Tautavel Man
Hombre de Tautavel
- Date
- 1971 · confidence high
- Place
- Tautavel, Pyrénées-Orientales, France
- Credited to
- Henry de Lumley y Marie-Antoinette de Lumley
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Archaic human fossils found in the Caune de l'Arago cave in Tautavel, dated to between 550,000 and 400,000 years ago; the skull reconstructed from specimens Arago 21 and 47 is one of the most complete of that age in Europe.
What it led to
- one of the oldest and most complete human records in Western Europe
- a reference for the transitional lineage leading to the Neanderthals
- the founding of a museum and research center in Tautavel
- advances in understanding the European Middle Pleistocene