Marcel Otte is a professor of Prehistory

Prehistory

Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...

 at the Université de Liège, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

. He is a specialist in Religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

, Arts

ARts

aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....

, Sociobiology

Sociobiology

Sociobiology is a field of scientific study which is based on the assumption that social behavior has resulted from evolution and attempts to explain and examine social behavior within that context. Often considered a branch of biology and sociology, it also draws from ethology, anthropology,...

, and the Upper Palaeolithic times of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

.

Otte is one of the leading advocates of the Paleolithic Continuity Theory

Paleolithic Continuity Theory

The Paleolithic Continuity Theory , since 2010 relabelled as the Paleolithic Continuity Paradigm , is a hypothesis suggesting that the Proto-Indo-European language can be traced back to the Upper Paleolithic, several millennia earlier than the Chalcolithic or at the most Neolithic estimates in other...

 which states that Indo-European languages

Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...

originated in Europe and have existed there since the Paleolithic period. He first advocated that theory in work published in 1994.

He is particularly noted for supporting and nurturing women in the profession.

Written works

Marcel Otte has published a number of works in his career including:

• Étude Archéologique et Historique sur le Château Médièval de Saive Centre belge d'histoire rurale Liege 1973
• Les Pointes à Retouches Plates du Paléolithique Supérieur Initial de Belgique Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherches Archéologiques Liege 1974
• La préhistoire à Travers les Collections du Musée Curtius de Liège Wahle Liege 1978 ISBN 2-87011-009-X
• Le Paléolithique Supérieur Ancien en Belgique Musées Royaux d'art et d'histoire Brussels 1979 ISBN 1500F
• Le Gravettien en Europe Centrale De Tempel Brugge 1981
• Sondages à Marche-les-Dames : Grotte de la Princesse, 1976 with J.M. Degbomont, University of Liege 1981
• Les Fouilles de la place Saint-Lambert à Liège Le Centre Liège 1983
• Préhistoire des Religions Masson Paris 1993 2-225-84068-7
• Le Paléolithique Inférieur et Moyen en Europe A Colin Paris 1996 ISBN 2-200-01389-2
• La Grotte du Bois Laiterie : Recolonisation Magdalénienne de la Belgique with Lawrence Straus, University of Liege 1997
• La Préhistoire with Denis Vialou and Patrick Plumet De Boeck Université, Paris 1999 ISBN 2-8041-2837-7
• Approches du Comportement au Mousterien, British Archaeological Reports Oxford 2000 ISBN 1-84171-126-8
• Les Origines de la Pensée Sprimont Mardaga 2001 ISBN 2-87009-723-9
• La Protohistoire with Mireille David-Elbiali, Christiane Eluère and Jean-Pierre Mohen De Boeck Université Brussels 2002 ISBN 2-8041-3297-8
• Recherches sur le Paléolithique Supérieur J and E Hedges Oxford 2003 ISBN 1-84171-324-4