Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes (; 10 September 1788 – 5 August 1868), sometimes referred to as Boucher de Perthes (
), was a
French archaeologist and antiquary notable for his discovery, in about 1830, of
flint tools
A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric (particularly Stone Ag ...
in the
gravel
Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone.
Gravel is classifi ...
s of the
Somme valley.
Life
![Biface de Boucher de Perthes MHNT](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Biface_de_Boucher_de_Perthes_MHNT.jpg)
Born at
Rethel
Rethel () is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture and third-most important city and economic center in the department. It is situated on the river Aisne, near the northern border of Champagne and 37& ...
, in the
Ardennes
The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...
, he was the eldest son of Jules Armand Guillaume Boucher de Crèvecœur, botanist and customs officer, and of Etienne-Jeanne-Marie de Perthes (whose surname he was authorised by royal decree in 1818 to assume in addition to his father's). In 1802 he entered government employ as an officer of customs. His duties kept him for six years in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, but upon his returning in 1811 he found rapid promotion at home, and finally was appointed, in March 1825, to succeed his father as director of the
douane
''Douane'' or ''Douanes ''may refer to:
*Customs, an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods into and out of a country
*Custom house, traditionally a building housing the offices f ...
(customs office) at
Abbeville
Abbeville (, vls, Abbekerke, pcd, Advile) is a commune in the Somme department and in Hauts-de-France region in northern France.
It is the chef-lieu of one of the arrondissements of Somme. Located on the river Somme, it was the capital of ...
, where he remained for the rest of his life.
Boucher de Perthes as an archaeologist
His leisure time was chiefly devoted to the study of what was afterwards called the
Stone Age
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...
and
antediluvian
The antediluvian (alternatively pre-diluvian or pre-flood) period is the time period chronicled in the Bible between the fall of man and the Genesis flood narrative in biblical cosmology. The term was coined by Thomas Browne. The narrative take ...
man, as he expressed it. About the year 1830 he had found, in the gravels of the Somme valley, flints which in his opinion bore evidence of human handiwork; but not until many years afterwards did he make public the important discovery of a worked flint implement with remains of
elephant
Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...
and
rhinoceros
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...
in the gravels of Menchecourt. This was in 1846.
In 1847 he commenced the issue of his monumental three volume work, , a work in which he was the first to establish the existence of man in the
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
or early
Quaternary
The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...
period. His views met with little approval, partly because he had previously propounded theories regarding the
antiquity of man
The discovery of human antiquity was a major achievement of science in the middle of the 19th century, and the foundation of scientific paleoanthropology. The antiquity of man, human antiquity, or in simpler language the age of the human race, are ...
without facts to support them, partly because the figures in his book were badly executed and they included drawings of flints which showed no clear sign of workmanship.
In 1855 Dr
Marcel Jérôme Rigollot of
Amiens
Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...
strongly advocated the authenticity of the flint implements; but it was not until 1858 that
Hugh Falconer
Hugh Falconer MD FRS (29 February 1808 – 31 January 1865) was a Scottish geologist, botanist, palaeontologist, and paleoanthropologist. He studied the flora, fauna, and geology of India, Assam,Burma,and most of the Mediterranean islands ...
saw the collection at Abbeville and induced Sir
Joseph Prestwich
Sir Joseph Prestwich, FRS (12 March 1812 – 23 June 1896) was a British geologist and businessman, known as an expert on the Tertiary Period and for having confirmed the findings of Boucher de Perthes of ancient flint tools in the Somme vall ...
in the following year to visit the locality. Prestwich then definitely agreed that the flint implements were the work of man, and that they occurred in undisturbed ground in association with remains of extinct mammalia.
Charles Lyell
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known as the author of ''Principles of Geolo ...
not only confirmed the enormous geological time periods of the stratifications, but indicated that the
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...
plateau of Picardy, France had once been connected to the chalk lands of
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and that the
Strait of Dover
The Strait of Dover or Dover Strait (french: Pas de Calais - ''Strait of Calais''), is the strait at the narrowest part of the English Channel, marking the boundary between the Channel and the North Sea, separating Great Britain from continent ...
or
Pas de Calais
The Strait of Dover or Dover Strait (french: Pas de Calais - ''Strait of Calais''), is the strait at the narrowest part of the English Channel, marking the boundary between the Channel and the North Sea, separating Great Britain from continent ...
was the recent result of very long term complex
erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...
forces.
In 1863 his discovery of a human jaw, together with worked flints, in a
gravel-pit at
Moulin-Quignon near Abbeville seemed to vindicate Boucher de Perthes entirely; but doubt was thrown on the antiquity of the human remains (owing to the possibility of interment), though not on the good faith of the discoverer, who was the same year made an officer of the
Légion d'honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
. However, the 'Moulin-Quigon jaw' was a hoax, planted by one of Boucher de Perthes' workers in response to an offer of a reward of 200 Francs for findings of human remains.
