build chronologies of both present and past native populations, and also to
legitimize the colonial occupation. On the other, however, the reports on the
customs of the tribal groups and their material culture had an impact on
thediscoursesaboutprehistoricarchaeologyinEurope.Thecolonialexperience
provided an important means for archaeologists to visualize the inhabitants of
prehistoric Europe, and the functionality of the objects found in excavations.
Yet, one should not forget that this vision was not completely independent
from the images created from the early modern period based on discussions
on the classical authors. This was a baggage that anthropology had for years to
come. The link between the colonial experience and the study of prehistoric
Europe was made explicit by the British archaeologist, John Lubbock, who
explained in his celebrated Pre-Historic Times, which was subtitled:As
Illustrated by Ancient Remains and the Manners and Customs of Modern
Savages:
As regards the Stone Age in Europe both history and tradition are silent... Deprived,
therefore, as regards this period, of any assistance from history, but relieved at the
same time from the embarrassing interference of tradition, the archaeologist is free to
follow the methods which have been so successfully pursued in geology—the rude
bone and stone implements of bygone ages being to the one what the remains of
extinct animals are to the other... in the same manner if we wish clearly to under-
stand the antiquities of Europe, we must compare them with the rude implements and
weapons still, or until lately, used by the savage races of other parts of the world. In
fact, the Van Diemaner [i.e. Tasmanians] and South Americans are to the antiquary
what the opossum and the sloth are to the geologist.
(Lubbock 1913 (1865): 430).THE PLACE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AMONG OTHER
COGNATE DISCIPLINESPrehistoric archaeologyEvolutionism placed humans at the same level as other living creatures,
robbing them of their special divine character. A keyWgure in this radical
change in the way humans were perceived was Charles Darwin. His ideas had
a tremendous impact after the publication of hisOrigin of Speciesin 1859. As
explained earlier in the chapter, they were applied to human prehistory by
Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) in his 1868History of Creationand subsequently
developed by Thomas Henry Huxley (Shipman 2004: 52–3, chs. 2–4). Yet,
evolutionism was not a new theory. It had been present in intellectual circles
386 National Archaeology in Europe