Ontario Archaeology – OA001, 1954

Is Archaeology a Luxury Item?
Volume:  OA1 (Series A-1)
Year:  1954
Author:  EMERSON, J. N
Page Range:  i – v
Abstract: Today in Canada there are more trained and partially trained archaeologists than in any other period of our history. People in all walks of life are becoming rapidly aware of the new and stimulating history lying beneath their feet. The radio, the press, and the lecture platform are making known the new facts. In Ontario the dawn of history has been pushed back 10,000 years. This increase in our time perspective raises problems of profound intellectual and philosophical interest. It suggests that we, as Canadians, might well take stock of our place in the historical scheme of things. Yet, confronted with our virtual ignorance of this 10,000 years, we may well ask ourselves: “Are not such problems, such speculations, but idle luxuries to occupy our leisure moments in a world that is characteristically modern and realistic, too much confronted with Today and Tomorrow, to wonder about Yesterday?”