Jacques Boucher de Crèvec?ur de Perthes

Jacques Boucher de Crèvec?ur de Perthes (10 September, 1788 – 5 August1868), also referred to as Boucher de Perthes, was the customhouse director at Abbeville in Picardy, France from 1825 to 1868. He developed a deep interest in certain stones in the gravels of the Somme valley, that had to have been shaped by mankind, yet their location in the stratified layers of sand and gravel indicated that these stones, today known as hand axe,had to be very old. In 1838, Jacques Boucher explained to a gathering of local scientists and intellectuals that the stones could only have been made by man and that they must have been some kind of flint tools.

Related Topics:
10 September - 1788 - 5 August - 1868 - Abbeville - Picardy - France - Gravels - Somme - Hand axe - Flint tools

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Born at Rethel, in the Ardennes, he was the eldest son of Jules Armand Guillaume Boucher de Crèvec?ur, botanist and customs officer, and of Etienne-Jeanne-Marie de Perthes (whose surname he was authorized 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, 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 at Abbeville, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Related Topics:
Rethel - Ardennes - 1818 - 1802 - Italy - 1811 - 1825 - Douane - Abbeville

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His leisure time became chiefly devoted to the study of what he called the antediluvian man. After several years of study he published in 1846 the results in his Antiquités celtiques et antédiluviennes, 3 vol. (1847-64).

Related Topics:
Antediluvian - 1846

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The title of his books clearly indicated that his time-frame of reference was Biblical rather then evolutionary: At the time, the age of the earth was generally thought to be only 4004 years old. Darwin's books on evolution were not published until some 13 years later. Hence: the reference to man-before-the-flood

Related Topics:
4004 - Darwin's - Evolution

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Although Boucher de Perthes was the first to establish that Europe had been populated by early man, he was not able to define the precise period, simply because the scientific frame of reference did not exist yet. Today the hand axes of the Somme River district are widely accepted to be at least 500,000 years old while some think they may be as old as 1 million years. Thus the population may have been Homo erectus, but certainly were Neanderthal

Related Topics:
Early man - Somme River - Homo erectus - Neanderthal

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Not many people accepted the propositions of Boucher de Perthes during his lifetime. Among them was Dr Jean Paul Rigollot of Amiens, who in 1854 started investigating gravel banks of the Somme River, in the now famous Saint Acheul district, to prove Boucher de Perthes wrong, but he did find hand axes as well in older stratifications and thereby authenticated the finds of Boucher de Perthes. More confirmation came in 1858 when Hugh Falconer saw the collection at Abbeville and induced Sir Joseph Prestwich 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 mammalians.

Related Topics:
Jean Paul Rigollot - Amiens - 1854 - Saint Acheul - 1858 - Hugh Falconer - Joseph Prestwich

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Probably the most authoritative confirmation came from Charles Lyell who not only confirmed the enormous geological time periods of the stratifications, but indicated that the chalk plateau of Picardy, France had once been connected to the chalk lands of Kent, England and that the Strait of Dover or Pas de Calais was the recent result of very long term complex erosion forces.

Related Topics:
Charles Lyell - Chalk - Kent - England - Strait of Dover - Pas de Calais - Erosion

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In 1860 the British Royal Society upheld the propositions of Boucher de Perthes and scientists finally began to accept the great significance of the hand ax finds.

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In 1863 the 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. 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.

Related Topics:
1863 - Gravel pit - Moulin-Quignon - Légion d'honneur

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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.

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The small Museum of Abbeville, partly housed in the old belfry built in 1209, is named after Boucher de Perthes. Some of the hand axes are on display.

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