Variability of human behaviour during the Middle Pleistocene in Europe: Acheulean and Middle Palaeolithic cultures on the Iberian Peninsula

• Timeframe: 2019-2021
• Lead institution:: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades. Programa Estatal de Generación de Conocimiento y Fortalecimiento Científico y Tecnológico del Sistema de I+D+i (PGC2018-093612-B-I00).
• Lead research: Susana Rubio-Jara (Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, CENIEH), y José Yravedra Sáinz de los Terreros (Universidad Complutense de Madrid).
• Team members:Juan Antonio Martos Romero (Museo Arqueológico Nacional), Manuel Santonja (CENIEH), Alfredo Pérez-González (IDEA), Joaquín Panera Gallego (CENIEH), David Uribelarrea del Val (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Eduardo Méndez-Quintás (Universidad de Vigo), Blanca Ruiz-Zapata (Universidad de Alcalá de Henares) María José Gil (Universidad de Alcalá de Henares), Gloria Inés López Cadavid (CENIEH), Davinia Moreno (CENIEH), José María Postigo-Mijarra (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), Miguel Ángel Mate (Universidad de Ávila), Patricia Bello (CENIEH), Abel Moclán (CENIEH), Gonzalo Linares Matás (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Raquel Rojas (IDEA).

This project aims to study the coexistence of the Acheulean and Middle Palaeolithic techno-complexes at various open-air sites on the Iberian Peninsula. The working hypothesis is that the two archaeological industries had different origins.

The Middle Palaeolithic complex may have originated in the core and flake industries documented since the Lower Pleistocene, with no initial relation to the Acheulean, while the Acheulean complex of the Iberian Peninsula is similar in many ways to the African Acheulean industry. The coexistence of both techno-complexes in Europe probably gave rise to a wide variety of technological responses and may explain the palaeo-anthropological diversity observed in the fossil record.