Editing Three-age system (section)

=== The savagery and civilization of Sir John Lubbock ===
It was to be a full generation before British archaeology caught up with the Danish. When it did, the leading figure was another multi-talented man of independent means: [[John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury]]. After reviewing the Three-age System from Lucretius to Thomsen, Lubbock improved it and took it to another level, that of [[cultural anthropology]]. Thomsen had been concerned with techniques of archaeological classification. Lubbock found correlations with the customs of savages and civilization.

In his 1865 book, ''Prehistoric Times'', Lubbock divided the Stone Age in Europe, and possibly nearer Asia and Africa, into the [[Palaeolithic]] and the [[Neolithic]]:<ref>{{harvnb|Lubbock|1865|pp=2–3}}</ref><blockquote>{{ordered list|list-style-type=upper-roman
 | "That of the Drift... This we may call the 'Palaeolithic' Period."
 | "The later, or polished Stone Age ... in which, however, we find no trace ... of any metal, excepting gold, ... This we may call the 'Neolithic' Period."
 | "The Bronze Age, in which bronze was used for arms and cutting instruments of all kinds."
 | "The Iron Age, in which that metal had superseded bronze."
}}
</blockquote>

By "drift", Lubbock meant river-drift, the alluvium deposited by a river. For the interpretation of Palaeolithic artifacts, Lubbock, pointing out that the times are beyond the reach of history and tradition, suggests an analogy, which was adopted by the anthropologists. Just as the paleontologist uses modern elephants to help reconstruct fossil pachyderms, so the archaeologist is justified in using the customs of the "non-metallic savages" of today to understand "the early races which inhabited our continent."<ref>{{harvnb|Lubbock|1865|pp=336–337}}</ref> He devotes three chapters to this approach, covering the "modern savages" of the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the Western Hemisphere, concluding:<ref>{{harvnb|Lubbock|1865|p=472}}, final para. "Perhaps it will be thought that in the preceding chapter I have selected from various works all the passages most unfavorable to savages, and that the picture I have drawn of them is unfair. In reality the very reverse is the case. Their real condition is even worse and more abject than that which I have endeavoured to depict. I have been careful to quote only from trustworthy authorities, but there are many things stated by them which I have not ventured to repeat; and there are other facts which even the travellers themselves were ashamed to publish."</ref>
<blockquote>Perhaps it will be thought{{nbsp}}... I have selected{{nbsp}}... the passages most unfavorable to savages.{{nbsp}}... In reality the very reverse is the case.{{nbsp}}... Their real condition is even worse and more abject than that which I have endeavoured to depict.</blockquote>