The Emergence of Culture in Europe

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It will not be entirely untrue to state that prehistoric archaeology cannot be understood in all its details by every archaeologist. Archaeologists can be seen labouring through statistics or primary books of Zoology or even Geology to have a better and fuller understanding of the subject. Likewise, historians cultural Anthropologists, population scientists and sometimes even Marxist Sociologists would like to comprehend all about prehistoric Archaeology in order to construct specific models of their theoretical research. The students, specially in the under graduate courses in Indian Universities, on the other hand have very little to go on to form a basic understanding of the subject.

Dr. D.K. Bhattacharya tries to lay down the most important factual details which form the basic foundation for an entry into the subject. He does this in such a jargen free and extremely simplified manner that even a layman can learn prehistory much more easily from this book than any other known sources in print till date. This over simplification is primarily aimed to help the various social science and natural science students who want to learn prehistory.

Over-simplification on the one hand, and enrichment of fullest and latest empirical details on the other, makes Emergence of Culture in Europe an unique publication which will be sought by everybody interested in the subject. This is specially because European prehistory for many Indians is almost impossible to catch up without the knowledge of at least French and German languages besides English. Also, one cannot avoid European prehistory as of regional significance because most of our prehistory is expressed in European thoughts and terms.

Dr. Bhattacharya, a veteran teacher in the Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi, has spent several years in various Laboratories, Museums and Universities in Europe to compile a volumnous reference book on Palaeolithic Europe, which has been published in early 1977 from Holland. He has also taken keen interest in trying to undo the unpopularity of Indian prehistory in the west. He feels the main malady for this neglect is our total disregard of standard methods of research and reporting. In order to help this he has worked on a book of Palacolithic typology, which is shortly going to be published. He has studied by now tens of thousands of tools from classic sites in Europe and India and is totally utilizing this hard earned knowledge in trying to improve the teaching of Pre historic Archaeology in India.

It will not be entirely untrue to state that prehistoric archaeology cannot be understood in all its details by every archaeologist. Prehistoric archaeologists can be seen labouring through statistics or primary books of zoology, botany and geology to have a better and fuller understanding of the subject. Likewise, historians, cultural anthropologists, population scientists and some times even Marxist sociologists would like to comprehend all about prehistoric archaeology in order to construct specific models of their own theoretical research.

To prepare a book for this kind of specialists poses a tricky problem, which involves a delicate balancing between over simplification on the one hand and incorporation of the latest empirical details on the other. I have tried this difficult job in the present book. My main emphasis had been on such terms and concepts, which are freely used in prehistory literature. I had to use some technical terms for the chronological frame work but even these have been kept to the minimum.

An extensive bibliography has been specially added to enable interested students getting into specialized probes. I hope, with the ever increasing phenomenon of widening horizons in all subjects of study, this book will be of help to students of both social and natural sciences.

Prehistory is now taught in a number of Universities in India, particularly in the Departments of Archaeology and Anthropology. In both these departments the main emphasis is laid on Indian Prehistory in the same manner as national Prehistory is emphasised everywhere in the world. A comprehensive course on the Prehistory of the outside world is also included all over to enable the students develop the correct perspective of their national Prehistory in the world scene. In India a comprehensive course on extra-Indian Prehistory has mainly been done by us on the basis of secondary sources or summaries appearing from these countries. Dr. Bhattacharya, to my mind, is the first Indian who has made a first-hand study of the material collected in various countries of Europe and brought the information together in this handy volume for us. That he is India-trained and acquainted with Indian problems makes him catch the "wave length" of the Indian students in much better way than an European author of a similar book could have achieved. Palaeolithic studies in Europe are continually growing and becoming more and more technical in their orientation. To any Indian student such a rapid and multi-disciplinary development becomes well-nigh impossible to keep pace with. Hence the publication of this is extremely timely. Dr. Bhattacharya has already given us a large, up-to-date study of this subject in his Palaeolithic Europe. So he is the right person to present this simplified version to our College and University students.

**Contents and Sample Pages**