Editing Three-age system (section)

=== Lower, middle and upper from Haeckel to Sollas ===
[[File:Age-of-Man-wiki.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Haeckel's tree growing through the layers. In geology, the tripartite division did not stand the test of time.]]
The post-[[Charles Darwin|Darwinian]] approach to the naming of periods in earth history focused at first on the lapse of time: early (Palaeo-), middle (Meso-) and late (Ceno-). This conceptualization automatically imposes a three-age subdivision to any period, which is predominant in modern archaeology: Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age; Early, Middle and Late Minoan, etc. The criterion is whether the objects in question look simple or are elaborative. If a horizon contains objects that are post-late and simpler-than-late they are sub-, as in Submycenaean.

[[Ernst Haeckel]]'s presentations are from a different point of view. His ''History of Creation'' of 1870 presents the ages as "Strata of the Earth's Crust", in which he prefers "upper", "mid-" and "lower" based on the order in which one encounters the layers. His analysis features an Upper and Lower Pliocene as well as an Upper and Lower Diluvial (his term for the Pleistocene).<ref name=Haeckel15 /> Haeckel, however, was relying heavily on [[Charles Lyell]]. In the 1833 edition of ''Principles of Geology'' (the first) Lyell devised the terms [[Eocene]], [[Miocene]] and [[Pliocene]] to mean periods of which the "strata" contained some (Eo-, "early"), lesser (Mio-) and greater (Plio-) numbers of "living [[Mollusca]] represented among fossil assemblages of western Europe."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farrand |first=W.R. |title=Establishment of a Geologic Framework for Paleoanthropology |publisher=Geological Society of America |year=1990 |editor-last=Laporte |editor-first=Léo F. |series=Special Paper 242 |location=Boulder |pages=16–18 |chapter=Origins of Quaternary-Pleistocene-Holocene Stratigraphic Terminology}}</ref> The Eocene was given Lower, Middle, Upper; the Miocene a Lower and Upper; and the Pliocene an Older and Newer, which scheme would indicate an equivalence between Lower and Older, and Upper and Newer.

In a French version, {{lang|fr|Nouveaux Éléments de Géologie}}, in 1839 Lyell called the Older Pliocene the Pliocene and the Newer Pliocene the Pleistocene (Pleist-, "most"). Then in ''Antiquity of Man'' in 1863 he reverted to his previous scheme, adding "Post-Tertiary" and "Post-Pliocene". In 1873 the Fourth Edition of ''Antiquity of Man'' restores Pleistocene and identifies it with Post-Pliocene. As this work was posthumous, no more was heard from Lyell. Living or deceased, his work was immensely popular among scientists and laymen alike. "Pleistocene" caught on immediately; it is entirely possible that he restored it by popular demand. In 1880 [[William Boyd Dawkins|Dawkins]] published ''The Three Pleistocene Strata'' containing a new manifesto for British archaeology:<ref>{{harvnb|Dawkins|1880|p=3}}</ref>
<blockquote>The continuity between geology, prehistoric archaeology and history is so direct that it is impossible to picture early man in this country without using the results of all these three sciences.</blockquote>

He intends to use archaeology and geology to "draw aside the veil" covering the situations of the peoples mentioned in proto-historic documents, such as [[Caesar]]'s ''Commentaries'' and the ''Agricola'' of [[Tacitus]]. Adopting Lyell's scheme of the Tertiary, he divides Pleistocene into Early, Mid- and Late.<ref>{{harvnb|Dawkins|1880|p=124}}</ref> Only the Palaeolithic falls into the Pleistocene; the Neolithic is in the "Prehistoric Period" subsequent.<ref>{{harvnb|Dawkins|1880|p=247}}</ref> Dawkins defines what was to become the Upper, Middle and Lower Paleolithic, except that he calls them the "Upper Cave-Earth and Breccia",<ref>{{harvnb|Dawkins|1880|p=183}}</ref> the "Middle Cave-Earth",<ref>{{harvnb|Dawkins|1880|p=181}}</ref> and the "Lower Red Sand",<ref>{{harvnb|Dawkins|1880|p=178}}</ref> with reference to the names of the layers. The next year, 1881, [[James Geikie]] solidified the terminology into Upper and Lower Palaeolithic:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Geikie |first=James |url=https://archive.org/details/prehistoriceurop81geik |title=Prehistoric Europe: A Geological Sketch |publisher=Edward Stanford |year=1881 |location=London}}.</ref>
<blockquote>In Kent's Cave the implements obtained from the lower stages were of a much ruder description than the various objects detected in the upper cave-earth ... And a very long time must have elapsed between the formation of the lower and upper Palaeolithic beds in that cave.</blockquote>

The Middle Paleolithic in the modern sense made its appearance in 1911 in the 1st edition of [[William Johnson Sollas]]' ''Ancient Hunters''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sollas |first=William Johnson |url=https://archive.org/details/ancienthunters00solluoft |title=Ancient hunters: and their modern representatives |publisher=Macmillan and Co. |year=1911 |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/ancienthunters00solluoft/page/n155 130]}}</ref> It had been used in varying senses before then. Sollas associates the period with the [[Mousterian]] technology and the relevant modern people with the [[Tasmanians]]. In the 2nd edition of 1915 he has changed his mind for reasons that are not clear. The Mousterian has been moved to the Lower Paleolithic and the people changed to the [[Australian aborigines]]; furthermore, the association has been made with Neanderthals and the [[Levalloisian]] added. Sollas says wistfully that they are in "the very middle of the Palaeolithic epoch". Whatever his reasons, the public would have none of it. From 1911 on, Mousterian was Middle Paleolithic, except for holdouts. [[Alfred L. Kroeber]] in 1920, ''Three essays on the antiquity and races of man'', reverting to Lower Paleolithic, explains that he is following [[Gabriel de Mortillet]]. The English-speaking public remained with Middle Paleolithic.