Franco-Cantabric region

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The cave paintings of Lascaux are among the most beautiful cultural expressions of the Franco-Cantabric archaeological region
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The cave paintings of Lascaux are among the most beautiful cultural expressions of the Franco-Cantabric archaeological region

Franco-Cantabric region is a term applied in Archaeology and History to refer to an area that stretches from Asturias, in northern Spain, to Provence in SE France.

This region shows much homogeneity in the prehistorical record and was possibly the most densely populated region of Europe in the Late Paleolithic.

The region experienced successively the Chatelperronian, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, Magdalenian, Azilian and post Azilian geometric, with their respective cultural expressions, noticeably the most famous mural art.

The region became culturally divided between the Mediterran and the Atlantic subareas in the Neolithic period. Basques and Gascons are probably the purest descendants of the peoples of the Atlantic area, who remained more closed (relatively) to the new tendencies from the Mediterranean and Central Europe.

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