Vere Gordon Childe - A Biography

V.
Gordon Childe
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V. Gordon Childe
Childe in the 1930s
Born Vere Gordon Childe
14 April 1892
Sydney, Colony of New South Wales
Died 19 October 1957 (aged 65)
Blackheath, New South Wales, Australia

Alma mater University of Sydney
The Queen's College, Oxford
• Archaeologist
Occupation
• Philologist
Known for • Excavating Skara Brae
• Marxist archaeological theory
Vere Gordon Childe (14 April 1892 – 19 October 1957) was an

Australian archaeologist who specialised in the study of European prehistory. He spent
most of his life in the United Kingdom, working as an academic for the University of
Edinburgh and then the Institute of Archaeology, London. He wrote twenty-six books
during his career. Initially an early proponent of culture-historical archaeology, he later
became the first exponent of Marxist archaeology in the Western world.
Born in Sydney to a middle-class English migrant family, Childe studied classics at
the University of Sydney before moving to England to study classical archaeology at
the University of Oxford. There, he embraced the socialist movement and campaigned
against the First World War, viewing it as a conflict waged by competing imperialists to the
detriment of Europe's working class. Returning to Australia in 1917, he was prevented from
working in academia because of his socialist activism. Instead, he worked for the Labor
Party as the private secretary of the politician John Storey. Growing critical of Labor, he
wrote an analysis of their policies and joined the radical labour organisation Industrial
Workers of the World. Emigrating to London in 1921, he became librarian of the Royal
Anthropological Institute and journeyed across Europe to pursue his research into the
continent's prehistory, publishing his findings in academic papers and books. In doing so,
he introduced the continental European concept of an archaeological culture—the idea that
a recurring assemblage of artefactsdemarcates a distinct cultural group—to the British
archaeological community.
From 1927 to 1946 he worked as the Abercromby Professor of Archaeology at the
University of Edinburgh, and then from 1947 to 1957 as the director of the Institute of
Archaeology, London. During this period he oversaw the excavation of archaeological sites
in Scotland and Northern Ireland, focusing on the society of Neolithic Orkney by
excavating the settlement of Skara Brae and the chambered
tombs of Maeshowe and Quoyness. In these decades he published prolifically, producing
excavation reports, journal articles, and books. With Stuart Piggott and Grahame Clark he
co-founded The Prehistoric Society in 1934, becoming its first president. Remaining a
committed socialist, he embraced Marxism, and—rejecting culture-historical approaches—
used Marxist ideas such as historical materialism as an interpretative framework for
archaeological data. He became a sympathiser with the Soviet Union and visited the
country on several occasions, although he grew sceptical of Soviet foreign policy following
the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. His beliefs resulted in him being legally barred from
entering the United States, despite receiving repeated invitations to lecture there. Upon
retirement, he returned to Australia's Blue Mountains, where he committed suicide.
One of the best-known and most widely cited archaeologists of the twentieth century,
Childe became known as the "great synthesizer" for his work integrating regional research
with a broader picture of Near Eastern and European prehistory. He was also renowned for
his emphasis on the role of revolutionary technological and economic developments in
human society, such as the Neolithic Revolution and the Urban Revolution, reflecting the
influence of Marxist ideas concerning societal development. Although many of his
interpretations have since been discredited, he remains widely respected among
archaeologists.
Contents
• 1Early life
o 1.1Childhood: 1892–1910
o 1.2University in Sydney and Oxford: 1911–1917
o 1.3Early career in Australia: 1918–1921
o 1.4London and early books: 1922–1926
• 2Later life
o 2.1Abercromby Professor of Archaeology: 1927–
1946
▪ 2.1.1Excavations
▪ 2.1.2Publications
o 2.2Institute of Archaeology, London: 1946–1956
o 2.3Retirement and death: 1956–1957
• 3Archaeological theory
o 3.1Culture-historical archaeology
o 3.2Marxist archaeology
o 3.3Neolithic and Urban Revolutions
o 3.4Influence on processual and post-processual
archaeology
• 4Personal life
• 5Legacy and influence
o 5.1Academic conferences and publications
• 6Selected publications
• 7References
o 7.1Footnotes
o 7.2Bibliography
• 8Further reading
Early life[edit]
Childhood: 1892–1910[edit]
Childe was born on 14 April 1892 in Sydney.[1] He was the only surviving child of the
Reverend Stephen Henry Childe (1844–1923) and Harriet Eliza Childe, née Gordon (1853–
1910), a middle-class couple of English descent.[2] The son of an Anglican priest, Stephen
Childe was ordained into the Church of England in 1867 after gaining a BA from
the University of Cambridge. Becoming a teacher, in 1871 he married Mary Ellen
Latchford, with whom he had five children.[3] They moved to Australia in 1878, where
Mary died. On 22 November 1886 Stephen married Harriet Gordon, an Englishwoman
from a wealthy background who had moved to Australia as a child.[4] Her father
was Alexander Gordon QC (1815–1903),[5] and Sir Alexander Gordon QC (1858–1942),
a Supreme Court judge, born in Australia, was a brother.
Gordon Childe was raised alongside five half-siblings at his father's palatial country house,
the Chalet Fontenelle, in the township of Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains, west of
Sydney.[6] Rev. Childe worked as the minister for St. Thomas' Parish, but proved unpopular,
arguing with his congregation and taking unscheduled holidays.[6]
A sickly child, Gordon Childe was educated at home for several years, before receiving a
private-school education in North Sydney.[7] In 1907, he began attending Sydney Church of
England Grammar School, gaining his Junior Matriculation in 1909 and Senior
Matriculation in 1910. At school he studied ancient history, French, Greek, Latin,
geometry, algebra, and trigonometry, achieving good marks in all subjects, but he was
bullied because of his physical appearance and unathletic physique.[8] In July 1910 his
mother died; his father soon remarried.[9] Childe's relationship with his father was strained,
particularly following his mother's death, and they disagreed on religion and politics: the
Reverend was a devout Christian and conservative while his son was
an atheist and socialist.[9]
University in Sydney and Oxford: 1911–1917[edit]
Childe studied for a degree in classics at the University of Sydney in 1911; although
focusing on written sources, he first came across classical archaeology through the work of
the archaeologists Heinrich Schliemann and Arthur Evans.[10] At university, he became an
active member of the debating society, at one point arguing that "socialism is desirable."
Increasingly interested in socialism, he read the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels,
as well as those of the philosopher G. W. F. Hegel, whose dialectics heavily
influenced Marxist theory.[11] At university, he became a great friend of fellow
undergraduate and future judge and politician Herbert Vere Evatt, with whom he remained
in lifelong contact.[12] Ending his studies in 1913, Childe graduated the following year with
various honours and prizes, including Professor Francis Anderson's prize for philosophy.[13]
"My Oxford training was in the Classical tradition to which bronzes, terracottas and pottery (at least if painted)
were respectable while stone and bone tools were banausic."
— Gordon Childe, 1957.[14]
Wishing to continue his education, he gained a £200 Cooper Graduate Scholarship in

