Cro-Magnon man is regarded as the prototype of modern Homo sapiens in Europe. At the time of the discoveries of fossilized remains of pre-historic man, the church still had great autocratic influence over such discoveries-it was heresy to talk about man pre-Adam. Anthropologists who made these incremental discoveries were weary of what they announced they’d discovered. Bits and pieces of bone fragments, tools, and even jewellery were discovered, but nothing that incontrovertibly could prove that a version of man existed pre-Adam.

These discoveries were 200 years before Darwin’s theory of evolution was formulated. Darwin hadn’t even been born! So it was only when the anthropologist, Boucher de Perthes found a fully intact lower jaw of a man – the MANDIBLE- that he sent it to the Academy of Science to support the theory that a version of man existed beyond our current form. The discovery was declared to be genuine and of significant importance. And then doubt set in. From all corners of the globe, scientists began calling the discovery a fake, supporting the Church’s stance. De Perthes had lost credibility, but he held steadfast to the truth of his discovery. It was only 5 years after his death, that he was vindicated, when the MANDIBLE was declared at his memorial as being “one of the finest jewels in the crown of such anthropological discoveries”.