Jacques Boucher-de-Perthes’ discoveries in the Somme valley undoubtedly opened up a new scientific field, prehistory. Its subject, prehistoric man, previously unknown at the beginning of the 19th century, is still greatly misunderstood by the public, despite many efforts as well as major scientific discoveries and publi-cations carried out on the Samaritan territory since the identification of prehistoric occupations more than a century and a half ago. Prehistoric studies since Jacques Boucher de Perthes in the vicinity of Abbeville and Amiens have continued without interruption, including during the two World Wars. The Somme has thus seen a succession of researchers whose excavations have joined the list of internationally known reference sites, such as Menchecourt, Saint-Acheul or Cagny. From the very beginning, prehistoric studies in the Somme have focused on the oldest evidence of human occupation, whose consecration and recognition were established when Gabriel de Mortillet chose the site of Saint-Acheul and its “large almond-shaped instruments” in 1872 to define the most advanced period of the Stone Age. This presentation will demon-strate that the current studies carried out in the Somme are keeping this long continuity of research and that the recent discoveries have significantly renewed our knowledge of the Lower Paleolithic. These ad-vances are due to two closely related courses of action, namely the re-examination of reference sites with new means of analysis and interpretative frameworks, and the exploration of new deposits, both in the context of programmed andsalvage archaeology. This is how the research dynamic stimulated by all our illustrious and lesser-known predecessors on the first settlements and ways of life of the first prehistoric men is perpetuated in the Somme. It confirms that the Somme’s potential is worthy of its glorious heritage and remains a reference valley for the Lower Paleolithic.