People
Vere Gordon Childe 1892-1957 - Australia, UK
1892–1957, British archaeologist, b. Australia. An Oxford graduate, he taught at the Univ. of Edinburgh (1927–46)
and the Univ. of London (1946–56). He gained renown for his monumental synthesis of European prehistory, The Dawn of European Civilization (1925, 6th ed. 1957), and The
Prehistory of European Society (1958). His studies in Asian archaeology led him to advance the concepts of the agricultural and urban revolutions in New Light on the Most
Ancient East (1929, rev. ed. 1953). His interpretation of human history is put forth in two popular works, Man Makes Himself (1937, rev. ed. 1951) and What Happened
in History (1942).
Encyclopedia Entries
Wikipedia
Columbia
Questions of
The developments which he called the "Neolithic Revolution" and "Urban Revolution" were first explored through archaeological evidence by him, and they are
still vital concepts in prehistoric studies. Further developments in civilisation (Childe did concentrate his attention on Europe and the Near East, despite the occasional
excursus) could be explained with reference to the changes in technology that occurred, which were accessible from the archaeological record. To do this Childe started used terms
like Bronze Age or Iron Age as a way
of exploring shifts from one level of material development to another, rather than just for dating.
Childe was unusual in emphasising the Hellenistic period as the apex of Graeco-Roman civilisation, rather than the world of Athens in
the 5th century BC, or that of the Roman Empire. In the Hellenized eastern Mediterranean,
and particularly at Alexandria he saw the culmination of classical culture.
Reading
- How Labour Governs (1923)
- The Dawn of European Civilization (1925)
- The Danube in Prehistory (1929)
- The Bronze Age (1930)
- New Light on the Most Ancient East (1935)
- Prehistory of Scotland (1935)
- Man Makes Himself (1936, slightly revised 1941, 1951)
- Prehistoric communities of the British Isles (1940, 2nd edition 1947)
- What Happened in History (1942)
- Progress and Archaeology (1944, 1945)
- History (1947)
- Society and Knowledge (1956)
References
- Braidwood, Robert J. "Vere Gordon Childe, 1892–1957: [Obituary]", American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 60, No. 4. (Aug., 1958), pp. 733–736.
- [Childe, V. Gordon]. Foundations of Social Archaeology: Selected Writings of V. Gordon Childe, edited by Thomas C. Patterson and Charles E. Orser,
Jr.. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2005 (hardback, ISBN 1845202724;
paperback, ISBN 1845202732).
- Gathercole, P. "'Patterns in Prehistory': An Examination of the Later Thinking of V. Gordon Childe", World Archaeology, Vol. 3, No. 2. (Oct.,
1971), pp. 225–232.
- Green, Sally. Prehistorian: A Biography of V. Gordon Childe. Wiltshire, England: Moonraker Press, 1981 (hardcover, ISBN 0239002067).
- Harris, David R. (ed.) The Archaeology of V. Gordon Childe: Contemporary Perspectives. Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1994 (hardcover, ISBN 0-522-84622-X).
- McNairn, Barbara. The Method and Theory of V. Gordon Childe. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1980 (paperback, ISBN 0852243898).
- Rouse, Irving. "Vere Gordon Childe, 1892–1957: [Obituary]", American Antiquity, Vol. 24, No. 1. (Jul., 1958), pp. 82–84.
- Sherratt, Andrew V. "Gordon Childe: Archaeology and Intellectual History", Past and Present, No. 125. (Nov., 1989), pp. 151–185.
- Trigger, Bruce G. Gordon Childe: Revolutions in Archaeology. London: Thames and Hudson, 1980 (hardcover, ISBN 0500050341); New York: Columbia University Press, 1980 (hardcover,
ISBN 0231050380).
- Tringham, Ruth. "V. Gordon Childe 25 Years after: His Relevance for the Archaeology of the Eighties: A Review Article", Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 10,
No. 1. (Spring, 1983), pp. 85–100.
Writing Available on the Internet
Commentary
Quotations