European Acheuleans: Critical perspectives from the East

摘要

The question of European Acheulean diversity is currently widely debated. The obvious differences between northern and southern industries have led to several hypotheses regarding settlement dynamics. We propose to deal with this question from an off-centre perspective, by focusing on the data from Central Europe. Indeed, assemblages from this region can provide us with a different view of technical behavioural diversity during the Lower Palaeolithic in Europe. It is generally accepted that the Central European data are difficult to incorporate into the existing theoretical framework. Despite its location on the Out of Africa route towards Europe, this region is characterized by later settlement and the absence of handaxes before the Early Middle Palaeolithic. However, assemblage composition in Central Europe shares some features with sites from other regions, mainly in Southern Europe, such as the absence of handaxes and the presence of "small tools".