Abstract:
This collection of papers arises from a meeting of distinguished scholars at Tautavel in 1993, sponsored by the European Science Fund. The aim of the meeting was to discuss and review the evidence for the earliest occupation of different European regions, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean and from the United Kingdom to the Russian Plains and including neighbouring areas such as the Caucasus and Northern Africa. Discussion focused on four themes: chronology, environment, industries and subsistence. The central dispute between proponents of the Long chronology (placing the first hominids in Europe almost 2m years ago) and the supporters of a Short chronology (no hominids until 500,000 years ago) is covered in detail. The disputed 1.5m years are crucial to our understanding of how our earliest ancestors adapted to the European environment and this book will be crucial in furthering the debate.
Contents
Luis Raposo and Manuel Santonja: The earliest occupation of Europe: the Iberian peninsula
Margherita Mussi: The earliest occupation of Europe: Italy
Andreas Darlas: The earliest occupation of Europe: the Balkans
Nikolai D. Praslov: The earliest occupation of the Russian Plain: a short note
Karel Valoch: The earliest occupation of Europe: Eastern Central and Southeastern Europe
Dietrich Mania: The earliest occupation of Europe: the Elbe-Saale region (Germany)
Gerhard Bosinski: The earliest occupation of Europe: Western Central Europe
Jean-Paul Raynal, Lionel Magoga and Peter Bindon: Tephrofacts and the first human occupation of the French Massif Central
Alain Tuffreau and Pierre Antoine: The earliest occupation of Europe: Continental Northwestern Europe
Mark B. Roberts, Clive S. Gamble and David R. Bridgland: The earliest occupation of Europe: the British Isles
Jorgen Holm and Lars Larsson: The earliest occupation of Europe: Scandinavia
Vassilij P. Ljubin and Gerhard Bosinski: The earliest occupation of the Caucasus region
Jean-Paul Raynal, Lionel Magoga, Fatima-Zohra Sbihi-Alaoui and Denis Geraads: The earliest occupation of Atlantic Morocco: the Casablanca evidence
Gerhard Bosinski: Stone artefacts of the European Lower Palaeolithic: a short note
Martin J. Aitken: Chronometric techniques for the Middle Pleistocene
Clive S. Gamble: The earliest occupation of Europe: the environmental background
Wil Roebroeks and Thijs van Kolfschoten: The earliest occupation of Europe: a reappraisal of artefactual and chronological evidence
Prof dr.
Thijs van Kolfschoten
Thijs van Kolfschoten (1952) is professor in mammalian palaeo- and archaeozoology and Quaternary biostratigraphy. He studied Geology and Biology and obtained his Ph.D. in Palaeontology, at the Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Utrecht (The Netherlands). After a research position at the Institute of Palaeontology, University of Bonn (Germany) he moved in 1992 to the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University.
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Prof. dr.
Wil Roebroeks
Wil Roebroeks is an expert in the field of the archaeology of early hominins, with a focus on Neanderthal studies. He has published widely on various aspects of the behaviour of extinct hominins, including their subsistence strategies, lithic technology and the environmental settings of their presence and absence in Eurasia. Roebroeks has conducted fieldwork in the Netherlands, in England , France, northeastern Russia and Germany . He is the Vice-President of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution (ESHE).
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