Trade and Commerce in the Stone Age
Published on 4. January 2026
979-12-244-0081-3 (ISBN)
Description
Sir Daniel Wilson (January 5, 1816 - August 6, 1892) was a Scottish-born Canadian archaeologist, ethnologist and writer. He is famously credited with introducing the word "prehistoric" into the English language through his earlier work, The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland (1851).
In 1853 Wilson left Scotland to take up the post of Professor of History and English Literature in Toronto, Canada. In addition to his teaching duties, he kept up his interests in Natural history, Geology, and was very interested in the Ethnography of the indigenous groups that he encountered on his vacation treks.
In 1861 he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society and, in 1875, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He also served as president of the Canadian Institute from 1878-1881, as president of University College, Toronto, from 1880 to 1892, and as the first president of the federated University of Toronto from 1892.
Wilson's final masterpiece, The Lost Atlantis and other Ethnographic Studies, published posthumously in 1892, serves as a fascinating compendium of his lifelong intellectual pursuits, blending archaeological rigor with ethnographic observation.
From this seminal work we have selected the study Trade and Commerce in the Stone Age. In it Wilson challenges the nineteenth-century misconception of primitive man as an isolated, purely self-sufficient being. He argues that even in the most remote "Stone Age" eras-both in Europe's Paleolithic past and among the indigenous tribes of the Americas-human societies were interconnected by complex networks of exchange and specialized labor.
In 1853 Wilson left Scotland to take up the post of Professor of History and English Literature in Toronto, Canada. In addition to his teaching duties, he kept up his interests in Natural history, Geology, and was very interested in the Ethnography of the indigenous groups that he encountered on his vacation treks.
In 1861 he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society and, in 1875, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He also served as president of the Canadian Institute from 1878-1881, as president of University College, Toronto, from 1880 to 1892, and as the first president of the federated University of Toronto from 1892.
Wilson's final masterpiece, The Lost Atlantis and other Ethnographic Studies, published posthumously in 1892, serves as a fascinating compendium of his lifelong intellectual pursuits, blending archaeological rigor with ethnographic observation.
From this seminal work we have selected the study Trade and Commerce in the Stone Age. In it Wilson challenges the nineteenth-century misconception of primitive man as an isolated, purely self-sufficient being. He argues that even in the most remote "Stone Age" eras-both in Europe's Paleolithic past and among the indigenous tribes of the Americas-human societies were interconnected by complex networks of exchange and specialized labor.
