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300000–45000 BCE

Period · Europe — Western & Central

Middle Palaeolithic

300000–45000 BCE

The Middle Palaeolithic is the age of the Neanderthals in Europe and of Mousterian flake-tool industries using prepared Levallois cores. Cave and rock-shelter sites in France, Spain, Italy and central Europe and open sites in Britain preserve it. It ends with the arrival of modern humans.

Dates300000–45000 BCE
RegionEurope — Western & Central
PeriodO definition149999–39999 BCE — Historic England Periods (2014)· PeriodO — Periods, Organized

Cultures

Typical types

Elsewhere

Cite this article

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

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

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

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