172 Prehistoric and Savage Man 



The science of Prehistoric Archaeology is eminently a 

 science of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Its birth 

 may be dated from the year 1847, when M. Boucher de 

 Perthes published ^ his description of flint implements found 

 in the gravel in the valley of the Somme near Abbeville. 

 Anticipations of such a discovery had however existed, and 

 attention had before several times been drawn to evidences 

 of great human antiquity — evidences which had, however, 

 been persistently disregarded owing to the strength of the 

 prejudice which existed in favour of the belief that man 

 had inhabited the earth but for a very few thousand years. 

 Indeed, even at the commencement of the present century, 

 Mr. John Frere communicated to the Society of Antiquaries ^ 

 a clear description of flint tools (like those since found near 

 Amiens) which were discovered in Suffolk. 



Much later, in the year 1832, human relics were dis- 

 covered by the Rev. Mr. M'Enery in Kent's Hole, near 

 Torquay, and by Dr. Schmerling in caverns near Liege. 

 Nevertheless, before the eventful discovery of M. Boucher 

 de Perthes, these and all other attempts to force on reluctant 

 hearers, man's claim to a yet unaccepted antiquity were alike 

 fruitless. As soon, however, as that discovery had obtained 

 a serious and more or less unprejudiced attention to the 

 subject, fresh evidence was rapidly accumulated from very 

 varied sources. Not only from caves and gravel beds, but 

 from the remains of ancient lake dwelKngs in Switzerland, 

 from shell mounds and refuse heaps in the Danish islands ; 

 and not from Europe alone but also from Asia (including 

 India and Japan), and from the Americas, — from all sides, — 

 overwhelming evidence forced the most incredulous to yield 

 assent to the widespread existence of the remains of Pre- 

 historic Man. 



^ In the first volume of his Antiquites Celtiques. 

 - Frere's Archceologia for 1800, vol. xiii. p. 206. 



