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The Miño River is one of the main Atlantic basins of Iberia and preserves extensive Pleistocene deposits. However, there is presently limited information concerning the first human occupation history of this region. Existing research undertaken across the region has identified a significant number of Large Flake Acheulean (LFA) sites with African affinities. These sites are associated with former fluvial environments and are now preserved as a sequence of fluvial terraces along the Miño River, located between relative elevations of + 40 m and + 20 m, and dated to between Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 9 and 6. The chronological range and observed technological patterns are similar to those recognised in other areas of South western Europe, particularly the central Iberian Peninsula and Aquitanian region (France) during the second half of the Middle Pleistocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stratigraphical complex preserved at the site of Menez–Dregan I (Brittany, France) displays an alternating sequence of 17 occupation levels and of 4 marine deposits, between ca. 450 and 150,000 years (stratigraphical units 9a and 3b). The lithic industry retrieved at the site is extremely abundant, with more than 153,000 artefacts over 3 cm in length, as well as millions of knapping debris, and corresponds to a regional facies of the Acheulean, with heavy-duty tools essentially represented by choppers, as well as a few handaxes and cleavers. This paper presents a first synthesis of the data produced for almost 30 years on the site of Menez–Dregan I. The typological study of the entire lithic collection is now complete and allows us to assess the different human occupations that occurred at this site during the Lower Palaeolithic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The analysis of the functional potential of bifaces, which are artefacts extending beyond our technical memory, is based on direct (micro-wear) or indirect approaches (experimentation, relationship between form/function, comparative ethnography). Indirect approaches are fundamental when artefacts are not well enough preserved for micro-wear analysis, which is frequent for the middle Pleistocene. This article proposes a new method based on the three-dimensional acquisition of artefact images, enabling us to measure cutting edge angles and depth of cut. This process allows us to distinguish, in particular, between cutting edges created for longitudinal or transverse cutting. The application of this analysis to bifaces from UA P3 of the "Caune de l'Arago" brings to light tools with a high functional potential for longitudinal cutting, some of which were used for incising, others for deep cutting. These results corroborate those obtained by most micro-wear analyses and present new ways of interpreting the functional potential of bifaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy-duty scrapers are documented as a specific morphotype in ancient African and Eurasian toolkits from the Oldowan into the Acheulian. They are characterized by a flat platform perpendicularly oriented to a carinated edge. The convex surface of that edge displays semi-peripheral, unidirectional removals associated with steep retouch and/or crush marks. This morphotype has been described from numerous sites covering a long temporal scale and are diversely referred to in French as “ rostro-carénés” or “ nucléus-racloirs” and in English as “ massive scrapers ”, “ core scrapers ”, “ large scrapers ”, or “ heavy end-scrapers ”. Morpho-technological definitions and interpretations are reviewed to track the origin and evolution of heavy-duty scrapers over time and space. Results show that tools referred to as heavy-duty scrapers were made on thick cobbles during the Oldowan, and later, at the onset of the Acheulian, on Large Flakes, while smaller-sized items in Late Acheulian sites assume end-scraper morphologies. But should all of these tools really be grouped under a single denomination? Experimental work explores whether heavy-duty scrapers are the result of knapping processes, or if their morphology could be derived from other kinds of activities. Chronological continuity of the attributes specific to heavy-duty scrapers points to their role in ancient toolkits, suggesting that these scarce but ubiquitous primitive implements are, on equal footing with chopper-cores, one of the oldest morphotypes in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey is a country located at the crossroads of possible migration routes between three continents and, as such, it plays a pivotal role in the distribution of Acheulean culture in Eurasia. Although Acheulean culture, which is considered to have reached Turkey via the “Levantine corridor”, shows a wide distribution in the Turkish Anatolian side, it is not found in the Thrace part of Turkey. Therefore, the spread of Acheulean culture from Turkey towards the Balkan Peninsula, i.e., in southeastern Europe, via the Thrace region of Turkey is not considered. However, the cultural artifacts of Acheulean culture are often found in eastern and southeastern Anatolia. The Acheulean cultural artifacts, especially bifaces, found in the open-air sites settled on the old river terraces – generally in the Euphrates and Tigris Basin – are strong indications of the distribution of Acheulean culture in Anatolia as well as the possible migration route of Homo erectus from Anatolia to the Caucasus. Many Acheulean sites recently identified in the Caucasus seem to support such a distribution as well. This paper discusses the distribution of Acheulean culture and possible routes spreading into Turkey according to the geographic regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Middle Stratigraphical Complex of the Caune de l’Arago cave site (Eastern Pyrenées, France) is dated to between 690,000 and 400,000 years old. The site contains successive, spatially distinct archaeological levels. At the base of the sequence, Unit I (OIS 14), where the P levels are among the earliest Mode 2 assemblages presently known in western Europe, contains finely shaped handaxes and a cleaver. Situated above this ensemble, Unit II (OIS 13) has revealed a series of artefact levels lacking handaxes and