European and Northwest African Middle Pleistocene Hominids

THE SPARSE REPRESENTATION of human skeletal remains from the Middle Pleistocene has always been one of the greatest gaps in human-paleontological knowledge.At first, Southeastern Asia was unique in having provided remains from the Trinil beds in Java, but the signifi cance of this poorly preserved skull-cap was confirmed and greatly amplified by subsequent discoveries (Von Koenigswald 1940) of better preserved specimens at other localities of similar age, as well as in the still older Djetis beds.Still tfuly unique in all the world is the somewhat younger occupation site of Locality 1 Choukoutien, with its extraordinarily abundant, prob ably cannibalized, human remains in association with hearths, stone implements (Choukoutienian chopper/ chopping-tool complex), and remains of slaughtered animals.For many years, the only such find from the West was the enigmatic human mandible from the Grafenrain gravel pit at Mauer in the Rhineland.Then, within a few years in the mid-thirties, three additional speci mens came to light in western Europe (Steinheim), Britain (Swanscombe), and northwest Africa (Rabat, Morocco).In the last several years, further Middle Pleistocene human remains were found in northwest Africa, both in Algeria (Ternifine) and in Morocco (Sidi Abderrahman).All these discoveries (Fig. I) have excellent paleontological associations, and, in three cases (Swanscombe, Ternifine, Sidi Abderrahman), there are associated stone implements (Acheulean of various stages).However, no occupation site is yet