The Bau de l’Aubesier is a multi-layer rock shelter site, with deposits mainly from the later Middle Pleistocene and the Late Pleistocene, very abundant faunal and lithic remains, intense and extensive use of fire in some levels, and hominin remains from Neandertals and their predecessors. The book provides the geographic and geologic context of the site, then describes each layer within the stratigraphy in detail, with emphasis on the hominins, how they used the site, and how they used the surrounding territory. Rigorous analysis is interspersed with stories of the excavations themselves, and abundant figures and tables. The final chapter addresses the ultimate question: what does the Bau de l’Aubesier tell us about the Middle Palaeolithic? Of interest to specialists, students and amateurs, this book unites all available published and previously unpublished data about this important Middle Palaeolithic site in southern France.

AUTHOR
Lucy Wilson (doctorate from the Université de Paris VI, 1986), teaches Geology and Geoarchaeology at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, Canada. She studies the raw materials used for stone tools, mainly in France and Israel, focussing especially on the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic.

REVIEW
‘This book is excellent. It regards a key Middle Palaeolithic site in the south-east of France with a long sequence. The excavations took place a long time ago and only punctual publications have been made on the site, never a large synthesis of the overall data. It is a wonderful and rich archive of the fieldworks.’ Dr Marie-Hélène Moncel, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle