Human presence

The many lakes of the Eifel Lake District (see above) are known to have been a favorable hunting area of hominids and early humans since the Mousterian. Neanderthal presence is well documented in Belgian caves, which are only 150 km distant to Auel. Presence of Aurignacian and Gravettian people only 15 km away has been documented by archeological artifacts in the caves of nearby Gerolstein. Accordingly, it appears out of doubt that the Eifel Lake District has been used by our MIS3 ancestors.

Work by Sabine Fiedler and Jago Birk (Mainz) produced indications for human presence in the lake sediments. Ongoing DNA studies will go deeper into this fascinating research topic.