Palaeoarchaeology is the archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 of deep time

Deep time

Deep time is the concept that the Geologic time scale is vast because the Earth is very old. The modern philosophical concept was developed in the 18th century by Scottish geologist James Hutton...

.

Interest in the field of study began in the late 1850s and early 1860s, with a shift in interest caused by the discoveries made by Boucher de Perthes

Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes

Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes , sometimes referred to as Boucher de Perthes, was a French archaeologist and antiquary notable for his discovery, in about 1830, of flint tools in the gravels of the Somme valley....

, after Joseph Prestwich

Joseph Prestwich

Sir Joseph Prestwich FRS, was a British geologist and businessman, known as an expert on the Tertiary Period and for having confirmed the findings of Boucher de Perthes of ancient flint tools in the Somme valley gravel beds....

, Hugh Falconer

Hugh Falconer

Hugh Falconer MD FRS was a Scottish geologist, botanist, palaeontologist and paleoanthropologist. He studied the flora, fauna and geology of India, Assam and Burma, and was the first to suggest the modern evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium...

, and John Evans

John Evans (archaeologist)

Sir John Evans, KCB, FRS was an English archaeologist and geologist.-Biography:John Evans was the son of the Rev. Dr A. B. Evans, headmaster of Market Bosworth Grammar School, and was born at Britwell Court, Buckinghamshire...

 had visited Boucher de Perthes's site in the Somme valley themselves. Two such archaeologist who had been attracted to join archaeological societies by palaeoarchaeology were Augustus Pitt Rivers

Augustus Pitt Rivers

Lieutenant-General Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt Rivers was an English army officer, ethnologist, and archaeologist. He was noted for his innovations in archaeological methods, and in the museum display of archaeological and ethnological collections.-Life and career:Born Augustus Henry Lane-Fox at...

 and Edward Burnett Tylor

Edward Burnett Tylor

Sir Edward Burnett Tylor , was an English anthropologist.Tylor is representative of cultural evolutionism. In his works Primitive Culture and Anthropology, he defined the context of the scientific study of anthropology, based on the evolutionary theories of Charles Lyell...

. Evans, Pitt Rivers, and John Lubbock

John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury

John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury PC , FRS , known as Sir John Lubbock, 4th Baronet from 1865 until 1900, was a polymath and Liberal Member of Parliament....

 all promoted interest in the field, each an enthusiast and each quickly rising to positions of authority and influence within archaeological circles. In 1868, for example, they together organized, in conjunction with the annual general meeting in Norwich

Norwich

Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

 of the British Association for the Advancement of Science

British Association for the Advancement of Science

frame|right|"The BA" logoThe British Association for the Advancement of Science or the British Science Association, formerly known as the BA, is a learned society with the object of promoting science, directing general attention to scientific matters, and facilitating interaction between...

, the Third International Congress of Prehistoric Archaeology.

Further reading