Terra Amata (archaeological site)

The site, originally on a prehistoric beach, contained tools of the Lower Paleolithic period, dated to about 400,000 BCE, as well as traces of some of the earliest domestication of fire in Europe.

[2] The site now lies beneath an apartment building and a museum of prehistoric Nice, where some of the objects discovered are on display.

[4] These vestiges included low walls of stones and beach pebbles, placed to the northwest of the fireplaces, which would have sheltered the fire from the strong Mistral wind.

De Lumley believed the inhabitants built the huts of animal skins supported by poles, with a hole in the center for the smoke to escape.

Villa argued that de Lumley had greatly overestimated the state of preservation of the original site, and that it was impossible to accurately date the objects because the layers could not be considered independent of each other.