A sweeping international study of European Stone Age sites is reshaping understanding of how early humans developed new technologies roughly 400,000 years ago.
Rather than emerging suddenly, hallmark Middle Palaeolithic techniques—including the sophisticated Levallois stone-knapping method—appear to have developed gradually during a period of favourable climate and expanding populations.
The study, published in Quaternary Science Advances, investigates the technological traditions across Western Europe during Marine Isotope Stage 11 (MIS 11), a warm interglacial period between approximately 424,000 and 374,000 years ago. This phase was the decisive transition between the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic and marked the onset of early Neanderthal traits.
Researchers investigated 47 archaeological strata from 42 sites around France, Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, Great Britain, and parts of Central and Eastern Europe.
The focus was on lithic (stone-tool) technology: core reduction techniques such as Levallois flaking, the production of large cutting tools such as bifaces and cleavers, and little retouched implements.
To compare assemblages systematically, the authors used the three-item analysis (3IA), a procedure more widely studied in evolutionary biology.
Each lithic structure was perceived as a single cultural unit. By charting common technological innovations and then organising them into a hierarchy, researchers pieced together patterns of inheritance and diversification across regions.
This strategy enabled them to trace how specific techniques emerged, merged, and evolved over time. The findings describe a structured yet interrelated technology landscape. British sites appear to differ from continental ones, but little evidence exists for strictly regional isolation across Western Europe.
In contrast, the data indicates continued contact and exchange between northern and southern populations during MIS 11, facilitated by steadying and moderate climatic conditions allowing for territorial extension.
“One of the most relevant results is that Levallois technology probably existed before MIS 12, survived the glacial episode and diversified during MIS 11, rather than being a completely new invention of this period. There is also an intensification of complex carving methods, such as centripetal and hierarchical discoid systems, which coexisted with Acheulean traditions such as biface production,” said the study authors.
The results reveal a hierarchical structure among European sites, with a clear division between predominantly British and continental assemblages. Overall, the research questions conventional models that attribute technological transformation to sudden cultural shifts or population replacement.
Sources : IPHES
