The earliest habitation of Greece dates to the Lower Palaeolithic period (400/350,000-100,000 BP). The archaeological and anthropological finds of this period are fragmentary due to insufficient research and publications and the geomorphological upheavals which occurred in Greece and resulted in the disappearance of many sites.

The earliest evidence of human presence in Greece is a skull found at Petralona Cave in Chalkidiki which dates between 350 and 200 thousand years BP. The Petralona skull as well as two morphologically similar skulls from Cave Apidima in Mani, show that the first inhabitants of the Greek area belonged to the anthropological type Homo sapiens praesapiens.

The archaeological finds of the Lower Palaeolithic are mainly stone tools, more specifically chopping tools and handaxes, which were found separately at open sites and consequently it is difficult to determine their age. Indicatively we note the lithic tools of the Acheulean cultural phase from Lake Korissaia and Rodia in Thessaly, whose date is estimated between 400 and 300 thousand years BP. It is finally worth mentioning the tools from Kokkinopilos in Epirus, Lakonia (125,000 BP) and Megalo Monastiri-Thessaly which belong to the end of the Lower Palaeolithic.

According to the publications so far, the people of the Lower Palaeolithic inhabited caves, where traces of fire were found (Petralona), rockshelters and open sites. They were shelters and camps for hunters-gatherers who survived hunting wild animals, deers and bears and collecting wild plants and fruits.