Marcel Otte (born 5 October 1948) is a professor of

Prehistory Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...

at the Université de Liège,

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. He is a specialist in

Religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

Arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...

Sociobiology Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics. Within the study of ...

, and the

Upper Palaeolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories ...

times of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. In the book ''Speaking Australopithecus'' (written together with the philologist Francesco Benozzo) he argues from the archaeological point of view Benozzo's hypothesis that human language appeared with Australopithecus, between 4 and 3 million years ago. Otte is one of the only advocates of the Paleolithic continuity theory, which states that

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

originated in Europe and have existed there since

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

times. He first advocated that theory in work published in 1995.Otte, Marcel (1995), "Diffusion des langues modernes en Eurasie préhistorique", ''C. R. Acad. Sc. Paris'' 321, série IIa, pp. 1219-1226.

Written works

He has published a number of works, including: * ''Étude Archéologique et Historique sur le Château Médièval de Saive'' Centre belge d'histoire rurale Liege 1973 * ''Les Pointes à Retouches Plates du Paléolithique Supérieur Initial de Belgique'' Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherches Archéologiques Liege 1974 * ''La préhistoire à Travers les Collections du Musée Curtius de Liège'' Wahle Liege 1978 * ''Le Paléolithique Supérieur Ancien en Belgique'' Musées Royaux d'art et d'histoire Brussels 1979 * ''Le Gravettien en Europe Centrale'' De Tempel Brugge 1981 * ''Sondages à Marche-les-Dames : Grotte de la Princesse, 1976'' with J.M. Degbomont, University of Liege 1981 * ''Les Fouilles de la place Saint-Lambert à Liège'' Le Centre Liège 1983 * ''Préhistoire des Religions'' Masson Paris 1993 2-225-84068-7 * ''Le Paléolithique Inférieur et Moyen en Europe'' A Colin Paris 1996 * ''La Grotte du Bois Laiterie : Recolonisation Magdalénienne de la Belgique'' with Lawrence Straus, University of Liege 1997 * ''La Préhistoire'' with Denis Vialou and Patrick Plumet De Boeck Université, Paris 1999 * ''Approches du Comportement au Mousterien'', British Archaeological Reports Oxford 2000 * ''Les Origines de la Pensée'' Sprimont Mardaga 2001 * ''La Protohistoire'' with Mireille David-Elbiali, Christiane Eluère and Jean-Pierre Mohen De Boeck Université Brussels 2002 * ''Recherches sur le Paléolithique Supérieur'' J and E Hedges Oxford 2003

References

External links

"Marcel Otte, Préhistorien, Paléoanthropologue"
personal site
Works at ResearchGate
(registration needed)

1948 births Living people Walloon people Prehistorians Belgian archaeologists {{archaeologist-stub

Written works

See also

References

External links