Classics, allowing him to pay the tuition fees at Queen's College, part of the University of
Oxford, England. He set sail for Britain aboard the SS Orsova in August 1914, shortly after
the outbreak of World War I.[15] At Queen's, Childe was entered for a diploma in classical
archaeology followed by a Literae Humaniores degree, although he never completed the
former.[16] Whilst there, he studied under John Beazley and Arthur Evans, the latter being
Childe's supervisor.[17] In 1915, he published his first academic paper, "On the Date and
Origin of Minyan Ware", in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, and the following year
produced his B.Litt. thesis, "The Influence of Indo-Europeans in Prehistoric Greece",
displaying his interest in combining philological and archaeological evidence. [18]
At Oxford he became actively involved with the socialist movement, antagonising the
conservative university authorities. Becoming a noted member of the left-
wing reformist Oxford University Fabian Society, he was there in 1915 when it changed its
name to the Oxford University Socialist Society, following a split from the Fabian
Society.[19] His best friend and flatmate was Rajani Palme Dutt, a fervent socialist and
Marxist. The pair often got drunk and tested each other's knowledge about classical history
late at night.[20] With Britain in the midst of World War I, many socialists refused to fight
for the British Army despite the government-imposed conscription. They believed the
ruling classes of Europe's imperialist nations were waging the war for their own interests at
the expense of the working classes; these socialists thought class war was the only conflict
they should be concerned with. Dutt was imprisoned for refusing to fight, and Childe
campaigned for the release of both him and other socialists and pacifist conscientious
objectors. Childe was never required to enlist in the army, most likely because of his poor
health and eyesight.[21] His anti-war sentiments concerned the authorities; the intelligence
agency MI5 opening a file on him, his mail was intercepted, and he was kept under
observation.[22]
Early career in Australia: 1918–1921[edit]
From 1919 to 1921, Childe worked for the leftist politician John Storey as his personal assistant.
Childe returned to Australia in August 1917.[23] As a known socialist agitator, he was placed
under surveillance by the security services, who intercepted his mail. [24] In 1918 he became
senior resident tutor at St Andrew's College, Sydney University, joining Sydney's socialist
and anti-conscription movement. In Easter 1918 he spoke at the Third Inter-State Peace
Conference, an event organised by the Australian Union of Democratic Control for the
Avoidance of War, a group opposed to Prime Minister Billy Hughes's plans to introduce
conscription. The conference had a prominent socialist emphasis; its report argued that the
best hope to end international war was the "abolition of the Capitalist System". News of
Childe's participation reached the Principal of St Andrew's College, who forced Childe to
resign despite much opposition from staff. [25]
Staff members secured him work as a tutor in ancient history in the Department of Tutorial
Classes, but the university chancellor William Cullen feared that he would promote
socialism to students and fired him.[26] The leftist community condemned this as an
infringement of Childe's civil rights, and the centre-left politicians William McKell and T.J.
Smith raised the issue in the Parliament of Australia.[27] Moving to Maryborough,
Queensland, in October 1918, Childe took up employment teaching Latin at
the Maryborough Boys Grammar School, where his students included P. R. Stephensen.
Here, too, his political affiliations became known, and he was subject to an opposition
campaign from local conservative groups and the Maryborough Chronicle, resulting in
abuse from some pupils. He soon resigned.[28]
Realising he would be barred from an academic career by the university authorities, Childe
sought employment within the leftist movement. In August 1919, he became private
secretary and speech writer to the politician John Storey, a prominent member of the
centre-left Labor Party then in opposition to New South Wales' Nationalist
Party government. Representing the Sydney suburb of Balmain on the New South Wales
Legislative Assembly, Storey became state premier in 1920 when Labor achieved electoral
victory.[29] Working within the Labor Party allowed Childe greater insight into its workings;
the deeper his involvement, the more he became critical of Labor, believing that once in
political office they betrayed their socialist ideals and moved to a centrist, pro-capitalist
stance.[30] He joined the radical leftist Industrial Workers of the World, which at the time
was banned in Australia.[30] In 1921 Storey sent Childe to London to keep the British press
updated about developments in New South Wales, but Storey died in December and an
ensuing New South Wales election restored a Nationalist government under George Fuller's
premiership. Fuller thought Childe's job unnecessary, and in early 1922 terminated his
employment.[31]
London and early books: 1922–1926[edit]
Unable to find an academic job in Australia, Childe remained in Britain, renting a room
in Bloomsbury, Central London, and spending much time studying at the British
Museum and the Royal Anthropological Institute library.[32] An active member of London's
socialist movement, he associated with leftists at the 1917 Club in Gerrard Street, Soho. He
befriended members of the Marxist Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and
contributed to their publication, Labour Monthly, but had not yet openly embraced
Marxism.[33] Having earned a good reputation as a prehistorian, he was invited to other parts
of Europe to study prehistoric artefacts. In 1922 he travelled to Vienna to examine
unpublished material about the painted Neolithic pottery from Schipenitz, Bukovina, held
in the Prehistoric Department of the Natural History Museum; he published his findings in
the 1923 volume of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.[34][35] Childe used this
excursion to visit museums in Czechoslovakia and Hungary, bringing them to the attention
of British archaeologists in a 1922 article in Man.[36] After returning to London, in 1922
Childe became a private secretary for three Members of Parliament, including John Hope
Simpson and Frank Gray, both members of the centre-left Liberal Party.[37] Supplementing
this income, Childe worked as a translator for the publishers Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner
& Co. and occasionally lectured in prehistory at the London School of Economics.[38]
"As the [Australian] Labour Party, starting with a band of inspired Socialists, degenerated into a vast machine for
capturing political power, but did not know how to use that political power except for the profit of individuals; so
the [One Big Union] will, in all likelihood, become just a gigantic apparatus for the glorification of a few bosses.
Such is the history of all Labour organizations in Australia, and that is not because they are Australian, but because
they are Labour."
— Gordon Childe, How Labour Governs, 1923.[39]
In 1923 the London Labour Company published his first book, How Labour Governs.
Examining the Australian Labor Party and its connections to the Australian labour
movement, it reflects Childe's disillusionment with the party, arguing that once elected, its
politicians abandoned their socialist ideals in favour of personal comfort.[40] Childe's
biographer Sally Green noted that How Labour Governs was of particular significance at
the time because it was published just as the British Labour Party was emerging as a major
player in British politics, threatening the two-party dominance of the Conservatives and
Liberals; in 1923 Labour formed their first government.[41] Childe planned a sequel
expanding on his ideas, but it was never published.[42]
In May 1923 he visited the museums in Lausanne, Bern, and Zürich to study their
prehistoric artefact collections; that year he became a member of the Royal Anthropological
Institute. In 1925, he became the institute's librarian, one of the only archaeological jobs
available in Britain, through which he began cementing connections with scholars across
Europe.[43] His job made him well known in Britain's small archaeological community; he
developed a great friendship with O. G. S. Crawford, the archaeological officer to
the Ordnance Survey, influencing Crawford's move toward socialism and Marxism.[44]
In 1925, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co published Childe's second book, The Dawn of
European Civilisation, in which he synthesised the data about European prehistory that he
had been exploring for several years. An important work, it was released when there were
few professional archaeologists across Europe and most museums focused on their
locality; The Dawn was a rare example that looked at the larger picture across the continent.
Its importance was also due to the fact that it introduced the concept of the archaeological
culture into Britain from continental scholarship, thereby aiding in the development
of culture-historical archaeology.[45] Childe later said the book "aimed at distilling from
archaeological remains a preliterate substitute for the conventional politico-military history
with cultures, instead of statesmen, as actors, and migrations in place of battles".[46] In 1926
he published a successor, The Aryans: A Study of Indo-European Origins, exploring the
theory that civilisation diffused northward and westward into Europe from the Near East
via an Indo-European linguistic group known as the Aryans; with the ensuing racial use of
the term "Aryan" by the German Nazi Party, Childe avoided mention of the book.[47] In
these works, Childe accepted a moderate version of diffusionism, the idea that cultural
developments diffuse from one place to others, rather than being independently developed
in many places. In contrast to the hyper-diffusionism of Grafton Elliot Smith, Childe
suggested that although most cultural traits spread from one society to another, it was
possible for the same traits to develop independently in different places.[48]
Later life[edit]
Abercromby Professor of Archaeology: 1927–1946[edit]
"Because the early Hindus and Persians did really call themselves Aryans, this term was adopted by some
nineteenth-century philologists to designate the speakers of the 'parent tongue'. It is now applied scientifically only
to the Hindus, Iranian peoples and the rulers of Mitanni whose linguistic ancestors spoke closely related dialects
and even worshipped common deities. As used by Nazis and anti-semitesgenerally, the term 'Aryan' means as little
as the words 'Bolshie' and 'Red' in the mouths of crusted tories."
— Gordon Childe criticising the Nazi conception of an Aryan race, What Happened in History, 1942.[49]
In 1927, the University of Edinburgh offered Childe the post of Abercromby Professor of
Archaeology, a new position established in the bequest of the prehistorian Lord
Abercromby. Although sad to leave London, Childe took the job, moving to Edinburgh in
September 1927.[50] Aged 35, Childe became the "only academic prehistorian in a teaching
post in Scotland". Many Scottish archaeologists disliked Childe, regarding him as an
outsider with no specialism in Scottish prehistory; he wrote to a friend that "I live here in an
atmosphere of hatred and envy."[51] He nevertheless made friends in Edinburgh, including
archaeologists like W. Lindsay Scott, Alexander Curle, J. G. Callender, and Walter Grant,
as well as non-archaeologists like the physicist Charles Galton Darwin, becoming godfather
to Darwin's youngest son.[52] Initially lodging at Liberton, he moved into the semi-
residential Hotel de Vere on Eglinton Crescent. [53]
At Edinburgh University, Childe focused on research rather than teaching. He was
reportedly kind to his students but had difficulty talking to large audiences; many students
were confused that his BSc degree course in archaeology was structured counter-
chronologically, dealing with the more recent Iron Age first before progressing backward to
the Palaeolithic.[54] Founding the Edinburgh League of Prehistorians, he took his more
enthusiastic students on excavations and invited guest lecturers to visit.[55] An early
proponent of experimental archaeology, he involved his students in his experiments; in
1937 he used this method to investigate the vitrification process evident at several Iron Age
forts in northern Britain.[56]
Childe regularly travelled to London to visit friends, among whom was Stuart Piggott,
another influential British archaeologist who succeeded Childe as Edinburgh's Abercromby
Professor.[57] Another friend was Grahame Clark, whom Childe befriended and encouraged
in his research.[58] The trio were elected onto the committee of the Prehistoric Society of
East Anglia. At Clark's suggestion, in 1935 they used their influence to convert it into a
nationwide organisation, the Prehistoric Society, of which Childe was elected
president.[59] Membership of the group grew rapidly; in 1935 it had 353 members and by
1938 it had 668.[60]
Childe spent much time in continental Europe and attended many conferences there, having
learned several European languages. In 1935, he first visited the Soviet Union, spending 12
days in Leningrad and Moscow; impressed with the socialist state, he was particularly
interested in the social role of Soviet archaeology. Returning to Britain, he became a vocal
Soviet sympathiser and avidly read the CPGB's Daily Worker, although was heavily critical
of certain Soviet policies, particularly the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi
Germany.[61] His socialist convictions led to an early denunciation of European fascism, and
he was outraged by the Nazi co-option of prehistoric archaeology to glorify their own
conceptions of an Aryan racial heritage.[62] Supportive of the British government's decision
to fight the fascist powers in the Second World War, he thought it probable that he was on a
Nazi blacklist and made the decision to drown himself in a canal should the Nazis conquer
Britain.[63] Though opposing fascist Germany and Italy, he also criticised the imperialist,
capitalist governments of the United Kingdom and United States: he repeatedly described
the latter as being full of "loathsome fascist hyenas".[64] This did not prevent him from
visiting the U.S. In 1936 he addressed a Conference of Arts and Sciences marking the
tercentenary of Harvard University; there, the university awarded him an honorary Doctor
of Letters degree.[65] He returned in 1939, lecturing at Harvard, the University of California,
Berkeley, and the University of Pennsylvania.[66]
Excavations[edit]
Neolithic dwellings at Skara Brae in Orkney, the site excavated by Childe 1927–30
Childe's university position meant he was obliged to undertake archaeological excavations,

