The Place of Archaeology in British Education

Extract

In ANTIQUITY, September 1943, Grahame Clark put forward an eloquent plea for the study of man as a basic feature of education throughout the world—to create an overriding sense of human solidarity such as can come only from consciousness of common origins ; this alone, in his opinion, can ensure the Survival of civilization. He deliberately deferred consideration of practical details and concentrated on setting out ˋthe vast design ˊ covering education, like the Beveridge social insurance scheme, from the cradle to the grave. It is my purpose in this article to consider more closely what part British archaeology is fitted and ready to play in education in this country in the future. For if archaeology is to take its rightful place in school curricula, if it is to be in demand in Universities (where archaeologists mainly must be trained) and in centres of adult education, its role must be clearly defined and understood by archaeologists and educationists alike. Certain misconceptions must be cleared away-for example that archaeology is synonymous with prehistory, or the study of flints or potsherds-that it is a special subject, something ˋ extra ˊ like music or drawing in the old fashioned academy. Let it once be realized that it is essentially a method of recovering, studying and re-creating the past, a method that is open to all to use, and it will fall into place within the framework of our educational system. It will naturally be a method that is most used by other branches of knowledge concerned with the past, Classical studies, English Literature (1), and above all History.