EUROPEAN ARCHAEOLOGY.
PROFESSOR R. A. S. MACALISTEB, of Dublin, who has done much for the study of early Palestine, has now published the first volume of A Text-book of European Archaeology (Cambridge University Press, 50s. not), which promises to be of the greatest possible value to all who are interested in " pre-history." It is planned on a much larger scale than Mr. Burkitt's excellent book which we noticed recently. The first volume, of six hundred closely printed pages, is devoted to the Palaeolithic period, and three more volumes are to deal respectively with the Neo- lithic and Early Bronze Ages, the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, and the Late Iron Age. Professor Macalister, after a short and suggestive introduction, discusses the geological, palaeontological and anthropological prolegomena, devotes a chapter to earliest man in Europe and then works systematically through the Old Stone Age. Ho has a long and fascinating chapter on " The Psychology of Upper Palaeolithic Man," treat- ing of the cave-art and accepting with reservations the theory, so admirably advocated by Mr. Burkitt, that the cave-drawings were essentially magical in intention. The author then deals with the Mesolithic period—the transition to the Now Stone Ago —and concludes with a lucid summary of his views. Professor Macalister wears his learning lightly and enlivens his treatise with many witty asides. He does not believe that the so•callei " eoliths " were the work of man, and he makes fun of the enthusiastic " eolithists " whose theories, it must be confessed, vary widely. No human remains have yet been found in Tertiary deposits ; the author infers that the " eoliths " of that age must bo natural productions, duo to pressure or to move- ments of the soil. The modern " eolithists " like Mr. Reid Moir will not, however, be silenced, and it must be said that then lively controversies about primitive man tend on the whole to advance knowledge. The author thinks that the Aurig- nacians, the relatively cultured people who spread over Europe in the later part of the Old Stone Age, came from Central Africa, driven thence, perhaps, by the pressure of the negro races. lie suggests that from Central Africa three swarms went out, to Spain and Central Europe, to Egypt and to Arabia. Ex Africa semper quid noel. The hypothesis is fascinating and may be supported by a good deal of evidence. Professor Macalister's book is superbly illustrated with some two hundred photographs and drawings.
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