PRE-MOUSTERIAN MAN 
20] 
accepting the Spy mandible as the true representative 
of Pleistocene man. 
Were our predecessors right in rejecting the Abbeville 
mandible ? I think not. Boucher de Perthes gives the 
most circumstantial account of its discovery. There is 
not a single point mentioned by Busk or by Falconer 
which makes its antiquity impossible. It was almost an 
isolated case in 1863, but since then the discoveries at 
Galley Hill, at Bury St Edmunds, at Clichy, and at 
Crenelle have been made. Our predecessors were largely 
Fig. 69. — Stippled outline of the Moulin Quignon mandible superimposed 
on the Spy (Neanderthal) specimen. 
influenced by prejudice. Time will probably show that 
the pioneer of Abbeville was not only right about the 
human implements of the terraces, but also about the 
human remains. He died in 1868 : it was not until 
1908 that a statue was erected to him in Abbeville. 
In our search for men of the most ancient Paleolithic 
periods, we now move from Abbeville on the estuary of 
the Somme to Paris on the banks of the Seine. The 
greater part of Paris is built on deposits — on terraces — 
laid down by the Seine. The river deposits of Paris 
offer certain advantages for our present purposes. 
Galley Hill and Abbeville lie in the tidal reach of their 
valleys. When submergence of the land sets in, the 
