Traceology attempts to identify the purpose of stone tools, with the objective of reconstructing the subsistence strategies of hominins and documenting the spatial layout of the areas of activity, by analyzing the alterations in the edges of lithic artefacts using high-power microscopyThe research in this group focuses on two central paleoanthropological topics. The first topic addresses the tempo and mode of the earliest occupation by humans in the northern part of the African continent through field and laboratory investigations at the Plio-Pleistocene complex sites of Ain Hanech (Algeria). The second topic involves new investigations at the hominin site of Tighennif (formerly Ternifine, Algeria) to study Homo erectus behavior in open/arid environment during the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition (MPT).