A well‐preserved early Middle Palaeolithic site set against a wider northwestern European context The shift from Lower to Middle Palaeolithic in northwestern Europe (dated to around 300,000–250,000 years ago) remains poorly understood and underexplored compared to more recent archaeological transitions. During this period, stone tool technologies underwent significant changes but the limited number of known sites and the general low spatio‐temporal resolution of the archaeological record in many cases has impeded detailed behavioural inferences. Brickyard‐quarrying activities at Kesselt‐Op de Schans (Limburg, Belgium) led to the discovery and excavation of a well‐preserved early Middle Palaeolithic level buried beneath a 10 m thick loess-palaeosol sequence. The present volume offers a comprehensive report on the site, dated to around 280,000 years ago, set against a wider northwestern European context. An in‐depth study of the lithic assemblage, including an extensive refitting analysis, provides detailed information on the technological behaviour of prehistoric hominins in the Meuse basin during this crucial time period. Contributors: Jozef J. Hus (Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium), Frank Lehmkuhl (RWTH Aachen University), Erik P.M. Meijs (ArcheoGeoLab), Philipp Schulte (RWTH Aachen University), Ann Van Baelen (KU Leuven and University of Cambridge), Philip Van Peer (KU Leuven), Joerg Zens (RWTH Aachen University)

Michael P. Richards and Jean-Jacques Hublin The study of hominin diets, and especially how they have (primates, modern humans), (2) faunal and plant studies, (3) evolved throughout time, has long been a core research archaeology and paleoanthropology, and (4) isotopic studies. area in archaeology and paleoanthropology, but it is also This volume therefore presents research articles by most of becoming an important research area in other fields such as these participants that are mainly based on their presentations primatology, nutrition science, and evolutionary medicine. at the symposium. As can hopefully be seen in the volume, Although this is a fundamental research topic, much of the these papers provide important reviews of the current research research continues to be undertaken by specialists and there in these areas, as well as often present new research on dietary is, with some notable exceptions (e. g. , Stanford and Bunn, evolution. 2001; Ungar and Teaford, 2002; Ungar, 2007) relatively lit- In the section on modern studies Hohmann provides a tle interaction with other researchers in other fields. This is review of the diets of non-human primates, including an unfortunate, as recently it has appeared that different lines interesting discussion of the role of food-sharing amongst of evidence are causing similar conclusions about the major these primates. Snodgrass, Leonard, and Roberston provide issues of hominid dietary evolution (i. e.

A well-preserved early Middle Palaeolithic site set against a wider northwestern European context The shift from Lower to Middle Palaeolithic in northwestern Europe (dated to around 300,000-250,000 years ago) remains poorly understood and underexplored compared to more recent archaeological transitions. During this period, stone tool technologies underwent significant changes but the limited number of known sites and the general low spatio-temporal resolution of the archaeological record in many cases has impeded detailed behavioural inferences. Brickyard-quarrying activities at Kesselt-Op de Schans (Limburg, Belgium) led to the discovery and excavation of a well-preserved early Middle Palaeolithic level buried beneath a 10 m thick loess-palaeosol sequence. The present volume offers a comprehensive report on the site, dated to around 280,000 years ago, set against a wider northwestern European context. An in-depth study of the lithic assemblage, including an extensive refitting analysis, provides detailed information on the technological behaviour of prehistoric hominins in the Meuse basin during this crucial time period. Bron: Flaptekst, uitgeversinformatie.

This edited book aims to provide a new perspective on the identification and interpretation of short-term occupations in Paleolithic Archaeology. The volume includes contributions with a particular focus on the definition and identification of short-term occupations in Paleolithic contexts, aiming to improve our current knowledge on the topic, both methodologically and interpretatively. The set of chapters coming from a broad spectrum of geographies and chronologies will contribute to the debate on the definition of short-term occupations but also to a better understanding on how past hunter-gatherers communities adapted and moved in different environmental contexts across time. The in-depth examinations of short-term occupations in different chronologies and environments will shed light on an aspect of the behavioral trajectories of the human species in the management of the territory.

