The environment and chronology of the earliest occupation of north-west Europe: Current knowledge, problems and new research directions

Abstract

In Western Europe, Acheulean cultural evidence is well attested by ca. 0.5 Ma. However, recent work has proven that it was present earlier; at the end of the Early Pleistocene. The timing and mode of the Western European Acheulean needs still to be investigated, and this knowledge appears to be strongly dependent upon data from sites with sufficiently well preserved archeo-stratigraphical sequences and/or geophysical conditions that guarantee reliable dating.The karstic deposits from the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain) represent one such case. They contain exceptionally long and continuous archeo-paleontological deposits that have yielded hominins, stone tools and faunal remains from a period covering the late Early Pleistocene up to the Holocene. Previous work has allowed us to reconstruct the evolution of technology on a local scale, from the late Early to the Middle Pleistocene, and to situate the appearance of the Acheulean more or less simultaneously in the sites of Galería, Gran Dolina-TD10 and the Sima de los Huesos, at around 0.5 Ma, after a hiatus of archeological evidence of approximately 300 Ka. These Acheulean assemblages appear in association with hominin fossils that have recently been identified as early members of the Neandertal lineage.Delving further into the description of the Acheulean from Atapuerca, we have recently focused on the technological features that we consider to be of particular evolutionary significance and attempted to identify them in other European key sites of comparable chronologies. Indeed, we identified some internal evolutionary trends, which led us to propose that there was a local transition at Atapuerca from the Acheulean to the early Middle Paleolithic techno-complexes.However, the chronological setting resulting from the intensive dating programs carried out in the Galería and Sima de los Huesos sites, and especially, the correlation of these dates with the ones available from Gran Dolina-TD10, confronts us with some apparent paradoxes underlining the need to reconsider the technological interpretation of the lithic technical record from Atapuerca.While great efforts are being made in dating and analysis at many European Middle Pleistocene sites, as well as in establishing correlations with which to build consistent regional sequences, single, long, continuous, and accurately excavated (i.e. over a large surface area) archeological successions remain crucial to properly interpret the appearance and evolution of the Acheulean throughout Europe. We further stress the importance of taking into account conditioning factors such as, raw material availability, environmental constraints and site function issues.