The First Occupations of Western Europe: Dispersals and Population Dynamics in the Early to Middle Pleistocene

The occupation of Western Europe is part of a greater process, the first “Out of Africa”. Within this process, a wide chronological gap is documented between the first occupations in Asia and those in Western Europe. The earliest occupations of Western Europe are dated around 1.4–1.2 Ma and located in Southern Europe, in the Iberian Peninsula and Italy. A punctuated advance towards the North is discerned with the first occupations in England being as old as 0.9 Ma. Through a synthesis of up-to-date literature, this paper aims to provide an updated, robust and more integrated understanding of the processes that shaped the earliest human occupations of Western Europe. Throughout our review and analysis, the early occupation of Western Europe is revealed as a complex, multi-phased process marked by episodic population incursions and turnovers. The archaeological record, of which we demonstrate a considerable bias in likelihood of discovery, shows that colonization began around 1.4–1.2 Ma, with successive waves introducing new distinct hominin species, technological repertoires and adaptive strategies. Of these successive waves, at least four are clearly visible in the record, although we acknowledge that with a high probability there were more waves of varying intensities. Integrated technological, faunistic and taphonomic studies will be key going forward. We finally advocate for a multiscale approach based on complex systems theory and an array of computational modelling techniques to gain a more comprehensive and robust knowledge of the process of population of Western Europe.