When was the human threshold crossed? What is the evidence for evolving humans and their emerging humanity? This volume explores in a global overview the archaeology of the Middle Pleistocene, 800,000 to 130,000 years ago when evidence for innovative cultural behaviour appeared. The evidence shows that the threshold was crossed slowly, by a variety of human ancestors, and was not confined to one part of the Old World. Crossing the Human Threshold examines the changing evidence during this period for the use of place, landscape and technology. It focuses on the emergence of persistent places, and associated developments in tool use, hunting strategies and the control of fire, represented across the Old World by deeply stratified cave sites. These include the most important sites for the archaeology of human origins in the Levant, South Africa, Asia and Europe, presented here as evidence for innovation in landscape-thinking during the Middle Pleistocene. The volume also examines persistence at open locales through a cutting-edge review of the archaeology of Northern France and England. Crossing the Human Threshold is for the worldwide community of students and researchers studying early hominins and human evolution. It presents new archaeological data. It frames the evidence within current debates to understand the differences and similarities between ourselves and our ancient ancestors.

The British Palaeolithic provides the first academic synthesis of the entire British Palaeolithic, from the earliest occupation (currently understood to be around 980,000 years ago) to the end of the Ice Age. Landscape and ecology form the canvas for an explicitly interpretative approach aimed at understanding the how different hominin societies addressed the issues of life at the edge of the Pleistocene world. Commencing with a consideration of the earliest hominin settlement of Europe, the book goes on to examine the behavioural, cultural and adaptive repertoires of the first human occupants of Britain from an ecological perspective. These themes flow throughout the book as it explores subsequent occupational pulses across more than half a million years of Pleistocene prehistory, which saw Homo heidelbergensis, the Neanderthals and ultimately Homo sapiens walk these shores. The British Palaeolithic fills a major gap in teaching resources as well as in research by providing a current synthesis of the latest research on the period. This book represents the culmination of 40 years combined research in this area by two well known experts in the field, and is an important new text for students of British archaeology as well as for students and researchers of the continental Palaeolithic period.

European Prehistory: A Survey traces humans from their earliest appearance on the continent to the Rise of the Roman Empire, drawing on archaeological research from all over Europe. It includes the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. Throughout these periods, the major developments are explored using a wide range of archaeological data that emphasizes aspects of agricultural practices, gender, mortuary practices, population genetics, ritual, settlement patterns, technology, trade, and warfare. Using new methods and theories, recent discoveries and arguments are presented and previous discoveries reevaluated. This work includes chapters on European geography and the chronology of European prehistory. A new chapter has been added on the historical development of European archaeology. The remaining chapters have been contributed by archaeologists specializing in different periods. The second edition of European Prehistory: A Survey is enhanced by a glossary, three indices and a comprehensive bibliography, as well as an extensive collection of maps, chronological tables and photographs.

The Earliest Europeans explores the early origins of man in Europe through the perspective of ‘a year in the life’: how hominins in the Lower Palaeolithic coped with the year-round practical challenges of mid-latitude Europe with its distinctive temperatures, seasonality patterns, and available resources. Current research has provided increasingly robust archaeological and Quaternary Science records, but there are ongoing uncertainties as to both the earliest Europeans’ specific survival strategies and behaviours, and the character of their dispersals into Europe. In short, how sustained and ‘successful’ were the individual phases of European occupation by Lower Palaeolithic hominins and what sorts of ‘human’ where they? Using a season-by-season chapter structure to explore, for example, the contrasting demands and opportunities of winter versus summer survival, Hosfield explores how foods and other resources would vary across the four seasons in quantity and quality, and the resulting implications for hominin behaviours. Text boxes provide the background on key issues, and the book draws on a range of supporting evidence including technology (e.g. the nature of Lower Palaeolithic stone tools; the evidence for organic tools), hominin life history (e.g. the length of infant dependency; the nature of ‘parenting’; the implications of different mating models; the Social Brain Hypothesis), cognitive studies (e.g. brain scanning research into possible planning capabilities) and potential bias in the archaeological record (e.g. in terms of what is and isn’t preserved). By testing the likelihood of different scenarios by comparing short-term, site-based insights with long-term, regional trends, Hosfield is able to out forward ideas on how our earliest European ancestors survived and what their lives were like.