Hominins and the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition: evolution, culture and climate in Africa and Europe

Abstract

Abstract Some of the more important evidence is reviewed for the archaeology of hominin colonization associated with the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition. This is done by reference to the nature of migration ‘out of Africa’ before the interval of transition, across the transition itself, and then after it. Technologically assisted behaviour may not have been so important in the colonization process, behaviour and biology being the primary factors that led to the success of a migrating species. While climate change and especially shifts in local aridity would have been experienced and possibly remembered by localized hominin groups, the Acheulean behavioural repertoire did not change much across Africa and Europe over a million years of time. It merely adapted to local conditions. The Acheulean was a generalized hand-held processing technology for a generalized hominin.

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