Man has lived in the Périgord for 450,000 years.
A look at our ancestors — a surefire prehistoric cliff-hanger!
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For 150 years prehistory has occasioned many a heated debate between
those
who are relentlessly searching and those who have implicit belief in the Bible
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First pictures of new cave in Le
Bugue, puzzling underground dolmen
The National Museum of Prehistory, Bordeaux Anthropological Laboratory and the Regional
Archaeological Organisation are to begin excavation work in the neolithic sanctuary
discovered last autumn by Eric Castang and Jean-Michel Degeix, members of the G3S
caving club. The latter are to participate in this thrilling protohistoric survey.
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Neanderthal, the father of prehistory
150 years ago a very old human cranium was discovered: the skull of Neanderthal
Man. It was born a second time, so to speak… but in a nineteenth century strictly
catholic context when no-one would have dreamt of querying the fact that man was
a creation of God. These men from our ancient past with their ape-like faces were
to give our family tree a mighty shake – and in a state of frenzy we went climbing
up the branches of our tree to those inconceivable times long past. Prehistory was
born, but the “forceps delivery” was a painful one. A century later, Jean-Louis
Heim, an anthropologist in charge of the study of fossil man specimens, set out
to restore them, with their bones all back together, to their rightful place in
our history books. He meticulously rebuilt the skull of the man from la Chapelle-aux-Saints
and studied, amongst others, the seven Neanderthal sepulchres at La Ferrassie.
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Animals reveal true nature of Neanderthal
Man
Marylène Patou-Mathis has been treading on the heels of Neanderthal Man for the
past 20 years. Her sole concern is their rehabilitation so they will no longer be
regarded as second-rate beings. In her job as a zooarchaeologist, she carefully
examines remains that apparently hold little interest for her fellow archaeologists:
the bones of animals (mammoths, reindeer, bison, cave-dwelling lions) that have
much to tell us about Neanderthal’s hunting strategies and his refined manner of
living.
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Tribute to Professor Heim in Tursac
on Préhisto Parc’s 20th anniversary
Built as a complement to the decorated sites and the museums in the Périgord, for
the past 20 years Préhisto Parc has been offering us scenes depicting prehistoric
man’s daily life; these scenes have been reconstructed thanks to the enlightening
information provided by Professor Jean-Louis Heim, an anthropologist at the Muséum
Naturelle in Paris and an expert on fossilized man. On the occasion of the park’s
20th anniversary a tribute was paid to the Professor for his humanism and his vision
of indivisible humanity perpetually on the move.
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