something he loathed and believed he did poorly. [67] Students agreed, but recognised his
"genius for interpreting evidence".[68] Unlike many contemporaries, he was scrupulous with
writing up and publishing his findings, producing almost annual reports for the Proceedings
of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and, unusually, ensuring that he acknowledged the
help of every digger.[55]
His best-known excavation was undertaken from 1928 to 1930 at Skara Brae in the Orkney
Islands. Having uncovered a well-preserved Neolithic village, in 1931 he published the
excavation results in a book titled Skara Brae. He made an error of interpretation,
erroneously attributing the site to the Iron Age.[69] During the excavation, Childe got on
particularly well with the locals; for them, he was "every inch the professor" because of his
eccentric appearance and habits.[70] In 1932, Childe, collaborating with the anthropologist C.
Daryll Forde, excavated two Iron Age hillforts at Earn's Hugh on
the Berwickshire coast,[71] while in June 1935 he excavated a promontory
fort at Larriban near to Knocksoghey in Northern Ireland.[72] Together with Wallace
Thorneycroft, another Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Childe excavated
two vitrified Iron Age forts in Scotland, at Finavon, Angus (1933–34) and
at Rahoy, Argyllshire (1936–37).[73] In 1938, he and Walter Grant oversaw excavations at
the Neolithic settlement of Rinyo; their investigation ceased during the Second World War,
but resumed in 1946.[74]
Publications[edit]
Childe continued writing and publishing books on archaeology, beginning with a series of
works following on from The Dawn of European Civilisation and The Aryans by compiling
and synthesising data from across Europe. First was The Most Ancient Near East (1928),
which assembled information from across Mesopotamia and India, setting a background
from which the spread of farming and other technologies into Europe could be
understood.[75] This was followed by The Danube in Prehistory (1929) which examined the
archaeology along the Danube river, recognising it as the natural boundary dividing the
Near East from Europe; Childe believed it was via the Danube that new technologies
travelled westward. Although Childe had used culture-historical approaches in earlier
publications, The Danube in Prehistory was his first publication to provide a specific
definition of the concept of an archaeological culture, revolutionising the theoretical
approach of British archaeology.[76]
"We find certain types of remains—pots, implements, ornaments, burial rites, house forms—constantly recurring
together. Such a complex of regularly associated traits we shall term a 'cultural group' or just a 'culture'. We
assume that such a complex is the material expression of what today would be called a people."
— Gordon Childe, The Danube in Prehistory, 1929.[77]
Childe's next book, The Bronze Age (1930), dealt with the Bronze Age in Europe, and
displayed his increasing adoption of Marxist theory as a means of understanding how
society functioned and changed. He believed metal was the first indispensable article of
commerce, and that metal-smiths were therefore full-time professionals who lived off
the social surplus.[78] In 1933, Childe travelled to Asia, visiting Iraq—a place he thought
"great fun"—and India, which he felt was "detestable" due to the hot weather and extreme
poverty. Touring archaeological sites in the two countries, he opined that much of what he
had written in The Most Ancient Near East was outdated, going on to produce New Light on
the Most Ancient Near East (1935), in which he applied his Marxist-influenced ideas about
the economy to his conclusions.[79]
After publishing Prehistory of Scotland (1935), Childe produced one of the defining books
of his career, Man Makes Himself (1936). Influenced by Marxist views of history, Childe
argued that the usual distinction between (pre-literate) prehistory and (literate) history was
a false dichotomy and human society has progressed through a series of technological,
economic, and social revolutions. These included the Neolithic Revolution, when hunter-
gatherers began settling in permanent farming communities, through to the Urban
Revolution, when society moved from small towns to the first cities, and up to more recent
times, when the Industrial Revolution changed the nature of production.[80]
After the outbreak of the Second World War, Childe was unable to travel across Europe,
instead focusing on writing Prehistoric Communities of the British Isles (1940).[81]Childe's
pessimism regarding the war's outcome led him to believe that "European civilization—
capitalist and Stalinist alike—was irrevocably headed for a Dark Age."[82]In this state of
mind he produced a sequel to Man Makes Himself titled What Happened in History (1942),
an account of human history from the Palaeolithic through to the fall of the Roman Empire.
Although Oxford University Press offered to publish the work, he released it
through Penguin Books because they could sell it at a cheaper price, something he believed
pivotal in providing knowledge for those he called "the masses".[83] This was followed by
two short works, Progress and Archaeology (1944) and The Story of Tools (1944), the
latter an explicitly Marxist text written for the Young Communist League.[84]
Institute of Archaeology, London: 1946–1956[edit]
The Neolithic passage tomb of Maes Howe on Mainland, Orkney, excavated by Childe 1954–55
In 1946, Childe left Edinburgh to take up the position as director and professor of European
prehistory at the Institute of Archaeology (IOA) in London. Anxious to return to London,
he had kept silent over his disapproval of government policies so he would not be
prevented from getting the job.[85] He took up residence in the Isokon building near
to Hampstead.[86]
Located in St John's Lodge in the Inner Circle of Regent's Park, the IOA was founded in
1937, largely by the archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler, but until 1946 relied primarily on
volunteer lecturers.[87] Childe's relationship with the conservative Wheeler was strained, for
their personalities were very different; Wheeler was an extrovert who pursued the limelight,
was an efficient administrator, and was intolerant of others' shortcomings, while Childe
lacked administrative skill, and was tolerant of others.[88] Childe was popular among the
institute's students, who saw him as a kindly eccentric; they commissioned a bust of Childe
from Marjorie Maitland Howard. His lecturing was nevertheless considered poor, as he
often mumbled and walked into an adjacent room to find something while continuing to
talk. He further confused his students by referring to the socialist states of eastern Europe
by their full official titles, and by referring to towns by their Slavonic names rather than the
names with which they were better known in English.[89] He was deemed better at giving
tutorials and seminars, where he devoted more time to interacting with his students. [90] As
Director, Childe was not obliged to excavate, though he did undertake projects at the
Orkney Neolithic burial tombs of Quoyness (1951) and Maes Howe (1954–55).[91]
In 1949 he and Crawford resigned as fellows of the Society of Antiquaries. They did so to
protest the selection of James Mann—keeper of the Tower of London's armouries—as the
society's president, believing Wheeler (a professional archaeologist) was a better
choice.[92] Childe joined the editorial board of the periodical Past & Present, founded by
Marxist historians in 1952. [93] During the early 1950s, he also became a board member
for The Modern Quarterly—later The Marxist Quarterly—working alongside the board's
chairman Rajani Palme Dutt, his best friend and flatmate from his Oxford days. [94] He
authored occasional articles for Palme Dutt's socialist journal, the Labour Monthly, but
disagreed with him over the Hungarian Revolution of 1956; Palme Dutt defended the
Soviet Union's decision to quash the revolution using military force, but Childe, like many
Western socialists, strongly opposed it. The event made Childe abandon faith in the Soviet
leadership, but not in socialism or Marxism.[95] He retained a love of the Soviet Union,
having visiting on multiple occasions; he was also involved with a CPGB satellite body, the
Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR, and served as president of its National
History and Archaeology Section from the early 1950s until his death.[96]
In April 1956, Childe was awarded the Gold Medal of the Society of Antiquaries for his
services to archaeology. [97] He was invited to lecture in the United States on multiple
occasions, by Robert Braidwood, William Duncan Strong, and Leslie White, but the U.S.
State Department barred him from entering the country due to his Marxist beliefs.[98] Whilst
working at the institute, Childe continued writing and publishing books dealing with
archaeology. History (1947) promoted a Marxist view of the past and reaffirmed Childe's
belief that prehistory and literate history must be viewed together, whilst Prehistoric
Migrations (1950) displayed his views on moderate diffusionism.[99]In 1946 he also
published a paper in the Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. This was "Archaeology
and Anthropology", which argued that the disciplines of archaeology and anthropology
should be used in tandem, an approach that would be widely accepted in the decades
following his death.[100]
Retirement and death: 1956–1957[edit]
In mid-1956, Childe retired as IOA director a year prematurely. European archaeology had
rapidly expanded during the 1950s, leading to increasing specialisation and making the
synthesising that Childe was known for increasingly difficult.[101] That year, the institute was
moving to Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, and Childe wanted to give his successor, W.F.
Grimes, a fresh start in the new surroundings.[102] To commemorate his achievements,
the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society published a Festschrift edition on the last day of
his directorship containing contributions from friends and colleagues all over the world,
something that touched Childe deeply.[102]Upon his retirement, he told many friends he
planned to return to Australia, visit his relatives, and commit suicide; he was terrified of
becoming old, senile, and a burden on society, and suspected he had cancer.[103] Subsequent
commentators suggested that a core reason for his suicidal desires was a loss of faith in
Marxism following the Hungarian Revolution and Nikita Khrushchev's denouncement of
Joseph Stalin,[104] although Bruce Trigger dismissed this explanation, noting that while
Childe was critical of Soviet foreign policy, he never saw the state and Marxism as
synonymous.[105]
A view of Grose Valley from Govetts Leap, the site where Childe chose to end his life
Sorting out his affairs, Childe donated most of his library and all of his estate to the
institute.[106] After a February 1957 holiday visiting archaeological sites in Gibraltar and
Spain, he sailed to Australia, reaching Sydney on his 65th birthday. Here, the University of
Sydney, which had once barred him from working there, awarded him an honorary
degree.[107] He travelled around the country for six months, visiting family members and old
friends, but was unimpressed by Australian society, believing it reactionary, increasingly
suburban, and poorly educated.[108] Looking into Australian prehistory, he found it a
profitable field for research, [109] and lectured to archaeological and leftist groups on this and
other topics, taking to Australian radio to criticise academic racism towards Indigenous
Australians.[110]
Writing personal letters to many friends,[111] he sent one to Grimes, requesting that it not be
opened until 1968. In it, he described how he feared old age and stated his intention to take
his own life, remarking that "life ends best when one is happy and strong." [112] On 19
October 1957, Childe went to the area of Govett's Leap in Blackheath, an area of the Blue
Mountains where he had grown up. Leaving his hat, spectacles, compass, pipe,
and Mackintosh raincoat on the cliffs, he fell 1000 feet (300 m) to his death. [113] A coroner
ruled his death as accidental, but his death was recognised as suicide when his letter to
Grimes was published in the 1980s.[114] His remains were cremated at the Northern Suburbs
Crematorium, and his name added to a small family plaque in the Crematorium
Gardens.[115] Following his death, an "unprecedented" level of tributes and memorials were
issued by the archaeological community,[116] all, according to Ruth Tringham, testifying to
his status as Europe's "greatest prehistorian and a wonderful human being".[117]
Archaeological theory[edit]
"By far the most important source [of Childe's thinking], especially in the early stages of his career, was the highly
developed western European archaeology, which had been established as a scientific discipline for over a century.
His research and publications took the form mainly of contributions to the development of that tradition. His
thinking was also influenced, however, by ideas derived from Soviet archaeology and American anthropology as
well as from more remote disciplines. He had a subsidiary interest in philosophy and politics, and was more
concerned than were most archaeologists of his time with justifying the social value of archaeology."
— Bruce Trigger, 1980.[118]
The biographer Sally Green noted that Childe's beliefs were "never dogmatic, always
idiosyncratic" and "continually changing throughout his life".[119] His theoretical
approach blended together Marxism, diffusionism, and functionalism.[120] Childe was critical
of the evolutionary archaeology dominant during the nineteenth century. He believed
archaeologists who adhered to it placed a greater emphasis on artefacts than on the humans
who had made them.[121] Like most archaeologists in Western Europe and the United States
at the time, Childe did not regard humans as naturally inventive or inclined to change; thus,
he tended to perceive social change in terms of diffusion and migration rather than internal
development or cultural evolution.[122]
During the decades in which Childe was working, most archaeologists adhered to the three-
age system first developed by the Danish antiquarian Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. This
system rested upon an evolutionary chronology that divided prehistory into the Stone
Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age, but Childe highlighted that many of the world's societies
were still effectively Stone Age in their technology. [123] He nevertheless saw it as a useful
model for analysing socio-economic development when combined with a Marxist
framework.[124] He therefore used technological criteria for dividing up prehistory into three
ages, but instead used economic criteria for sub-dividing the Stone Age into
the Palaeolithic and Neolithic, rejecting the concept of the Mesolithic as
useless.[125] Informally, he adopted the division of past societies into the framework of
"savagery", "barbarism", and "civilisation" that Engels had employed.[122]
Culture-historical archaeology[edit]
In the early part of his career, Childe was a proponent of the culture-historical approach to
archaeology, coming to be seen as one of its "founders and chief exponents".[126] Culture-
historical archaeology revolved around the concept of "culture", which it had adopted from
anthropology. This was "a major turning point in the history of the discipline", allowing
archaeologists to look at the past through a spatial dynamic rather than a temporal
one.[127] Childe adopted the concept of "culture" from the German philologist and
archaeologist Gustaf Kossinna, although this influence might have been mediated
through Leon Kozłowski, a Polish archaeologist who had adopted Kossina's ideas and who
had a close association with Childe.[128] Trigger expressed the view that while adopting
Kossina's basic concept, Childe displayed "no awareness" of the "racist connotations"
Kossina had given it.[128]
Childe's adherence to the culture-historical model is apparent in three of his books—The
Dawn of European Civilisation (1925), The Aryans (1926) and The Most Ancient
East (1928)—but in none of these does he define what he means by "culture".[129] Only later,
in The Danube in Prehistory (1929), did Childe give "culture" a specifically archaeological
definition.[130] In this book, he defined a "culture" as a set of "regularly associated traits" in
the material culture—i.e. "pots, implements, ornaments, burial rites, house forms"—that
recur across a given area. He said that in this respect a "culture" was the archaeological
equivalent of a "people". Childe's use of the term was non-racial; he considered a "people"
to be a social grouping, not a biological race.[131] He opposed the equation of archaeological
cultures with biological races—as various nationalists across Europe were doing at the
