Cave Men: Stone tools, victorian science, and the 'primitive mind' of deep time

Notes and Records of the Royal Society

Volumn 65, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 25-42

  Pettitt, Paul B ^a   White, Mark J ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD   (United Kingdom)

^b DURHAM UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Cognition; Evolution; Hand axes; Hominins; Palaeolithic

Indexed keywords

EID: 79851488647     PISSN: 00359149     EISSN: 17430178     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rsnr.2010.0100     Document Type: Article

References (56)

1. M. J. S. Rudwick, Scenes From Deep Time. Early Pictoral Representations of the Prehistoric World (University of Chicago Press, 1995), p. 14.
2. Scenes From Deep Time. Early Pictoral Representations of the Prehistoric World, Ibid, p. 219.
3. Scenes From Deep Time. Early Pictoral Representations of the Prehistoric World, Ibid, p. 250.
4. For the purposes of this paper, the term 'hominin'-a member of the subfamily Homininae- may be taken as the formal reference to extinct and extant humans. Recognized hominin genera before Homo are Ardipithecus, Australopithecus and Paranthropus, spanning the period 5 million to 1.5 million years ago, and possible hominin genera are Orrorin, Sahelanthropus and Kenyanthropus spanning the period 7 million to 3 million years ago. The genus Homo currently comprises Homo rudolfensis, Homo habilis, Homo georgicus, Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo floresiensis and Homo sapiens, with pre-sapient forms spanning the period about 2 million years ago to about 30 000 years ago (Neanderthals) and about 20 000 years ago or later (H. floresiensis). In terms of cranial size, shape and circuitry, with the possible exception of the Neanderthals, all of these may be regarded as 'primitive'.
5. Clive Gamble and Theodora Moutsiou, 'The time revolution of 1859 and the stratification of the primeval mind', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 65 (2011) (this issue).
6. M. J. S. Rudwick, Georges Cuvier, fossil bones, and geological catastrophes (University of Chicago Press, 1997).
7. M. Sommer, Bones and ochre: the curious afterlife of the Red Lady of Paviland (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2007), p. 26.
8. W. Buckland, Reliquiae Diluvianae; or, Observations on the Organic Remains Contained in Caves, Fissures, and Diluvial Gravel, and on other Geological Phenomena, Attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge (John Murray, London, 1823)
9. Sommer, Reliquiae Diluvianae; or, Observations on the Organic Remains Contained in Caves, Fissures, and Diluvial Gravel, and on other Geological Phenomena, Attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge, op. cit. (note 7).
10. D. K. Grayson, The establishment of human antiquity (Academic Press, New York, 1983), p. 77.
11. See, for example, R. Weston, 'John Traherne, FSA, and William Buckland's "Red Lady'", Antiquaries J. 88, 347-364 (2008).
12. M. J. S. Rudwick, Bursting the limits of time: the reconstruction of geohistory in the age of revolution (University of Chicago Press, 2005), p. 608.
13. M. J. White and P. B. Pettitt, 'The demonstration of human antiquity: three rediscovered illustrations from the 1825 and 1846 excavations in Kent's Cavern (Torquay, England)', Antiquity 83, 758-768 (2009).
14. Sommer, Antiquity, op. cit. (note 7), p. 84.
15. J. MacEnery, Fasciculus A, quoted in W. Pengelly, 'The literature of Kent's Cavern, Part I', Trans. Devonshire Assoc. Advmt Sci. Lit. Art 1, 469-522 (1868).
16. J. MacEnery and E. Vivian, Cavern Researches, or Discoveries of Organic Remains, and of British and Roman Reliques, in the Caves of Kent's Hole, Anstis Cove, Chudleigh, and Berry Head (Simpkin, Marshall and Co., London, 1859)
17. A. O'Connor, Finding time for the old Stone Age: a history of palaeolithic archaeology and Quaternary geology in Britain, 1860-1960 (Oxford University Press, 2007).
18. J. MacEnery, Fasciculus C, written some time after 1831, quoted in Pengelly, Finding time for the old Stone Age: a history of palaeolithic archaeology and Quaternary geology in Britain, 1860-1960, op. cit. (note 14).
19. Pengelly, Finding time for the old Stone Age: a history of palaeolithic archaeology and Quaternary geology in Britain, 1860-1960, op. cit. (note 14).
20. Ibid..
