1. The Aix-en-Provence Find
One such discovery
that Cremo and Thompson relate is the discovery made by French
laborers from 1786 to 1788 in Aix-en-Provence, and recounted by the
Count Bournon. Having dug to a depth of fifty
feet through solid limestone, the workers then came upon a
chamber, in which they discovered tools, hammers, coins, and other
standard mason’s equipment. Some of the stones found in the chamber
had already been worked. The American Journal
of Science in 1820 cited the Count Bournon’s concluding
words concerning the implications of this discovery: “The presence
of man had then preceded the formation of this stone, and that very
considerably since he was already arrived at such a degree of
civilization that the arts were known to him, and that he wrought
the stone and formed columns out of it.”669