time—and vociferously criticised Nazi uses of archaeology, arguing that the Jewish people
were not a distinct biological race but a socio-cultural grouping.[132] In 1935, he suggested
that culture worked as a "living functioning organism" and emphasised the adaptive
potential of material culture; in this he was influenced by
anthropological functionalism.[133] Childe accepted that archaeologists defined "cultures"
based on a subjective selection of material criteria; this view was later widely adopted by
archaeologists like Colin Renfrew.[134]
Later in his career, Childe tired of culture-historical archaeology.[122] By the late 1940s he
was questioning the utility of "culture" as an archaeological concept and thus the basic
validity of the culture-historical approach.[135] McNairn suggested that this was because the
term "culture" had become popular across the social sciences in reference to all learned
modes of behaviour, and not just material culture as Childe had done.[136] By the 1940s,
Childe was doubtful as to whether a certain archaeological assemblage or "culture" really
reflected a social group who had other unifying traits, such as a shared language. [137] In the
1950s, Childe was comparing the role culture-historical archaeology had among
prehistorians to the place of the traditional politico-military approach among historians.[122]
Marxist archaeology[edit]
"To me Marxism means effectively a way of approach to and a methodological device for the interpretation of
historical and archaeological material and I accept it because and in so far as it works. To the average communist
and anti-communist alike ... Marxism means a set of dogmas—the words of the master from which as among
mediaeval schoolmen, one must deduce truths which the scientist hopes to infer from experiment and
observation."
— Gordon Childe, in letter to Rajani Palme Dutt, 1938.[138]
Childe has typically been seen as a Marxist archaeologist, being the first archaeologist in
the West to use Marxist theory in his work.[139] Marxist archaeology emerged in the Soviet
Union in 1929, when the archaeologist Vladislav I. Ravdonikas published a report titled
"For a Soviet History of Material Culture". Criticising the archaeological discipline as
inherently bourgeois and therefore anti-socialist, Ravdonikas's report called for a pro-
socialist, Marxist approach to archaeology as part of the academic reforms instituted
under Joseph Stalin's rule.[140] It was during the mid-1930s, around the time of his first visit
to the Soviet Union, that Childe began to make explicit reference to Marxism in his
work.[141]
Many archaeologists have been profoundly influenced by Marxism's socio-political
ideas.[142] As a materialistphilosophy, Marxism emphasises the idea that material things are
more important than ideas, and that the social conditions of a given period are the result of
the existing material conditions, or mode of production.[143] Thus, a Marxist interpretation
foregrounds the social context of any technological development or change.[144] Marxist
ideas also emphasise the biased nature of scholarship, each scholar having their own
entrenched beliefs and class loyalties;[145] Marxism thus argues that intellectuals cannot
divorce their scholarly thinking from political action. [146] Green said that Childe accepted
"Marxist views on a model of the past" because they offer "a structural analysis of culture
in terms of economy, sociology and ideology, and a principle for cultural change through
economy".[119] McNairn noted that Marxism was "a major intellectual force in Childe's
thought",[147] while Trigger said Childe identified with Marx's theories "both emotionally
and intellectually".[148]
Childe said he used Marxist ideas when interpreting the past "because and in so far as
it works"; he criticised many fellow Marxists for treating the socio-political theory as a set
of dogmas.[138] Childe's Marxism often differed from the Marxism of his contemporaries,
both because he made reference to the original texts of Hegel, Marx, and Engels rather than
later interpretations and because he was selective in using their writings. [119] McNairn
considered Childe's Marxism "an individual interpretation" that differed from "popular or
orthodox" Marxism;[149] Trigger called him a "a creative Marxist thinker";[150] Gathercole
thought that while Childe's "debt to Marx was quite evident", his "attitude to Marxism was
at times ambivalent".[151] The Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm later described Childe as
"the most original English Marxist writer from the days of my youth".[152] Aware that in the
context of the Cold War his affiliation with Marxism could prove dangerous for him,
Childe sought to make his Marxist ideas more palatable to his readership.[153] In his
archaeological writings, he sparingly made direct reference to Marx.[141] There is a
distinction in his published works from the latter part of his life between those that are
explicitly Marxist and those in which Marxist ideas and influences are less
obvious.[153] Many of Childe's fellow British archaeologists did not take his adherence to
Marxism seriously, regarding it as something which he did for shock value.[154]
"The Marxist view of history and prehistory is admittedly material determinist and materialist. But its determinism
does not mean mechanism. The Marxist account is in fact termed 'dialectical materialism'. It is deterministic in as
much as it assumes that the historical process is not a mere succession of inexplicable or miraculous happenings,
but that all the constituent events are interrelated and form an intelligible pattern."
— Gordon Childe, 1979 [1949].[155]
Childe was influenced by Soviet archaeology but remained critical of it, disapproving of
how the Soviet government encouraged the country's archaeologists to assume their
conclusions before analysing their data.[156] He was also critical of what he saw as the sloppy
approach to typology in Soviet archaeology.[157] As a moderate diffusionist, Childe was
heavily critical of the "Marrist" trend in Soviet archaeology, based on the theories of the
Georgian philologist Nicholas Marr, which rejected diffusionism in favour of unilinear
evolutionism.[158] In his view, it "cannot be un-Marxian" to understand the spread of
domesticated plants, animals, and ideas through diffusionism.[157] Childe did not publicly air
these criticisms of his Soviet colleagues, perhaps so as not to offend communist friends or
to provide ammunition for right-wing archaeologists.[159] Instead, he publicly praised the
Soviet system of archaeology and heritage management, contrasting it favourably with
Britain's because it encouraged collaboration rather than competition between
archaeologists.[160] After first visiting the country in 1935, he returned in 1945, 1953, and
1956, befriending many Soviet archaeologists, but shortly before his suicide sent a letter to
the Soviet archaeological community saying he was "extremely disappointed" they had
methodologically fallen behind Western Europe and North America. [161]
Other Marxists—such as George Derwent Thomson[162] and Neil Faulkner[163]—argued that
Childe's archaeological work was not truly Marxist because he failed to take into
account class struggle as an instrument of social change, a core tenet of Marxist
thought.[164] While class struggle was not a factor Childe considered in his archaeological
work, he accepted that historians and archaeologists typically interpreted the past through
their own class interests, arguing that most of his contemporaries produced studies with an
innate bourgeois agenda.[165] Childe further diverged from orthodox Marxism by not
employing dialectics in his methodology.[166]He also denied Marxism's ability to predict the
future development of human society, and—unlike many other Marxists—did not consider
humanity's progress into pure communism inevitable, instead opining that society could
fossilize or become extinct.[167]
Neolithic and Urban Revolutions[edit]
Influenced by Marxism, Childe argued that society experienced widescale changes in
relatively short periods of time,[168] citing the Industrial Revolution as a modern
example.[169] This idea was absent from his earliest work; in studies like The Dawn of
European Civilisation he talked of societal change as "transition" rather than
"revolution".[170] In writings from the early 1930s, such as New Light on the Most Ancient
East, he began to describe social change using the term "revolution", although had yet to
fully develop these ideas.[171] At this point, the term "revolution" had gained Marxist
associations due to Russia's October Revolution of 1917.[172] Childe introduced his ideas
about "revolutions" in a 1935 presidential address to the Prehistoric Society. Presenting this
concept as part of his functional-economic interpretation of the three-age system, he argued
that a "Neolithic Revolution" initiated the Neolithic era, and that other revolutions marked
the start of the Bronze and Iron Ages.[173]The following year, in Man Makes Himself, he
combined these Bronze and Iron Age Revolutions into a singular "Urban Revolution",
which corresponded largely to the anthropologist Lewis H. Morgan's concept of
"civilization".[174]
For Childe, the Neolithic Revolution was a period of radical change, in which humans—
who were then hunter-gatherers—began cultivating plants and breeding animals for food,
allowing for greater control of the food supply and population growth. [175] He believed the
Urban Revolution was largely caused by the development of bronze metallurgy, and in a
1950 paper proposed ten traits that he believed were present in the oldest cities: they were
larger than earlier settlements, they contained full-time craft specialists, the surplus was
collected together and given to a god or king, they witnessed monumental architecture,
there was an unequal distribution of social surplus, writing was invented, the sciences
developed, naturalistic art developed, trade with foreign areas increased, and the state
organisation was based on residence rather than kinship.[176] Childe believed the Urban
Revolution had a negative side, in that it led to increased social stratification into classes
and oppression of the majority by a power elite. [177] Not all archaeologists adopted Childe's
framework of understanding human societal development as a series of transformational
"revolutions"; many believed the term "revolution" was misleading because the processes
of agricultural and urban development were gradual transformations.[178]
Influence on processual and post-processual archaeology[edit]
Through his work, Childe contributed to two of the major theoretical movements in Anglo-
American archaeology that developed in the decades after his
death, processualism and post-processualism. The former emerged in the late 1950s,
emphasised the idea that archaeology should be a branch of anthropology, sought the
discovery of universal laws about society, and believed that archaeology could ascertain
objective information about the past. The latter emerged as a reaction to processualism in
the late 1970s, rejecting the idea that archaeology had access to objective information about
the past and emphasising the subjectivity of all interpretation.[179]
The processual archaeologist Colin Renfrew described Childe as "one of the fathers of
processual thought" due to his "development of economic and social themes in
prehistory",[180] an idea echoed by Faulkner.[181] Trigger argued that Childe's work
foreshadowed processual thought in two ways: by emphasising the role of change in
societal development, and by adhering to a strictly materialist view of the past. Both of
these arose from Childe's Marxism.[182] Despite this connection, most American
processualists ignored Childe's work, seeing him as a particularist who was irrelevant to
their search for generalised laws of societal behaviour.[183] In keeping with Marxist thought,
Childe did not agree that such generalised laws exist, believing behaviour is not universal
but conditioned by socio-economic factors.[184] Peter Ucko, one of Childe's successors as
director of the Institute of Archaeology, highlighted that Childe accepted the subjectivity of
archaeological interpretation, something in stark contrast to the processualists' insistence
that archaeological interpretation could be objective. [185] As a result, Trigger thought Childe
to be a "prototypical post-processual archaeologist".[179]
Personal life[edit]
The bronze bust of Childe by Marjorie Maitland Howard[186] has been kept in the library of the Institute of
Archaeology since 1958.[187] Childe thought it made him look like a Neanderthal.[188]
Childe's biographer Sally Green found no evidence that Childe ever had a serious intimate
relationship; she assumed he was heterosexual because she found no evidence of same-sex
attraction.[189] Conversely, his student Don Brothwell thought him to be homosexual.[190] He
had many friends of both sexes, although he remained "awkward and uncouth, without any
social graces".[189] Despite his difficulties in relating to others, he enjoyed interacting and
socialising with his students, often inviting them to dine with him.[191] He was shy and often
hid his personal feelings.[192] Brothwell suggested that these personality traits may reflect
undiagnosed Asperger syndrome.[190]
Childe believed the study of the past could offer guidance for how humans should act in the
present and future.[193] He was known for his radical left-wing views,[154] being a socialist
from his undergraduate days.[194] He sat on the committees of several left-wing groups,
although avoided involvement in Marxist intellectual arguments within the Communist
Party and—with the exception of How Labour Governs—did not commit his non-
archaeological opinions to print.[195] Many of his political views are therefore evident only
through comments made in private correspondence. [195] Renfrew noted that Childe was
liberal-minded on social issues, but thought that—although Childe deplored racism—he did
not entirely escape the pervasive nineteenth-century view on distinct differences between
different races.[196] Trigger similarly observed racist elements in some of Childe's culture-
historical writings, including the suggestion that Nordic peoples had a "superiority in
physique", although Childe later disavowed these ideas.[197] In a private letter Childe wrote
to the archaeologist Christopher Hawkes, he said he disliked Jews.[198]
Childe was an atheist and critic of religion, viewing it as a false consciousness based in
superstition that served the interests of dominant elites.[199] In History (1947) he commented
that "magic is a way of making people believe they are going to get what they want,
whereas religion is a system for persuading them that they ought to want what they
get."[200] He nevertheless regarded Christianity as being superior over (what he regarded as)
primitive religion, commenting that "Christianity as a religion of love surpasses all others
in stimulating positive virtue."[201] In a letter written during the 1930s, he said that "only in
days of exceptional bad temper do I desire to hurt people's religious convictions."[202]
Childe was fond of driving cars, enjoying the "feeling of power" he got from them. [203] He
often told a story about how he had raced at high speed down Piccadilly, London, at three
in the morning for the sheer enjoyment of it, only to be pulled over by a policeman.[204] He
loved practical jokes, and allegedly kept a halfpenny in his pocket to trick pickpockets. On
one occasion he played a joke on the delegates at a Prehistoric Society conference by
lecturing them on a theory that the Neolithic monument of Woodhenge had been
constructed as an imitation of Stonehenge by a nouveau riche chieftain. Some audience
members failed to realise he was being tongue in cheek.[205] He could speak several
European languages, having taught himself in early life when he was travelling across the
continent.[206]
Childe's other hobbies included walking in the British hillsides, attending classical
music concerts, and playing the card game contract bridge.[204] He was fond of poetry; his
favourite poet was John Keats, and his favourite poems were William Wordsworth's "Ode
to Duty" and Robert Browning's "A Grammarian's Funeral".[204] He was not particularly
interested in reading novels, but his favourite was D. H. Lawrence's Kangaroo (1923), a
book echoing many of Childe's own feelings about Australia. [204] He was a fan of good
quality food and drink, and frequented restaurants.[207] Known for his battered, tatty attire,
Childe always wore his wide-brimmed black hat—purchased from a hatter in Jermyn
Street, central London—as well as a tie, which was usually red, a colour chosen to
symbolise his socialist beliefs. He regularly wore a black Mackintosh raincoat, often
carrying it over his arm or draped over his shoulders like a cape. In summer he frequently
wore shorts with socks, sock suspenders, and large boots.[208]
Legacy and influence[edit]

