Abstract
.IN attempting to give an account of the development of civilisation from the end of the paleolithic age to the bronze age in Europe and adjacent regions, within the compass of this small volume, Mr. Burkitt has essayed a very difficult taskdifficult in more ways than one, for the material does not lend itself easily to systematic treatment. It has not been worked over and classified to the same extent as the material of the old stone age, and in the later stages the problem of dealing with a multiplicity of detail of which the bearing is often still obscure is complicated by ethnologicalquestions to which the answers are still very much at the hypothetical stage. All credit is therefore due to Mr. Burkitt for the success with which he has carried out his task, even though in its later pages his book suffers from over-condensation and lack of space for adequate discussion of many doubtful points. Probably to most of his readers much of the material relating to the copper and bronze age will be seen in a new perspective, while the chapter on art brings together material which is usually scattered. It gains greatly in significance by the author's method of treatment.
Our Early Ancestors: an Introductory Study of Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Copper Age Cultures in Europe and Adjacent Regions.
M. C.
Burkitt
By. Pp. xii + 243. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1926.) 7s. 6d. net
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Our Early Ancestors: an Introductory Study of Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Copper Age Cultures in Europe and Adjacent Regions . Nature 119, 889 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/119889b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/119889b0