V. Gordon Childe (1892–1957)

V Gordon Childe was a giant in archeology, taking the industry of unearthed sites and getting the most theory from them. His thinking, though he didn't intend this, was basis for Hitler's Aryan superior race. In this book, Sumerian and Egyptianl archeology is examined as prelude to European history. This is a must have for the classic science library.

A better than expected history from the stone age to the Roman Empire.

This was written in 1954, so can obviously be forgiven for omitting vast amounts of material; in particular this is very much the western canon view of the world --- no Africa, Australia or Americas, and very very little India or China.

What I found especially interesting was a concentration towards the end of the book on the class structure and the economy (especially the failings of said economy) in bronze and iron age show more times.
The fact that I've not seen this covered much in modern texts makes me wonder whether it was a fanciful construction of the Marxist-inspired times, something we are now wise enough to realize we cannot speculate about, or whether the fashion operates in the reverse, that it is our times that refuse to acknowledge and discuss what is clearly obvious.
Certainly this is an issue I'd like to know more about. show less

Classic text by Childe supported, against Childe's will, Hitler's beliefs about the superiority of the Germanic race. But, the linguistic history of Indo-European languages is combined with archeological evidence in this theory of tribal migrations from the region of today's Afghanistan into India and Europe. Few author's are cited more often than Childe, making him the giant in archeology on par with Louis Leaky. A must have textbook for classical science library.

A beautiful copy of the single most influential book in European archaeology, the first modern synthesis, which created the intellectual, the taxonomic, framework for the study of the subject.