Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/11



volume contains the Munro Lectures in Anthropology and Prehistoric Archæology for 1912, being the first course since the Lectureship was founded. With the exception of a few changes in phraseology, in consequence of dividing the lectures into chapters—an alteration which became necessary in order to arrange the materials under more appropriate headings—the letterpress remains unaltered. The chapter on the Transition Period is supplementary to Part I., the intention being to show some of the connecting links between the Palæolithic and Neolithic civilisations thus partly accounting for the fate of the old-world hunters.

As to the selection of the subjects of the lectures, I have only to say that Part I. was chosen on con amore grounds, and as one pregnant with recent discoveries bearing on the origin and antiquity of the human race.

With regard to the subject-matter of Part II. I have to offer a few explanatory remarks. The Terramara Settlements of the Po Valley had so greatly interested me, some twenty-five years ago, that I wrote a pretty full account of their unique remains for my Lake-dwellings of Europe, classifying them as an offshoot of the adjacent Lacustrine Palafittes. That I gave a fair account of the terramara researches, and of the different theories then held with regard to their origin and purpose, there is ample evidence in the reviews of my book which appeared at the time. But there is one notice, written as late as 1907, which shows that after an interval of seventeen years my observations were not superseded by any other