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.