One names “lower Paléolotique” the period characterized by the first manifestations of the human activity. In Europe, struck blocks are the first indices. These industries (the whole of the techniques thus is called by whom the man acts on the matter and the objects while resulting) are often badly dated and difficult to identify: a badly controlled percussion causes a result close to what can produce of the natural shocks.
In Spain like in southernmost France, they are the high terraces of Catalonia and Roussillon which delivered antiquated industries. These last are out of quartz, material which could resist deteriorations. One of the first layers quite localized in time is the cave of Vallonet, whose industry, out of limestone and quarzite, is perhaps accompanied by waste of fauna.
From -700 ' 000 to -400 ' 000 It is at the beginning of average pleistocene that an industry on rough blocks appears in various places of Europe (Spain, Italy, France). In Italy, some lithic parts are discovered in Colle Marino and Fontana Liri (Latium), Bibbona (Tuscany), Monte Peglia (Ombrie). The layer of Isernia (Weakens) constitutes a large European layer because of excavated surface and the abundant discovered material, but the dating given (- 700 ' 000) could not be also old.
The layer of Soleihac
The layer of Soleihac, located in the Massif Central, fact him also part of the oldest excavated campings of outdoor. Located in edge of an old lake of volcano, in a fluvio-lake series with remainders of a fauna characteristic of the beginning of average pleistocene, this layer is not very rich, the occupations were to be there of short duration. The material lithic there is very varied: chopper tools, glares, parts bifaçoïdes, thick scrapers, small dentils.
Spanish layers
The Iberian peninsula contains several layers with industry on rollers of the antiquated type which present affinities with sites of Africa. Pinedo is the first Spanish layer to have delivered a whole of the paleolithic inferior. It is in an average terrace of Tage, not far from Tolède. Excavated on several meters thickness and a surface of 30 m2, it delivered an industry made up of double-side amygdaloids, hatchets and of some tools on glares. Fauna understands the horse, the hippopotamus and the stag Elaphe. The tectonic basin of Guadix-Baza, close to Grenade, reveals the presence of the horse, the rhinoceros, large deer tribe. El Aculadero, dominating the sea not far from Cadiz, delivered many rollers arranged out of quartz and quarzite. Although dated from the beginning of average pleistocene, this industry was compared with oldest of the Mediterranean world.
Layers of the north of France
In the north of France, it is with a warming to average pleistocene that the old layers of the valley of the Sum and the Carpentier career are attached. In Cagny-the-Garenne, the men settled at the bottom of a chalky slope to cut remains, outlines of double-side and nucleus.
From -400 ' 000 to -250 ' 000
This period is that of the apogee of the paleolithic inferior and the appearance of the paleolithic means.
Northern Europe
The acheuléen (of the name of the village of Saint-Acheul, in the Sum) is the major facies of this period, widespread in part of Western Europe. The prehistorians agree on the definition of this culture - lithic industry marked by its double-side - but not on what it means. This industry rich in double-side varied is generally near sources of raw material. The predominance of a form of double-side on another does not have chronological significance. The clactonien is contemporary acheuléen, but does not understand the double-side ones; defined in Clacton-one-Sea, it characterizes certain series of England. The access to this island was possible starting from Europe, when the sea level was rather low in cold period. Located not far from Amiens, the layer of Cagny-l' Epinette understands several occupations rich in fauna (bison, stag Elaphe, horse). The tools, realized out of local flint, comprise double-side courts, scrapers, notches and dentils.
Certain industries of Brittany (Saint-Colomban) understand rollers without double-side, out of quartz, flint or sandstone. The flint was used to make glares, the sandstone of the chopper tools and chopping-tools.
The Central and Eastern Europe
In the site of Bilzingsleben, in the valley of Saale in Thuringe, the excavations put at the day a habitat of edge of lake to the structures subcirculaires. The bones discovered are those large herbivores whose diaphyses were broken. The tools, very small, understand dentils, nozzles and scrapers. Some chopper tools and strikers accompany this tools. The datings locate the layer between - 150 ' 000 and - 350 ' 000. In Eastern Europe, industries of the hot period of Ariendorf are deprived of double-side but one finds there rollers arranged and glares of quartz, quarzite and schist. In Central Europe, the site of outdoor of Vértesszöllös delivered several layers and levels rich in lithic fauna and material. The absence of double-side in an industry is perhaps related to the geological type of the ground (travertine). Fauna understands bear, horses, bovids, deer tribe, among the remainders of which was discovered a fragment of occipital human.
