| Administrative History | The flint implements are possibly related to Joseph Prestwich's work on the antiquity of the human race. French antiquary Boucher de Perthes had claimed that he had found flint tools amongst the bones of extinct animals in the gravel pits around Abbeville, including at Moulin Quignon (in 1844). In 1859, Prestwich and John Evans confirmed this observation in the gravel beds of St Acheul when a flint axe was discovered alongside remains of Pleistocene animals, proving that humans had existed far longer than previously accepted. |
| Publication Note | Original catalogue references publication: Prestwich, J. "On the Section at Moulin Quignon, Abbeville, and on the peculiar Character of some of the Flint Implements recently discovered there", 'Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society', vol 19 (1863), pp497-505. Paper mentions 'flint implements', but it is unclear whether the drawings and paper are connected. Prestwich's first paper on the subject, see: "On the Occurrence of Flint-Implements, Associated with the Remains of Animals of Extinct Species in Beds of a Late Geological Period, in France at Amiens and Abbeville, and in England at Hoxne", 'Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society', vol 150 (1860), pp277-317. |