This study is part of an interdisciplinary project dealing with the Palaeolithic occupation phases of northern Europe. In order to give feedback on the time control over the scattered Palaeolithic... Show moreThis study is part of an interdisciplinary project dealing with the Palaeolithic occupation phases of northern Europe. In order to give feedback on the time control over the scattered Palaeolithic evidence, the thesis is focused on the (chrono)stratigraphy of the terrestrial Middle Pleistocene succession, spanning the period from approximately 780,000 to 130,000 years ago. Its record, including the Palaeolithic archeological record, is fragmentary and heterogeneous both in time and space. Interpretation of a chronological sequence from sedimentary units into glacials and interglacials has never been documented in a satisfactory way. Different approaches supplementary to the traditional climatostratigraphical procedure have been assessed. Local multidisciplinary data from the type regions in Northwest and Central Europe has been integrated into a large-scale framework using unconformity-bounded and genetic sequence stratigraphical principles. From the genetic depositional sequences within this framework palaeoclimatic events have been interpreted comprising reflections of climate-forcing of different origin, type and scale order. They are arranged into a relative chronology on the basis of superposition, correlation of unconformity-bounded and biostratigraphical markers and independent dates. In the synthesis, the widespread terrestrial sequences and events have been matched with the marine isotope stages (MIS). At least two lower boundary levels can be placed at relevant MIS-transitions: - the lower boundary of the late Middle Pleistocene corresponding to the deglaciation interval of MIS 12/11 at about 400,000 years ago, representing the transition of the Elsterian cold Stage to the Holsteinian warm Stage - a boundary level corresponding to the deglaciation of MIS 16/15 at about 600,000 years ago, subdividing the Cromerian part of the early Middle Pleistocene into a part A and a part B. From the stratigraphical analysis in this thesis it is concluded that the lower boundary of Palaeolithic occupation in the study area has to be set at about 600,000 years ago. Show less
