Boucher de Perthes, Jacques

Boucher de Perthes, Jacques

▪ French archaeologist
in full  Jacques Boucher de Crèvecoeur de Perthes  
born Sept. 10, 1788, Rethel, France
died Aug. 5, 1868, Abbeville

      French archaeologist and writer who was one of the first to develop the idea that prehistory could be measured (dating) on the basis of periods of geologic time.

      From 1825 Boucher de Perthes was director of the customhouse at Abbeville, near the mouth of the Somme River, and began devoting his leisure to archaeological searches in the Somme valley. In 1837 he discovered flint hand axes and other stone tools, some imbedded with the bones of extinct mammals, in gravels deposited during the Pleistocene Epoch, or Ice Age (concluded about 10,000 years ago).

      Though not the first to find evidence of Stone Age culture, Boucher de Perthes was the first to draw the attention of the scientific world to its revolutionary significance, because 4004 BC was then still thought to be the year of the creation. In 1838 the tools he presented in evidence before the scientific society of Abbeville met with disbelief, and his monograph on primitive toolmaking (1846) was ignored. At first he thought that the hand axes were made at the time of the deluge described in Genesis, but he subsequently concluded that, even if the gravels had resulted from but one deluge, the creators of the tools (“Antediluvian Man”) must have existed prior to it.

      In 1859, the year that Darwin's Origin of Species was published, Boucher de Perthes's conclusions were at last upheld by a group of eminent British scientists, including Charles Lyell, who visited the excavated sites. His archaeological writings include Antiquités celtiques et antédiluviennes, 3 vol. (1847–64).

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  • Boucher de Perthes — Jacques Boucher de Perthes Jacques Boucher de Crèvecoeur de Perthes [buˈʃe dəˈpɛʀt] (* 10. September 1788 in Rethel, Ardennes; † 5. August 1868 in Abbeville) war ein Zöllner und Amateur …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Jacques Boucher de Perthes — Jacques Boucher de Crèvecoeur de Perthes [buˈʃe dəˈpɛʀt] (* 10. September 1788 in Rethel, Ardennes; † 5. August 1868 in Abbeville) war ein Zöllner und Amateur …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Jacques Boucher de Perthes — Jacques Boucher de Perthes. Jacques Boucher de Perthes, nacido en Rethel el 10 de septiembre de 1788 y fallecido en Abbeville el 5 de agosto de 1868, primogénito del botánico Jules Armand Guillaume Boucher de Crèvecœur, fue un geólogo francés y… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Boucher de Perthes — (Jacques Boucher de Crèvecoeur de Perthes) (1788 1868) préhistorien français: Antiquités celtiques et antédiluviennes (3 vol., 1847 1864) …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Jacques Boucher de Perthes — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Perthes. J. Boucher de Perthes …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Jacques Boucher De Perthes — J. Boucher de Perthes …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Jacques boucher de perthes — J. Boucher de Perthes …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Boucher de Perthes — Jacques Boucher de Perthes J. Boucher de Perthes …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Boucher de Perthes —   [bu ʃe də pɛrt], Jacques, französischer Vorgeschichtsforscher, * Rethel (bei Reims) 10. 9. 1788, ✝ Amiens 5. 8. 1868; Zolldirektor in Abbeville; fand bei Ausgrabungen in Kiesgruben an der Somme in eiszeitlichen Schichten Feuersteinwerkzeuge und …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Boucher de Perthes — (1788 1868)    archaeologist, paleontologist    Born in Rethel, Jacques Boucher de Crévecoeur de Perthes, or Boucher de Perthes, as he is better known, was a customs official by profession. He made his first discoveries in the gravel deposits of… …   France. A reference guide from Renaissance to the Present

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