A ‘Splendid Idiosyncrasy’: prehistory at Cambridge 1915–1950. By Pamela Jane Smith. Pp 207, b&w ills. BAR Brit Ser 485. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2009. ISBN 9781407304304. £41 (pbk)

摘要

A hundred years on from the beginnings of more intellectually rigorous and scientifically based approaches to the study of prehistory, it is not surprising to find that there is a burgeoning interest in its historiography. This ranges from studies of particular traditions of thought to those concerned with the wider social context, from those studies that focus upon the contribution of individuals to those that trace social currents that influenced the direction of scholarly endeavours. Such works as have so far been published represent this breadth of approach, and two examples relevant to the present review are Brian Fagan’s study of Grahame Clark’s contributions to the framing of a ‘modern’ prehistory (2001) and Adam Stout’s colourful outline of contested views of the proper study of the early inhabitants of Britain (2008). However, what have been lacking are more detailed and closely documented surveys that bring together a wealth of documentary material and oral testimony that move research on beyond reliance upon secondary sources and anecdotal evidence. It is in this context that Pamela Smith’s fascinating study (the first, we hope, of many) of prehistory at Cambridge before 1950 needs to be appreciated and valued.nThe volume extends the author’s previous research on the organization of the Fenland Research Committee (Smith 1994 and 1997) to look at the broader canvas of the institutional development of prehistory at Cambridge University through the more intimate lens of the biographies of three of its early protagonists: Miles Burkitt, Dorothy Garrod and Grahame Clark. In doing so, Smith takes us on a journey that encompasses both the heights of Mount Carmel, where Garrod excavated between 1929 and 1934, and the cosiness of the departmental tea-room.