New York University will host an international symposium, on Aurignacians, who inhabited much of Europe and parts of southern Asia until approximately 28,000 years ago. They are the first modern humans outside Africa, and their practices and advances shed light on the origins of the arts in Europe. The symposium will consider the social, technological, and environmental contexts of Aurignacian art and how science can inform our understanding of Aurignacians’ contributions to today’s cultural landscape.

Among the speakers are NYU Anthropology Professor RANDALL WHITE and RAPHAËLLE BOURRILLON of the University of Toulouse whose discovery of the earliest form of wall art was reported last fall, a finding that offers rich evidence of the role art played in the daily lives of Early Aurignacian humans. Other speakers include: MARC AZÉMA, FRANÇOIS BON, CAROLE FRITZ, WILLIAM RENDU, and GILLES TOSELLO of the University of Toulouse; and HARALD FLOSS and SIBYLLE WOLF of the University of Tuebingen.

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