In search of lost time: fiction, archaeology, and the elusive subject of prehistory

The term prehistoric emerged in the mid-nineteenth century, slightly in advance of a fully realised conception of prehistory as we would recognise it today. Its exact provenance is not entirely clear, but two of the earliest scholars to use it (or the cognate words in their respective languages) were the Danish historian Christian Molbech and the Swedish archaeologist Sven Nilsson. A dispute between the two, carried out in the pages of academic journals in the mid-1840s, demonstrates the contested intellectual terrain on which prehistory emerged as an object of enquiry…

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