Overview of technological features of Acheulean lithic series in north-west Europe (700-400 ka)

International audience; This talk will focus on the early evidence of assemblages with bifacial tools (from MIS 16 to MIS 11) in their technology within the context of their chronology and geography (la Noira, Brandon Fields, Boxgrove, Cagny la Garenne I and II, La Grande Vallée, Saint‐Pierre‐lès‐Elbeuf). Assemblages with bifacial tools demonstrate a high diversity of technological and morphological features as early as 700 ka. They also show specific features that contrastbetween northern and southern Europe, such as the use of large flakes for bifacial manufacture, or the presence of cleavers on flakes. The detailed technology of these assemblages with LCTs is described in relation to the raw materials, the types of site and data on subsistence strategies. These sites indicate an early arrival of new traditions in western and southern Europe on a pre‐existing Mode 1 presence. The assemblages will becompared with those without LCTs (Happisburgh Site 3 and Pakefield in UK, Pradayrol and Soleihac in France) and differences will be discussed about the activities on the sites. Hypotheses on variation due to function, type of site, raw material constraint and the diversity of contemporaneous traditions existing in Europe at that time will be discussed. 800‐500 ka is a key‐period of time for examining behavioral changes which occurred in Europe. The emergence of new behaviours such as the ability to produce large flakes and/or large bifacial tools (handaxes, cleavers and others) allow discussion about new skills, new social organizations and arrival and/or in situ evolution of new hominins. The discovery of hominin fossils such as the Mauer mandible in Germany led to the definition of Homo heidelbergensis. However, recent DNA studies and the anatomical features of the few available fossils suggest both a possible greater diversity of hominins and relationships between European and Asian populations. Europe is located at the end of the continent and may have recorded multiple influences or influxes of people or more local transformations.