Moulin Quignon 1863-1864Â : détours inédits et bilan historiographique

The historical file of Moulin Quignon (Abbeville, France), around the human jaw unearthed in this site, is a form of black hole that swallowed a prehistoric archaeological site and Lower Palaeolithic collection. This article, based on a corpus of unpublished archives, illuminates the matter in a different light. It focuses on archaeological and epistemological issues, the roles of the different actors, interaction games and solidarity in a global scientific community previously welded by the recognition in 1859 of the paradigm of high antiquity of Man.