Abstract
Science is empirical, based on sensory observations. Those observations must be repeated or repeatable and objective. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the study of natural history developed from a hobby of the educated elite, often reporting isolated or unsystematic observations, to a profession with careful methodologies. William Pengelly, the subject of this chapter, developed a system of careful excavation and recording of finds at prehistoric sites that is still in use today.
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Additional Reading
Goodrum MR (2004) Prolegomenon to a history of paleoanthropology: the study of human origins as a scientific enterprise. Part 2. Eighteenth to the twentieth century. Evol Anthropol 13(6):224–233
Grayson DK (1983) The establishment of human antiquity. Academic, New York
McFarlane DA, Lundberg J (2005) The 19th century excavation of Kent’s cavern, England. J Cave Karst Stud 67(1):39–47
Pengelly W (1876) Kent’s Cavern: its testimony to the antiquity of man. W Collins, London
Prestwich J (1871–1872) Report on the exploration of Brixham Cave, conducted by a committee of the Geological Society, and under the immediate superintendence and record of William Pengelly, Esq., F.R.S., aided by a local committee; with descriptions of the organic remains by G. Busk, Esq., F.R.S., and of the flint implements by John Evans, Esq., F.R.S. Proc R Soc Lond 20:514–524
Van Riper AB (1993) Men among the mammoths: Victorian science and the discovery of prehistory. Univ Chicago Press, Chicago
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Langdon, J.H. (2016). Case Study 2. Proving Prehistory: William Pengelly and Scientific Excavation. In: The Science of Human Evolution. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41585-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41585-7_2
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