- Terra Amata
-- () 03:44, 7 October 2008 (UTC)Terra Amata is an
archaeological site near the French town ofNice .Terra Amata was an open site with finds of
Acheulean flint tools dating it to theLower Paleolithic . It was excavated by a team of archaeologists led byHenri de Lumley , who believed the site contained a series of superimposed living floors and who interpreted arrangements of stones at the site as the foundations of huts or windbreaks. This interpretation would make them some of the earliest examples of human habitation ever found.However, as with other sites of possible human shelters, such as
Grotte du Lazaret , the evidence is more conjectural than compelling.ref|scarre It is equally likely that that the stones were naturally deposited through stream flow, soil creep or some other natural process.ref|roe Moreover,Paola Villa has demonstrated that stone artifacts from the different proposed living floors can be fitted together, showing that artifacts have moved up and down through the sediment column.ref|villa Thus, the supposed living floor assemblages are most likely mixtures of artifacts from different time periods that have come to rest at particular levels. There is therefore compelling evidence that the site was subjected to relatively invasivepost-depositional processes , which may also be responsible for the stone 'arrangements'. In building a Terra Amata, a hole was left in the center for smoke to escape. 20-40 people could congregate in a shelter like this.OMGNotes
#cite journal|last=Roebroeks|first=Wil|coauthors=and Thijs van Kolfschoten|year=1994|month=September|title=The earliest occupation of Europe: a short chronology|journal=Antiquity|volume=68|issue=260|pages=489–503|id=ISSN|0003-598X|url=http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/ant/068/Ant0680489.htm
#cite book|last=Scarre|first=Chris (ed.)|year=2005|title=The Human Past: World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies|publisher=Thames & Hudson|location=London|id=ISBN 0-500-28531-4|pages=p. 114
#cite book|last=Villa|first=Paola|year=1983|title=Terra Amata and the Middle Pleistocene archaeological record of southern France|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|id=ISBN 0-520-09662-2|pages=303 pagesExternal links
* [http://www.musee-terra-amata.org/ The Terra Amata Museum]
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