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3300000–300000 BCE

Period · Europe — Western & Central

Lower Palaeolithic

3300000–300000 BCE

The Lower Palaeolithic spans the earliest stone tools through the Acheulean handaxe industries of Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis, ending around 300,000 years ago. In Europe it is represented at sites such as Boxgrove, Atapuerca and Terra Amata and in the river gravels of Britain and France. Handaxes, cleavers and simple flake tools are the finds.

Dates3300000–300000 BCE
RegionEurope — Western & Central
PeriodO definition999999–149999 BCE — Historic England Periods (2014)· PeriodO — Periods, Organized

Cultures

Typical types

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Strata. "Lower Palaeolithic" (Period). Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/strata/periods/lower-palaeolithic. Accessed 2026-09-21.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-lower-palaeolithic,
  title        = {Lower Palaeolithic},
  author       = {{Stratum Strata}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/strata/periods/lower-palaeolithic}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Period article, Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, periodo. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
}

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