earliest phase of the Upper Palaeolithic, generally associated to the occupation of the European continent by anatomically modern man - Homo sapiens, covering the period from approximately 38,000 to 28,500 years before the present. However, the dates obtained in Portugal are under 31.000 years, and show that Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition is probably more recent in southern Iberia than in the regions at the North of the Pyrenees, and occurs during a recent phase of the Aurignacian.