The changing careers of Vere Gordon Childe

• Autores: Robin Derricourt
• Localización: Antiquity, ISSN 0003-598X, Vol. 88, Nº 340, 2014, págs. 632-638
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • It was Antiquity (Daniel 1980) that revealed details of the death of �the greatest prehistorian in Britain, and probably in the world� (Piggott 1958: 312), the Australian Vere Gordon Childe (1892�1957). Antiquity would later note what is still the over-modest marker of his final resting place (Barton 2000). And it was Antiquity that published Childe's �Retrospect� in which he summarised his archaeological career, noting that it began at Oxford, and started again in 1922 �after a sentimental excursion into Australian politics� (Childe 1958: 69). In this article it is suggested that this was far more than an excursion; that through force of circumstance he abandoned a potentially high-flying archaeological trajectory and embarked on an equally high-flying replacement career in politics; only further force of circumstances brought him back to archaeology.