Paleontologist Vangelis Tourloukis of Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubingen in Germany told the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists that stone implements from a higher sediment layer at a site known as Kokkinopilos date back 172,000 years.

The red-bed site is emblematic and also enigmatic as it has been stimulating controversy ever since beign discovered in 1962. Early research raised claims for stratigraphically in situ artifacts, later scholars considered the material reworked and of low archaeological value, a theory that was soon to be challenged again by the discovery of in situ artifacts, including handaxes.

The results of a long-term study include geoarcheological assessments, geomorphological mapping and luminescence dating.