Spy

The find site of three Neanderthal skeletons in a cave at Spy, Belgium, associated with Middle Paleolithic stone tools and an extinct subarctic fauna. These complete skeletons were found during excavations of the Mousterian levels. It was only after these discoveries that it was recognized that Neanderthal man was associated with the Mousterian and that Neanderthals were an archaic and extinct human form rather than an abnormal modern human. There was also Upper Palaeolithic material in the cave.

The first complete Neanderthal skeletons were found during early excavations of the Mousterian levels of the Spy cave not far from Liège, Belgium, in the 1880s. Both a male and a female are represented, though the bones are damaged and incomplete. It was only after these discoveries that it was recognized that Neanderthal man was associated with the Mousterian.