On his death, Childe was praised by his colleague Stuart Piggott as "the greatest
prehistorian in Britain and probably the world".[116] The archaeologist Randall H.
McGuirelater described him as "probably the best known and most cited archaeologist of
the twentieth century",[139] an idea echoed by Bruce Trigger,[192] while Barbara McNairn
labelled him "one of the most outstanding and influential figures in the discipline".[209] The
archaeologist Andrew Sherratt described Childe as occupying "a crucial position in the
history" of archaeology.[210] Sherratt also noted that "Childe's output, by any standard, was
massive."[210] Over the course of his career, Childe published more than twenty books and
around 240 scholarly articles.[210] The archaeologist Brian Fagan described his books as
"simple, well-written narratives" which became "archaeological canon between the 1930s
and early 1960s".[58] By 1956, he was cited as the most translated Australian author in
history, having seen his books published in such languages as Chinese, Czech, Dutch,
French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Sweden and
Turkish.[116] The archaeologists David Lewis-Williams and David Pearce considered Childe
"probably the most written about" archaeologist in history, commenting that his books were
still "required reading" for those in the discipline in 2005.[211]
"The most original and useful contributions that I may have made to prehistory are certainly not novel data
rescued by brilliant excavation from the soil or by patient research from dusty museum cases, nor yet well founded
chronological schemes nor freshly defined cultures, but rather interpretative concepts and methods of
explanation."
— Gordon Childe, 1958.[14]
Known as "the Great Synthesizer",[180] Childe is primarily respected for developing a

