Finding Time for the Old Stone Age: A History of Palaeolithic Archaeology and Quaternary Geology in Britain, 1860-1960

Finding Time for the Old Stone Age explores a century of colorful debate over the age of our earliest ancestors. In the mid nineteenth century curious stone implements were found alongside the bones of extinct animals. Humans were evidently more ancient than had been supposed--but just how old
were they? There were several clocks for Stone-Age (or Palaeolithic) time, and it would prove difficult to synchronize them. Conflicting timescales were drawn from the fields of geology, palaeontology, anthropology, and archaeology. Anne O'Connor draws on a wealth of lively, personal
correspondence to explain the nature of these arguments. The trail leads from Britain to Continental Europe, Africa, and Asia, and extends beyond the world of professors, museum keepers, and officers of the Geological Survey: wine sellers, diamond merchants, papermakers, and clerks also proposed
timescales for the Palaeolithic. This book brings their stories to light for the first time--stories that offer an intriguing insight into how knowledge was built up about the ancient British past.


Author: Anne O'Connor
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 10/01/2007
Pages: 480
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.00lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.40w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780199215478

About the Author

Anne O'Connor was formerly a Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology, Durham University.

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