The earliest evidence of human presence in south-eastern France dates back around a million years, to the Lower Palaeolithic, the age of chipped stone tools.
These hunter-gatherer populations moved according to the seasons and the resources available.
They made increasingly sophisticated tools. Surviving remains shed light on their activities, but their customs and ways of understanding the world remain difficult to reconstruct.
Discovered by Henri Cosquer in 1985 and officially reported in 1991, Cosquer Cave lies in the calanques near Marseille. Visited between around 33,000 and 19,000 years ago, it preserves hundreds of paintings and engravings: hands, signs and animals, including horses, bison, ibex, seals and great auks. Some human figures remain difficult to interpret. Its entrance is now submerged, 37 metres below sea level.
Sources and further reading: French Ministry of Culture: Cosquer Cave.