Summary
"This book interprets the main lines of
European prehistory from the first agricultural communities in the
sixth or even seventh millennium B.C. until the incorporation of
much of barbarian Europe within the Roman Empire. It traces the
beginnings of animal domestication and plant cultivation in ancient
Western Asia, and the transmission of these skills by movements of
peoples or by assimilation, in the European continent. The early
technology of working in copper, and later in bronze, is discussed.
Metal winning and working, and trade in raw materials and finished
products, brought social and political repercussions to barbarian
and civilised peoples alike.The spread of the Indo-European
languages is considered in its archaeological context, as is the
formation of the Celtic peoples, soon to acquire iron technology
and to become the main barbarian component in Europe, side-by-side
with the civilised Mediterranean societies, Greek, Etruscan or
Roman. The later Celtic world of Europe and the British Isles is
examined, and an attempt made to estimate the contribution of the
older barbarian world to the Europe, which emerged from the ruins
of the Roman Empire, geographically, the book ranges over the whole
European field, from the Atlantic shores to the Urals and the
Caucasus. While it does not pretend to be a prehistory of Europe
within the period chosen, the book does bring together and discuss
for the first time much scattered and often little-known
archaeological evidence.This book is organized in a manner that
will permit it being read on two levels. For the general
non-specialist reader, the text and illustrations should give a
sufficient idea of the nature of the theme and of the evidence, and
of the development of the barbarian cultures side-by-side with the
civilizations of antiquity, as their precursors and their
subsequent counterparts. For the archaeological student however the
text is documented with rather full references and notes at the end
of each chapte"--Provided by publisher.
