Combe-Capelle Bas, the focus of the present project, represents a slope deposit rich in Middle Paleolithic industries that extends from at least midway up the slope to the valley floor and beneath the Holocene alluvial deposits there.
Combe-Capelle Bas had been known as a Paleolithic site since late in the 19th Century. It was discovered by Landesque, who excavated there with Coste, and it was then later excavated by de Mensignac and Chabannes. More systematic work was initiated by Peyrony in 1910, who also urged the French-Canadian Henri-Marc Ami (right) to begin excavations in 1926. Ami continued to excavate there continuously until his death early in 1931, at which time Peyrony finished up the excavations and wrote a brief report on the stratigraphy and the archaeological materials. The only other major study of part of the collection was done by Bourgon, which was also published posthumously in 1957.