LECTURE V. 



INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF PREHISTORIC 

 ARCHAEOLOGY* 



PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY has but lately made good 

 its right to recognition as a branch of science ; and 

 still, perhaps, there are some who are disposed to 

 question the claim. We can never, they say, become 

 wise beyond what is written : ancient poems and 

 histories contain all that we can ever know about old 

 times and bygone races of men ; by the study of 

 antiquities we may often corroborate, and occasionally 

 perhaps even correct, the statements of ancient writers, 

 but beyond this we can never hope to penetrate. 

 The ancient monuments and remains themselves may 

 excite our interest, but can teach us nothing. This 

 opinion is as old as the time of Horace : in one of 

 his best known Odes he tells us that 



" Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona 

 Multi ; sed onmes illacrymabiles 

 Urgentur, ignotique longa 



Nocte, carent quia vate sacro." 



1 I have discussed the Antiquity of Man, and his primitive con- 

 dition in its more material aspects, at greater length in my work 

 on Prehistoric Times, and have endeavoured to trace up the course 

 of his social and moral development in a second, On tlw Origin of 

 Civilization. 



