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European Middle Paleolithic: Geography and Culture

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

State of Knowledge and Current Debates

Introduction

The Middle Paleolithic, in Europe, comprises an archaeological period between 250,000/300,000 and 35,000 years BP. This period corresponds to several climatic, anthropological (in a biological sense), and techno-cultural events.

From a climatic perspective, the Middle Paleolithic can be merged with the Saalian (Riss in Alpine terminology, Wolstonien in Britain) and Weichselian (Devensian and Würm, respectively) glaciations. Between the two is a brief temperate episode: the Eemian (Riss-Würm; Ipswichien). In isotopic chronology, the Middle Paleolithic generally extends from stages 10 to 3.

A human type is traditionally associated with the European Middle Paleolithic: Neanderthals. This is a typical European hominin species, even though its maximum extent reached the Middle East and the Altai Mountains in southwest Siberia.

The appearance of a new system of stone flake production, the Levallois technique, traditionally marks the...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, Paris, France

    Pascal Depaepe

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  1. Pascal Depaepe
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Correspondence to Pascal Depaepe .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

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Depaepe, P. (2014). European Middle Paleolithic: Geography and Culture. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1850

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1850

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