Mesolithic Prelude [antikvár]

)> Preface The challenge of an invitation to address an audience as well-informed as that which customarily attends lectures on the Robert Munro Foundation at Edinburgh frequently stimulates trains of thought that extend beyond what can readily be contained in the lecture form. This applies all the more when, as in the present case, only one lecture was involved. On the other hand ideas, as distinct from information or instruction, may often be conveyed more effectively in small books or extended essays than in a weightier volume. The theme to which I have addressed myself, the continuity of history and of the Stone Age in particular, is one that for historical reasons is particularly relevant to Europe and contiguous parts of south-west Asia. Yet it is of no less importance as a guide to research over those extensive parts of the world that escaped the worst distortions of stadial archaeology. Modern research into the process of domestication and the results that have already accrued from the world-wide application of radiocarbon dating are only two of the factors to underline the crucial importance of the Mesolithic, Archaic or Intermediate phase of the Stone Age in the history of mankind. It was during this phase, however designated, that steps were taken crucial to the emergence in different parts of the world of the several distinctive and diverse civilisations of man. The results already obtained in parts of south-west Asia, Meso-america and Peru should encourage those currently researching on the emergence of major foci of civilisation in south Asia and the Far East in particular. For Europeans investigation of the Mesolithic is vital above all for a correct understanding of the later prehistory of their own continent. I am grateful to the editorial staff of the Edinburgh University Press for the way they have reconciled the need to combine the documentation sought by specialists with a text vii