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PREFACE
During the interval that has
elapsed since the first edition of this work appeared, the relations which
it aimed at determining between Archaeology and kindred sciences have been
matured to an extent then very par tially apprehended, The progress of
antiquarian investigations, and the value they have acquired in recent years
in relation to other studies, render the changes demanded in a second
edition unusually extensive. I have accordingly availed myself of the
opportunity to remodel the whole. Fully a third of it has been entirely
rewritten; and the remaining portions have undergone so minute a revision as
to render it in many respects a new work.
One object aimed at when this book first appeared, was to rescue
archaeological research from that limited range to which a too exclusive
devotion to classical studies had given rise; and, especially in relation to
Scotland, to prove how greatly more comprehensive and important are its
native antiquities than all the traces of intruded arts. In some respects
the aim has been so effectually accomplished, that it has become no longer
necessary to retain arguments constructed with a view to the refutation of
learned or popular systems involving Roman, Danish, or other foreign sources
of native art; or to combat Phoenician, Druidical, or other theories,
invented to substantiate equally baseless systems of pseudo-historical
fable. In other directions, however, speculations then indulged in, have
since been followed out to an extent compared with which the boldest of them
can no longer seem extravagant. In the application of the term
Prehistoric—introduced, if I mistake not, for the first time in this
work,—it was employed originally in reference to races which I then assigned
reasons for believing had preceded the oldest historical ones of Britain and
Northern Europe. But since then the term has become identified with a
comprehensive range of speculative and inductive research, in which the
archaeologist labours hand in hand with the geologist and ethnologist, in
solving some of the most deeply interesting problems of modern science. The
plan of this work only embraces the evidence derived from a narrow insular
area; but, limited though its pages are to the pre historic arts and ethnic
affinities of one country, and that apart from regions hitherto productive
of the most primitive traces of human art: it will nevertheless be seen that
the evidence which bears on the great question of the antiquity of man finds
many illustrations from Scottish chroniclings. Now also that the relations
of archaeological investigations to other scientific inquiries are
intelligently recognised, the evidence and speculations embodied in these
volumes in reference to prehistoric and pre-Celtic races may acquire a new
significance and value. The careful study of the primitive antiquities of
Britain led me to the conviction, set forth in the former edition, that we
must look to a much more remote period, and to earlier races than any of
those with which classic historians have familiarized us, for the beginnings
of our insular history. Since then, long residence on the American
continent, and repeated opportunities of intercourse with the Aborigines of
the New World, have familiarized me with a condition of social life
realizing in the living present nearly all that I had conceived of in
studying the chroniclings of Britain’s prehistoric centuries. The experience
thus acquired in novel fields of ethnological research, have materially
aided me in the revision of opinions originally based on purely speculative
induction ; and recent opportunities of renewed study on the scenes of my
earlier investigations, have enabled me to enlarge in many respects the;
illustrations which Scottish antiquities contribute to the broader aspects
of Archaeological science.
The Second Volume is chiefly occupied with subjects of antiquarian and
historical research of a very recent date, when compared with the
essentially prehistoric traces of man. Nevertheless they are replete with
interest in their bearings on national arts, customs, and social progress;
and are of no less value to the historian than those of earlier periods have
become to the geologist. To those also the opportunities for revision which
a second edition supplies have afforded means for making numerous additions
and alterations, which I venture to hope accomplish more nearly than
formerly the ambitious aim then set before me, of establishing a consistent
and comprehensive system of Scottish Archeology.
Along with the other changes by which this edition of the Prehistoric Annals
of Scotland aims at more effectually achieving the purposes implied in its
title, the pictorial illustrations have been greatly increased, several of
the former plates and woodcuts have also been reenoraved from new drawings:
and in addition to those, I have to acknowledge the great liberality with
which the Councils of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, the
Archaeological Institute of Great Britain, and the Society of Antiquaries of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, have placed their woodcuts at my service. To my friends
Professor Simpson, George Harvey, Esq., and Thomas Constable, Esq., I am
also indebted for other illustrations with which the following pages are
enriched.
University College, Toronto, October 1863.
Volume 1 |
Volume 2 |
