Eurasian Prehistory, 11 (1–2): 129–152 IntroductIon In his recent surveys of the evidence for early humans in the Mediterranean, Broodbank found the evidence for Upper and perhaps Middle Palaeolithic presence on some Aegean islands to be more persuasive than that for the western Mediterranean islands (Broodbank, 2006, 2013:93-96). The discovery in 2008-2009 of Lower Palaeolithic artifacts belonging to the Acheulean Industrial Tradition in southern Crete near the town of Plakias adds to this picture, as do early Palaeolithic inds reported from other Aegean islands. Here we review the current state of the research on the Cretan artifacts from Plakias along with the implications of this evidence for our understanding of early hominin dispersals. Archaeologists and palaeoanthropologists have long argued that hominin dispersals to Eurasia in the Pleistocene followed land routes from Africa (e.g., Anton and Swisher, 2004; Bar- Yosef and Belfer-Cohen, 2001; Carbonell et al., 2008), a hypothesis based on the assumption that early hominins lacked the cognitive ability to plan open-water crossingsof any great distance, and/or the technology to build navigable water craft. The land-route hypothesis has been challenged with evidence from southeastern Asia suggesting that LoWEr PALAEoLItHIc ArtIFActS FroM PLAKIAS, crEtE: IMPLIcAtIonS For HoMInIn dISPErSALS Curtis Runnels 1,* , Chad DiGregorio 1,† , Karl W. Wegmann 2 , Sean F. Gallen 2 , Thomas F. Strasser 3 , Eleni Panagopoulou 4 1 Boston University, Department of Archaeology, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Suite 347, Boston, MA 02215, USA 4 North Carolina State University, Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, 2800 Faucette Drive, Campus Box 8208, Raleigh, NC 27695-8208, USA 3 Providence College, Department of Art and Art History, 1 Cunningham Square, Providence, RI 02918, USA 4 Ephoreia of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology of Southern Greece, Athens, Greece Ardittou 34B, 116 36 Athens, GREECE * Corresponding Author Email: runnels@bu.edu † Deceased. Abstract Lithic artifacts from eight indspots in the Plakias region of southwestern Crete are ascribed to the Acheulean of the Middle Pleistocene on the basis of morphotypological characteristics, geologic contexts, and OSL assays. Considered in a regional context, the Cretan Acheulean is similar to the Acheulean found on sites in both the eastern and western portions of the Mediterranean region that resulted from an “Out of Africa” adaptive radiation of hominins (probably Homo erectus s. l.) that began ca. 0.8 – 1.0 mya. We suggest that hominins may have arrived on Crete in the Middle Pleistocene as part of this hominin dispersal and that open-water crossing, at least in the southern Aegean, may have been involved. Keywords: Acheulean, Large Cutting Tools, Mediterranean seacrossings