(1788–1865) [Bi]
Son of a wealthy Danish merchant, he at first followed his father into business while developing an interest in antiquities. In 1816 Thomsen succeeded Rasmus Nyerup as Secretary of the Danish Royal Committee and became the first curator of the National Museum in Copenhagen at its opening in 1819. Bringing a businessman's mind to the development of the museum and its collections, his major contribution was the formulation and introduction of the Three Age System. This he explained in his Ledetraad til Nordisk Oldkyndighed, published in 1836, as an effective but at that time conjectural method of dividing up prehistory into the successive ages of Stone, Bronze, and Iron. Coincident with a broadly evolutionary perspective, this model has formed the basic chronological scheme used in prehistoric studies down to the present day. Thomsen's 1836 book was translated into English by Lord Ellesmere and published as A guide to northern antiquities in 1848.
[Bio.: J. Jorgen, 1987, Christian Jürgensen Thomsen: an appreciation in the bicentennial of his birth. Acta Archaeologica, 58 (1987), 1–15]
