History of Wallonia

The history of Wallonia, from prehistoric times to the present day, is that of a territory which, since 1970, has approximately coincided with the territory of Wallonia, a federated component of Belgium, which also includes the smaller German-speaking Community of Belgium (73,000 inhabitants). Wallonia is the name colloquially given to the Walloon Region. The French word Wallonie comes from the term Wallon, itself coming from Walh. Walh is a very old Germanic word used to refer to a speaker of Celtic or Latin (cf. Wales). the largest find of the fossilised remains of Iguanodon to date occurred in 1878 in a coal mine at Bernissart, at a depth of . I. bernissartensis, that lived from the Barremian to the early Aptian (Early Cretaceous) in Europe, between about 130 and 120 million years ago. The Grotte de Spy (Spy Cave) is located near Spy, Belgium, in the Walloon municipality of Jemeppe-sur-Sambre in the province of Namur. It was discovered in 1886 and has been classified as Wallonia's Major Heritage. It is one of the most important paleolithic sites in Europe. The excavation was conducted by Marcel de Puydt and Max Lohest of Liège. They proved the existence of the Neanderthal. Fraipont published an article about the cave in the American Anthropologist. Spiennes, another famous Walloon village in the municipality of Mons, Province of Hainaut, has well known neolithic flint mines that are included on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites. The entry on the list describes them as "the largest and earliest concentration of ancient mines in Europe" and cites the level of early technological development they demonstrate as justification for their inclusion. According to the region's official website, after Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, its inhabitants became the Gallo-Romans and were called the "Walha" by their Germanic neighbours, from whence the name Wallonia comes. The Walha started speaking Vulgar Latin instead of their Celtic dialects. At that time, Wallonia was on the border between Germanic-speaking and Latin-speaking territories.