Prehistoric Britain / by Robert Munro.

  • Munro, Robert, 1835-1920.
Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Prehistoric Britain / by Robert Munro. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    contact with the underlying chalk; four and a half metres from the surface, and thirty metres above the level of the Somme. Associ- ated with this bone were some flint imple- ments of the usual types, which were then unsuspiciously accepted as genuine relics. The news of this discovery caused great excitement among leading anthropologists on both sides of the Channel, and many of them at once visited the locality. “ Meanwhile doubts as to the authenticity of the jaw had been freely expressed by some of the English visitors, and hence a con- troversy arose, which soon reached such a climax that the disputants arranged to hold an international Congress of representative men to inquire into the whole circumstances. Accordingly, this Congress was opened in Paris on the 9th of May, 1863. France was represented by MM. Lartet, Delisse, De Quatrefages, Bourgeois, Bateux, Gaudry, Desnoyers, and Milne-Edwards; and England by MM. Falconer, Prestwich, Carpenter and Busk—Evans had also been nominated, but was unable to attend. M. Milne-Edwards presided, and in the name of his French colleagues presented a report affirming the authenticity of the jaw; but after many meetings, much discussion, and a visit to Abbeville, the English representatives re- mained unconvinced, and so the Congress dispersed, leaving the jaw as much as ever a bone of contention.” (From Archeology and False Antiquities, p. 32.) c