The Lower Paleolithic Period (ca 1 million-200,000 years ago) is sparsely represented in Europe: but the sites that have been identified are important to our understanding of the migrations out of Africa, and the subsequent journeys that humans embarked on.
This list of Lower Paleolithic sites in Europe is built to go along with the Guide to Prehistoric Europe.
Pakefield (England)
Nature (c) 2005
Pakefield is a 700,000 year old archaeological site located on the North Sea coastline of Suffolk; and it was occupied by either Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis. It is the oldest hominid occupation in Britain yet discovered to date.
Bilzingsleben (Germany)
Bilzingsleben is a Lower Paleolithic open air site with fabulous preservation, located in Thuringia in eastern Germany and dated between 320,000 and 412,000 years ago.
Dmanisi (Georgia)
Dmanisi is the name of a very old archaeological site located in the Caucausus of the Republic of Georgia, and dated to between 1 million and 1.8 million years ago. It is currently the oldest hominid site located outside of the continent of Africa.
Torralba and Ambrona (Spain)
The paleontological sites of Torralba and Ambrona are located on the Ambrona River, two kilometers apart in the Soria region of Spain, 150 kilometers northeast of Madrid; they are considered to be occupations of Homo erectus dated between 330,000 and 270,000 years ago.
Gran Dolina (Spain)
Gran Dolina is a famous rockshelter in the Sierra de Atapuerca region of central Spain, approximately 15 kilometers from the town of Burgos. It has several hominid occupations dated to the Lower and Middle Paleolithic period.
Sima del Elefante(Spain)
The Sima del Elefante is is a karst rockshelter located in the Sierra de Atapuerca mountain range of northern Spain, with hominid occupations dated between 1.1 and 1.2 million years ago, and likely belonging to Homo antecessor.
Beeches Pit (United Kingdom)
Beeches Pit is the name of a Middle Pleistocene archaeological site located in Suffolk, England, close to an abandoned channel of the Bytham/Ingham river. The site has been dated to about 400,000 years old, based on thermoluminescence, U-series and paleoenvironmental indicators.
