Grotte du Lazaret (in Nice) is substantially older than Cosquer Cave.
Age comparisonCosquer Cave (near Marseille): Human visits and parietal art (paintings, engravings, hand stencils) date to roughly 33,000–19,000/20,000 years cal BP (calibrated before present). It belongs to the Upper Paleolithic, with two main phases linked to Gravettian and later Solutrean/Epigravettian cultures of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens).
cambridge.org
Grotte du Lazaret (Nice): Main archaeological occupations date to roughly 190,000–120,000/130,000 years ago (Marine Isotope Stage 6). It is a Middle Paleolithic (or late Lower/early Middle Paleolithic) habitation site associated with pre-Neanderthals or early Neanderthals (Homo heidelbergensis / ante-Neanderthals).
fr.wikipedia.org
In short, Lazaret’s human presence is on the order of 100,000–170,000 years earlier than Cosquer’s.Key differences in contextCosquer is renowned for its well-preserved Upper Paleolithic rock art (including unusual marine animals) in a cave that later became partially submerged.
Lazaret is primarily a habitation site with stone tools, hearths, animal bones showing butchery, possible shelter structures, and some human remains. It documents the lives of earlier hominins during a cold glacial period, not decorated cave art of the same kind.
Both are important prehistoric sites on the French Mediterranean coast, but they represent very different periods and stages of human prehistory.
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