|
( Abbevillian)
Abbevillian is a currently obsolescent name for a tool tradition that is increasingly coming to be called Olduwan. The original artifacts were collected from road construction sites on the Somme river near Abbeville by a French customs officer, Boucher de Perthes. He published his findings in 1836. Subsequently Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet (1821-1898), professor of prehistoric anthropology at the School of Anthropology in Paris, published (1882) "Le Prehistorique, antiquité de l'homme", in which he was the first to characterize periods by the name of a site. Many of his names are still in use. His first two were Chellean and Acheulean. Chellean included artifacts discovered at the town of Chelles, a suburb of Paris. They are similar to those found at Abbeville. Later anthropologists substituted Abbevillian for Chellean, which is now not in use at all. Abbevillian prevailed until the Leakey family discovered older similar artifacts at Olduvai Gorge and promoted the African origin of man. Olduwan then replaced Abbevillian for every other region except Europe. Perhaps the public found it hard to accept an African name for a European tradition or vice versa; in any case, Abbevillian is still used, but only for Europe. It is, however, on the way out.
|
Abbevillian Subcategories
Abbevillian Articles
|
| 
