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The Acheulean of the southern Iberian Peninsula is markedly similar to the north African Acheulean. However, the characteristics of the stone tool assemblages are heterogeneous and represent complex cultural phenomena. From MIS 15, the lithic assemblages in fluvial (Guadiana, Guadalquivir and Guadalete rivers), fluvio-lacustrine (Solana del Zamborino) and karstic (Cueva del Ángel, Bolomor, Cueva Negra del río Quípar, Cueva Horá and Santa Ana) contexts exhibit analogies and technical differences representative of a phenomenon of multiplicity. Contributing to this phenomenon is the perception of technological stasis or conservatism of the Acheulean technocomplex and the different technical responses articulated by hominins to achieve equivalent results. These equivalences generate the uniformity that allows us to recognise typologies of large cutting tools (LCTs) regardless of the lithic materials used or the organisational structures of the operational sequences. These diversified typologies include handaxes, picks, and cleavers, which maintain a consistent presence despite innovations such as the Levallois flaking method. In some cases, the presence of cleavers and spheroids affects the range of represented typologies. Beneath the uniformity of the handaxes, lie organisational differences in the operational sequences. The changes and differences in the use of flakes to shape handaxes, the representation of cleavers and diversification of shaped-tool typologies all suggest differential cultural behaviours linked in part to divergent contexts. These aspects indicate that this multiplicity is related to diffusion, adaptation and cultural changes produced at the margins of the conservatism of this technocomplex. Observed changes could indicate inter-group cultural replacements, most of which retained a similar techno-typological diversity to that seen in the north African Acheulean until MIS 5. Cyclical climate change during the Middle Pleistocene affected the Strait of Gibraltar, regulating its function and conditioning the circulation of hominins and affecting cultural interactions between southern Iberian groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the current state of the debate about the Paleolithic in Europe the analysis of the transitional periods is one of the principal subjects. The accumulation of variable elements in time can determine a change in the technical systems from a more or less wide transitional phase. This paper will analyze the records of the North Plateau of the Iberian Peninsula for its chronology and/or for its technology as they are candidates for representing a transitional phase between the technological Modes 2 and 3 and will relate to the European context. This analysis will focus on support in the need to separate technological phenomena, transitions and the variability determined by the different spaces of occupation, the utilization of raw materials with unequal qualities and the functions of the site. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]