Introduction The Pyrenees have been inhabited for such long periods, with so many traces left behind, that their contribution to our knowledge of prehistory has been immense.

The First Pyreneans Our journey through time begins well before our own 'prehistory', starting with the dinosaurs whose fossilised skeletons and eggs were found in exceptional deposits in the Upper Valley of the River Aude, where they lived 70 million years ago in what was then a tropical swamp. Subsequently, over a period of tens of millions of years, the Pyrenees rose up, with the first men arriving from Africa just one and a half million years ago. Unsurprisingly, they chose to live near watercourses, in the lowlands during the glacial periods and on the mountain slopes when the climate was warmer. Remains of one of the most ancient Europeans, Tautavel Man (a homo erectus 400,000 years old) have been unearthed in the hills of the Corbières. In the Basque Country, many Mousterian remains dating from 80,000 years ago have been found. The rich discoveries of two archaeological sites in the Pyrenees led to their names being given to two different Palaeolithic periods: Aurignac, in Haute-Garonne, to the Aurignacian (60,000 years ago) and Mas d'Azil, a vast cave in Ariège, to the Azilian (9,000 years ago). There are hundreds of caves in the Ariège alone, including thirteen containing cave paintings. Some, like Bédeilhac, are truly colossal, while others, like the world-famous 'Grotte de Niaux', are astonishingly long. Furthermore the entire mountain chain is scattered with real treasures from the Magdalenian period, whose hunter-gatherer culture was a highpoint of prehistoric civilisation more than 13,000 years ago.

	A Treasure-trove for Palaeontologists There is an unusual abundance of prehistoric remains here, which are also of exceptionally fine quality and originality. Throughout the Pyrenees, rock art was created using a variety of techniques: painting, line drawing, engraving on clay or rock faces, handprints and bas-reliefs. Quite apart from their beauty, these creations constitute a unique source of knowledge about prehistoric fauna: horses, deer, bears, wolves, seals, snakes, birds, felines, bison and more are represented. There is no end to the wealth of stone and bone artefacts discovered: tens of thousands of carved flints, blades, scrapers, polishing tools, arrowheads, harpoon heads carved from reindeer antlers, spears, needles, awls and so on. This priceless but fragile heritage is carefully preserved, but at the same time every effort is made to keep all sites open to the public and to leave this evidence of prehistoric art, technology and lifestyles available for all to see.