Week 4 Archaeology
Weekly Topics and subtopics
History of the Old Earth
The age of the Earth is crucial to understanding evolution and the fossil record, and the first expressed contemplation of an old Earth was associated with discussions of stratigraphy and biological evolution (Al Biruni, see Week 2).
Hutton and Lyell
Uniformitarianism is the assumption that the same basic natural laws and processes that operate now have always operated in the universe. Uniformitarianism has been a key principle of geology and virtually all fields of science.
Uniformitarianism was formulated by Scottish naturalists in the late 18th century, starting with the work of the geologist James Hutton. Hutton is famous for saying ' The result, therefore, of our present enquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.' The concept was popularized by Charles Lyell's in Principles of Geology in 1830.
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