El vínculo entre África y la península ibérica durante el Pleistoceno medioel caso del yacimiento achelense de Porto Maior (As Neves, Galicia)

Abstract

The current data displays an archaeologically complex setting during the second half of the Middle Pleistocene in the Iberian Peninsula. Different technological groups coexist: an Acheulean group with large flakes and African filum, and another in the technological line of the Middle Palaeolithic. This situation is roughly between 300,000 and 120,000 years before the present and displays a different and more complex cultural pattern than that proposed by the traditional transitional hypothesis. The site of Porto Maior (As Neves, Galicia) provides a relevant archaeological record to explore this issue in depth. The identification of a layer with an extensive accumulation of Acheulean tools (mainly handaxes), dated to around 210,000 years ago, is the first known case in Europe. This type of occupation is typically African and its identification in the Peninsula reinforces the link between the Iberian Acheulean and that of the African continent.