synthesis of European and Near Eastern prehistory at a time when most archaeologists
focused on regional sites and sequences.[212] Since his death, this framework has been
heavily revised following the discovery of radiocarbon dating,[213] his interpretations have
been "largely rejected",[214] and many of his conclusions about Neolithic and Bronze Age
Europe have been found to be incorrect.[215] Childe himself believed his primary contribution
to archaeology was in his interpretative frameworks, an analysis supported by Alison
Ravetz and Peter Gathercole.[216] According to Sherratt: "What is of lasting value in his
interpretations is the more detailed level of writing, concerned with the recognition of
patterns in the material he described. It is these patterns which survive as classic problems
of European prehistory, even when his explanations of them are recognised as
inappropriate."[217] Childe's theoretical work had been largely ignored in his lifetime,[218]and
remained forgotten in the decades after his death, although it would see a resurgence in the
late 1990s and early 2000s.[219] It remained best known in Latin America, where Marxism
remained a core theoretical current among archaeologists throughout the latter 20th
century.[220]
Despite his global influence, Childe's work was poorly understood in the United States,
where his work on European prehistory never became well known.[221] As a result, in the
United States he erroneously gained the reputation of being a Near Eastern specialist and a
founder of neo-evolutionism, alongside Julian Steward and Leslie White,[222] despite the fact
that his approach was "more subtle and nuanced" than theirs.[223] Steward repeatedly
misrepresented Childe as a unilinear evolutionist in his writings, perhaps as part of an
attempt to distinguish his own "multilinear" evolutionary approach from the ideas of Marx
and Engels.[224] In contrast to this American neglect and misrepresentation, Trigger believed
it was an American archaeologist, Robert McCormick Adams, Jr., who did the most to
posthumously develop Childe's "most innovative ideas".[219] Childe also had a small
following of American archaeologists and anthropologists in the 1940s who wanted to
bring back materialist and Marxist ideas into their research after years in
which Boasian particularism had been dominant within the discipline.[225] In the U.S., his
name was also referenced in the 2008 blockbuster film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of
the Crystal Skull.[226]
Academic conferences and publications[edit]
"While he may not have provided answers that modern archaeologists find satisfactory, [Childe] challenged
colleagues of his own and succeeding decades by constructing a vision of archaeology that was as broad as that of
other social sciences, but which also took account of the particular strengths and limitations of archaeological
data."
— Bruce Trigger, 1994[179]
Following his death, several articles examining Childe's impact on archaeology were
published.[116] In 1980, Bruce Trigger's Gordon Childe: Revolutions in
Archaeology appeared, which studied the influences that extended over Childe's
archaeological thought;[227] the same year saw the publication of Barbara McNairn's The
Method and Theory of V. Gordon Childe, examining his methodological and theoretical
approaches to archaeology.[228] The following year, Sally Green published Prehistorian: A
Biography of V. Gordon Childe, in which she described him as "the most eminent and
influential scholar of European prehistory in the twentieth century".[229] Peter Gathercole
thought the work of Trigger, McNairn, and Green was "extremely important";[179] Tringham
considered it all part of a "let's-get-to-know-Childe-better" movement.[230]
In July 1986, a colloquium devoted to Childe's work was held in Mexico City, marking the
50th anniversary of Man Makes Himself's publication.[220] In September 1990, the University
of Queensland's Australian Studies Centre organised a centenary conference for Childe
in Brisbane, with presentations examining both his scholarly and his socialist work.[231] In
May 1992, a conference marking his centenary was held at the UCL Institute of
Archaeologyin London, co-sponsored by the Institute and the Prehistoric Society, both
organisations he had formerly headed. [187] The conference proceedings were published in a
1994 volume edited by David R. Harris, the Institute's director, entitled The Archaeology of
V. Gordon Childe: Contemporary Perspectives. Harris said the book sought to
"demonstrate the dynamic qualities of Childe's thought, the breadth and depth of his
scholarship, and the continuing relevance of his work to contemporary issues in
archaeology".[232] In 1995, another conference collection was published. Titled Childe and
Australia: Archaeology, Politics and Ideas, it was edited by Peter Gathercole, T.H. Irving,
and Gregory Melleuish.[233] Further papers appeared on the subject of Childe in ensuing
years, looking at such subjects as his personal correspondences,[234]and final resting place.[235]
Selected publications[edit]
Scholia has
an author profile for V.
Gordon Childe.
Title Year Publisher
The Most Ancient East 1922, 1928 Kegan Paul (London)
How Labour Governs: A Study of The Labour Publishing Company

