Combe-Capelle
Encyclopedia
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
and Epipaleolithic
Epipaleolithic
The Epipaleolithic Age was a period in the development of human technology marked by more advanced stone blades and other tools than the earlier Paleolithic age, although still before the development of agriculture in the Neolithic age...
site situated in the Couze
Couze
- Watercourses :* Couze : Auvergnat word meaning torrent.* Couze : river in Corrèze, tributary of the Corrèze* Couze : river in Corrèze, tributary of the Vézère* Couze : river in Dordogne, tributary of the Dordogne...
valley in the Périgord
Périgord
The Périgord is a former province of France, which corresponds roughly to the current Dordogne département, now forming the northern part of the Aquitaine région. It is divided into four regions, the Périgord Noir , the Périgord Blanc , the Périgord Vert and the Périgord Pourpre...
region of Southern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Henri-Marc Ami
Henri-Marc Ami
Henri-Marc Ami was a French Canadian archaeologist responsible for the initial excavation of Combe-Capelle from the years of 1926 until his death in 1931.In 1900 he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada....
carried out excavations from the late 1920s until his death in 1931.
The famous Homo sapiens from Combe Capelle was for a long time considered to be a Paleolithic Cro-Magnon
Cro-Magnon
The Cro-Magnon were the first early modern humans of the European Upper Paleolithic. The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon-like humans are radiometrically dated to 35,000 years before present....
man and one of the oldest findings of modern humans in Europe. However, in 2011 collagen
Collagen
Collagen is a group of naturally occurring proteins found in animals, especially in the flesh and connective tissues of mammals. It is the main component of connective tissue, and is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up about 25% to 35% of the whole-body protein content...
from a tooth of the skull in Berlin was dated with accelerator mass spectrometry
Accelerator mass spectrometry
Accelerator mass spectrometry differs from other forms of mass spectrometry in that it accelerates ions to extraordinarily high kinetic energies before mass analysis. The special strength of AMS among the mass spectrometric methods is its power to separate a rare isotope from an abundant...
to an age of only 7575 BC. Consequently, it was clearly a man of the Epipaleolithic (Holocene
Holocene
The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...
).