The discovery of human antiquity was a major achievement of science in the middle of the 19th century, and the foundation of scientific paleoanthropology. The antiquity of man, human antiquity, or in simpler language the age of the human race, are names given to the series of scientific debates it involved, which with modifications continue in the 21st century. These debates have clarified and given scientific evidence, from a number of disciplines, towards solving the basic question of dating the first human being.
Controversy was very active in this area in parts of the 19th century, with some dormant periods also. A key date was the 1859 re-evaluation of archaeological evidence that had been published 12 years earlier by Boucher de Perthes. It was then widely accepted, as validating the suggestion that man was much older than had previously been believed, for example than the 6,000 years implied by some traditional chronologies.
In 1863 T. H. Huxley argued that man was an evolved species; and in 1864 Alfred Russel Wallace combined natural selection with the issue of antiquity. The arguments from science for what was then called the "great antiquity of man" became convincing to most scientists, over the following decade. The separate debate on the antiquity of man had in effect merged into the larger one on evolution, being simply a chronological aspect. It has not ended as a discussion, however, since the current science of human antiquity is still in flux.
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The discoveryofhumanantiquity was a major achievement of science in the middle of the 19th century, and the foundation of scientific paleoanthropology...
The metals ofantiquity are the seven metals which humans had identified and found use for in prehistoric times in Africa, Europe and throughout Asia:...
Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural European history...
The Age ofDiscovery also known as the Age of Exploration, part of the early modern period and largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, was a period from...
bones may belong to one of the largest humans known to have existed. However, in 2022, Katherine Hacanyan asserted that this discovery by Lapouge was most...
formation of the planet to the rise of modern humans see: Timeline of natural history, Timeline of the evolutionary history of life and Timeline ofhuman evolution...
Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquityof Greece and Rome, Ancient Persia...
Classical antiquity – Broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient...
of 267 cm (8 ft 9 in). There are reports about even taller people but most of such claims are unverified or erroneous. Since antiquity, discoveries have...
Sackett, James (2014), "Boucher de Perthes and the DiscoveryofHumanAntiquity", Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, 24: Art.2, doi:10.5334/bha.242 "Jens...
at the Folsom site have been called the "discovery that changed American archaeology." The antiquityofhumans in the New World was a controversial topic...
Humans (Homo sapiens) or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus Homo. They are...
concept of multiple discovery (also known as simultaneous invention)[self-published source] is the hypothesis that most scientific discoveries and inventions...
human sacrifice was becoming less common throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia, and came to be looked down upon as barbaric during classical antiquity.[citation...
The discoveriesof the 118 chemical elements known to exist as of 2024 are presented here in chronological order. The elements are listed generally in...
The following is a table of drugs organized by their year ofdiscovery. Naturally occurring chemicals in plants, including alkaloids, have been used since...
timing of initial dispersal of early hominins in the Old World. Dunbar 2016, p. 10. Gowlett, J. A. J. (23 May 2016). "The discoveryof fire by humans: a long...
overlap of interests between the ESL and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was reflected by common membership. Around 1860 the discoveryofhuman antiquity...
period of rapid discoveries in the valley began after Howard Carter became the Antiquities Service's inspector for Upper Egypt, including the Valley of the...
emergence of "anatomically modern humans". Since the 2000s, the discoveryof older remains with comparable characteristics, and the discoveryof ongoing...
which ancient literary works adopt 1 Enoch as a source. Well known in antiquity, the book was received by various authors with respect, and sometimes...
archeology is the study ofhuman activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture...
000 years ofhuman prehistory and history for the human population to reach a billion and only 222 years more to reach 8 billion. The human population...
Heinrich (1992). "The discoveryof the body: Human dissection and its cultural contexts in ancient Greece". The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine....
Investigations in this area had begun 40 years earlier, after the discoveryof a variety of prehistoric objects in an open-cast gold mine. It was extracted...
under the auspices of the Directorate General ofAntiquitiesof Iraq and the Smithsonian Institution, for another sounding. The first human body, Mousterian...
Earth itself. The discoveryof radioactivity introduced another factor in the calculation. After Henri Becquerel's initial discovery in 1896, Marie and...
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