Boucher de Perthes

(1788-1868)

   archaeologist, paleontologist

   Born in Rethel, Jacques Boucher de Crévecoeur de Perthes, or Boucher de Perthes, as he is better known, was a customs official by profession. He made his first discoveries in the gravel deposits of the Somme valley near Abbeville in 1844. There, he found flint implements that he believed to be from the Pleistocene era. In subsequent research done from 1846 to 1864, he proved that humans had lived during the Pleistocene Epoch, 1 million to 12 million years ago. This was proof of the antediluvian existence of humans, a theory in contrast to the established beliefs of the time. His ideas were upheld by the British Royal society, and Boucher de Perthes is now recognized as one of the founders of prehistoric studies.