The Megalopolis Paleoenvironmental Project (MegaPal)

Abstract

The Lower Paleolithic record of Greece remains poorly known, even though the Greek Peninsula lies on one of the likeliest dispersal roots between Africa, Western Asia and Europe (Harvati et al., 2009; Tourloukis and Karkanas, 2012). Furthermore, the Balkans is one of the three major southern European refugia for fauna, flora, and possibly human populations during glacial periods, and therefore should have been among those parts of the continent that were relatively continuously occupied (e.g., Tzedakis et al., 2002; Harvati, 2016, 2022). Notwithstanding its importance, paleoanthropological research in the region has until recently been sparse, mainly owing to research priorities focused on later periods. The scanty evidence at hand chiefly consists of sites and findspots lacking a paleoenvironmental and chronological context (Tourloukis and Karkanas, 2012; Harvati, 2016, 2022; Tourloukis and Harvati, 2018). This type of evidence is therefore difficult to interpret and offers a fragmentary and ambiguous, yet highly intriguing, picture.