Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2015, Page 80

Gavin Lucas
Insight into an unchartered world
About 500 thousand years3 have passed
since man took a tool in his hand, facing
danger with weapons, which he had him-
self created, rather than received from his
Creator at birth. But it has been only about
5000 years since he learnt to write, to tell
stories in writing. Only then began written
history, human history which we learn in
school, but about 99% of the real history
of humankind is prehistory, an unknown
era until archaeologists revealed its secrets.
No living person has given as much to the
effort to make prehistory a living part of
general history than Dr Childe. Modern ar-
chaeology is young; we can say that it began
late in the 19th century. It developed from
a kind of mix of a politically motivated in-
terest in battles and personages, and of Ro-
mantic scholarship about the Golden Ages
of Antiquity. Lately peoples’ interests have
inclined progressively towards the social
evolution of humankind; how did human
societies come to be and what were they
like in prehistoric times? In the 19th cen-
tury, it was Lewis H. Morgan and Freder-
ick Engels in particular who wrestled with
these questions, and in his The Origin ofthe
Family Engels laid one of the cornerstones
of Historical Materialism.
One of the pioneers ofHistorical
Materialism
Professor Childe applies Marxism, the
theory of modern sociology, in his gen-
eral writings. But he has strengthened the
foundation, which Engels built on, because
knowledge of prehistory has increased mas-
sively since the 19* century. “Engels’ work-
ing methods are correct, but his conclusions
are sometimes risky, because so little evi-
dence was available in his day”, said Childe,
when the journalist met him recently. “The
foundations of Historical Materialism are
sound, but that is not to say that everything
which comes from that camp is reliable.” But
why should we be interested in the vanished
Stone or Bone Ages, about primitive human
life in the murky past? No Stone Age people
ever lived in Iceland, and prehistory is sel-
dom mentioned in Icelandic historiography.
But if we pose questions such as these: Has
humankind constantly moved forward? Has
it prospered and enjoyed the bounty of na-
ture in the best way? What constitutes pro-
gress? - Then most will acknowledge that
the answers matter to them. It is precisely
such questions which Childe answers in his
books. He shows us humankinds evolution
toward a better and more perfect life and
how man makes himself. Here there is no
opportunity to given an account of Childes
3 This is rendered as a million years in the 1978 transcript.
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