Prehistoric France is the period in the human occupation of the geographical area covered by present-day France which extended through prehistory and ended in the Iron Age with the Roman conquest, when the territory enters the domain of written history.
Venus of Laussel, Gravettian culture, c. 23,000 BC
Chauvet cave painting, Aurignacian culture
Venus of Brassempouy, Gravettian culture
Inscribed bones, Gravettian culture
The Azilian is a Mesolithic industry of the Franco-Cantabrian region of northern Spain and Southern France. It dates approximately 10,000–12,500 years ago. Diagnostic artifacts from the culture include projectile points, crude flat bone harpoons and pebbles with abstract decoration. The latter were first found in the River Arize at the type-site for the culture, the Grotte du Mas d'Azil at Le Mas-d'Azil in the French Pyrenees. These are the main type of Azilian art, showing a great reduction in scale and complexity from the Magdalenian Art of the Upper Palaeolithic.
Azilian
The Thaïs Bone, c. 12,000 BP.
Azilian painted pebbles from the cave of Le Mas d'Azil.
Harpoon – Mas d'Azil – Museum de Toulouse