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(1808–1865)
Born in Scotland, Hugh Falconer graduated from Aberdeen University in 1826. Despite his interests in botany, geology, and paleontology, he went to Edinburgh University to study medicine. After graduating, and before taking up a position as surgeon with the East India Company, he spent a year in London working with the botanist Nathanial Wallich and with William Lonsdale, curator for the Geological Society of London. It was through these contacts that he finally traveled to India as a botanist rather than as a doctor.
Falconer eventually became superintendent of the East India Company’s botanical gardens at Saharanpur in northern India, which allowed him to also pursue his interests in natural history in the nearby Siwalik Hills, which he dated to the Tertiary period. With the help of a military engineer, Falconer recovered a series of wonderful fossil mammals and reptiles from sites in the hills, for which he and the engineer were awarded the Geological Society of London’s Wollaston Medal in 1837. Falconer’s work in northern India stimulated his interest in the issue of human antiquity.
Because of illness, Falconer spent the years between 1838 and 1847 in London working on his collections at the British Museum. He returned to India and served as the superintendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Calcutta until 1855 when he retired from colonial service. Back in London, Falconer took up full-time paleontological research, examining fossil faunal assemblages from caves across Europe. In 1858 he met the Cornish archaeologist william pengelly, and together they excavated brixham cave in Devon.
The results of these excavations had consequences for the extension of human antiquity, as they provided evidence for the coexistence of human beings with extinct mammals. It was with Falconer’s support that geologist sir joseph prestwich and the archaeologist sir john evans demonstrated the similarity of evidence from Brixham Cave with evidence from open sites in the Somme River valley found by the French paleontologist jacques boucher de perthes. In 1860, Falconer provided even more evidence for human antiquity through his discoveries of material at the Grotta di Maccagnone near Palermo, Sicily.
Falconer was also deeply involved in resolving the moulin quignon controversy concerning the authenticity of human remains found France in 1863 and with the first description of the Gibraltar skull and site in 1864. He received the Royal Society’s Copley Medal in 1864, was elected to the Royal Society in 1845, and was its vice-president when he died in London.
The historical roots of antiquarianism and archaeology in Finland date from the era of Swedish rule, most notably from the seventeenth century when sweden was a leading European power and the ideological potential of antiquities was recognized by the state. A royal decree of 1666 placed antiquities under the official protection of the state, listing ancient fortresses, earthworks, cairns, and rune stones to be protected ad maiorem patriae gloriam, and administration for this purpose was established. The clergy in both
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