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Prehistoric, prehistory, prehistorian … who invented the terms?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Philip E.L. Smith
Affiliation:
Départment d'Anthropologie, Université de Montréal, CP 6128, Succ. A. Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7, Canada

Abstract

Who first used a word for the idea of ‘prehistory’? Chippindale, in a paper published last year, tried to clear up this old confusion once and for all. He failed. Here are more answers to the question — a matter of real historical importance since the invention of a prehistoric past was so central to the 19th-century development of archaeology.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1990

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