The dispersal of hominin groups with an Acheulian technology and associated bifacial tools into northern latitudes is central to the debate over the timing of the oldest human occupation of Europe. New evidence resulting from the rediscovery and the dating of the historic site of Moulin Quignon demonstrates that the first Acheulian occupation north of 50°N occurred around 670–650 ka ago. The new archaeological assemblage was discovered in a sequence of fluvial sands and gravels overlying the chalk bedrock at a relative height of 40 m above the present-day maximal incision of the Somme River and dated by ESR on quartz to early MIS 16. More than 260 flint artefacts were recovered, including large flakes, cores and five bifaces. This discovery pushes back the age of the oldest Acheulian occupation of north-western Europe by more than 100 ka and bridges the gap between the archaeological records of northern France and England. It also challenges hominin dispersal models in Europe showing that hominins using bifacial technology, such as Homo heidelbergensis, were probably able to overcome cold climate conditions as early as 670–650 ka ago and reasserts the importance of the Somme valley, where Prehistory was born at the end of the 19th century.

North-West Europe yields few traces of early human occupation, in particular for the Acheulean. In this context, the Somme Valley in northern France offers a route to Britain during various Pleistocene low sea levels, and has provided numerous evidence of Lower Palaeolithic human occupation through fieldwork initiated during the 19th century. These localities are associated with the original definition in the 1930s by the French prehistorian Abbé Henri Breuil of the 'Abbevillien' (Abbevillian facies), based on lithic pieces including crudely made bifaces recovered in particular in some famous key localities of Abbeville, Carpentier, Léon and Moulin Quignon quarries. The history of the term and its definition subsequently gave rise to debates concerning the chronocultural framework of Palaeolithic assemblages among the scientific community of prehistorians over time, from Jacques Boucher de Perthes, Gabriel de Mortillet, Geoffroy d'Ault du Mesnil, Victor Commont, Henri Breuil and François Bordes. New investigations at these three localities, all associated with the High Terrace of the Somme system, pushed back the age of the expansion of the Acheulean both in northern France and in Western Europe to c. 670-650 000 years. They imply that early hominins were able to settle in North-West Europe during both climatic temperate and cold phases. Our work, including new excavations and associated field observations of the three Abbeville localities involved at the onset of the controversy, allows a re-examination of the Abbevillian and contributes to the discussion of the history of Prehistoric Science and the Earliest 'Acheuleans' in North-West Europe.

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Current data seem to suggest that the earliest hominins only occupied the Northwest of Europe during favourable climatic periods, and left the area when the climate was too cold and dry, in the same way as Neandertal and even Homo sapiens. However, several sites in England and the North of France indicate that the earliest hominins, possibly Homo antecessor and/or Homo heidelbergensis, could adapt to cool environments and open grasslands without the use of fire. Recent discoveries of Acheulean lithic assemblages in early glacial fluvial deposits at Moulin Quignon in the Somme Valley in the Northwest of France reveal new knowledge on the earliest occupations in north-western territories and indicate hominins’ capacity to live above the c. 45th N. under a cold climate. The site shows evidence of occupations at the beginning of MIS 16 at around 650–670 ka. These findings bring to the forefront the possible ability, flexibility and resilience of Acheulean hominins at around 700 ka to extend to northern territories during transitional climatic periods (interglacial/glacial events), even if the climate was not fully favourable. Recent fieldwork has changed our interpretation of the timing and characteristics of the earliest Acheulean techno-complexes in Western Europe over a large geographical area, from Northwest Europe to the Mediterranean coast. In Western Europe, the earliest evidence, Moulin Quignon, is now dated to a narrow timeframe, between 700–650 ka, and is the northernmost evidence of biface production. This latter is earlier than British Acheulean records. Based on new findings at Moulin Quignon, we explore whether Acheulean traditions and associated new technological abilities could have facilitated the dispersal of hominins in Western Europe over large territories, regardless of climatic conditions. Changes in behavioural flexibility, and not only phenotypic changes in Homo groups, have to be investigated. Here, we examine the behavioural and technological abilities of hominins in north-western Europe in light of the available environmental data and compare them to those in southern areas between 700 and 600 ka. This event occurred at the end of the “Middle Pleistocene Transition” (MPT), a period marked by cyclical climate changes and vegetation and faunal turnovers (less competition with big carnivores). The extension of the grassland habitat into higher latitudes could have led to the opening and/or closing of migration corridors in these regions, probably favouring hominin expansion depending on tolerance to climate variability.