ASIANOVERLAND.NET LONDON TO SYDNEY DAY 258: SAINT-EMILION TO CRO-MAGNON, DORDOGNE, FRANCE

It’s a beautiful drive south-east from Saint-Emilion through the mountainous Dordogne region to Cro-Magnon, a rock shelter at Les Eyzies, a town in Dordogne, southwestern France.

Cro-Magnon is the site of the discovery of anatomically modern human remains, apparently buried at the site, dated to about 28,000 years ago. Abri de Cro-Magnon is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley site.

In 1868, workmen found animal bones, flint tools, and human skulls in the rock shelter, leading to the discovery of partial skeletons of four prehistoric adults and one infant, along with perforated shells used as ornaments, an object made from ivory, and worked reindeer antler.

These "Cro-Magnon men" were identified as the prehistoric human race of Europe, as distinct from Neanderthal Man discovered in Germany in 1856.

The term "Cro-Magnon Man" is used in a general sense to describe the oldest modern people in Europe. The term "Cro-Magnon" remains in use, but since the late 1990s has typically been restricted to European early modern humans, as human homo sapien remains of other indigenous people, for example in Australia, are about 60,000 years old.  

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