| Description | Conté drawing of the 'Human Fossil', from Belgium, by unknown artist, 1841. The specimen, was exhibited in Leicester Square, London, in June 1840 at a cost of £1 per person entry. The accompanying handbill claimed that this was the fossil of an 'ante-diluvian child', that is a fossil of a child who lived before Noah's Flood. |
| Administrative History | In the first half of the 19th century, scientific studies for some were still heavily influenced by religious beliefs, indeed many of the Geological Society’s early members were Anglican clerics. Geologists, such as the Reverend William Buckland (1784-1856), theorised that the large diluvial deposits found throughout northern Europe and around the Alps, were evidence of a larger ‘mega-tsunami’, that is Noah’s Flood. Therefore, using the teachings from the Bible as a basis for understanding geology, any ancient human remains found could not date before the Flood.
This particular example is in fact a ‘concretion’ that is a mineral mass which forms between layers of sedimentary rock. |