For the last 2.6 million years (the Quaternary), the Earth’s climate has been marked by cycles of alternating cold glacials and more temperate periods called interglacials. Glacials last approximately five times longer than interglacials and for the last 600,000 years each cycle has lasted approximately 100,000 years. This cyclical pattern is linked to the position of the Earth in relation to the sun, and in particular to the periodic oscillations of its orbit. The Weichselian is the name given to the last glacial in Northern Europe. The interglacial which followed it, around 12,000 years ago, is called the Holocene. The archaeological remains found at Étiolles date from the Tardiglacial, the period which marked the end of the Weichsel and the transition towards the Holocene.