Traces of human existence
are rare in France until
about 50,000 BC.
Thereafter, beginning with
the "Mousterian
civilization", they
become ever more numerous,
with an especially heavy
concentration of sites in
the Périgord region of
the Dordogne, where, near
the village of Les Eyzies,
remains were discovered of
a late Stone Age people,
subsequently dubbed
"Cro-Magnon".
Flourishing from around
25,000 BC, these
cave-dwelling hunters seem
to have developed quite a
sophisticated culture, the
evidence of which is
preserved in the beautiful
paintings and engravings
on the walls of the
region's caves.
By 10,000 BC human
communities had spread out
widely across the whole of
France. The ice cap
receded, the climate
became warmer and wetter,
and by about 7000 BC farming
and pastoral communities
had begun to develop. By
4500 BC, the first dolmens
(megalithic stone tombs)
showed up in Brittany;
around 2000 BC copper made
its appearance; and by
1800 BC the Bronze Age
had arrived in the east
and southeast of the
country, and trade links
had begun with Spain,
central Europe and Wessex
in Britain.
Significant population
shifts occurred, too, at
this time. Around 1200 BC
the Urnfield people
, who buried their dead in
sunken urns, began to make
incursions from the east.
By 900 BC, they had been
joined by the Halstatt
people who worked with
iron and settled in
Burgundy, Alsace and
Franche-Comté near the
principal ore deposits
. At some point around 450
BC, the first Celts made
an appearance in the
region.