1923
Workers' Representation in Australia (London)
The Dawn of European Civilization 1925 Kegan Paul (London)
The Aryans: A Study of Indo-European

1926 Kegan Paul (London)
Origins
The Most Ancient East: The Oriental

1929 Kegan Paul (London)
Prelude to European Prehistory
The Danube in Prehistory 1929 Oxford University Press (Oxford)
Cambridge University Press

The Bronze Age 1930
(Cambridge)
Skara Brae: A Pictish Village in Orkney 1931 Kegan Paul (London)
The Forest Cultures of Northern

Royal Anthropological Institute of
Europe: A Study in Evolution and 1931
Great Britain and Ireland (London)
Diffusion
The Continental Affinities of British Royal Anthropological Institute of

1932
Neolithic Pottery Great Britain and Ireland (London)
1933 Second His Majesty's Stationery Office

Skara Brae Orkney. Official Guide
Edition 1950 (Edinburgh)
New Light on the Most Ancient East:

The Oriental Prelude to European 1935 Kegal Paul (London)
Prehistory
The Prehistory of Scotland 1935 Kegan Paul (London)
1936, slightly
Man Makes Himself Watts (London)
revised 1941, 1951
Prehistoric Communities of the British 1940, second

Chambers (London)
Isles edition 1947
What Happened in History 1942 Penguin Books (Harmondsworth)
The Story of Tools 1944 Cobbett (London)
Progress and Archaeology 1944 Watts (London)
History 1947 Cobbett (London)
Social Worlds of Knowledge 1949 Oxford University Press (London)
Prehistoric Migrations in Europe 1950 Aschehaug (Oslo)
Liverpool University Press

Magic, Craftsmanship and Science 1950
(Liverpool)
Social Evolution 1951 Schuman (New York)

Illustrated Guide to Ancient Her Majesty's Stationery Office

1952
Monuments: Vol. VI Scotland (London)
Society and Knowledge: The Growth of

1956 Harper (New York)
Human Traditions
Piecing Together the Past: The

1956 Routledge and Kegan Paul (London)
Interpretation of Archeological Data
A Short Introduction to Archaeology 1956 Muller (London)
The Prehistory of European Society 1958 Penguin (Harmondsworth)
References[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
1. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 9; Green 1981, p. 1.
2. ^ Green 1981, p. 1.
3. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 32; Green 1981, pp. 3–4.
4. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 32; Green 1981, p. 4.
5. ^ "Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald (15, 187).
New South Wales, Australia. 29 November 1886. p. 1.
Retrieved 31 December 2021 – via National Library of
Australia.
6. ^ Jump up to: a b Green 1981, p. 5.
7. ^ Green 1981, p. 7.
8. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 32; Green 1981, p. 8.
9. ^ Jump up to: a b Green 1981, pp. 8–9.
10. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 32; Green 1981, p. 9.
11. ^ Green 1981, p. 10.
12. ^ Mulvaney 1994, p. 56.
13. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 9, 32; Green 1981, pp. 9–11.
14. ^ Jump up to: a b Childe 1958, p. 69.
15. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 32; Green 1981, pp. 12–13; Champion
2009, pp. 12–13, 19–20.
2009, p. 20.
2009, pp. 20, 21.
19. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 9, 33; Green 1981, pp. 18–19.
21. ^ Green 1981, pp. 22–24; Champion 2009, pp. 26–27.
22. ^ Champion 2009, pp. 27–28.
23. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 33; Green 1981, pp. 26–27; Mulvaney
1994, p. 57.
24. ^ Mulvaney 1994, p. 57.
25. ^ Green 1981, pp. 27–28; Mulvaney 1994, p. 59.
26. ^ Green 1981, pp. 29–30; Mulvaney 1994, p. 61.
27. ^ Mulvaney 1994, p. 61.
1994, p. 63; Evans 1995, pp. 7–15.
1994, p. 66.
30. ^ Jump up to: a b Green 1981, pp. 35–36.
1994, p. 55.
32. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 9; Green 1981, p. 40.
33. ^ Playford 1963, pp. 57–59; Green 1981, p. 41.
34. ^ Childe 1923.
35. ^ Green 1981, pp. 43–44.
36. ^ Green 1981, p. 44.
37. ^ Green 1981, p. 45.
38. ^ Green 1981, pp. 45–46.
39. ^ Childe 1964, p. 181.
41. ^ Green 1981, pp. 46–47.
42. ^ Irving 1995, pp. 82–94.
43. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 35–36; Green 1981, pp. 48–49.
44. ^ Green 1981, pp. 49–50; Hauser 2008, pp. 110, 172.
45. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 37–40; Green 1981, pp. 51–52; Trigger
2007, pp. 242–245.
46. ^ Childe 1958, p. 70.
47. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 37–40; McNairn 1980, pp. 12–14; Green
1981, p. 53.
48. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 44–49; McNairn 1980, p. 7; Green 1981,
pp. 52–53.
49. ^ Childe 1942, p. 150.
50. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 60–61; Green 1981, pp. 56–57; Richards
1995, p. 118.
51. ^ Green 1981, pp. 58–59.
52. ^ Green 1981, pp. 59–60.
53. ^ Green 1981, pp. 72–73.
54. ^ Green 1981, pp. 61–62.
56. ^ Green 1981, pp. 62–63.
57. ^ Green 1981, pp. 73–74.
58. ^ Jump up to: a b Fagan 2001, p. 178.
59. ^ Green 1981, pp. 93–94; Fagan 2001, pp. 62–63.
60. ^ Fagan 2001, p. 63.
61. ^ Green 1981, pp. 76–77; Trigger 1994, pp. 17, 20; Klein
1994, p. 76.
63. ^ Green 1981, p. 87; Pearce 1995, p. 131.
64. ^ Green 1981, p. 86.
65. ^ Pearce 1988, p. 418.
66. ^ Pearce 1988, p. 418; Pearce 1995, pp. 130, 132.
67. ^ Green 1981, p. 64.
68. ^ Green 1981, p. 66.
69. ^ Green 1981, pp. 68–71; Richards 1995, pp. 119–122.
70. ^ Green 1981, p. 69.
71. ^ Green 1981, pp. 66–67.
72. ^ Green 1981, p. 68.
73. ^ Green 1981, p. 63.
74. ^ Richards 1995, pp. 123–125.
1981, p. 90.
77. ^ Childe 1929, pp. v–vi; Johnson 2010, p. 17.
1981, p. 92.
79. ^ McNairn 1980, pp. 26–27; Green 1981, p. 93.
80. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 83–87, 104–110; McNairn 1980, pp. 27–
30; Green 1981, pp. 96–97.
81. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 83–87; Green 1981, p. 97.
82. ^ Green 1981, pp. 97–98.
83. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 110–114; McNairn 1980, pp. 33–
38; Green 1981, pp. 97–98.
84. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 114–117, 151; Green 1981, pp. 99–100.
85. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 125; Green 1981, p. 105.
86. ^ Green 1981, pp. 117–118.
87. ^ Green 1981, p. 106.
88. ^ Green 1981, pp. 107–108.
89. ^ Green 1981, pp. 110–111.
90. ^ Green 1981, p. 113.
91. ^ Green 1981, p. 112; Richards 1995, p. 125.
92. ^ Green 1981, p. 118.
93. ^ Green 1981, pp. 119–120; Sherratt 1989, p. 157; Pearce
1995, p. 141.
94. ^ Green 1981, pp. 119–120.
95. ^ Green 1981, p. 121.
97. ^ Green 1981, pp. 142–143.
98. ^ Pearce 1988, p. 418; Pearce 1995, p. 133.
99. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 154–155; Green 1981, pp. 127, 130.
100. ^ Green 1981, p. 129.
101. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 166; Green 1981, p. 126.
103. ^ Green 1981, pp. 143–144.
104. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 166–167; Faulkner 2007, p. 115.
105. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 167.
106. ^ Green 1981, p. 144; Barton 2000, p. 769.
108. ^ Green 1981, p. 147.
109. ^ Green 1981, p. 149.
110. ^ Green 1981, pp. 150–151.
111. ^ Green 1981, pp. 151–152.
112. ^ Green 1981, pp. 152–154.
113. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 166; Green 1981, p. 154.
114. ^ Green 1981, p. 154; Barton 2000, p. 769.
115. ^ Barton 2000, pp. 769–770.
116. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Trigger 1980, p. 11.
117. ^ Tringham 1983, p. 85.
118. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 12–13.
119. ^ Jump up to: a b c Green 1981, p. 79.
120. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 166.
121. ^ Trigger 2007, p. 247.
123. ^ McNairn 1980, pp. 77–78.
124. ^ McNairn 1980, pp. 78–79.
125. ^ McNairn 1980, pp. 81–82.
126. ^ Trigger 1994, pp. 11, 24.
127. ^ McNairn 1980, pp. 47–48.
128. ^ Jump up to: a b Trigger 2007, p. 243.
129. ^ McNairn 1980, pp. 48–49.
130. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 46.
131. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 50; Harris 1994, p. 3.
132. ^ McNairn 1980, pp. 49–51; Trigger 1984, pp. 6–7.
133. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 53; Pearce 1988, p. 423.
134. ^ McNairn 1980, pp. 60–61.
135. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 59; Harris 1994, p. 4.
136. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 59.
137. ^ Johnson 2010, p. 22.
138. ^ Jump up to: a b Gathercole 1995, p. 97.
139. ^ Jump up to: a b McGuire 1992, p. 69.
140. ^ Trigger 2007, pp. 326–340.
141. ^ Jump up to: a b Gathercole 2009, p. 183.
142. ^ Johnson 2010, p. 95.
143. ^ Trigger 2007, p. 332; Johnson 2010, p. 95.
144. ^ Trigger 2007, p. 332.
145. ^ Trigger 2007, p. 334.
146. ^ Johnson 2010, p. 96.
147. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 150.
148. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 169.
149. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 66.
150. ^ Trigger 1984, p. 11.
151. ^ Gathercole 1971, p. 230.
152. ^ Hobsbawm 2008.
153. ^ Jump up to: a b Pearce 1988, p. 421.
155. ^ Childe 1979, p. 93.
156. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 177; Trigger 1984, p. 6; Trigger 1994,
p. 18; Gathercole 2009, p. 185.
158. ^ McNairn 1980, pp. 157, 166; Trigger 1984, p. 7; Trigger
1994, p. 18.
159. ^ Trigger 1984, p. 9; Trigger 1994, pp. 19, 31–32.
160. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 164.
161. ^ Klein 1994, pp. 76, 80–87.
162. ^ Thomson 1949.
163. ^ Faulkner 2007, pp. 97–101.
164. ^ Allen 1967, p. 58; Trigger 1980, p. 175.
165. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 160.
166. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 134.
167. ^ McNairn 1980, pp. 127, 159; Trigger 1984, p. 10; Trigger
1994, p. 21.
168. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 91.
169. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 91; Trigger 1984, p. 3; Greene 1999,
p. 99.
170. ^ Greene 1999, p. 97.
171. ^ Greene 1999, p. 98.
172. ^ Greene 1999, p. 101.
173. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 91; Greene 1999, p. 98.
174. ^ McNairn 1980, pp. 91–92.
175. ^ McNairn 1980, pp. 92–95.
176. ^ Childe 1950, pp. 9–16; McNairn 1980, pp. 98–102.
177. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 103.
178. ^ Maddock 1995, p. 114.
180. ^ Jump up to: a b Renfrew 1994, p. 123.
181. ^ Faulkner 2007, p. 100.
182. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 181.
183. ^ Tringham 1983, p. 93.
184. ^ Tringham 1983, p. 94.
185. ^ Ucko 1990, p. xiii.
186. ^ Pye 2015, p. 132.
187. ^ Jump up to: a b Harris 1994, p. vii.
188. ^ Green 1981, p. 110.
190. ^ Jump up to: a b Brothwell 2009, p. 199.
191. ^ Green 1981, p. 72.
193. ^ Rowlands 1994, p. 35.
194. ^ Trigger 1994, p. 17.
196. ^ Renfrew 1994, p. 130.
197. ^ Trigger 2007, p. 248.
198. ^ Stout 2008, p. 240.
199. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 117; Trigger 1994, p. 22; Stout 2008,
p. 116.
200. ^ Childe 1947, p. 37.
201. ^ Stout 2008, p. 116.
202. ^ Díaz-Andreu 2009, p. 98.
203. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 18; Green 1981, p. 72.
204. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Green 1981, p. 73.
206. ^ Green 1981, pp. 124–125.
207. ^ Green 1981, p. 117.
208. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 18; Green 1981, p. 76.
209. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 1.
210. ^ Jump up to: a b c Sherratt 1989, p. 125.
211. ^ Lewis-Williams & Pearce 2005, p. 19.
212. ^ Harris 1994, p. 1.
213. ^ Tringham 1983, p. 87; Harris 1994, p. 2.
214. ^ Trigger 1994, p. 10.
215. ^ Sherratt 1989, p. 153; Sherratt 1990, p. 8.
216. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 13.
217. ^ Sherratt 1990, p. 8.
218. ^ McNairn 1980, p. 3; Tringham 1983, p. 86.
219. ^ Jump up to: a b Trigger 2007, pp. 352–353.
220. ^ Jump up to: a b Flannery 1994, p. 102.
221. ^ Flannery 1994, p. 101.
222. ^ Trigger 1980, pp. 10–11; Harris 1994, p. 2.
223. ^ Trigger 1994, p. 19.
224. ^ Pearce 1988, p. 420.
225. ^ Pearce 1988, p. 422.
226. ^ Rose 2008.
227. ^ Trigger 1980, p. 12.
228. ^ McNairn 1980.
229. ^ Green 1981, p. xix.
230. ^ Tringham 1983, p. 87; Pearce 1988, p. 417.
231. ^ Beilharz 1991, p. 108.
232. ^ Harris 1994, p. 6.
233. ^ Gathercole, Irving & Melleuish 1995.
234. ^ Stevenson 2011.
235. ^ Barton 2000.
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Further reading[edit]
• Coningham, Robin; Manuel, Mark (2009). "Priest-Kings or Puritans?
Childe and Willing Subordination in the Indus" (PDF). European
Journal of Archaeology. 12 (1–3): 167–
180. doi:10.1177/1461957109339691. S2CID 55525465.
• Goody, Jack (2006). "Gordon Childe, the Urban Revolution, and the
Haute Cuisine: An Anthropo-Archaeological View of Modern
History". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 48 (3): 508–
519. doi:10.1017/s0010417506000211. JSTOR 3879435. S2CID 14494
1958.
• Harris, David (2009). "'A new Professor of a Somewhat Obscure
Subject': V. Gordon Childe at the London Institute of Archaeology,
1946–1956". European Journal of Archaeology. 12 (1–3): 123–
144. doi:10.1177/1461957109339697. S2CID 163133854.
• László, Attila (2009). "The Young Gordon Childe and Transylvanian
Archaeology: The Archaeological Correspondence Between Childe and
Ferenc László". European Journal of Archaeology. 12 (1–3): 35–
46. doi:10.1177/1461957109339700. S2CID 162679752.
• Ralston, Ian (2009). "Gordon Childe and Scottish Archaeology: The
Edinburgh Years 1927–1946". European Journal of
90. doi:10.1177/1461957109339702. S2CID 162288471.
• Smith, Michael E. (2009). "V. Gordon Childe and the Urban
Revolution: An Historical Perspective on a Revolution in Urban
Studies". The Town Planning Review. 80 (1): 3–
29. doi:10.3828/tpr.80.1.2a.
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V.