cleavers. Coiffing the sequence, Unit III (OIS12) has provided numerically rich faunal and lithic assemblages in association with Homo heidelbergensis remains. This paper analyses the stone industries from each artefact level taking into account raw material variability and highlights subtle technological and typological differences. This intrasite study uses a multidisciplinary approach to examine common elements and differences between levels, taking into consideration how external impact factors might have influenced global assemblage features. The Caune de l’Arago's long stratigraphical sequence provides an exceptional opportunity to observe both change and stability in Mode 2 stone-tool manufacture over a period spanning nearly 300,000 years, within the context of contrasting paleoenvironmental conditions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Amane Oukider site (Tinghir, Anti-Atlas) was discovered by an Italo-Moroccan field crew during an archeological mapping project in South-East Morocco. It is an open-air site located near a outcrop of raw materials composed of dolerite. The only debitage method in evidence is the Levallois (lineal and recurrent centripetal) method; the plein débitage products were systematically exported from the site. The Levallois preferential flakes are characterized by a very high level of standardization and they were probably used as blanks for cleaver production. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Acheulean and Mousterian human occupations left an abundant record of lithic productions in the Liguro-Provençal region. Certain sites show the transition between the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic, yielding industries in which the shaping of bifaces continued along with partial Levallois reduction and the development of light-duty, retouched Mousterian tools. In the more recent sites, Mousterian lithic productions show further development in Levallois reduction techniques and sometimes blade production, while shaping techniques disappeared. The transport of artefacts of exotic lithic raw materials from sometimes very distant sources had already occurred by the end of the Acheulean, and the example of the use of allochthonous jasper illustrates an aspect of techno-economical behaviours and the mobility of these human groups. Such transport of jasper blanks from distant sources became further developed at certain Mousterian sites in Liguria, but with the addition of knapping and retouching activities at the occupation sites. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This article presents the dating results recently obtained on three archaeological sites in Europe. At Orgnac 3 (Ardèche, France) from where the last Homo heidelbergensis fossils are associated with the first evidence of levallois technique, two speleothem formations from the 5b–6–7th layers were U-Th dated with MC-ICPMS, giving an age range of 319–255ka (2σ) (MIS 8–9), while the volcanic ash-bearing second layer was dated by 40Ar/39Ar, obtaining a preliminary date of 308.2±6.8ka (2σ). The combined ESR/U-Th dating of red deer enamel teeth from Lazaret cave (Alpes-Maritimes, France) attributed ages of 120–190ka to the Acheulean and pre-Mousterian layers (MIS 6), which is in agreement with previous TIMS U-Th dates between 108 and 44ka on calcite samples from the overlying TRA trench (MIS 5, 4, 3). At Zafarraya (Andalousie, Espagne), a number of 14C measurements on charcoal samples as well as combined ESR/U-Th dates on Capra and Equus dental enamels assigned the Mousterian artefacts and neandertalian fossils-bearing deposits an age interval between 42 and 34ka (MIS 3). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The largest collection of Acheulian artefacts in the Siwalik region is from the site of Atbarapur in north-western India. The artefacts occur in reworked sediments of the Pinjore Formation, starting with the onset of the Pleistocene and continuing at places in this region till 0.6 Ma. The technical study shows two similar “chaînes opératoires”: one based on cobbles for making small flakes and the second based on boulders for large flakes. Both are short and simple: cores are not prepared and each of them produced about seven flakes. Handaxes and cleavers, typical Acheulian tools, are made on the large flakes, often struck from the ventral face of larger flakes (Kombewa method) or from split boulders. The technology compares well with the Lower Pleistocene Acheulian of peninsular India, but with slightly more refined bifaces. It also compares with assemblages from Africa and East Asia: Atbarapur stands as a milestone on the diffusion route(s) of the Acheulian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: 400 000 years ago: Domestication of fire, an extraordinary motor of hominization. About 400 000 years ago, with the appearance of the first structured fire-places, a more organized social life may have developed around fire. Fire was an extraordinary motor of hominization. It illuminates and prolongs the day at the expense of the night; it allowed man to penetrate into caverns. It warms and extends summer at the expense of winter; it allowed man to invade the moderate cold zones of the planet. It enabled man to cook and thus to reduce parasitosis. It improves tool manufacture by allowing spear points to be hardened in the fire. But above all, it is a factor of conviviality. In fact, around hearths, a group spirit is strengthened and, without doubt, the first myths are born. The first regional cultural traditions emerge, as well as the first cultural identities, with the appearance of styles in the fabrication of certain tools, of designs. To cite this article: H. de Lumley, C. R. Palevol 5 (2006) . