A new paper by a research team led by Professor Andrzej Wiśniewski and co-authored by PhD candidate Adam Kobyłka has been published in Quaternary Science Reviews. The article presents the results of interdisciplinary research on the oldest deposits of Biśnik Cave, located in the central part of the Kraków–Częstochowa Upland, and addresses the chronology and origins of Levallois technology in Central Europe

The researchers’ findings suggest that Levallois technology may have appeared in Central Europe as early as c. 374,000 or 300,000 years ago. This would place its emergence significantly earlier than previously proposed, as existing hypotheses dated its appearance to no more than 200,000 years ago.

According to the authors, the introduction of Levallois methods marked an important stage not only in the development of adaptive strategies, but also in the evolution of the cognitive abilities of human populations inhabiting Eurasia and Africa during the late Middle Pleistocene.

The researchers further emphasise that the advanced character of the earliest Levallois assemblages discovered in Biśnik Cave points to a non-local origin of this technology. This may indicate that Levallois methods were introduced by incoming human groups rather than having developed locally.

As the authors note, these findings may prompt a reassessment of the pace and routes through which technological innovations spread across prehistoric Europe.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2026.110010