Lower Palaeolithic Record Research Articles

Fire in the round: A holistic approach to the Lower Palaeolithic record

Whilst several explanations have been proposed for the absence of fire-related behaviours at well preserved Lower Palaeolithic sites, much of the emphasis of previous research has concentrated on our ability to find fire in the archaeological record. Furthermore, evolutionary models of early hominin fire engagement have often been developed and discussed in the context of early African hominins. Here we explore the role of fire in the behaviours, choices and lives of hominins during the earliest occupations of temperate regions, with a focus on Europe. We consider fire use in the context of Europe’s specific palaeoenvironmental conditions and discuss whether a long or short fire chronology model best fits the current evidence for the use of controlled fire in these regions during the Lower Palaeolithic.We propose two models for hominin fire behaviours in the temperate latitudes, using a heuristic ‘macroscale to microscale’ approach to understanding the needs for — and the use of — fire during this period. We argue that such holistic approaches must combine experimental work, experiential observations and cost-benefit approaches and should consider site context and function, fire function, social behaviour, and mobility, to evaluate the limited evidence for fire use in the Lower Palaeolithic. We highlight that, varying with seasonality, fire function (and the associated costs and benefits) was of particular importance and may explain the overall paucity of evidence for fire use in temperate regions prior to the Middle Palaeolithic. This has implications for other potential survival strategies that are invisible in the early archaeological record, such as shelter, clothing, and the putrefaction of meat for later consumption.

The submerged archaeology of the North Sea: Enhancing the Lower Palaeolithic record of northwest Europe

The Lower Palaeolithic hominin occupation of northwest Europe occurred during a period of significant climatic change. In Britain, hominin populations were present discontinuously, from strongly continental sites to those characterised by a balmy Mediterranean environment. Whilst apparently able to survive a range of conditions, the configuration of the associated landscapes, in particular the presence or absence of a land connection with the continent, would have had a fundamental impact on the density of hominin occupation in Britain at any given time. Similarly, the environments once present in the now-drowned North Sea Basin and Channel regions would presumably have played an important role in attracting and sustaining hominin populations. However, our understanding of the physical and environmental character of these landscapes, as well as the timing of marine transgressive and regressive periods, remains frustratingly murky, hindering the ability to imagine how these landscapes may have been used. A growing body of data from recent research and commercial offshore development is beginning to help researchers understand this issue, but there is still an immense amount of work to do. With the contribution that evidence from these lost landscapes could provide to Lower Palaeolithic archaeology as a focus, this paper begins with a review of the current state of affairs with regard to commercial and research methods and practices. It then discusses the ways that we are moving this forward through specific archaeological projects, providing tentative suggestions for how current methods could be developed and the kinds of information that these could provide.

Early hominins in north-west Europe: A punctuated long chronology?

In light of changing views regarding the identity and evolutionary positions of Europe's Lower Palaeolithic hominins, a re-consideration of the hominin occupation of north-west Europe from c. 1 million years ago (mya) to c. 400 thousand years ago (kya) is timely. A change in the scale and character of the overall European Palaeolithic record around c. 800–600 kya has been well documented and argued over since the mid-1990s. Hominin expansion into the European north-west, potentially from southern Europe, Africa or south-western Asia, has been linked to the introduction of a new lithic technology in the form of the biface. We evaluate three potential drivers for this northern range expansion: changing palaeo-climatic conditions, the emergence of an essentially modern human life history, and greater hominin behavioural plasticity. Our evaluation suggests no major changes in these three factors during the c. 800–600 kya period other than enhanced behavioural plasticity suggested by the appearance of the biface. We offer here a model of hominin occupation for north-west Europe termed the ‘punctuated long chronology’ and suggest that the major changes in the European Lower Palaeolithic record that occur at a species-wide level may post-date, rather than precede, the Anglian Glaciation (marine isotope stage (MIS) 12).

The Lower Palaeolithic assemblage of Layers 15–18 (Unit G) at Hummal. An exemplary case addressing the problems placing undated, archaic-looking stone tool assemblages in the Early and Lower Palaeolithic record by techno-typological classification

The site of Hummal is situated in the region of El Kowm in central Syria. The site comprises an archaeological sequence covering the entire Pleistocene epoch, and encompasses all major Palaeolithic complexes currently known in the Middle East. At the base of the site, 14m below today's ground level, several layers with a lithic assemblage attributed to the Lower Palaeolithic have been excavated over the past years. At present, the collection recovered from this lowest succession at Hummal contains more than 700 stone artefacts and more than 3000 bone fragments. The lithic assemblage is characterized by a simple flaking technique and the presence of different pebble tools, such as choppers, hammerstones and sphaeroids. Additionally four handaxes were recovered, which have a symmetric shape, are clearly bifacial and rather flat. The lithic assemblage from the lowermost layers of the Hummal excavation largely resembles an Archaic, Lower Palaeolithic assemblage, belonging to the so-called Oldowan or Mode 1 stage. However, the presence of well-shaped and symmetric handaxes sheds doubt on the validity of this attribution to a Mode 1, Oldowan or the Early Acheulean Stage. It can, therefore, be debated, whether the common classifications of lithic industries are adequate for describing the archaeological record from the period in question in the Middle East.

