The Stone Ages in South Africa

Extract

Tutankamen, Ur, and Glozel have all aroused so great an interest in the various branches of archaeology and prehistory that the European presses seem to find it difficult to turn out archaeological works sufficiently fast to meet the public demand; writers, too, seem to find it difficult to vary their choice of facts and their points of view. Yet in spite of all this, one type of archaeological work has never yet made its appearance,—a good, comprehensive study of archaeological method. The more one studies the subject, the more one realizes the importance of the methods necessary, both those used by the field worker in his excavations, and also those to be used by the museum worker in correlating the material before him. In time these methods begin to formulate themselves in the student's mind, and it becomes fairly clear what the original modus operandi used by men like de Mortillet must necessarily have been.