about human ancestry for the general public. Albert I, prince of Monaco, was so impressed by this book that he founded the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine in Paris in 1914. The first organization for specialized research in the field, Boule was the Institute’s first director when it opened in 1920.

Boule believed that the function of paleoanthropology was to revitalize prehistory by giving it the status of a “historical science,” one that was indispensable to the study of the earliest humans. In the context of late-nineteenth-century prehistory, Boule’s contribution was innovative. Using Quaternary geology, paleontology, and archaeology, Boule provided an alternative method to the study of prehistory. His method replaced the predominant one elucidated by gabriel de mortillet, one that was based exclusively on the classification of artifacts manufactured by humans. Boule argued that stone tools could only be used as chronological data if they were a proven part of geology and paleontology.

Nathalie Richard; translated by Judith Braid

See also

France

References

For references, see Encyclopedia of Archaeology: The Great Archaeologists, Vol. 1, ed. Tim Murray (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1999), p. 273.

Boxgrove

In West Sussex (United Kingdom), 12 kilometers inland from the current shoreline of the English Channel, lies the parish of Boxgrove, where Middle Pleistocene sediments have been exposed in quarries along the southern margin of the hills of the South Downs. From the beginning of the twentieth century onward, similar deposits in the region were reported to yield archaeological finds. Research by the British Geological Survey in the 1970s demonstrated the occurrence of archaeological materials within the deposits at Boxgrove, and a survey and trial excavation undertaken by Mark Roberts in 1983 established the presence of a rich archaeological horizon. Funding by English Heritage enabled further research in 1984, and in 1985 the Boxgrove Lower Palaeolithic Project was set up by the Institute of Archaeology, part of University College London.

Excavations carried out until 1996 under the direction of Mark Roberts and Simon Parfitt have revealed extensive lithic scatters comprising large amounts of debitage (debris made by stone tools), numerous hand-axes, and some cores and flake tools. Moreover, the site complex has yielded one of the most diverse vertebrate faunas from a Lower Paleolithic context in Europe. The assemblages have been dated on the basis of mammalian biostratigraphy to the last temperate stage of the Cromerian Complex, tentatively correlated with Oxygen Isotope Stage 13 (524,000–478,000). Although later dates have been proposed on the basis of other data, such as the calcareous nannofossils, Boxgrove occupies a prime position in the ongoing debate about the earliest occupation of northern Europe. A robust hominid tibia found at Boxgrove in 1993 has been assigned to Homo spp., with possible further reference to Homo cf. heidelbergensis on temporal and geographic grounds.

Geologic study suggests that the archaeological remains were deposited within a markedly changing environment. Under decreasing marine influence the area developed from a beach setting, through a lagoonal setting in which artifacts were left on intertidal mudflats, and into a more terrestrial setting that later became inundated with freshwater. The excellent preservation of artifacts in the lagoonal silts and their exposure over relatively large areas have earned Boxgrove the description of “a Middle Pleistocene pincevent,” as have the detailed excavation and documentation procedures applied.

The assemblages recovered at Boxgrove are interpreted in terms of the procurement and processing of animal and lithic resources by hominids. Large mammal bone fragments with cut marks and percussion damage suggest meat and marrow exploitation. Use-wear on a small number of hand-axes is interpreted to stem from contact with meat and hide. All the lithic artifacts are made of locally available flint, and refitting data suggest that lithics in varying stages of reduction were transported. Other finds include an antler hammer with splinters of flint embedded in the striking surface and a horse scapula with damage suggested to be the result of a projectile impact.