The oldest cave paintings in Central Europe, estimated at between 23 000 and 35 000 BP, have been discovered by a team of Romanian speleologists at the Coliboaia Cave, Romania.
Australian Archeology / Archeology sites
Castel-Merle, Vallon des Roches
La Gravette, the original site for the Gravettian toolmaking and venus carving culture
The Venus of Abri Pataud, as well as the site of Abri Pataud
Mousterian (Neanderthal) Sites
The Hobbits of Flores, Homo floresiensis
Homo erectus (Beijing Man, Peking Man) sites
North American sites - When did people first reach North America?
Font de Gaume in the French Dordogne
Liujiang - ancient modern human skull
The Homo Erectus site at Dmanisi
80 000 to 100 000 years old hominin skull found in China
Proto Lepenski Vir and Lepenski Vir Ia - a mesolithic site on the Donau
Lepenski Vir Ib-e, II, III - a mesolithic site on the Donau
Kostenki and other sites on the Don River
Mamontovaya Kurya - Мамонтовой Курьи - Human presence in the European
Arctic nearly 40 000 years ago
Lucy's baby, Australopithecus afarensis
Location Maps and Themes of Cave Paintings
French and Spanish Caves and Rock Shelters
Grottes et Abris-sous-Roche Français et Espagnols
Pech Merle in South West France
The Dordogne - scene for Book 5, Shelters of Stone. Scenes from the Dordogne, cooking Clan style - preparation of ptarmigan, and using a firestone to make a fire. Photos courtesy Sharon Rogers/walkhound
Prehistory of the Oltenia region of Romania - The Alexis Project. This is an overview of the work in progress by a small but dedicated group of Romanian people interested in preserving the prehistory and history of their region, and increasing knowledge about their area.
The Sungir - Sunghir site near Moscow
The Iron Gates Gorge, a very important series of mesolithic sites on the Danube
The Clan Fishing site - Sudak on the Crimean coast
Ice Age Infants - discovered at the Krems-Wachtberg site in Austria on the Danube
The Krems-Wachtberg mammoth site in Austria on the Danube
The Lagar Velho Hybrid Child from Portugal
Les Combarelles in the Dordogne, with more than 600 images on its walls, most of them engraved, is considered to be one of the major sanctuaries of Magdalenian culture. This extraordinary site was discovered in 1901. Beyond the entrance of the cave two galleries diverge. The largest one, now open to the public, is a narrow and winding passage, following a zig zag pattern for more than 240 metres. The animals represented are finely engraved. A diverse fauna is represented, including horses, reindeer, ibex, mammoths, rhinoceros, bears, lions and a few bisons and aurochs.
The cave of Mas-d'Azil is a large, 500 metre long tunnel dug by the Arize River through a wall of the Massif Plantaurelin, part of the Ariege Pyrenees. Secondary caves leading off the main tunnel were occupied at various prehistoric and historic times during a period of 20 000 years, and the objects found there gave the name of the cave to a prehistoric culture, the Azilian. It was excavated by Edouard Piette in the 19th century, who interpreted the halter-like marks on animal heads as being evidence of the domestication of reindeer and horses.
Niaux Cave, or la Grotte de Niaux is one of the most famous prehistoric caves in Europe. It lies in the northern foothills of the Pyrenees, and is located in Ariège, in the valley of Vicdessos, across the valley from the smaller Grotte de la Vache, in an area rich with prehistoric sites. The huge cave entrance, 55 metres high and 50 metres wide, is at 678 metres above sea level. There are more than two kilometres of galleries, with a hundred or more superb paintings from Magdalenian times, most of which are in the famous 'Salon Noir', 800 metres from the entrance. Many of the paintings are done in the classic style of the Magdalenian, outlined in black or red pigment, mostly haematite or manganese dioxide respectively.
