Émile Rivière

Émile-Valère Rivière de Précourt (22 April 1835 - 25 January 1922) was a French physician and specialist in prehistory who conducted explorations of caves in the region for human remains.

He was known for his cave research at Balzi Rossi in Ventimiglia in Liguria and La Mouthe in Dordogne.

He went to the Lycée Bonaparte and trained in medicine and interned at the Asile de Vincennes at Le Vésinet.

Repeat visits from 1870 led to the discovery of a human skeleton from the Upper Paleolithic known as the "Menton Man".

In 1887 he began to examine Dordogne, visiting the Laussel shelter and made excavations in the Combarelles cave.