Childe in the 1930s

Born Vere Gordon Childe

Sydney, Colony of New South Wales

Died 19 October 1957 (aged 65)

Blackheath, New South Wales, Australia

The Queen's College, Oxford

Known for • Excavating Skara Brae

• Marxist archaeological theory

Vere Gordon Childe (14 April 1892 – 19 October 1957) was an

Wishing to continue his education, he gained a £200 Cooper Graduate Scholarship in

Childe's university position meant he was obliged to undertake archaeological excavations,

Legacy and influence[edit]

Known as "the Great Synthesizer",[180] Childe is primarily respected for developing a

The Most Ancient East 1922, 1928 Kegan Paul (London)

How Labour Governs: A Study of The Labour Publishing Company

The Dawn of European Civilization 1925 Kegan Paul (London)

The Aryans: A Study of Indo-European

The Most Ancient East: The Oriental

The Danube in Prehistory 1929 Oxford University Press (Oxford)

Cambridge University Press

Skara Brae: A Pictish Village in Orkney 1931 Kegan Paul (London)

The Forest Cultures of Northern

The Continental Affinities of British Royal Anthropological Institute of

1933 Second His Majesty's Stationery Office

New Light on the Most Ancient East:

The Prehistory of Scotland 1935 Kegan Paul (London)

Prehistoric Communities of the British 1940, second

What Happened in History 1942 Penguin Books (Harmondsworth)

The Story of Tools 1944 Cobbett (London)

Progress and Archaeology 1944 Watts (London)

History 1947 Cobbett (London)

Social Worlds of Knowledge 1949 Oxford University Press (London)

Prehistoric Migrations in Europe 1950 Aschehaug (Oslo)

Liverpool University Press

Social Evolution 1951 Schuman (New York)

Illustrated Guide to Ancient Her Majesty's Stationery Office

Society and Knowledge: The Growth of

Piecing Together the Past: The

A Short Introduction to Archaeology 1956 Muller (London)

The Prehistory of European Society 1958 Penguin (Harmondsworth)

• Integrated Authority File (Germany)

ases • CiNii (Japan)

• Social Networks and Archival Context

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