France history

The oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from approximately 1.8 million years ago.[29] Over the ensuing millennia, humans were confronted by a harsh and variable climate, marked by several glacial periods. Early hominids led a nomadic hunter-gatherer life.[29] France has a large number of decorated caves from the upper Palaeolithic era, in

cluding one of the most famous and best preserved, Lascaux[29] (approximately 18,000 BC). At the end of the last glacial period (10,000 BC), the climate became milder;[29] from approximately 7,000 BC, this part of Western Europe entered the Neolithic era and its inhabitants became sedentary.

After strong demographic and agricultural development between the 4th and 3rd millennia, metallurgy appeared at the end of the 3rd millennium, initially working gold, copper and bronze, as well as later iron.[30] France has numerous megalithic sites from the Neolithic period, including the exceptionally dense Carnac stones site (approximately 3,300 BC).