Bruno Maureille is the Director of the Department of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bordeaux, France, and a Research Director of CNRS, the French “National Center for Scientific Research.” Dr. Maureille is a paleoanthropologist and a specialist in human evolution. Bruno and his colleagues have translated ancient bones and markings on stone into a remarkable and perhaps unexpected story about early humans. At the rock shelters of La Ferrassie in the Dordogne region of France, Bruno interacts with Alan in SEARCHING Part 1 and states that the skeleton placements in these caves indicate that Neanderthals engaged in ritual burials. And in engravings like the one shown in Part 1, he sees convincing evidence of symbolic thinking, perhaps even a search for meaning.
Dr. Maureille’s research focuses on discovering and describing new Eurasian human fossils from the Upper and Middle Pleistocene (from about 2.5 million years ago up through 12,000 years ago) and on the causes and significance of their bone or dental variability. He is especially interested in Neanderthals and the first anatomically modern humans. He also researches the significance of the burial practices of ancient humans. His work is part of his university’s PACEA program, “From Prehistory to the Present: Culture, Environment and Anthropology.”
He was Director of the “Calcium isotopes and anthropo-biology in the Middle Paleolithic” (ICAP) project of the New Aquitaine region (2019-2022, partnering with the ENS de Lyon, the National Museum of Prehistory (Les Eyzies-de-Tayac), the Museum of Art and Archeology of Périgord (Périgueux), and DRAC, the regional archaeological service of the New Aquitaine Region. He graduated from the University of Bordeaux with a thesis in 1994 and a Ph.D. equivalent in 2001.
SOURCE: PACEA, Research Gate