John Frere

John Frere (1740–1807) was an English man who studied history and ancient objects. People who study old objects and the past are called antiquaries. In 1797, Frere made an important discovery in a place called Hoxne, Suffolk, in England. He found very old stone tools that people had made during the Old Stone Age, or Lower Palaeolithic period.

What made his discovery even more interesting was that these stone tools were found near the bones of large animals that are now extinct, which means they no longer exist. This helped scientists understand that humans and these big animals lived at the same time thousands of years ago. Frere’s work was important because it showed people that humans had been making tools much earlier than most people thought back then.