A new key-site for the end of Lower Palaeolithic and the onset of Middle Palaeolithic at Etricourt-Manancourt (Somme, France) David H erisson a, b, * , Sylvie Coutard c, e , Emilie Goval d, b , Jean-Luc Locht c, e , Pierre Antoine e , Yoann Chantreau a, f , Nick Debenham g a INRAP Canal Seine-Nord Europe, 16 rue du General Leclerc, 80400, Croix-Moligneaux, France b UMR 7194 CNRS, Institut de Paleontologie Humaine, 1 rue Rene Panhard, 75013, Paris, France c INRAP Nord-Picardie, 518 rue Saint Fuscien, 80000, Amiens, France d SRA Nord-Pas-de-Calais e Picardie, 5 rue Henri-Daussy CS 44407, 80044, Amiens cedex 1 France e UMR 8591 CNRS, Universite Paris I, Laboratoire de Geographie Physique, «Environnements quaternaires et geoarcheologie», 1 place Aristide Briand, 92195, Meudon, France f UMR 6566 CNRS, Rennes, France g Quaternary TL Survey,19 Leonard-Avenue, Nottingham, NG5 2LW, United Kingdom article info Article history: Available online xxx Keywords: Lower Palaeolithic Middle Palaeolithic Saalian Handaxe Lithic technology Levallois method abstract New Palaeolithic sites are rare for MIS 11 to 9 in Eurasia. The discovery and the excavation of a large new site in 2012 at Etricourt-Manancourt (Somme, France) is an exceptional event. In 2010, a Palaeolithic evaluation was undertaken at a future retention basin by Emilie Goval on 170,000 square metres. The evaluation produced many flint artefacts, demonstrating the existence of at least two important Middle Palaeolithic sites. In 2012, an excavation on one of the sites was conducted by David Herisson over 6 months and covering 4500 square metres. This excavation was undertaken by a multidisciplinary scientific team, including prehistorians and geomorphologists. This allows us to apply a reliable chronostratigraphic approach based on the analysis of the Glacial-interglacial suc- cessions. Five in situ Palaeolithic occupations have been excavated, dating from 330 to 70 ka. The youngest occupation dates from 70 to 80 ka (Weichselian) and corresponds to a recent phase of the Middle Palaeolithic. The next two layers belong to the Early Middle Palaeolithic, between 190 and 240 ka (Saalian). Finally, the two oldest layers have dates between 330 and 280 ka (Saalian) and belong to the Lower Palaeolithic. In addition to the archaeology, the sedimentary sequence is very thick (11 m high) and presents for the first time in Northern France a detailed record of the three last interglacialeglacial cycles. This paper presents the first archaeological and chronostratigraphic results of the excavation of Etricourt-Manancourt and its input with high resolution data to discuss behavioural changes occurring at the end of the Lower Palaeolithic and the onset of the Middle Palaeolithic. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Northern France includes reference sites for the end of the Lower Palaeolithic and the beginning of the Middle Palaeolithic, such as the Cagny complex, Biache-Saint-Vaast, Soucy and Therdonne. These sites with high chronological resolution provide capital evidence of the onset of the Middle Palaeolithic and make a considerable contribution to the identification of all the facets of this key period of human evolution. The current corpus is based on a long process of data accumulation derived from discoveries made from the 19th century until today. Two regional summaries have been established including the early phase of the Middle Palae- olithic, in 1987 by A. Tuffreau, and in 2012 by D. Herisson. Even if Northern France can be considered as one of the most documented regions of Western Europe for this period, the dis- covery and the excavation of a large new site in 2012 at Etricourt- Manancourt (Somme, France) is still an exceptional event. In * Corresponding author. INRAP Canal Seine-Nord Europe, 16 rue du General Leclerc, 80400, Croix-Moligneaux, France. E-mail addresses: davidherisson@yahoo.fr (D. Herisson), sylvie.coutard@inrap.fr (S. Coutard), emilie.goval@culture.gouv.fr (E. Goval), jean-luc.locht@inrap.fr (J.-L. Locht), pierre.antoine@cnrs-bellevue.fr (P. Antoine), yoann.chantreau@inrap. fr (Y. Chantreau), n.debenham@qtls.globalnet.co.uk (N. Debenham). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.01.055 1040-6182/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. Quaternary International xxx (2016) 1e19 Please cite this article in press as: Herisson, D., et al., A new key-site for the end of Lower Palaeolithic and the onset of Middle Palaeolithic at Etricourt-Manancourt (Somme, France), Quaternary International (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.01.055