Transactions of the International Congress of Prehistoric Archæology

Abstract

IN these days of annual gatherings or Congresses intended for the promotion of Science, whether Natural, Social, or Ecclesiastical, we need not be surprised at the numerous observers now engaged in different countries in the various branches of Prehistoric Anthropology and Prehistoric Archæology founding an International Congress for the discussion of questions in which they are particularly interested. It was at a meeting of the Société Italienne des Sciences Naturelles, held at La Spezzia in 1865, that this Congress originated, with the more comprehensive than euphonious title of “Palæoethnological.” With a slight change in its designation it met at Neuchâtel in 1866, and at Paris in 1867; while the Congress, the transactions of which are recorded in the volume before us, assembled at Norwich last year under the presidency of Sir John Lubbock, and with Colonel A. Lane Fox as organising secretary, contemporaneously with the meeting of the British Association. During the present year it has found a congenial home in the midst of the richly-stored museums of Copenhagen, under the fitting presidency of Professor Worsaae; has dug in the Kjökkenmöddings, and been right royally entertained by the King of Denmark; and next year the gathering is to be at Bologna, with Count Gozzadini as president. Such meetings, especially in the case of the followers of what must be regarded as a comparatively new science, serve at least a double purpose; as social gatherings they promote that intercourse and kindly feeling between those engaged in the same pursuit, which helps the onward progress of knowledge, while the discussions at the meetings tend to elicit truth from what may apparently be conflicting facts and opinions, and when too unruly hobby-horses are introduced into the arena, serve to control their wilder caracoles, if not effectually to break them in.

Transactions of the International Congress of Prehistoric Archæology,

3rd Session, 1869. Royal 8vo, pp. 419, with 53 illustrations. (Longmans, 1869.)