Mandrin Cave (French: "Grotte Mandrin") is a cave in France where habitation alternating between Neanderthals and

Initial Upper Paleolithic The Initial Upper Paleolithic (also IUP, ) covers the first stage of the Upper Paleolithic, during which modern human populations expanded throughout Eurasia. Technology, art and distribution The Initial Upper Paleolithic period is characteri ...

Modern Humans in the cave has been documented, and the presence of modern humans has been dated to between 56,800 and 51,700 years ago, about 10,000 years before previously accepted dates for the colonization of Europe by modern humans. Mandrin Cave is located in the municipality of

Malataverne Malataverne (; ) is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France. Population See also *Nicolas Appert *Communes of the Drôme department A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comu ...

, on the left bank of the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

. File:Grotte_Mandrin_Malataverne_3.jpg, Mandrin Cave File:Grotte Mandrin Le troisieme Homme.jpg, Stone tools from Mandrin Cave

References

{{reflist Upper Paleolithic