South of France
In the South of France, two units would be contemporary end of the mindélien and beginning of the mindel-riss: the cave of Aldène in the Herault and the cave of Caune of Arago, in Tantarel, in Roussillon. The latter delivered many information. The remainders of animals which were found there show the prevalence of a species of herbivore: ibex, cervidé or reindeer. All the parts of the skeleton are represented. Lithic industry understands some double-side and of the heavy tools on quartz rollers, as well as small tools on glares rich in scrapers with thick final improvements, of the dentils, the notches, the scrapers and the tools on small rollers. It is one of these grounds which the most currently known human vestiges come.
The Mediterranean acheuléen
France
In France, the layer of Terra Amata, close to Nice, understands several grounds of habitats badly distinguished from/to each other. They delivered tools on rollers very abundant: many massive limestone tools and small tools on glares made up of scrapers and dentils. The bones, rather abundant, understand remainders of large mammals.
Italy
In Italy, the area of Venosa, in Basilicate, forms a tectonic depression related to the volcanic alluvia of Vulture. The upper part of the filling shows many human establishments in edge of paléorivages. Lithic industry comprises limestone chopper tools and glares with very open heel. Fauna understands remainders of horses, bovines and deer tribe. In Notarchirico, one released from many “occupations”. Industry gathers heavy chopper tools and small tools, of which dentils. The double-side ones are rare, fauna is consisted by the bison and of the aurochs, the deer and a hart. The unit would be gone back to -400 ' 000 to -500 ' 000.
The layer of outdoor of Manor house di Guido, located not far from Rome, was discovered in the years 1980. The bones belong to the bison, the horse and the stag. Furniture, out of limestone and flint, is accompanied by some double-side cut on diaphyses of elephant and whose morphology is identical to that of double-side out of stone.
Spain
In the Iberian peninsula, the layer of Aridos, put at the day at the time of the exploitation of a gravel pit not far from Madrid, delivered many elements of fauna and an industry acheuléenne. Ambrona and Torralba are famous layers of the paleolithic European inferior. Large fauna is dominated by remainders of elephants, whose natural death on the site is more than probable. Industry present with these remainders understands double-side, hatchets, glares and many chopper tools.
This stage, the problem of the acquisition of flesh-colored food arises. Many layers of southernmost Europe delivered remainders of elephants. The assumption according to which one drove out the deer tribe cannot be isolated, but it remains to prove.
The transition from -270 ' 000 to -120 ' 000
At the beginning of penultimate the great glaciation, the majority of industries acheuléennes evolve to the paleolithic means.
Appearance of the Levallois technique
Because of the increasingly frequent use of Levallois cutting up (the cutting up of nucleus makes it possible to obtain glares of great dimension and blades), industries understand few double-side and final improvements bifaciales. It is the case of the layer of outdoor of Salzgitter-Lenbenstedt (Germany of North), which shows that the man settles in a cold biotope (fauna is consisted by the reindeer, of the mammoth, the horse and the bison).
The passage towards industry moustérienne
In all Europe will appear industries which close to the moustérien (culture defined starting from the cave of Moustier, in the Dordogne) and are dominated by the scrapers. Industries of the cave of the Lazaret are rich in arranged rollers and scrapers. In Biache-Saint-Vaast (Pas-de-Calais), industry was reported, like that of Rheindahlen (Germany), with the moustérien of the Ferrassie type (characterized by its wealth of lengthened convergent parts). The shelter Vaufrey (the Dordogne), several industries make it possible to observe ruptures which mark the passage from one stage to another: one notes thus that the acheuléen is supplanted little by little by the paleolithic means, which shows a better management of the territory (in particular with regard to the supply raw materials).