http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1968 Publications de Auteurs Ian Candy fr 0 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1964 The colonization of Eurasia by early humans is a key event after their spread out of Africa, but the nature, timing and ecological context of the earliest human occupation of northwest Europe is uncertain and has been the subject of intense debate (Dennell 2003). The southern Caucasus was occupied about 1.8 million years (Myr) ago (Gabunia 2000), whereas human remains from Atapuerca-TD6, Spain (more than 780 kyr ago) (Carbonell et al. 1995) and Ceprano, Italy (about 800 kyr ago) (Manzi 2004) show that early Homo had dispersed to the Mediterranean hinterland before the Brunhes–Matuyama magnetic polarity reversal (780 kyr ago). Until now, the earliest uncontested artefacts from northern Europe were much younger, suggesting that humans were unable to colonize northern latitudes until about 500 kyr ago (Gamble 1999; Dennell & Roebroeks 1996). Here we report flint artefacts from the Cromer Forest-bed Formation at Pakefield (52°N), Suffolk, UK, from an interglacial sequence yielding a diverse range of plant and animal fossils. Event and lithostratigraphy, palaeomagnetism, amino acid geochronology and biostratigraphy indicate that the artefacts date to the early part of the Brunhes Chron (about 700 kyr ago) and thus represent the earliest unequivocal evidence for human presence north of the Alps. Thu, 16 Jan 2025 09:34:18 +0100 Thu, 16 Jan 2025 09:34:26 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1964