Caune de l'Arago (Homme de Tautavel)

Tautavel

About twenty kilometres from Perpignan, the cliff of Tautavel overlooks the plain and the river Verdouble. In this shelter, people passed through for hundreds of thousands of years. Marcel de Serres studied the fauna there from 1838, Jean Abélanet found stone tools in 1948, and Henry de Lumley decided in 1963 to launch methodical excavations. On 22 July 1971 his team brought out a skull about 450,000 years old, Arago 21: the face of a man of about twenty, the oldest known face in Europe. Other pieces followed: mandibles in 1969 and 1970, a parietal in 1979, a tooth dated to 550,000 years in 2015. The discoverers had first spoken of Homo erectus tautavelensis; most specialists now see Homo heidelbergensis, but the classification remains debated. These people did not yet certainly master fire; charcoal dated to 560,000 years was reported in 2021, without it being known whether it is of human or natural origin. The sources give slightly different figures (more than 70 or more than 80 remains; about 120 fragments according to another).

Getting there: The cave is an excavation site still active: it is not open to the public, for safety reasons (Hominidés.com). The Musée de Préhistoire de Tautavel, in the village, presents the site (hours not verified; website 450000ans.com cited by Hominidés, not consulted). Wikipédia FR coordinates of the cave.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound