Combe-Capelle man

[ kohm-ka-pel man ]

noun

1. a Homo sapiens skull originally assessed to be Paleolithic and among the oldest fossils of modern humans found in Europe: believed to have been destroyed in a bombed Berlin museum in World War II, it was recovered in 2001 and has since been dated to less than 9,500 years of age, effectively reassigning it to the late Mesolithic or early Neolithic period.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Combe-Capelle man¹

First recorded in 1910–15; named after Combe-Capelle (near Périgueux, France), where the remains were found