ABSTRACT
Western Asia occupies a central geographic location between Africa, Asia and Europe. It is the only secure terrestrial road through which animals could have crossed between the continents during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. The currently available information from the Lower Palaeolithic of southeast Spain (Freeman 1975; Gibert 1992; Raposo and Santoja 1995; Roe 1995) may indicate that early crossings from Africa to Mediterranean Europe could have taken place through the Gibraltar Straits. Another potential pathway across the Mediterranean could have been by way of Sicily (Alimen 1979), as indicated by the spread of the Acheulian in Italy and the presence of core-chopper assemblages in localities such as Monte Poggiolo and Isernia la Pineta (e.g. Peretto 1991, 1994; Mussi 1995). However, although certain morphological traits of the Spanish and Italian Acheulian assemblages could be related to similar African industries, sound evidence for early crossings of the Mediterranean is still missing from both regions.
