148 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



in philosophical studies. It was, I suppose, the formation of Sir Hans 

 Sloane's collection, and the eventual foundation of the British Museum, 

 which initiated that study of the material remains of man's history that 

 developed into true archseology in England. 



The old-fashioned type of antiquary was, as so often happens, beginning 

 to pass out of existence at the moment when his character was immortal- 

 ised in fiction. I doubt whether any of the younger generation of our 

 own time have ever known a real Jonathan Oldbuck. That whimsical 

 and lovable old pedant was a very different being from his modern 

 successor, who is generally one of the most sociable of people, and who 

 is so sure of the popularity of his subject that he can venture to address 

 immense audiences through the machinery of the British Broadcasting 

 Corporation. Archeology is no longer regarded as a ' mustie vocation,' 

 but is one of the daily interests and recreations of the whole world, learned 

 and unlearned. 



It no doubt adds something to the general interest that there is a very 

 vague understanding of what archaeology really means. I hope it may 

 not seriously impair this interest if I begin by inquiring what we are 

 really talking about when we begin to discuss this subject. Definitions 

 may spoil our unanimity, but they are necessary for any real agreement. 

 The ordinary man if questioned would probably tell us that Archaeology 

 is just busy with old things — any old things. Now this is not a bad 

 answer, but it is not sufficiently definite. For the essential that really 

 differentiates archseology from several more or less cognate sciences is 

 that it deals with old things only in so far as they are the product of man's 

 hand and brain. 



The works of Nature are not included in this science ; for the study of 

 the ancient structure of the world belongs to geology, while the description 

 of extinct animals and plants is the province of palaeontology and palaeo- 

 botany. Archaeology receives an immense amount of assistance from 

 these kindred sciences, but it is wholly distinct from them. 



Inasmuch as it is a study of man and his works, archaeology is very 

 closely related to anthropology, and the two subjects have always been 

 considered together in this Section of the British Association. What 

 then, we may ask, is the precise character of this alliance ? Each deals 

 with man and nothing but man, but they deal with man from diiTerent 

 points of view, so that the two sciences are supplementary to one another. 

 Obviously anthropology is the wider of the two, for it treats not only of 

 man's material works but also of his mental, moral and sociological 

 development. Anthropology moreover totally disregards date and time, 

 it simply studies primitive man wherever and whenever he is found ; and 

 primitive man may exist and does exist in the twentieth century a.d. as 

 well as in many thousands of years before Christ ; though he has become 

 rarer in these later days and is not so widely distributed over the earth. 

 Strictly speaking, both civilised and uncivilised man should fall equally 

 within the range of anthropology, which claims to be nothing less than 

 the study of all mankind in every relation. But the latest and more 

 complex developments of civilisation which are manifest in our own day 

 have been appropriated by younger and more specialised sciences such 