Paleoliticul inferior din România: o reevaluare din perspectiva descoperirilor din situl Dealul Guran / Lower Palaeolithic in Romania: a revaluation from the perspective of the discoveries from Dealul Guran site

Southeastern Europe played an important role in understanding the dynamics of hominin colonizations during the Pleistocene. Consequently, in the recent years, much valuable work has been done in re-assessing the Lower Palaeolithic record in this part of Europe. We provide a brief synthesis of the discoveries currently assigned to the Lower Palaeolithic in Romania and we conclude that many of them were interpreted as Lower Palaeolithic solely according to typological criteria, whereas some pieces have natural origin. We then present the site of Dealul Guran, which we argue is the first reliable Lower Palaeolithic occupation on today''s Romania territory, dating from MIS 11.

Age and date for early arrival of the Acheulian in Europe (Barranc de la Boella, la Canonja, Spain).

The first arrivals of hominin populations into Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene are currently considered to have occurred as short and poorly dated biological dispersions. Questions as to the tempo and mode of these early prehistoric settlements have given rise to debates concerning the taxonomic significance of the lithic assemblages, as trace fossils, and the geographical distribution of the technological traditions found in the Lower Palaeolithic record. Here, we report on the Barranc de la Boella site which has yielded a lithic assemblage dating to ∼1 million years ago that includes large cutting tools (LCT). We argue that distinct technological traditions coexisted in the Iberian archaeological repertoires of the late Early Pleistocene age in a similar way to the earliest sub-Saharan African artefact assemblages. These differences between stone tool assemblages may be attributed to the different chronologies of hominin dispersal events. The archaeological record of Barranc de la Boella completes the geographical distribution of LCT assemblages across southern Eurasia during the EMPT (Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition, circa 942 to 641 kyr). Up to now, chronology of the earliest European LCT assemblages is based on the abundant Palaeolithic record found in terrace river sequences which have been dated to the end of the EMPT and later. However, the findings at Barranc de la Boella suggest that early LCT lithic assemblages appeared in the SW of Europe during earlier hominin dispersal episodes before the definitive colonization of temperate Eurasia took place.

The Middle Pleistocene archaeological record of Greece and the role of the Aegean in hominin dispersals: new data and interpretations

In the debate about hominin dispersals, Greece is expected to have been among the core areas for the peopling of Eurasia, serving as a ‘refugium’ and source region for (re)colonizations. Yet, its early Pleistocene record is still scarce, forming a conspicuous ‘gap’ in the early human geography of the Mediterranean. Here we investigate this gap and provide for the first time a synthesis of the Lower Palaeolithic record of Greece. Our study adopts a geoarchaeological approach to explain the current status of the record and argues that the ‘absence of evidence’ should be understood as the result of the biasing effects of erosional geomorphic processes and not as an indication of a former absence of hominins. In this line, the potential for archaeological preservation and recovery is assessed as a function of landscape dynamics. Climatic seasonality, tectonic activity, high relief and marine inundations have altogether contributed to significant reworking and/or total loss of archaeological sites: in spatial terms, only about 2–5% of the Lower Palaeolithic record of Greece may have survived up to the present. On the other hand, we interpret recent geological data, which show that half of the Aegean Sea would have been subaerially exposed for most of the early Pleistocene. Our results emphasize the potentially central role of the Aegean region in hominin dispersals, both as a biogeographical landbridge and as a highly productive landscape for occupation. This conclusion opens up new prospects for future fieldwork in an area that was hitherto essentially neglected. Finally, in showing how geomorphic processes bias site distribution patterns, the results and methodological perspective developed here can be seen as having implications that are wider than the geographical limits of the Greek Peninsula: they are pertinent to the investigation and interpretation of the early Pleistocene archaeological records in the highly dynamic landscapes of southern Europe – if not in even broader scales.