Although Boucher de Perthes was the first to establish that Europe had been populated by
early man, he was not able to pinpoint the precise period, because the scientific frame of reference did not then exist. Today the hand axes of the
Somme River
The Somme ( , , ) is a river in Picardy, northern France.
The river is in length, from its source in the high ground of the former at Fonsomme near Saint-Quentin, to the Bay of the Somme, in the English Channel. It lies in the geological ...
district are widely accepted to be at least 500,000 years old and thus the product of
Neanderthal
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While th ...
populations, while some authorities think they may be as old as one million years and therefore associated with ''
Homo erectus
''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor' ...
''.
Other works
![Tombeau de Jacques Boucher de Perthes 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Tombeau_de_Jacques_Boucher_de_Perthes_1.jpg)
Boucher de Perthes displayed activity in many other directions. For more than thirty years he filled the presidential chair of the Société d'Emulation at Abbeville, to the publications of which he contributed articles on a wide range of subjects. He was the author of several tragedies, two books of fiction, several works of travel, and a number of books on economic and philanthropic questions.
Aftermath
In 1954, the Museum Boucher de Perthes was opened in Abbeville, with collections covering a wide range of materials and periods.
In his novel ''Journey to the Centre of the Earth'' (1864), Jules Verne makes reference to Boucher de Perthes after Professor Lindenbrock, Axel and, Hans discover "antediluvian" human heads on a beach near the center of the earth.
Published writings
* 1830: ''Romances, Légendes et Ballades''
* 1832: ''Novels''
*''Chants Armoricains ou Souvenirs de Basse-Bretagne'' (Armorican songs, or, Souvenirs of Low-Brittany)
*''Opinions de M Christophe, I. Sur la Liberté du Commerce.'' (On Free Trade)
*''Opinions de M Christophe, II. Voyage Commercial et Philosophique.'' (Commercial and Philosophic Journey)
*''Opinions de M Christophe, III. M. Christophe à la Préfecture.'' (M. Christophe at the Préfecture)
*''Opinions de M Christophe, IV. Le Dernier Jour d'un Homme.'' (A Man's Last Day)
* 1833: ''Satires, Contes et Chansonettes'' (Satires, Stories and Little Songs)
* 1835: ''Petit Glossaire, Esquisses de Moeurs Administratives.'' (Little glossary, Examples of Bureaucratic manners)
* 1841; 5 vols.: ''De La Création, Essai sur L'Origine et la Progression des Êtres'' (On Creation, An Essay on the Origin and Development of Entities)
* 1848: ''Petites Solutions des Grands Mots'' (Little Solutions to Great Words).
* 1847, 1857, 1864; 3 vols.: ''Antiquités Celtiques et Antédiluviennes'' (with 106 plates illustrating 2000 figures) (Celtic and pre-Flood Antiquities).
* 1850-1851; 4 vols.: ''Hommes et Choses'' (Men and Things).
* 1852: ''Sujets Dramatiques'' (Dramatic Subjects).
* 1852: ''Emma ou Quelques Lettres du Femme'' (Emma, or Some Letters from a Woman).
* 1855; 2 vols.: ''Voyage a Constantinople.'' (Journey to Constantinople)
*''Voyage en Danemarck, en Suède, etc.'' (Journey in Denmark, Sweden, etc.).
* 1859: ''Voyage en Espagne et en Algérie.'' (Journey in Spain and Algeria).
* 1859: ''Voyage en Russe, en Lithuanie, en Pologne.'' (Journey in Russia, Lithuania and Poland).
References and external links
*Antiquités celtiques et antédiluviennes: Mémoire sur l'industrie (Vol 3) 186
Google books*
Belén Márquez Mora, "Jacques Boucher de Perthes", in ''
Encyclopedia of Anthropology
The ''Encyclopedia of Anthropology'' is an encyclopedia of anthropology edited by H. James Birx of Canisius College and SUNY Geneseo.
The encyclopedia, published in 2006 by SAGE Publications, is in five volumes, and contains over 1,200 articles b ...
'' ed.
H. James Birx
Harry James Birx (born June 1, 1941 in Canandaigua, New York), is an American anthropologist and a professor of Anthropology at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. He is a distinguished research scholar at the State University of New York at ...
(2006, SAGE Publications; )
See also
*
Thunderstone (folklore)
A thunderstone is a prehistoric hand axe, stone tool, or fossil which was used as an amulet to protect a person or a building. The name derives from the ancient belief that the object was found at a place where lightning had struck.
Thunderston ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boucher De Crevecour De Perthes, Jacques
1788 births
1868 deaths
People from Rethel
French archaeologists
Prehistorians