SECTION H.— ANTHROPOLOGY. 



THE ORIENT AND EUROPE 



ADDRESS BY 



Prof. V. G. CHILDE, 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



I DO not intend to inflict upon the Section an abstract discussion of 

 archaeological method. Ten years' of excavation throughout the Old 

 World have yielded results startling enough to affect our concrete picture 

 of human history. From this vast field I want to gather together some 

 new facts that should mould our total synthesis. But my aim in so doing 

 will be not to attempt in an hour an impossible reconstruction of human 

 history. I shall rather focus attention on some new data which will 

 permit a concrete answer to a rather abstract question. Why is a pre- 

 historian asked to preside over a section in this Association from which 

 historians, as such, would be de facto excluded ? And if a prehistorian 

 have some title to occupy this eminence, denied to a historian, how far 

 are British prehistorians, including my humble self, conforming to the 

 obligations conferred by this privilege ? In a word, on what grounds can 

 prehistory in general and British prehistory in particular claim to be 

 a Science ? 



Is prehistory experimental ? Yes, but only within very narrow limits, 

 and in a restricted sense. I have recently described experiments to show 

 how the puzzling phenomenon of vitrifaction may have been produced 

 by our prehistoric forerunners. We knew the results of their activities ; 

 we formulated hypotheses to explain how these results were attained ; 

 we actually conducted under controlled conditions some of the suggested 

 operations, and found that one would produce the desired result. In 

 the same way Breuil and Coutier have demonstrated how an Acheulian 

 hand-axe may have been made. But possibilities of this sort of experi- 

 ment are very limited. Normally only one sort of experiment is open to 

 the archaeologist, an experiment that can never be repeated — I mean 

 excavation. 



Or does prehistory work ? Can it formulate general rules that serve 

 as guides to successful action ? Yes, but again in a very limited sphere. 

 No one who has been privileged to see Dr. Wheeler's excavations at Maiden 

 Castle, can fail to recognise in his brilliant sections the effective application 

 to the particular of general laws inferred from accumulated experience 

 and from observation of the site. Prehistorians can indeed go further. 

 In many regions the general aspects of prehistoric culture have been so 

 far reduced to a system and pattern that we can say where a given 