21. C. Lyell, The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man (John Murray, London, 1863), p. 77.
22. W. Pengelly, 'Report on Windmill Hill Cavern, at Brixham, Devonshire. Drawn up by Mr. Pengelly, in 1862, for the Cavern Committee, at the request of the Chairman, Dr. Falconer. Forwarded to the Committee, at their request, December 4, 1865', Rep. Trans. Devonshire Assoc. Advmt Sci. 6, 46-60 (1873).
23. Gamble and Moutsiou, Rep. Trans. Devonshire Assoc. Advmt Sci., op. cit. (note 5).
24. E. Trinkaus and P. Shipman, The Neanderthals: changing the image of mankind (Jonathan Cape, London, 1993).
25. T. H. Huxley, Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (Williams & Norgate, London, 1863), p. 130.
26. A. Desmond, Huxley (Penguin, London, 1998).
27. A. Desmond and J. Moore, Darwin (Penguin, London, 1992), p. 145.
28. A. R. Wallace, Contributions to the Theory ofNatural Selection (Macmillan & Co., London, 1875), p. 342.
29. H. Lamdin-Whymark, 'Sir John Evans: experimental flint knapping and the origins of lithic research. In Great Prehistorians: 150 Years of Palaeolithic Research, 1859-2009 (special volume 30 of Lithics: the Journal of the Lithic Studies Society) (ed. R. Hosfield, F. Wenban- Smith and M. Pope), pp. 45-52 (Lithic Studies Society, London, 2009).
30. C. S. Gamble and R. Kruszynski, 'John Evans, Joseph Prestwich and the stone that shattered the time barrier', Antiquity 83, 461-475 (2009).
31. Ibid..
32. M. Pope and M. Roberts, '"Clenching authority": Joseph Prestwich and the proofs of the antiquity of Man', In Great Prehistorians: 150 Years of Palaeolithic Research, 1859-2009 (special volume 30 of Lithics: the Journal of the Lithic Studies Society) (ed. R. Hosfield, F. Wenban-Smith and M. Pope), pp. 35-44 (Lithic Studies Society, London, 2009), at p. 38.
33. J. Lubbock, Pre-Historic Times, 1st edn (John Murray, London, 1865), pp. 2-3.
34. C. N. Warren and S. Rose, William Pengelly's techniques of archaeological excavation (Torquay Natural History Society Publication 5) (Torquay: Torquay Natural History Society, 1994).
35. Desmond, William Pengelly's techniques of archaeological excavation, op. cit. (note 24), p. 327.
36. William Pengelly's techniques of archaeological excavation, Ibid., p. 329.
37. William Pengelly's techniques of archaeological excavation, Ibid., p. 328.
38. Desmond and Moore, William Pengelly's techniques of archaeological excavation, op. cit. (note 25), p. 560.
39. Typed copy made by Lubbock. Courtesy of the Royal Society and with thanks to Keith Moore.
40. Lubbock, William Pengelly's techniques of archaeological excavation, op. cit. (note 31), 4th edn, p. 600.
41. Lubbock, William Pengelly's techniques of archaeological excavation, op. cit. (note 31), 1st edn, p. viii.
42. Lubbock, William Pengelly's techniques of archaeological excavation, op. cit. (note 31), 4th edn, p. 563.
43. Pengelly notebook, entry for Thursday, 2 September 1869, quoted courtesy of Torquay Museum.
44. A. R. Wallace, 'The Origin of Human Races and the Antiquity of Man Deduced from the Theory of Natural Selection', J. R. Anthropol. Soc. 2, CLXIV (1864).
45. Lubbock, J. R. Anthropol. Soc., op. cit. (note 31), 1st edn, p. 491.
46. Huxley, J. R. Anthropol. Soc., op. cit. (note 23), p. 72.
47. Lyell, J. R. Anthropol. Soc., op. cit. (note 19), p. 374.
48. E. Lartet and H. Christy, 'Figures d'animaux gravèes ou sculptées et autres produits d'art et industrie rapportatble aux temps primordeaux de la période humaine', Rév. Anthropol. 41, 233-267 (1864).
49. Lubbock, Rév. Anthropol., op. cit. (note 31), 1st edn, p. 341.
50. Pages entitled 'Savages' within notebook entitled 'Archaeology-Travels'. Lubbock archive, Royal Society.
51. See, for example, J. Allen Brown, Palaeolithic Man in N. W. Middlesex (Macmillan & Co., London, 1887);
52. W. G. Smith, Man the Primeval Savage (Stanford, London, 1894).
53. D. A. Roe, 'Worthington George Smith (1835-1917)', In Great Prehistorians: 150 Years of Palaeolithic Research, 1859-2009 (special volume 30 of Lithics: the Journal of the Lithic Studies Society) (ed. R. Hosfield, F. Wenban-Smith and M. Pope), pp. 85-95 (Lithic Studies Society, London, 2009).
54. Smith, Lithics: the Journal of the Lithic Studies Society, op. cit. (note 49), p. 46.
55. Lithics: the Journal of the Lithic Studies Society, Ibid, p. 49.
56. Lithics: the Journal of the Lithic Studies Society, Ibid, pp. 23-24.