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In the summers of 2020 and 2021, a team of archaeologists and palaeoecologists examined the»Flözerbändli« site, a rocky overhang located directly above the right bank of the River Muota at an elevation of 740m a.s.l. The excavations unearthed Early Mesolithic layers which yielded charcoal fragments from 9746-8294 BC, stone artefacts including projectile points, as well as animal bones and palaeoethnobotanical remains. A remarkable find was a red deer antler fragment dating from 10,519-10,028 BC, which was decorated with regular rows of pit marks. Late Palaeolithic finds such as this are extremely rare. Various other Mesolithic sites have also been discovered in the municipal area of Muotathal.

The Paleolithic site of Mutzig, discovered by chance in 1992 (Sainty 1992), has been the focus of several excavations since 2009. Located in Alsace (Bas-Rhin, France), it is presently one of only a handful of sites reliably attributed to the Mid- dle Paleolithic in this area, thus providing rare evidence for a zone still relatively unknown for Early Prehistoric remains. The excellent preservation of the remains and the long stratigraphic sequence, with 6 to 8 in situ archaeological levels, make Mutzig a potential reference site for environmental and behavioral analyses for the Middle Paleolithic of the region. At least four archaeological levels contain burnt elements, and one level features a hearth structure. Taken together, the archaeological material, which is abundant in each of the different layers, forms an assemblage of more than 3000 faunal remains and more than 1500 lithic arti- facts. Analyses of this site provide valuable insights into the environment and Neander- tal ways of life in Alsace. We provide here only general results, with more detailed descriptions of the lithic and faunal remains presented in Diemer (this volume) and Sévêque (this volume). The faunal remains recovered from the human occu- pations in Levels 5 and 7 reflect the same relatively cold steppe-like environmen- tal context and include reindeer, woolly mammoth, steppe horse, steppe bison and woolly rhinoceros. Small vertebrates also indicate a cold climate, though not related to the Pleniglacial. Confirmed isotopic data, from oxygen and carbon iso- tope measurements of horse and mammoth teeth, indicate temperatures lower than those of today and an open environment. Levels 9 and 10, however, tend to reveal a more temperate climate. The available OSL and ESR/U-series dates place the Mutzig occupations within the Early Weichselian Glacial (MIS 5, ca. 90,000 BP), an attribution which biometric analyses and the large and small fauna record tend to corroborate (Koehler et al. 2016a).

Pedological investigations in combination with luminescence dating have been used to reconstruct the genesis and chronology of a sediment succession at Sierentz, France. The sequence comprises loess and palaeosols on top of gravel attributed to the High Terrace of River Rhine. According to the dating results, three phases of soil development occurred during different warm phases of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7 (245-190ka). Soil development on top of the gravel occurred either during early MIS 7 or during an earlier warm phase, possibly MIS 9. The results imply a minimum age of 250ka for the formation of the High Terrace in this part of the Upper Rhine Graben, contrary to previous assumptions that correlated gravel sheet deposition with MIS 6 (ca. 150ka). These results and recent findings at other sites suggest that the chronological setting of terrace formation north of the Alps is much more complex than previously assumed

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Pedological investigations in combination with luminescence dating have been used to reconstruct the genesis and chronology of a sediment succession at Sierentz, France. The sequence comprises loess and palaeosols on top of gravel attributed to the High Terrace of River Rhine. According to the dating results, three phases of soil development occurred during different warm phases of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7 (245-190ka). Soil development on top of the gravel occurred either during early MIS 7 or during an earlier warm phase, possibly MIS 9. The results imply a minimum age of 250ka for the formation of the High Terrace in this part of the Upper Rhine Graben, contrary to previous assumptions that correlated gravel sheet deposition with MIS 6 (ca. 150ka). These results and recent findings at other sites suggest that the chronological setting of terrace formation north of the Alps is much more complex than previously assumed