Category: The Rhine During The Middle Paleolithic

The identification of lithic raw material sources used to produce tools and the characterization of their management are essential when studying a prehistoric population.

The Saalian phase of the Middle Paleolithic (MIS 8 to 6) in northern France, as with Belgium and the Rhine Valley, has been characterized by a poor archaeological record, which seems to reflect discontinuous human occupation of these areas.

While controversial from the point of view of its impact on the landscape, the large-scale mining of lava from the scoria cones of the East Eifel led to the discovery of many Middle Paleolithic find horizons within the volcanic craters atop these elevated positions.

Since prehistoric times, the northern part of Bourgogne/Franche-Comté (east central France) has been an attractive transition area for populations and fauna, allowing movement from central to western Europe (and vice versa) via the Upper Danube Basin and the Belfort Gap.

In this paper we discuss two Châtelperronian sites in eastern France: Grotte de la Verpillière I, the easternmost known Châtelperronian site as of today, and the eponymous site of Grotte des Fées in Châtelperron.

This article examines lithic artifacts which, because of a particular modification, may be considered a shared feature of late Middle Paleolithic assemblages from the Saône-et-Loire Department in eastern France.

This article examines the technological and general appearance of Middle Paleolithic assemblages from a number of sites in the Côte Chalonnaise, Burgundy, France. Emanating from several assemblage characteristics observed within the stratified material from Grotte de la Verpillière II, ongoing research could demonstrate congruent technological patterns in the assemblages of a number of surrounding sites.

This paper presents a preliminary analysis of the open-air site of Charbonnières in the Mâconnais region of France. The collection of Georges Lamercerie, now housed within the Department of Early Prehsitory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, was used as the basis for this study.

The study of three open-air assemblages with bifacial tools and Levallois debitage from Lorraine (France) has allowed us to identify the first Keilmesser artifacts recorded in the Grand-Est region. These assemblages present varied knapping methods and a relatively homogeneous typology, along with the exploitation of very different raw materials.

The stratified Middle Paleolithic site of Coussey in Lorraine (Vosges, France) was discovered in 2014 in trial trenching during rescue archaeology. The site, located at the confluence between the Saonelle and the Meuse rivers, is dominated by the corallian calcareous ledge of the Hauts de Meuse, spreading generally towards the west from the river channel.

Archaeological excavations at Eguisheim have revealed a small quantity of Middle Paleolithic finds associated with periglacial mammal fragments. Given the scarcity of such occurrences in Alsace (eastern France) and important older Paleolithic discoveries around Eguisheim, close attention was paid to the chronostratigraphical framework of these remains.

The Upper Rhine Plain is part of a Cenozoic graben, which is approximately 40 km wide and 300 km long. This geological structure determines the geometry and the thicknesses of the Quaternary sediments, with a subsiding central zone and loess-covered alluvial terraces on its margins.

With 150 years of research on the Paleolithic of the Swabian Jura, the region offers one of the richest records of Neanderthal occupation. The faunal remains from the caves of the Ach and Lone valleys provide an important source of data from Central Europe.

For several decades, Paleolithic research in the Swabian Jura has mainly focused on the numerous cave sites situated in the Ach and Lone valleys.

The canton of Basel-Stadt, situated in the northwestern part of Switzerland, is divided into three communities: the city of Basel and the two rural communities of Riehen and Bettingen.

This book presents research reported at the conference: “The Rhine During the Middle Paleolithic: Boundary or Corridor?” held in Sélestat in May 2017.

The Paleolithic site of Mutzig, discovered by chance in 1992 (Sainty 1992), has been the focus of several excavations since 2009. Located in Alsace (Bas-Rhin, France), it is presently one of only a handful of sites reliably attributed to the Middle Paleolithic in this area, thus providing rare evidence for a zone still relatively unknown for Early Prehistoric remains.

Heidenschmiede is a Middle Paleolithic rockshelter located in Heidenheim an der Brenz. The site was excavated in 1930 by Eduard Peters, but the archaeological remains were never completely analyzed.