A survey of northwestern European Aurignacian sites and some comments regarding their potential chrono-cultural significance

Aurignacian assemblages in northwestern Europe, here defined as Britain, Belgium, Luxembourg and France north ofc. 47 N, are relatively meagre, most often undated and, in comparison with those farther south, incompletely understood. An overview of published accounts of the region’s Aurignacian sites and material is presented here. Lacking Aurignacian assemblages found in stratigraphic association with one another, the archaeological record for the entire region is presently not conducive to the construction of a chrono-cultural framework built on local evidence. However, thetypological variation evident between sites and within some of the larger assemblages clearly has chrono-culturalsignificance. Here, making explicit reference to the better understood framework farther south, it is suggested that muchof this variation may be chronological. Based upon this consideration of lithic evidence, the earliest Aurignacian of theregion probably pre-dates the small number of currently published radiocarbon dates. A few thoughts as to the relative prevalence of Recent Aurignacian lithic material are also offered.