From the east or the west? Blade production in the Levant and northwest of Europe during the Middle Pleistocene

Even though the blade production from the Levant and Europe share many similarities such as producing elongated blanks and using hard hammer percussion, there are significant differences between them. Both EMP assemblages from the Levant and Europe (e.g., Cave dall 'Olio, Mesvin IV) show simultaneously the use of Laminar and Levallois reduction strategies to produce their blanks. Yet in the Levant blade production is most prominent whereas in Europe blades appeared as a marginal phenomenon alongside flake production. Furthermore, there is a fundamental difference concerning the appearance of blade and Levallois technologies. In Europe, the oldest evidence of the Levallois (proto-Levallois) dated back to MIS 12-11 in France, MIS 10 in Italy and only at the end of MIS 9 beginning of MIS 8 did the Laminar system start to While in the Levant, the Laminar system began around 400 000 BP before the emergence of the Levallois system in the EMP.