Joseph Prestwich photographed around 1855 from \Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Prestwich\" 1899 (b. 12 March 1812 - d. 23 June 1896). Geologist specia
Joseph Prestwich photographed around 1855 from \Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Prestwich\" 1899 (b. 12 March 1812 - d. 23 June 1896). Geologist specialising in hydrogeology, famous for his work confirming the antiquity of man. In 1859 he followed a lead by Hugh Falconer that it was worth checking the claims of Boucher de Perthes that the Somme gravels contained human artefacts associated with an extinct megafauna. With friend John Evans he found and photographed handaxes in situ in the gravels and presented his detailed work in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. The work fairly rapidly won acceptance (though the details and exact age of the tools long remained unknown). In 1863 the influential geologist Sir Charles Lyell published his book on Human Antiquity supporting the case for a long human chronology."
Size: 3599px × 4856px
Photo credit: © PAUL D STEWART/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: antiquity, archaeology, archeology, biface, black, black--white, boucher, britain, cavern, de, evans, falconer, flint, flood, geologist, geology, handaxe, heidelbergensis, homo, human, implements, kents, mammoth, monochrome, neanderthal, people, person, perthes, prehistory, rhino, stone, stratigraphy, tools, white, wooly
