Marcel Otte

Marcel Otte (born 5 October 1948) is a professor of Prehistory at the Université de Liège, Belgium. He is a specialist in Religion, Arts, Sociobiology, and the Upper Palaeolithic times of Europe and Central Asia. In the book Speaking Australopithecus (written together with the philologist Francesco Benozzo) he argues from the archaeological point of view Benozzo's hypothesis that human language appeared with Australopithecus, between 4 and 3 million years ago.

Otte is one of the only advocates of the Paleolithic continuity theory, which states that Indo-European languages originated in Europe and have existed there since Paleolithic times. He first advocated that theory in work published in 1995.

Written works He has published a number of works, including: Étude Archéologique et Historique sur le Château Médièval de Saive, Centre belge d'histoire rurale, Liège, 1973 Les Pointes à Retouches Plates du Paléolithique Supérieur Initial de Belgique, Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherches Archéologiques, Liège, 1974 La préhistoire à Travers les Collections du Musée Curtius de Liège, Wahle, Liège, 1978, Le Paléolithique Supérieur Ancien en Belgique, Musées Royaux d'art et d'histoire, Brussels, 1979 Le Gravettien en Europe Centrale, De Tempel, Brugge, 1981 Sondages à Marche-les-Dames : Grotte de la Princesse, 1976, with J.M. Degbomont, University of Liège, 1981 Les Fouilles de la place Saint-Lambert à Liège, Le Centre, Liège, 1983 Préhistoire des Religions, Masson, Paris, 1993 2-225-84068-7 Le Paléolithique Inférieur et Moyen en Europe, A. Colin, Paris, 1996, La Grotte du Bois Laiterie : Recolonisation Magdalénienne de la Belgique, with Lawrence Straus, University of Liège, 1997 La Préhistoire, with Denis Vialou and Patrick Plumet, De Boeck Université, Paris, 1999, Approches du Comportement au Mousterien, British Archaeological Reports, Oxford, 2000, Les Origines de la Pensée, éditions Mardaga, Sprimont, 2001, La Protohistoire, with Mireille David-Elbiali, Christiane Eluère and Jean-Pierre Mohen, De Boeck Université, Brussels, 2002, Recherches sur le Paléolithique Supérieur, J. and E. Hedges, Oxford, 2003,