Entry 399 — Christian Jurgensen Thomsen
What follows is an excerpt from Geoffrey Bibby’s The Testimony of the Spade, 1956. It’s here as testimony in support of my view of the importance of taxonomy. Thomsen, who was unfamiliar to me until earlier this morning, is credited by most scholars of originating the division of prehistory in the stone, bronze and iron ages. A simple feat of taxonomy but hugely important for raising artifact collection out of empirical scatter into systematic study–i.e., provided what was needed to the science of archaeology out of it, and thus a means to significant understanding of prehistory.
