Editing Three-age system (section)

=== Early and late from Worsaae through the three-stage African system ===
Thomsen had formalized the Three-age System by the time of its publication in 1836. The next step forward was the formalization of the Palaeolithic and Neolithic by Sir John Lubbock in 1865. Between these two times Denmark held the lead in archaeology, especially because of the work of Thomsen's at first junior associate and then successor, [[Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae]], rising in the last year of his life to [[Kultus Minister of Denmark]]. Lubbock offers full tribute and credit to him in ''Prehistoric Times''.

Worsaae in 1862 in ''Om Tvedelingen af Steenalderen'', previewed in English even before its publication by ''The Gentleman's Magazine'', concerned about changes in typology during each period, proposed a bipartite division of each age:<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=May 1862 |title=On an Earlier and Later Period in the Stone Age |magazine=The Gentleman's Magazine |page=548}}</ref><blockquote>Both for Bronze and Stone it was now evident that a few hundred years would not suffice. In fact, good grounds existed for dividing each of these periods into two, if not more.</blockquote>
He called them earlier or later. The three ages became six periods. The British seized on the concept immediately. Worsaae's earlier and later became Lubbock's palaeo- and neo- in 1865, but alternatively English speakers used Earlier and Later Stone Age, as did Lyell's 1883 edition of ''Principles of Geology'', with older and younger as synonyms. As there is no room for a middle between the comparative adjectives, they were later modified to early and late. The scheme created a problem for further bipartite subdivisions, which would have resulted in such terms as early early Stone Age, but that terminology was avoided by adoption of Geikie's upper and lower Paleolithic.

Amongst African archaeologists{{Who|date=May 2011}}, the terms [[Old Stone Age]], [[Middle Stone Age]] and [[Late Stone Age]] are preferred.