Middle Pleistocene glaciations in Eurasia

The first outline of the Quaternary stratigraphy was established by the end of the 19th century. At that time the actual length of the Ice Age was still unknown. It was assumed that Northwest Europe, like the Alps, had been affected by three glaciations. The glaciations were named after rivers, in the catchment areas of which their deposits were well exposed. The names Elsterian, Saalian and Weichselian for the northwest European glaciations first appeared in 1911 on the 1:25,000 map sheets of the Prussian Geological Survey and they gained general acceptance in the 1920s.
After it had been discovered that the Alps had been glaciated (at least) four times instead of three, there have been many attempts to identify corresponding numbers of glaciations elsewhere. However, no convincing evidence was found in Britain, Ireland, or western central Europe. It was further to the east, where traces of earlier glaciations were eventually identified. In addition, multiple glaciations were also found in southernmost Europe and many of the early scholars who worked on the Alpine glacial sequence, including Penck, also made observations in the Mediterranean mountains.