.e., Out of Africa I-hypothesis) (Turner 1992, 1999; Rolland 1998; Arribas and Palmqvist 1999; Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen 2001; Van der Made 2001, 2011; Carbonell et al 2010; de Lumley 2012; Van der Made and Mateos 2010). Paleoanthropological data point to the first peopling of Europe coming from the East (Carbonell et al 2008; de Castro and Martinón-Torres 2013), migration into the European continent is considered to have taken place on two major geographical routes: either along the northern shores of the Humanities 2019, 8, 129; doi:10.3390/h8030129 www.mdpi.com/journal/humanities. 2 ofthe to have taken place on two major geographical routes: either along northern shores of the Black Sea across the Anatolian plateau using the Bosporus land bridge (PeriPontic, andplateau coastal/Trans-Aegean pathways), or The lithic materials of the Dorn-Dürkheim and the Kärlich site have been discussed controversially with regard to their intentional origin (Roebroeks and van Kolfschoten 1995; Vollbrecht 1997; Bosinski 2008; Haidle and Pawlik 2010)
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