Early human occupation of Western Europe: Paleomagnetic dates for two paleolithic sites in Spain

The lacustrine deposits infilling the intramontane Guadix-Baza Basin, in th e Betic Range of Southern Spain, have yielded abundant well-preserved lithi c artifacts. In addition, the lake beds contain a wide range of micromammal s including Mimomys savini and Allophaiomys burgondiae and large mammals su ch as Mammuthus and Hippopotamus together with the African saber-toothed fe lid Megantereon, The association of the lithic artifacts along with the fos sil assemblages, themselves of prime significance in the Eurasian mammal bi ochronology, is providing new insight into the controversy of the human set tlement in Southern Europe. Despite the importance of the artifacts and fos sil assemblage, estimates of the geological age of the site are still in co nflict. Some attempts at dating the sediments have included biochronology, uranium series, amino acid racemization, and stratigraphic correlation with other well-dated sections in the basin, but so far have failed to yield un ambiguous ages. Here we present paleomagnetic age dating at the relevant lo calities and thus provide useful age constraints for this critical paleoant hropological and mammal site, Our data provide firm evidence for human occu pation in Southern Europe in the Lower Pleistocene, around 1 mega-annum ago . The current view of when and how hominids first dispersed into Europe nee ds to be reevaluated.