WEAP · The Western European Acheulian Project

The Western European Acheulian Project

The Western European Acheulean Project (WEAP) has tried to understand the occupational pattern of western Europe during the Middle Pleistocene from 700,000 to 300,000 years ago through the study of handaxe technology and morphology in Spain, France and Britain. It is in western Europe that the earliest handaxe sites occur (from c. 700,000 years ago), which recent research shows may be due to the more oceanic climate compared to eastern Europe Through this period there are repeated changes in climate with glaciations and interglacials on an approximately 100,000 year cycle. For this reason northern Europe was frequently depopulated and then recolonized probably from source areas in southern France and Iberia. These regions should therefore have evidence of the cultural links between north and south. From 1 million to 700,000 years ago there seem to have been brief incursions by pioneering populations into north-west Europe, but by 600,000 occupation seems to have been more sustained with an increasing number of sites and larger assemblages. Alongside handaxe production there is also the first evidence of other technologies such as wood-working, bone tool manufacture, with possibly clothing, shelters and fire-use. Fire would have been critical for survival in northern latitudes and was the beginning of adaptation to cold, long winters. Understanding of the driving forces and mechanisms for periodic occupation and retreat is important for human evolution and adaptation to cooler climates. Although there has been much research and new sites excavated over the last 20 years, there has been little integration between the work in Spain, Britain and France. In addition, there are different systems of lithic analysis, making it difficult to compare stone tool assemblages. The principle aim of the project has been to create an integrated methodology, using the best aspects of each system of recording. The objective has been to use this methodology in conjunction with new 3D scanning technology and robust statistical analysis to improve understanding of behavioural patterns in order to build models of human dispersals from south-west to north-west Europe.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз