The Musee Terra-Amata is curiously located at the foot of a standard huge apartment block overlooking the port of Nice, somewhere that humans have been gathering for a long time, for it was here, now some distance from the sea but then the shore, that a group of Homo erectus – hunters of young elephants and rhinos particularly camped, probably for a number of seasons.
The museum is on the very spot where their camp was found, complete with what must have claim to being the oldest wall in the world, a small stretch perhaps 50cm high that was the foundation for a wooden framework. They weren’t very tidy, these erectuses – the site is scattered with discarded tools, human coprolites, and the inside of the shelter was scattered with discarded bones – presumably throwing your bones out of the hut wasn’t required etiquette. There’s even one (not very distinct) footprint. Most of the tools are basic, but one of them is rather fine…
Once again, though, I found my feminist hackles rising, for this is the image used to illustrate the replica of the site…
You might notice there’s something missing – women. All of the figures are male – based so far as I can see on no evidence whatsoever. Sure this was, as we understand, a hunting camp, but I don’t know about any evidence of sexual division of labour among erectus.
The other thing that I was left puzzled by was the purpose of the “shelter”. Certainly, as reconstructed upstairs, it wouldn’t keep out rain or wind; maybe it would serve as a certain barrier to dangerous predators – but really what would it achieve for the amount of effort required? There are several apparent heaths in and around it, but I couldn’t help wondering if it might have supported some kind of hide cover – although I don’t think it would generally be thought that erectus was that far advanced.
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