ABSTRACT
Gordon Childe was famous for his breadth of knowledge of prehistoric Europe – indeed, he was probably one of the last archaeologists who could claim to know in some detail the material culture of prehistoric Europe based on first-hand knowledge through visits to sites, museums and libraries around the continent. As McNairn observes in her study of Childe’s theoretical perspectives:
At a time when the trend was towards detailed, particularistic, research, Childe’s texts such as The Dawn of European Civilisation (1925), The Danube in Prehistory (1929), or Prehistoric Communities of the British Isles (1940) stand out as great works of synthesis patterning the whole of European prehistory.
