The constant presence of man in Paris is recorded from 5000 years BC. Remains of hunting, mammoth bones, and those of deer and reindeer dating from that epoch were discovered in 1886 in a quarry at Beaugrenelle. Traces of a rural habitat and Neolithic tombs were also unearthed during excavation in the courtyards of the Louvre. Other clues indicate long-term settlements of these first occupants. Knapped flints were found in 1912 in the Place du Châtelet, indicating the presence of a pre-historic workshop. Similarly, objects were found during the excavation of warehouses at Bercy in 1991: construction posts, polished stones, bone tools, ceramics.
