The East African origin of the Western European Acheulean technology: Fact or paradigm?

However, such large-scale syntheses can be flawed because the archaeological data are highly fragmented both in time and space and frequently incomparable given the different theoretical/methodological approaches adopted. The aim of this paper is to avoid such pitfalls. Accordingly, I will systematically review the Lower/early Middle Pleistocene East African assemblages and the late Lower/early Middle Pleistocene Western European assemblages which have been labeled as “Acheulean”. The contemporaneous core and flake industries will be taken into account and discussed. This will allow evaluating the theoretical/methodological implications of an East African origin for the Western European Acheulean, and understanding if it is a fact or a paradigm.