Robert Munro
Published: 2015-07-20
Total Pages: 650
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Excerpt from The Lake-Dwellings of Europe: Being the Rhind Lectures in Archaeology for 1888 The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, in offering me the Rhind lectureship in Archaeology for the year 1888, left me no choice of a subject, as they had already suggested that the course should be on the "Lake-dwellings of Europe." Their communication embodying this proposal came upon me with complete surprise, and, indeed, it was with considerable misgiving that I pondered over the undertaking, because at that time I had no special knowledge of lake-dwellings beyond Scotland. But the kind encouragement of friends and the fact that I had two years to collect the necessary materials, ultimately overcame my scruples; and so with the acceptance of this appointment the work now offered to the public may be said to have been begun. My first and almost immediate step was a hasty run to the principal centres of lake-dwelling researches in Europe, so as to get a preliminary idea of the best and most practical way of carrying out this work. It was only then that the magnitude of the labours I had undertaken dawned upon me. The relics from the more important settlements, with few exceptions, were so widely scattered that, to from an intelligible notion of the civilisation and culture of their inhabitants from a study of their industrial remains, scores of museums and private collections had to be visited. Nor was the condition of the literature and records of the various discoveries more favourable to my purpose. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."