History of euorope

I found a great article here about the first humans in what is now Europe. They migrated there from Africa around 700,000 BC to 8,000 BC.

http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/migration/chapter111.html

Here is another great article with more information about actual names and places

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=a b06


The first Europeans: 500,000 - 10,000 years ago

Early man - of the species Homo erectus - penetrates to the western extremity of Europe by about 500,000 years ago. Fossil remains from this time are known as far west as England.

From about 230,000 years ago the human inhabitants of Europe, descendants of Homo erectus, are sufficiently different in brain size and physique to be classed as an early form of Homo sapiens. Known as Neanderthal man, this species prospers for many thousands of years. But the Neanderthalers leave little trace of themselves other than their stone tools, their bones and the bones of their animal prey (though a recently discovered Neanderthal flute suggests some cultural life). They are extinct by about 35,000 years ago.
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Modern man - anatomically similar to humans today - arrives relatively late in Europe. But the continent does provide the most extensive evidence of the early culture of our own species of Homo sapiens.

The Venus of Willendorf (about 25,000 years ago) and the cave paintings of Altamira and Lascaux (some 15,000 years ago) are merely the most famous examples of a vigorous palaeolithic art found in many parts of Europe. Similarly the exposed plains of eastern Europe contain traces of the earliest known free-standing dwellings - circular huts, semi-sunken, with stones or tusks supporting some form of superstructure.