LOIR-ET-CHER. Louis-Alexis BOURGEOIS (1819-1878), prehistori - Lot 58

Lot 58
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1500 - 1800 EUR
LOIR-ET-CHER. Louis-Alexis BOURGEOIS (1819-1878), prehistori - Lot 58
LOIR-ET-CHER. Louis-Alexis BOURGEOIS (1819-1878), prehistorian and geologist, was the first to suggest the hypothesis of Tertiary man. In 1867, he announced at the Congress of Anthropology and Prehistoric Archaeology the discovery of flints bearing the marks of human work in the Miocene terrain of Thenay, which caused a lively controversy. He exposed his theses in La question de l'homme tertiaire. He had formed a rich collection of prehistoric instruments. 4 L.A.S. to Alexis de Gourgues. 27 pp. in-8. Pont-Levoy, October - November 1867. Very long and superb correspondence entirely devoted to his discoveries, and his theories on the dating of prehistoric axes and tools and on the time of the existence of the first men. "I attach the greatest credence to the observations of men who, like you, have made long experimental studies on stone tools []. Until this moment, all the axes found in the quaternary layers or in association with animal species either extinct or emigrated, have not presented the slightest trace of polishing and are related to the typical forms reported in my little brochure. M. Boucher de Perthes must have sent you from the banks of the Somme the two quaternary types reported before me by John Evans, namely the spearhead type which is very common and the much rarer oval type []. When I meet on the surface of the ground well worked quaternary forms like those of St Acheul, I attribute them to the quaternary period even when they would not present any trace of erosion. I base myself on the preceding consideration that the quaternary or rather subquaternary forms of the peat bogs are always coarse. This is also the way of seeing of several very experienced people that I consulted. But it must be said that for this period which immediately preceded the polished stone period, we have only conjectural data. You questioned me on a point where I feel weak. The facts will most probably modify my way of seeing. Already I hold less to my opinion on the large instruments of the Grand-Bassigny, I mean to my opinion on their age. New facts make me think that they may well belong to what is vulgarly called the Celtic period [] ". "My opinion on the types of axes does not imply that the history of human industry is divided into two periods separated by an abyss. In my opinion, these periods are like the geological periods, like the historical periods. We cannot establish a mathematical line of demarcation between them and yet we are obliged to admit them. Without doubt I will not be able to demonstrate by positive proofs that the axes of the oval type or the spearhead type found on the surface of the ground belong to the epoch of the extinct species, but I am authorized to do so by this consideration that up to now these types have never been met in the dolmens or the tumuli which constantly presented different types. This fact by its universality acquires a great value. I think as you do, sir, that there must have been a transitional period to which we must perhaps relate the coarse axes of the Somme [] ". The other letters are just as interesting.
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