Henry Christy

Henry Christy (born June 26, 1810 in Kingston upon Thames , † May 4, 1865 ) was a British banker who has achieved great services as an archaeologist and ethnologist in self-financed research . In close collaboration with Édouard Lartet , after joint excavations, he established the division of the Paleolithic (Paleolithic) into the Old and Upper Paleolithic. In 1861 Christy and Lartet put together a first chronological system of Stone Age cultures, whereby the two authors were based on the principle of key fossils in paleontology :

• "Period of the great cave bear " (= Neanderthal period)
• "Period of the Mammoth " (= older Upper Palaeolithic )
• "Period of the rentier " "(= Magdalenian )
• “Period of the aurochs and the polished ax” (= Neolithic ).

This palaeontologically inspired division was expanded in 1867 by Gabriel de Mortillet , who for the first time used purely archaeological terms (based on typical sites) for the chronological structure. Christy's death in 1865 prevented a significant contribution to the volumes of the Reliquiae Aquitanicae , a compilation in English that summarized all excavation results in Aquitaine . The two volumes (text volume + plate volume) were published posthumously and edited by Édouard Lartet.

Fonts

• with Édouard Lartet : Reliquiae Aquitanicæ. Being contributions to the Archeology and Palæontology of Périgord and the adjoining provinces of Southern France. Williams & Norgate et al., London et al. 1865–1875, ( digitized ).
• with Édouard Lartet: Sur des figures d'animaux gravées ou sculptées et autres produits d'art et d'industries rapportables aux temps primordiaux de la période humaine. In: Revue archéologique . Nouvelle Série Vol. 9, 1864, ISSN  0035-0737 , pp. 233-267, JSTOR 41734377 .