The arrival of Homo sapiens in northwestern Europe: a multi-proxy investigation of regional diversity in the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ)

In 1826, the first LRJ blade point in Britain was found at Kent’s Cavern. ARRIVAL will return to the cave 200 years later to answer the fundamental questions we still ask about these tools - who made them and when? Ground-breaking advances in archaeological science methods over the past decade enable us to study the dynamics of the Neanderthal-Homo sapiens transition in unprecedented resolution but few sites have been explored with the full suite of methods. New findings from Ranis, Germany, have recently proven that Homo sapiens were present in northern Europe between 47,500 - 43,000 years ago, much earlier than previously suspected. These people made stone tools known as the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (or LRJ), which are found at more than 40 sites across northern Europe and were previously thought to have been made by Neanderthals. Only one high-resolution dataset (Ranis) exists for the LRJ. The lack of additional datasets prevents us from investigating variations between LRJ occupations. ARRIVAL will bring together an international, interdisciplinary team to investigate key LRJ sites using a multi-proxy approach, combining new excavations, chronometric dating, non-destructive collagen screening, palaeoproteomics, isotopic and aDNA analysis with traditional lithic and palaeoecological analysis. ARRIVAL will focus on newly excavated material to produce robust new datasets whilst providing better contextualisation for legacy collections. New methods will be developed to improve the accuracy and reliability of 14C dating in this crucial time-period, enabling us to produce the first robust chronological framework for the LRJ. ARRIVAL will determine if the LRJ can now be considered a reliable proxy for Homo sapiens across its entire range and provide the first high-resolution, regional investigation of LRJ sites to explore the nature and extent of LRJ occupations and the arrival of Homo sapiens in northwestern Europe.