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New fieldworks and revision of lithic collections during the past decade have renewed our interpretation of the timing and characteristics of the earliest Acheulean techno-complexes in Western Europe. The lower level of the la Noira site is a crucial snapshot for evaluating the technological abilities and strategies of Middle Pleistocene hominins at 700 kyrs in Europe at the beginning of elaborate biface production and associated behavioural changes. The site of la Noira is located in the central part of France, where climatic conditions may have had a stronger impact on occupations than in Southern Europe. New excavations between 2011 and 2018, over a surface of 100 m², yielded a large corpus of artefacts including cores, flakes, bifaces and a large heavy-duty component. We analysed the lithic corpus composed of almost 1,000 artefacts from a taphonomic perspective, identified the chaînes opératoires and all the reduction processes involved at the site, and examined the spatial distribution of the archaeological remains. The results offer a broad overview of the types of lithic management and related cognition and skills of Middle Pleistocene hominins living on a riverbank under cool conditions, at the beginning of a glacial stage.The comparison with penecontemporaneous sites indicates that a technological shift possibly occurred in Western Europe from 700 to 600 kyrs. The technological strategies used indicate (1) common abilities in core technologies including some sporadic independence from stone shape, (2) a diversity of technical solutions and morphological results for biface shaping with evidence of a bifacial or bilateral equilibrium and a preconceived form on some tools, and (3) a large and diversified heavy-duty component. Biases related to activities, raw material types and various traditions are discussed. The chronology of the emergence of new behaviours, such as an early biface shaping ability, seems to have been identical in the northwest and south of Europe.

RÉSUMÉ Situé au pied d'une butte tertiaire résiduelle, le gisement de Beauvais a livré de nombreux vestiges, lithiques et osseux, d'une occupation du Paléolithique moyen sur une superficie de 763 m2. Les caractéristiques sédimentolo- giques et la structure des dépôts de sables éoliens contenant le matériel archéologique, indiquent des conditions froides et sèches et un milieu steppique fortement ouvert. Le cortège faunique, dominé par le Renne, évoque également des conditions climatiques rigoureuses. L'industrie lithique est caractérisée par l'emploi d'un mode de débi- tage s'inscrivant dans un concept général discoïde et contient de nombreux éclats débordants et pointes pseudo-Levallois. L'outillage est dominé par les racloirs simples, les couteaux à dos et les éclats portant une courte retouche marginale. Des datations actuellement en cours permettront d'attribuer cette occupation au stade isotopique 6 ou au stade 4 ; le gisement de Beauvais constitue ainsi un des rares exemples de la fréquentation de ces régions durant une phase pléniglaciaire.