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Acheulean cultures and the question of the emergence of symbolic thought among Homo erectus from the data related to morphological symmetry and aesthetic of the bifaces. It is usually considered that artistic creativity is a trait of the modern human and that art appears only with Homo sapiens, at the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic. If this fact seems well established, however it looks likely that the emergence of symbolic thought and aesthetic feeling has to be dated back to the Old Palaeolithic. Indeed, the Acheulean biface shows a morphological symmetry and a remarkable aesthetic. Whenever this tool exclusively constitutes the lithic assemblage of a culture, as it is the case in the site of Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar (central Syria), it can be suggested that it represents a strong symbolic component. The question is, was this harmonic aspect of the form really conceived by the tool maker or does it result from an unconscious phenomenon related to the knapping of the artefact? If it is indeed a conscious and desired symmetry, it is not impossible that the artisan tried to project a part of him into the tool. Through this harmonic component of the bifaces, it seems that Homo erectus was already capable of symbolic behaviour and a kind of artistic creativity. It is not a question of art as traditional conception, but probably of its first steps. To cite this article: J.-M. Le Tensorer, C. R. Palevol 5 (2006) . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The first settlements in South Asia: cultural remains. South Asia had a relatively stable climate during Lower and Middle Pleistocene; only the Himalaya piedmonts recorded periglacial conditions. The chronological setting of Palaeolithic assemblages is becoming more accurate in the last two decades as the dating methods improve and volcanic ash layers are identified in relation with sites. The first indication of human activity is recorded at around 2 Ma, in the northwestern sector of the Siwalik range, and the Acheulian starts before 1 Ma, in the Southwest of Indian Peninsula. It seems that Acheulian technological stage is not preceded by pebble/cobble tool industries, neither in the Peninsula, where such industries are unknown, nor in the Siwaliks, where they occur in abundance (Soanian technical tradition), but are probably later than the middle of Middle Pleistocene. To cite this article: C. Gaillard, C. R. Palevol 5 (2006) . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Between 2.5 and 0.8 Myr, at least four episodes of hominine dispersal from Africa to the Levant are known, each culturally distinct. All have settled on lakes or river banks. The oldest occurrence is Yiron, in the northern portion of the Israeli Rift, with flint artefacts in a fluviatile deposit below a basalt layer dated 2.4 Myr. Yiron was followed by the Ubeidiya group in the central Rift ca. 1.4 Myr, with a Lower Acheulean industry. Somewhat later, the Bizat Ruhama group has settled (1.0 Myr) in the eastern coastal plain, with a small, microlith-size industry. Around 0.8 Myr, newcomers have settled at Gesher Benot Yaaqov (GBY) in the northern Rift, introducing the cleaver tradition. None of the sites yielded human remains. The cultures of Bizat Ruhama and GBY have subsequently disappeared. During the Lower Palaeolithic the Levant remained largely an Acheulean province, probably evolved from Ubeidiya. The Late/Final Acheulean, with developed Levallois technology is the possible ancestor of the Middle Palaeolithic ‘Levallois–Mousterian’. To cite this article: A. Ronen, C. R. Palevol 5 (2006) . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Discovery of a lithic assemblage under a calcrete at El Beyyed Yeslem II, Mauritania. Scientific field trips in the Adrar area are the result of a scientific collaboration between the Institute of Human Palaeontology (Paris, France), the European Prehistoric Research Centre of Tautavel (France) and the Mauritanian Scientific Institute of Research to study the Early Palaeolithic of Adrar in Mauritania. In this area, all the evolution stages of civilizations were found from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic. The site of El Beyyed, discovered by T. Monod in 1934, revealed a concentration of prehistoric sites with a material of Acheulean age. Other sites recently discovered, Yeslem II and Yeslem III, respectively a site with lithic assemblage in situ found in stratigraphy and a site with fauna associated with lithic tools inside a calcareous crust, make it possible to explore the questions relating to palaeoenvironments and diversity of the human occupations in Mauritanian Adrar. To cite this article: H. de Lumley et al., C. R. Palevol 5 (2006) . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Acheulean site of the Errayah (Mostaganem, Algeria) in its geological context. The Acheulean site of the Errayah locality has been discovered in 1996; it is a very interesting site in the prehistory of the western coastal of Algerian regions. The stratigraphy of the site consists mainly in fine sandy deposits, lying on a substratum of marl dating back from the Pliocene period. This site contains two archaeological layers with rich lithic components; the tool clusters bear witness to a technological development from the ancient Acheulean to a final Acheulean, a sign of the advent of Middle Palaeolithic. To cite this article: A. Derradji, C. R. Palevol 5 (2006) . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The rise of cultural identities in the Lower Palaeolithic: the case of Italy. The coexistence of different human groups in the period dated between 600 and 300 Ka is evidenced by different cultural traditions. These are described as follows: (1) a ‘Tayacian’ group, characterised by small lithic industry, by the presence of dihedral ventral surface, by a high carinal index, by an often-raised Quina-type retouch and by a variable percentage of denticulates and scrapers, while handaxes are rare, if not absent (Loreto di Venosa, Visogliano A couches 46–40, Visogliano B); (2) a ‘denticulate’ group found exclusively in Visogliano A, layers 39–37; (3) a ‘Clactonian’ group characterised by large, thick, but rarely carinated flakes, a large number of scrapers, few denticulates; the handaxes are rare or absent (east side of Italy, Sicily and Sardinia); (4) an ‘Acheulean’ group, in which different subgroups can be distinguished, relying upon the number of handaxes as well as the characters of the flake industry. In Latium and in Notarchirico di Venosa, flakes are small and often carinated; Early Acheulean handaxes from Gargano and the Adriatic area are accompanied by large, massive flakes (mainly scrapers). To cite this article: R. Grifoni, C. Tozzi, C. R. Palevol 5 (2006) . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]