French archaeologist Gabriel de Mortillet was born in Meylan, France on August 29, 1821. An intellectual thinker by birth, with a great love for science and components of the earth, Mortillet was destined for a bright future. In Paris at the Conservatoire des arts et metiers, Mortillet studied geology and engineering until 1848. At this time, revolution swept through France, and a still young Mortillet was forced to leave his home country for his political stance. Mortillet fled to Switzerland and Italy, where he worked on railroad projects, using his geology and engineering skills. While in Switzerland, he made geological surveys and studies of the mountains. These studies were put into text in 1858 in Geologie et mineralogie Le la Savoie, or Geology and Minerology of Savoie.
Around this time, Mortillet began consorting with Eduoard Desor (1811-1882), a Swiss geologist. Mortillet and Eduoard began work at a site at Lake Varese, Italy. It is here where they made the discovery of a Neolithic settlement. In the early part of the 1860’s, Mortillet became edito of Revue scientifique italienne, a Turin journal. Later, this journal was combined with two others to create L’Anthropologie. Mortillet returned to Paris in 1864. When he returned, he created his own journal, Materiaux pour l’histoire positve et philosophie de l’homme. In 1868, he began work at the Museum of National Antiquities.
In 1872, his editor status at his now 8 year old Paris journal came to an end. His labors at the Museum of National Antiquities became too great for him to keep up work on the journal. Emile Cartailhac was given editorship. In 1876, Mortillet became a professor of prehistoric anthropology at the School of Anthropology in Paris. He remained a Professor there until his death on September 25, 1898.
Aside from anthropological studies, Mortillet led a very active political career. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, in Paris, where he represented the working class. His political career was often controversial with his strong, out of the main stream, ideas. He often used evolution as a stepping stone to preach his political views.
Mortillet is best known for developing a chronological classification system of the prehistoric cultural development of man. Based on the idea that older specimens of man were more primitive structurally and culturally, he created a ladder-like model of the evolution of man. This model was the basis for the idea of linear evolution of men. This classification system was further detailed in 1882, in Le Prehistorique: antiquite de l’homme, or The Prehistoric: Mans Antiquity. His classification system continued to be the basis for anthropological classification into the 1900’s.
The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edition, Mortillet, (Louis-Laurent-Marie) Gabriel de (1821-1898).
Author: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. publishing groups Hammond, Michael. History of Physical Anthropology, an Encyclopedia. New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1997.
Written by: Chris Shaughnessy