The long Quaternary terrestrial record of Open Mine Schöningen comprises glacial sediments as well as interglacial lake and fluvial deposits which serve as outstanding archives for reconstructing Western European climatic and environmental evolution since the Late Middle Pleistocene. Five interglacials including the Holocene have been identified succeeding the Elsterian glaciation and have been correlated with MIS 11, 9, 7, 5e and 1. More than 30 archaeological/paleontological sites have been examined in Schöningen, whereof the hunting spear-bearing lake shore site Schöingen 13 II-4 of the Middle Pleistocene Reinsorf sequence is the most prominent. Our contribution focusses on the oldest archaeological site Schöningen 13 I and the Reinsdorf Interglacial lake succession at archaeological sites Schöningen 13 II and 12 II. Environmental reconstruction is mainly based on botanical data supported by faunal and sedimentological investigations. From high resolution palynological and faunal investigations we can conclude that the deposits of the oldest archaeological find horizon Schöningen 13 I, which stratigraphically underlies the Reinsdorf
sequence, most probably developed during a late boreal-steppe phase of an interglacial. As classical Holsteinian interglacial pollen assemblages described in the northern mining field differ significantly from the Reinsdorf vegetational succession, the Schöningen 13 I layers might relate to late Holsteinian (sensu stricto) phases. Sedimentation of Reinsdorf interglacial deposits was intiated on an eroded gleyic surface only during the interglacial thermal optimum indicative of a rising groundwater table (Schö 13 II-1). Subsequent layer 13 II(-2c5) has been U/Th dated and tentatively correlated with MIS 9. Based on palynological findings it correlates with archaeological find horizon Schöningen 12B, which is characteristic the late interglacial Carpinus-Abies-Pinus-Picea pollen zone. Several lake fluctuations were identified, succeeding the full interlgacial phases, during a deteriorating and oscillating climate. During level 13 II4, lake marls were deposited under a high ground water table that transitioned into an organic muddy/peaty horizon containing the hunting spears. Dry steppe-forest environmental conditions deduced from the pollen evidence, was supported by the macrofaunal remains that included some 20 carcasses of Equus mosbachensis, excavated from that horizon (Schö 12 II-4(c/b/a). The long term multidisciplinary research project has enabled reconstruction of the local and regional environmental conditions providing a required background for the interpretation of human behavior particularly during the late Middle Pleistocene of Western Europe. With high resolution botanical, faunistic and sedimentological studies and the dating of the entire Schöningen sequence with multiple chronometric techniques, we will continue to contribute to the debate on the correlation of Western and Central European terrestrial records with the marine stratigraphy.