(1809-82). The founder of evolutionary theory, which he expounded in his seminal work Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, published in 1859. Its particular relevance for archaeology was to boost the acceptance of the antiquity of man, which had already gained the support of some scholars by 1859 (see Boucher de Perthes, MacEnery, Pen-gelly). In a later work, The Descent of Man (1871) Darwin spelled out the implication of his theory for man’s origins and suggested that man evolved from some ape-like ancestor, probably in Africa.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied