Paleolithic Europe, or Old Stone Age Europe, encompasses the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age in Europe from the arrival of the first archaic humans, about 1.4 million years ago until the beginning of the Mesolithic (also Epipaleolithic) around 10,000 years ago. This period thus covers over 99% of the total human presence on the European continent. The early arrival and disappearance of Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis, the appearance, complete evolution and eventual demise of Homo neanderthalensis and the immigration and successful settlement of Homo sapiens all have taken place during the European Paleolithic.
Overview
The period is divided into: the Lower Paleolithic, from the earliest human presence (Homo antecessor and Homo heidelbergensis) to the Holstein interglacial, c. 1.4 to 0.3 million years ago; the Middle Paleolithic, marked by the presence of Neanderthals, 300,000 to 40,000 years ago; the Upper Paleolithic, c. 46,000 to 12,000 years ago, marked by the arrival of anatomically modern humans and extending throughout the Last Glacial Maximum; the Mesolithic or Epipaleolithic, beginning about 14,000 years ago and extending until as late as 4,000 years ago in northern Europe. The Mesolithic may or may not be included as the final phase of the Upper Paleolithic.
Paleolithic
Lower Paleolithic: 1.4 mya – 300,000 BP
The oldest evidence of human occupation in Eastern Europe comes from the Kozarnika cave in Bulgaria where a single human tooth and flint artifacts have been dated to at least 1.4 million years ago. In Western Europe at Atapuerca in Spain, human remains have been found that are from 1.2 million years ago. Five Homo erectus skulls were discovered at an excavation site in Dmanisi, Georgia. Unearthed in 2005 and described in a publication in 2013, the Dmanisi skull 5 is estimated to be about 1.8 million years old.
The earliest evidence for the use of the more advanced Mode 2-type assemblages Acheulean tools are 900,000 year-old flint hand axes found in Iberia and at a 700,000 year-old site in central France. Notable human fossils from this period were found in Kozarnika in Bulgaria (1.4 mya), at Atapuerca in Spain (1.2 mya), in Mauer in Germany (500k), at Eartham Pit, Boxgrove England (478k), at Swanscombe in England (400k), and Tautavel in France (400k).
The oldest complete hunting weapons ever found anywhere in the world were discovered in 1995 in a coal mine near the town Schöningen, Germany, where the Schöningen spears, eight 380,000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed.
Middle Paleolithic: 300,000–50,000 BP
Elements of the European and African Homo erectus populations evolved between 800,000 and 400,000 years ago through a series of intermediate speciations towards Homo antecessor and Homo heidelbergensis. Fossils of the species Homo neanderthalensis are only to be found in Eurasia. Neanderthal fossil record ranges from Western Europe to the Altai Mountains in Central Asia and the Ural Mountains in the North to the Levant in the South. Unlike its predecessors they were biologically and culturally adapted to survival in cold environments and successfully extended their range to the glacial environments of central Europe and the Russian plains. The great number and in some cases exceptional state of preservation of Neanderthal fossils and cultural assemblages enables researchers to provide a detailed and accurate data on behavior and culture. Neanderthals are associated with the Mousterian culture (Mode 3), stone tools that first appeared approximately 160,000 years ago.
Experts debate over whether the "Divje Babe flute" from the Divje Babe I cave is evidence—based on if the object is an actual flute—that the Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal inhabitants of Europe may have made and used musical instruments.
Upper Paleolithic: 50,000–10,000 BP
The earliest modern human which have been directly dated are from 46,000 to 44,000 years ago in the Bacho Kiro cave, located in present-day Bulgaria. They are associated with the Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP), the earliest culture of modern humans in Europe. These people do not appear to have been the ancestors of later Europeans as the very few ancient DNA (aDNA) samples recovered from this period are not related to later samples.