Ancient Europe [antikvár]

Preface This book is, in its present form, based on the Rhind Lectures in Archaeology given at the invitation of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in November 1962; behind these again lies my teaching of later European prehistory to Honours Students in Archaeology in the University of Edinburgh since 1946. The book does not pretend to be an oudine prehistory of Europe within its stated limits of time and space, but is a personal estimate of certain factors which, I am persuaded, contributed to the eventual character of the ancient world which lay behind early historical Europe. The necessity of ruthless selection and compression may at times have lead to an unfortunate but unintentional appearance of dogmatism, when space has not admitted of the use of constant qualifications, or of the definition of degrees of probability. I am, as was the grave Glanvill, well aware of the Vanity of Dogmatizing, and I trust that readers will mentally insert appropriate grades of dubiety where these are not overtly stated. I have organised the book in a manner which I hope will permit of its being read on two levels. For the general non-specialist reader, the text and illustrations should give a sufficient idea of the nature of the theme and of the evidence, and of the development of the barbarian cultures side-by-side with the civilizations of antiquity, as their precursors and their subsequent counterparts. In conjunction, these formed the cultural pattern of the Ancient Europe of my tide. For the archaeological student however I have documented the text with rather full references and notes at the end of each chapter, and a select bibliography which should facilitate access to the original sources. I have naturally given preference to those in English, but the international nature of the subject results in a high proportion of entries in other European languages; here German or French sources have been selected where possible. Russian titles are given in translation. The book represents published and unpublished material known and accessible to me up to the end of June 1964. The illustrations have been planned as a visual counterpart to the text so far as this is possible. I have deliberately stressed such evidence as that of house and settlement plans, not always presented to the general reader, and minimised other aspects, such as pottery typology, significant only to the specialist. While of necessity much that is familiar is re-illustrated, I have also taken the opportunity of including little-known but important material where possible. Dates have been given in all instances, but it must be remembered that these in many vii