Archaeology Magazine - December 1952 - 60

assistants or collaborators. With it
should be read Tarn's Greeks in Bactria and India and the appositechapters
of the CambridgeAncient History and
CambridgeHistory of India.
Jotham Johnson
New York University

portant and significantcontribution,the
reader, nevertheless,should be advised
that the author has spread his subject
extremelythin in his attempt to include
Buddhist, Jain, Hindu and non-religious "folk" metal sculpture from the
first to the nineteenth century, and to
range as far afield as Nepal and Tibet
in a brief handbook. The chronology
Indian Metal Sculpture, by Chintaof
Nepalese Buddhist sculpture is exmoni Kar. viii, 46 pages, 61 plates.
uncertain, and on the whole
tremely
Alec Tiranti, London 1952 7s. 6d.
the images are inferior to the more
Any addition to the all too slim characteristicallyIndian work of Bihar.
bibliography on Indian metal images It is a matter of some surprise that the
is to be heartily welcomedat this time author should include
sculptures from
when at last the great mediaevalart of
and Tibet and comperipheral
Nepal
India, so long neglectedby western stuthe far more accomdents in favor of the earlier Buddhist pletely disregard
and significantmetal sculpture
plished
monuments,is coming into its own. A of Ceylon.Nor can brevity explain the
handbook,conceivedas an introduction omissionof at least one example of the
for the general reader, is especiallywelearly South Indian images that
come becausethe majority of works on very
lay reasonable claim to a
may
Indian metal sculpture are difficult to Chola, that is a Paliava, date. preImporobtain or are out of print, and many tant
of this kind are in the Maimages
are too specializedfor those who seek dras Museum, the Musée Guimet and
an introductory familiarity.
the Prince of Wales Museum, BomIn the present work the subject is
The greatest fault of this work is
treated within the broad geographical bay.
that it aims at covering far more madivisions of Northern India, the Dec- terial than any author could satisfaccan, and the Far South, or Tamil Land. torily condense.
Such a regional division is sound and
The need for a book of this kind is
correspondsto local variations in style, manifest and the author is to be consubject matter and presentation. Fol- gratulated on having accomplishedso
lowing a very condensedpolitical his- much within drastic limitations.It is to
tory of the three divisions,the author be hoped that the receptionof this prepresents a conciseessay on the Indian liminary answer to an ever-growing
aestheticcanon and on the iconographie demand will be such as to
justify more
positionsand gestures of the images as extensivepublications in which Indian
well as ideal proportions. (This latter
metal sculpture can be presented resection is unfortunately marred by gion by region- most especially
the imnumerouserrors in plate referencesand portant Hindu art of South Indiathe reader is cautionedto use the errata
against a more detailed background
slip attached to the Table of Contents.)
that will include the religious beliefs
The remainder of the text is occupied which, far more
truly than politicalhiswith condensed accounts of the styles
tory, have fed the inspiration and
of Nepal, Tibet, the Andhra and Cha- molded the forms of Indian art
through
lukya Schools, and finally the great the centuries.
Chola style and its antecedentsin South
Laurence Sickman
India. The work concludes with a
Nelson Gallery of Art
somewhatconfusingaccount of the InKansas City,Missouri
dian techniqueof casting, a more lucid
and helpful short chronological table
of Indian history, and descriptivenotes Philosophy of History
Prelude to History,by Adrian Coates.
on the sixty-oneplates.
289 pages, frontispiece,2 plates,
xviii,
The study of Indian metal sculpture
23 figures, 5 maps. Philosophical Liis the newest comer into the field of
brary, New York 1952 $4.75
Indie art and archaeology. Hence, in
This short, readable book can be
so uncharted a sea, the reviewer is
apt to extol the virtues of his own recommendedas a stimulating mental
course rather than seek for what merit exercise,requiring of its readers a calm,
there may be in others. Although any contemplativeframe of mind, savoring
serious work such as this is an im- philosophy. It is neither textbook nor
252

primer nor is it just another frantic
survey.
A painstakingly developedintroductory chapter probes our knowledgeof
prehistory by reviewingpreconceptions,
frames of reference and changingvalues that hedge about the human race's
own study of itself and its beginnings.
Prehistory is seen as a peculiar adjunct
to the historical discipline.Its truthful
delineation is prey to many of the subjective attitudes affecting historical
analysis and exposition;but the subject
is peculiar in that the interpretations
of the facts of prehistoric archaeology,
which constitutea prime sourcefor prehistory, also depend upon the disciplines of various scientificfieldssuch as
geology, paleobotany, genetics,physical anthropology, social anthropology,
psychology,etc. This introduction and
the over-sizedfootnote 9 on pages 119121, dealing with the roles of prehistoric human inventiveness,culture contacts, techniques, industries and their
interplay, have a sovereign value for
the beginner,the general reader and the
specialistin the field.
Succeedingshort chapters touch on
what is known or suspectedof the material culture,physicaltypes and mental
processesof early man. They are less an
exhaustive, balanced selectionof facts
for beginners, or even an analysis of
problems and profitable directions of
research for specialists, than they are
the observations of one detached, cultivated and very individual thinker
concerning known and surmised facts
of human prehistory and evolution.
The author is concernedwith preventing the study of prehistory from becoming abstract and divorced from
reality. This series of erudite, provocative essays contains telling criticismof
methods and approach, useful admonitions as to what can be believed,
sound generalizations, and an appealing bird's-eye view of this terrestrial
globe with its human inhabitantsevolving through the ages. There is also
an impressiveundercurrent of a modern Briton's post-war view of the world
of humans which it is valuablefor postwar Americans to remark: a striking
blend of understandable jaundice and
fatalism and a notable spirituality.
However, this book has certain of
the weaknesses of an expansive onesided conversation.It presents matters
selected by an author perhaps too inARCHAEOLOGY

Archaeology Magazine - December 1952

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - December 1952