The past in dust: current trends and future directions in Pleistocene geoarcheology of European loess

Loess is a main archive of Pleistocene landscapes and environments therefore has an important connection to the preservation interpretation Paleolithic sites. In Europe, anthropogenic sites have been found in loess because past local occupation. At one extreme, are well preserved with minimal disturbance often accompanied by embedded proxies estimate ecological parameters. On other hand, deposits undergone post-depositional alterations such as weathering, pedogenesis or bioturbation due changing environmental conditions disturbances that obscure We outline current state research connections between archeology while introducing series subsequent regional case studies part special issue. also make recommendations for future work incorporate wider variety methods create more robust inferences on hominin evolution their connections.