Eemian

The last Interglacial of northern Europe, after the Saalian and before the Weichsel Glaciation, from c 125,000-115,000 BP. This group of Quarternary Interglacial deposits are found right across Europe from the Netherlands to Russia and contain fossils that indicate warm conditions. In the Netherlands and northern Germany, the rising sea level caused the deposition of Eemian marine sediments. Evidence from bore holes indicates that the Eemian may represent two or even three interglacial stages. Levalloisian and Mousterian artifacts are found in Eemina deposits. The Riss-Würm in Alpine regions, the Sangamon in North America, and the Ipswichian in Britain are its equivalents.

Group of Quarternary interglacial deposits in northern Europe (see Table 5, page 418). They are found right across Europe from the Netherlands to the USSR, containing fossils that indicate warm conditions. Their exact age is unknown, but they are older than the extreme range of radiocarbon dating (c70,000bp) and can be shown by palaeomagnetism to be younger than 700,000 bp. They are directly overlain by Weichselian glacial deposits. In the Netherlands and north Germany, sea level rise caused the deposition of Eemian marine sediments. Recent evidence from a borehole in northern Germany has shown that there are, in fact, two sets of marine deposits — one stratified underneath Warthe glacial deposits and the other stratified above the Warthe deposits. Thus the Eemian appears to represent at least two interglacial stages. Further recent evidence suggests that there may even be three. Despite this, the term ‘Eemian’ is still frequently used to mean the ‘last’ interglacial only. Levalloisian and Mousterian artefacts are found in Eemian deposits.