• A 38,000-year-old carving from Grotte des Gorges, Amange, Jura, France 

      d'Errico, Francesco; David, Serge; Coqueugniot, Hélène; Meister, Christian; Dutkiewicz, Ewa; Pigeaud, Romain; Sitzia, Luca; Cailhol, Didier; Bosq, Mathieu; Griggo, Christophe; Affolter, Jehanne; Queffelec, Alain; Doyon, Luc (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2023)
      The earliest European carvings, made of mammoth ivory, depict animals, humans, and anthropomorphs. They are found at Early Aurignacian sites of the Swabian Jura in Germany. Despite the wide geographical spread of the ...
    • Earliest human burial in Africa 

      Martinon-Torres, Maria; d'Errico, Francesco; Santos, Elena; Alvaro Gallo, Ana; Amano, Noel; Archer, William; Armitage, Simon James; Arsuaga, Juan luis; Bermudez de Castro, Jose María; Blinkhorn, James; Crowther, Alison; Douka, Katerina; Dubernet, Stéphan; Faulkner, Patrick; Fernández-Colón, Pilar; Kourampas, Nikos; González García, Jorge; Larreina, David; Le Bourdonnec, François-Xavier; MacLeod, George; Martín-Francés, Laura; Massilani, Diyendo; Mercader, Julio; Miller, Jennifer M.; Ndiema, Emmanuel; Notario, Belén; Marti, Africa Pitarch; Prendergast, Mary E.; Queffelec, Alain; Rigaud, Solange; Roberts, Patrick; Shoaee, Mohammad Javad; Shipton, Ceri; Simpson, Ian; Boivin, Nicole; Petraglia, Michael D. (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2021)
      The origin and evolution of hominin mortuary practices are topics of intense interest and debate1,2,3. Human burials dated to the Middle Stone Age (MSA) are exceedingly rare in Africa and unknown in East Africa1,2,3,4,5,6. ...
    • Last Interglacial Iberian Neandertals as Fisher-Hunter-Gatherers 

      Zilhao, J; Angelucci, Diego; Araujo Igregia, M; Arnold, LJ; Badal, E; Callapez, P; Cardoso, JL; d'Errico, Francesco; Daura, J; Demuro, Martina; Deschamps, M; Dupont, Catherine; Gabriel, S; Hoffmann, Dirk L.; Legoinha, Paulo; Matias, Henrique; Monge Soares, A. M.; Nabais, Mariana; Portela, Paulo J. C.; Queffelec, Alain; Rodrigues, Filipe; Souto, Pedro (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2020)
      Marine food–reliant subsistence systems such as those in the African Middle Stone Age (MSA) were not thought to exist in Europe until the much later Mesolithic. Whether this apparent lag reflects taphonomic biases or ...
    • Manganese and iron oxide use at Combe-Grenal (Dordogne, France): A proxy for cultural change in Neanderthal communities 

      Dayet, Laure; Faivre, Jean-Philippe; Le Bourdonnec, F.X.; Discamps, Emmanuel; Royer, Aurélien; Claud, Emilie; Lahaye, Christelle; cantin, Nadia; Tartar, Elise; Queffelec, Alain; Gravina, Brad; Turq, Alain; d'Errico, Francesco (Peer reviewed; Journal article, 2019)
      Neanderthal material culture patterning in Western Europe has been primarily approached from retouched stone tools and associated flake production methods. While considerable effort has been devoted over the past decade ...
    • Multiproxy analysis of Upper Palaeolithic lustrous gravels supports their anthropogenic use 

      Geis, Lila; d'Errico, Francesco; Jordan, Fiona; Brenet, Michel; Queffelec, Alain (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2023)
      Upper Palaeolithic sites in southwestern France attributed to the Upper Gravettian and the Solutrean yielded sub spherical gravels with a highly shiny appearance that have intrigued researchers since the 1930s. In this ...
    • A Palaeolithic bird figurine from the Lingjing site, Henan, China 

      Li, Z; Doyon, Luc; Fang, Hui; Ledevin, Ronan; Queffelec, Alain; Raguin, Emilie; d'Errico, Francesco (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2020-06-10)
      The recent identification of cave paintings dated to 42–40 ka BP in Borneo and Sulawesi highlights the antiquity of painted representations in this region. However, no instances of three-dimensional portable art, well ...
    • Technological and functional analysis of 80–60 ka bone wedges from Sibudu (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) 

      d'Errico, Francesco; Backwell, Lucinda R.; Wadley, Lyn; Geis, Lila; Queffelec, Alain; Banks, William E.; Doyon, Luc (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2022)
      Fully shaped, morphologically standardized bone tools are generally considered reliable indicators of the emergence of modern behavior. We report the discovery of 23 double-beveled bone tools from ~ 80,000–60,000-year-old ...