Issue #0

The World of the Past

Plot

The editor has tackled, in these two volumes, a most difficult task: a compilation of selected readings dealing with major archaeological excavations on every continent save Australia. The editor is to be congratulated for the general balance attained by the selection of articles. Miss Hawkes’s introduction provides the general reader with an outline of the history of antiquarian and archaeological discovery. She has chosen to illustrate the development of archaeology by writing of those men who transformed the field from antiquarian collecting to scientific recording and excavation. The reader is first exposed to the works of Homer and Hesiod, to tilfe contributions of the Ionian philosophers on principles of physical evolution, Herodotus’ anthropological observations, and Thucydides’ first use of archaeological method to reconstruct history. The contribution of classical Rome is almost wholly restricted to a discussion of Tacitus’ Germania, viewed by the editor as the “first deliberately planned and painstakingly executed study of a single people.” The important contributions of Ptolemy, Pliny, Strabo, Diodorus, etc., in bringing together geographical knowledge of the ancient world are almost wholly overlooked. After nearly a millennium of slumber the Greek spirit of humanism and inquiry was revitalized during the Renaissance; Miss Hawkes, in surprisingly few pages considering the scope of the task, traces a coherent history of man’s interest in his past from Cyriac de Pizzicolli, born at Ancona in 1391 and termed by many the “Father of Archaeology,” to the development of modern techniques and discoveries. Important discoveries or applied techniques not noted in the introduction are covered in the selected readings; because the reverse is also true, the general reader is provided with a history of archaeology and archaeological knowledge. Volume 2 completes the regional coverage in four major chapter headings: (1) Asia Minor, Greece and Italy: The Classical World and its Background; (2) India, China and Elsewhere; (3) Britain and Europe; and (4) America. The first part of Chapter 1 deals with Asia Minor and incorporates selections primarily by Schliemann, his identification of Hissarlik as Troy and his later excavations there, Virchow’s support of Schliemann’s contentions, Blegen’s recent work at Troy, and selections by Sayce and Ceram on the Hittites. Crete is discussed from selections from Evans’ The Palace of Minos, as well as by Pendlebury and Wace. Three excellently chosen selections trace the history of the Minoan script and its decipherment by Chadwick. The dating of and the problems of interpreting the destruction of Knossos are also well covered. Though one might have hoped for a selection from the writings of Palmer, whose own convincing thesis has encouraged what the editor recognizes as “one of the most publicized scholarly battles of the twentieth century.” Etruria and the Etruscans are depicted through the writings of Mrs. Grey, Dennis, von Cles-Reden, and D. H. Lawrence. Selections from the writings of Winkelmann, Waldstein, and MacKendrick complete the coverage on Italy. The chapter “India, China and Elsewhere” is perhaps the most cursory of all. Indus Civilization is given coverage through the writings of Marshall, Vats, and Wheeler. China is represented by only two selections: a discussion of the excavations of a neolithic grave in the Kansu region by Anderson and one on the giant statues of Rawak Stupa by Stein. Single selections are devoted to Benin art by Pitt-Rivers, the Routledge Expedition to Easter Island by Mrs. Routledge, and a description of the Aranda tribe of Central Australia by Strehlow. The archaeology of Japan, southeast Asia, and all of Africa save Egypt is ignored. In Chapter 111,on Britain and Europe, the editor’s own great grasp of the subject material is evident. The chapter is subdivided into sections containing excellent selections on early antiquaries and their work, Britain and the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and Roman Britain, the Anglo-Saxons, and Europe. The last chapter, on the Americas, is divided into the Mayas, Aztecs, Incas, and North America. In these selections the editor successfully juxtaposes the older investigations with the new. Thus, the Maya are discussed in selections by Stephens and Thompson, as well as others; the Aztecs by de Sahagun and Vaillant; the Incas by Bingham and Mason. Space undoubtedly prevented an adequate selection on North America. The readings in this section are from the writings of Wormington on the peopling of the New World, Krieger on the earliest assemblages in the western United States, and Giddings on the Eskimo. In both volumes nearly all footnotes have been eliminated. Where footnotes are of unusual importance or interest, however, they have been incorporated into the text in brackets. There is a very basic index provided for the general reader in each volume. The plates are well chosen-some are of objects never before published-and are reproduced with clarity. It was the editor’s purpose to “give something approaching a history of archaeology and archaeological knowledge” and her hope “that both kinds of reader, the serious and the casual, will iind their appropriate pleasures.’’ Miss Hawkes has been more successful in accomplishing this than any of her predecessors.