La gestación de la Prehistoria europea: el ejemplo del Paleolítico Superior Inicial en el Sudoeste francés

Abstract

The publication in 1859 of Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species inaugurates, all over Europe, an intensive debate on the "antediluvian" origin of the human being. This situation, combined with the progress in the areas of geological stratigraphy, palaeontology and other disciplines in natural sciences, contributed to the development of a specific discipline known as archaeology, which was applied to the study of prehistory. Due to circumstances linked to historiography and archaeology, this debate got underway to a greater degree in France. Especially in south-western France, research was begun in stratigraphical and chronological systematising of ancient (palaeolithic) prehistory.