The earliest species of modern human beings (ºHomo sapiens sapiensº) first appeared in Europe, North Africa, and the Near East some 90,000 years ago, during what is called the Palaeolithic Period, or "Old Stone Age". These humans lived at the same time as the last of the Neanderthals (ºHomo sapiens neanderthalensisº), who, though similar in appearance to modern humans, were a different type of hominid. The Neanderthals were stockier and more heavily featured than modern humans, and became extinct around 30,000 BC. ╬@The Lascaux cave@
Beautiful prehistoric images of bulls, deer, and other animals were discovered on the walls of a cave at Lascaux, southwest France, in 1940. The paintings, believed to date from 15,000 BC, were in extremely good condition. This detail of a freize comes from the famous central space, the Hall of the Bulls. The scraps of bone and pigment found on the floor show that the cave was in use for several centuries, a relatively short period of time. Lascaux was opened to the public in 1948, but had to be closed in 1963 because of damage to the paintings. It took ten years of painstaking work to restore the walls to their original state. Visitors can now tour an exact facsimile, known as Lascaux II.
