From Genesis to Prehistory: The Archaeological Three Age System and its Contested Reception in Denmark, Britain, and Ireland (Oxford Studies in the History of Archaeology) PDF
Preview From Genesis to Prehistory: The Archaeological Three Age System and its Contested Reception in Denmark, Britain, and Ireland (Oxford Studies in the History of Archaeology)
FROM GENESIS TO PREHISTORY This page intentionally left blank From Genesis to Prehistory The archaeological Three Age System and its contested reception in Denmark, Britain, and Ireland PETER ROWLEY-CONWY 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto WithoYcesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork (cid:1)PeterRowley-Conwy2007 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2007 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby BiddlesLtd.,King’sLynn,Norfolk ISBN 978–0–19–922774–7 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Preface ThisbookhascomeaboutastheresultoftwodiVerentthings.Oneis an accident of birth and upbringing, the fact that Iwas brought up bilingualinEnglishandDanish.ThisplacedtheScandinavianarch- aeological literature within my reach, including the early publica- tions of the Three Age System, and I started reading these simply for fun. As a student in Cambridge in the 1970s I had attended lectures by that great raconteur of archaeological history, Glyn Daniel, and subsequently explored his writings and those of others ontheearlyhistoryofarchaeology.ComparingthesewithwhatIwas encounteringasIreadtheoriginalmaterial,Icametorealizethatthe historyofarchaeology presentedinEnglishlanguagetextbooksisat theveryleastincomplete;oftendownrightwrong.Quitealotofwork has been done over the years by Scandinavians interested in the history of their archaeology, and this has provided considerable insights to those who can read Danish or Swedish. Not much of thishasbeenpublishedinEnglish,however,andagreatdealremains to be done in general. The Scandinavian chapters of this book are therefore an attempt to redress the balance, and present a more comprehensive picture of the crucial period in Scandinavian archaeology. The other major impetus was the realization that we know even lessaboutthehistoryofBritishandIrisharchaeology,atleastsofar asthe adoptions of the Three Age System is concerned. Histories of archaeology have, understandably and correctly, tended to concen- trateonthegreatmovesforward—thediscoveryofhumanantiquity, orthedeciphermentoflong-forgottenscriptsexcavatedfromancient cityruins.ButhowtheBronzeAge,forexample,becameanaccepted unitoftimehasreceivedmuchlessattention.Itsometimesseemsto be thought that, after its initial promulgation in Copenhagen and Lund, there is hardly any story worth telling. The Scottish pioneer DanielWilsonisjustlyportrayedasamajorWgure,butfewothersare ever discussed. This was thrown into sharper focus by the research project in the Department of Archaeology in Durham University, vi Preface run and carried out by Dr Pam Graves and Dr Anne O’Connor, on William Greenwell. This led to my exploring him and many of the other Wgures of nineteenth-century English, Scottish, and Irish archaeology. This led once again to the realization that there was a huge untold story out there. The later chapters of this book are thereforeanattempttotellthisstory,andtoseewhy thingsworked outsoverydiVerently inLondon,Edinburgh,andDublin. The raw data for this book are purely and simply the books and papersthatpeoplewroteatthetime.Allthisliteraturehascomefrom avarietyofsources,andIhavepleasureinacknowledgingthevarious libraries.FirstmustcomeDurhamUniversityLibrary,whichhousesa substantialselection of theearly materials;a lotof itemsitdoesnot contain were obtained for me by Judith Walton of the inter-library loans department. I also thank the libraries of Queen’s University, Belfast(SpecialCollections);theBritishLibrary;CambridgeUniver- sity Library; Glasgow University Library; Leeds University Library (theBrothertonLibrary);NewcastleUniversityLibrary(theRobinson Library);andtheNationalLibraryofScotland.Butagreatdealofthe material consulted had to be bought, which involved a