The environmental contexts of early human occupation of northwest Europe: The British Lower Palaeolithic record

There are now a growing number of sites with a range of proxies that enable a reconstruction of the human habitats of Early and Middle Pleistocene sites in northern Europe. This paper reviews the British record from these periods and concludes that humans were able to survive in a range of climatic and vegetational zones from the earliest occupation in the Early and early Middle Pleistocene. The likely source areas for colonising populations in southern Europe and the probable habitats to which they were adapted in these source areas is discussed. It is argued that colonising populations would need new strategies to cope successfully with northern latitudes, with technological innovations, such as clothing, shelter and possibly fire, being more likely than seasonal migration or physical adaptation. Finally, it is suggested that the earliest evidence prior to 500 ka reflects pioneering populations, perhaps of Homo antecessor, with only sporadic occupation of northern Europe. However, by 500 ka new technologies and other adaptive strategies enabled Homo heidelbergensis to have a more sustained occupation in northern latitudes.

The lower Palaeolithic record in the Philippines

The exploration of Palaeolithic sites has a rather long tradition in the Philippines. Commencing with H. Otley Beyer in the 1920s, the systematic study of prehistoric sites and lithic materials has become a major field of Philippine Archaeology. A number of open sites, rockshelters and caves have yielded prehistoric artefacts which can be characterized as Palaeolithic. They aremainly situated in Palawan Island and in Luzon Island (Fig. 1). While it is quite certain that Palawanwas once connected with Borneo and a part of the enlarged landmass of Sundaland during sea-level regressions in the Pleistocene, the possibilities for a connection of Luzon with the mainland are still under discussion. The existence of large land mammals like Elephas, Stegodon and Rhinoceros during the Middle Pleistocene has been confirmed by the presence of fossil bones all over the island and might be an argument for the existence of such a land bridge (Dizon, 1998). At least, shallow waters and the proximity of emerged islands of the Sulu Archipelago and between Sulawesi and Mindanao (Fig. 2) would allow ‘‘island-hopping’’ during glacial periods. Research on the Lower Palaeolithic in the Philippines initially focussed on the so-called Cabalwanian or Liwanian sites of Northern Luzon (Koenigswald, 1958; Fox, 1978; Bondoc, 1979). A number of open-sites along the Cagayan River valley have been discovered and investigated since the 1950s. Their lithic materials consist mostly of unretouched flakes, choppers and other unifacially retouched pebble tools. A partially bifacial proto-handaxe was found in 2008 (Fig. 3). Although similarities with handaxes have been noted, a true bifacial technology is not present in the Cabalwanian (Fox and Peralta, 1974). The primitive-looking stone tools and the existence of a Middle Pleistocene fauna are suggestive

Richa Jhaldiyal. Formation processes of the Lower Palaeolithic record in the Hunsgi and Baichbal basins, Gulbarga district, Karnataka. x+182 pages, 53 figures, 4 plates, 59 tables. 2006. Kolkata: Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, Eastern India; 81-901499-3-8 paperback, Indian rupees 270 (available from Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, 4 Camac Street, Kolkata 700 016, India).

Richa Jhaldiyal. Formation processes of the Lower Palaeolithic record in the Hunsgi and Baichbal basins, Gulbarga district, Karnataka. x+182 pages, 53 figures, 4 plates, 59 tables. 2006. Kolkata: Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, Eastern India; 81-901499-3-8 paperback, Indian rupees 270 (available from Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, 4 Camac Street, Kolkata 700 016, India).

El poblamiento de Europa en torno al límite Matuyama/Brunhes: su origen y su significado en la evolución humana

A review of the European Lower Palaeolithic record shows three human dispersal episodes. The second one is dated between OIS25/OIS24-OIS19/OIS18. It is recorded by lithic assemblages and human remains that point to an eastern Asian origin. This paper reviews this hominid dispersal, related to the Galerian faunal event. Also we analyse the most feasible migratory routes, and the reasons of its abrupt ending. The phylogenetic relationships of these populations are also proposed, putting their context into the human evolutionary sequences of the Lower and Middle Pleistocene.

Communication networks and dispersal patterns in human evolution: A simple simulation model

Abstract Glynn Isaac's ‘home base’ model of hominid social systems was, in part, the reflection of a more general focus among palaeoanthropologists in the 1970s on the importance of the sexual division of labour in human evolution. Here, I suggest that the sexual division of roles may in fact be consequent to the pattern of sex‐biased dispersal and philopatry, and that dispersal patterns underlie the spatial patterning of artefact traditions in the Lower Palaeolithic record. A simple simulation model is presented which has been used to explore the consequences of dispersal patterns for spatial aspects of cultural traditions. The results of the experiments are summarized and discussed.