ABSTRACT
Australian archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe was arguably the most influential archaeologist of twentieth century as well as a political activist of the Left for his entire life. Childe’s contribution was the dialogue he launched; it took account of theoretical perspectives of Marx, Engels, and the evolutionary socialists, like Karl Kautsky, who followed them on the Left as well as the liberal views elaborated by Durkheim, Spencer, and their followers. In Childe's view, many of the prosperous food-gathering cultures of Upper Paleolithic disappeared because of their inability to cope with the waning resources and new conditions that emerged at end of the Ice Age. The crystallization of social class structures, the most visible expression of exploitative social relations rather than cities, writing systems, long-distance trade, or monumental buildings marked the onset of Childe's second revolution. Childe suggested that social class structures and the early state appeared in three forms: the temple city, the use of war captives, and the tributary state.
