A NEW REGIONAL GROUP OF THE LOWER PALEOLITHIC IN BRITTANY (FRANCE), RECENTLY DATED BY ELECTRON-SPIN-RESONANCE

ESR dates obtained at Menez-Dregan 1 (Brittany, France) focus interest on this Lower Palaeolithic site and demonstrate that the preserved an thropic combustion structures are among the oldest known in the world. It allows the dating not only of the little known ''Colombanian Group '' (it is an ''archaic'' original group characterized by many choppers and very few handaxes, different from the Acheulian), but also, for t he first time, of the old beaches on the southern coast of Brittany. P reserved bone remains are also very infrequent in Palaeolithic sites o f Western France. The dating of the palaeolithic layer at the top of t he third fossil beach can be connected with isotopic stage 11 or the b eginning of isotopic stage 10, it shows that the age of the geological and archaeological layers of Menez-Dregan 1 is probably between 350,0 00 and 500,000 years.