lot of time searching antiquarian lists on the web. The major search engines I haveusedare<http://www.antikvariat.net/>,<http://www.eurobuch. com/>,and<http://www.bookWnder.com/>. Alotoftimehasalso been spent in conventional bookshops; I am particularly grateful to John Turton and Ben Bainbridge of Turton’s Bookshop, Willington, Co.Durham;andinCopenhagentoChristianWestergaardofLynge & Søn and Anders Stensager of Kaabers. JSTOR is an invaluable web source for many of the early journals, as is the Thomson Gale database ECCO (Eighteenth Century Collections Online) for many eighteenth-century sources; and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,aseverthemostprogressiveinBritain,hasplacedtheentire contents of Archaeologica Scotica and Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland on the web. By these various means it is possible now to obtain in half a dozen years a library that formerly could not have been built up in a lifetime. But inevitably, it is not possible to locate every item one would like. In this book, if a cited work appears in the list of References it has been examined by the author; if not, the secondary source is quoted. When repaginated reprints are quoted, this is indicated in the text, e.g. (Rask 1818 Preface vii [1993:ii–iii]).Whenfacsimilereproductionshavebeenconsultedthis isindicatedinthereferences. InDurham,numerouscolleagueshaveputupwithhavingtheirears bentbyexcitingdiscoveriesaboutnineteenth-centuryarchaeology,and despite this have been happy to oVer assistance, advice, and encour- agement. Pam Graves and Anne O’Connor have already been men- tioned; in addition I thank in particular Chris Brooks, Chris Caple, Margarita Diaz-Andreu, Derek Kennet, Dave Webster, Mark White, andtheentireDepartmentofArchaeology.JeVVeitchproducedsuperb scans from often very poor nineteenth-century original illustrations. Outside Durham, numerous people have helped greatly, including Stephen Briggs, James Graham-Campbell, Jytte Høstmark of the KongeligenordiskeOldskriftselskab,LeifFredensborgNielsen(awalk- ing dictionary just an email away), Poul Otto Nielsen, Pa´draig O´ Macha´in, Ian McBride, Tim Murray, and Kristian L. R. Pedersen. DavidBoyesreadthemanuscriptandsuggestedmanyimprovements. Two reviewers made suggestions which have substantially improved this book. Oxford University Press’s Ask Oxford were able to tell me whatSirWilliamWilde’spampooteeswere.Thedrawingsofskullsin Wgure3.3arereproducedfromthearticlebyEschrichtinDanskFolk- eblad,3,15September1837,bykindpermissionoftheBritishLibrary (AC.9056 vol. 3 part28–29;facing pp. 111 and115). The letter from Greenwell to Lubbock quoted in chapter 7 (Add MS 49641/84–7) is quoted by kind permission of the British Library. The letter from GreenwelltoEvansquotedinchapter7(JE/B/1/7)isquotedbykind permissionoftheAshmoleanMuseum,UniversityofOxford.Bothof these were drawn to my attention by Dr Anne O’Connor. I thank the Arts and Humanities Research Board for an award under the Research Leave Scheme (APN 15880, AN 1759); and research leave givenbytheDepartmentofArchaeologyalsoplayedasigniWcantpart. AndWnallyIoweahugedebtofgratitudetomywifeDebbie,who putupwithmethroughthewritingofthisbookandproofreadmuch ofit,andtomydaughtersGabrielleandEleanor,andtoEddie.They haveallhadafargreaterexposuretonineteenth-centuryarchaeology thananyoneshouldbeaskedtotolerate. PR-C Durham2006 This page intentionally left blank Contents ListofIllustrations xi ListofAbbreviations xix 1. ChronologiesinConXict 1 2. TheConstructionofPrehistory:Copenhagento1836 21 3. TheThreeAgeSystemasPredator:Copenhagenand Lund1836–1850 48 4. TheDisinterestedGentlemen:Englandto1860 82 5. Scotland:TheCreationofaNation’sPrehistory 137 6. Ireland:RealmoftheFourMasters 177 7. FightingitThrough:England1860–1880 235 8. Aftermath 286 APPENDICES 1. TranslationofMu¨nter’sProposalof1807 295 2. TranslationofThomsen’sLettersof1825to J.G.G.Bu¨sching 298 3. TranslationofEschricht’s(1837)PaperonCrania 302 4. Prichard’sDiscussionoftheThreeAgeSystemin1841 311 5. TranslationofWorsaae’sLetterof1847onIrishPolitics 316 References 319 Index 351
The list of books you might like
