Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (1.1968/1971)

64

REVIEWS J BUCHBESPRECHUNGEN

Down field, ranging through Beaker cemetery, pre-
Roman Iron Age settlement, pre-Roman Iron Age
field, cultivation of the same field in the lst-2nd cen-
turies A. D., and abandonment or non-arable use fol-
lowed by medieval cultivation in furlongs, is likely to
characterise considerable areas of at least the Down-
land of Southern England. Similar evidence was ob-

tained in sectioning lynchets on Fyfield Down, Wilts.,
and from barrows, lynchets, and fields information
on field boundaries, whether fences, stone walls, or
ditches, has been obtained.
This article is a valuable contribution to the early
agrarian history of Europe, and one on which future
work can build. A. Fenton

SIGURD ERIXON

1 888— 1968

The President of The Permanent International
Committee for Research on the History of Agri-
cultural Implements, Professor Sigurd Erixon,
died on 19th February, nearly 80 years old. As
President, he was succeeded by the former Vice-
President, Professor Paul Leser, Hartford, Conn.,
USA.
Professor Erixon sponsored two international
conferences on the research on ploughing im-
plements, in 1954 in Copenhagen, and in 1966
at Julita, Sweden. His own field of research also
comprised, e. g., furniture and house planning,
and the geographical distribution of the elements
of Swedish folk-culture, which he demonstrated
in a comprehensive atlas. Besides, he published
important books on youth organizations, on the
industrial community, and on the life of the
workers, as well as on ethnological theory. He
became a central figure in the organizational
work of European ethnologists and their re-
search.
Sigurd Erixon’s inspiring strength was irresist-
ible, his knowledge immense, and his initiative
phenomenal. His decease was a heavy loss not
only to the Permanent International Committee,
but to our branch of science as a whole.
Axel Steensberg

Der President des Standigen Internationalen
Ausschusses fiir die Erforschung der Geschichte
der Bodenbaugerate, Professor Sigurd Erixon,
ist am 19. Februar im Alter von nahezu 80 Jah-
ren verschieden. Sein Nachfolger als President
wurde der bisherige Vizeprasident Professor Paul
Leser, Hartford, Conn., USA.
Professor Erixon stand Pate zu zwei interna-
tionalen Tagungen liber die Erforschung der
Pfluggerate, 1954 in Kopenhagen und 1966 in
Julita in Schweden. Sein eigenes Forschungsge-
biet umfasste auch Mobel und Hausbau, sowie
die geographische Verbreitung der Elemente der
schwedischen Volkskultur, die er in einem um-
fangreichen Atlas darstellte. Ferner verbffent-
lichte er bedeutsame Werke Liber Jugendorgani-
sationen, das industrielle Gemeinwesen und das
Leben der Arbeiter, sowie liber ethnologische
Theorie. Er wurde zu einer zentralen Gestalt in
der Organisations- und Forschungsarbeit der
europaischen Ethnologen.
Sigurd Erixons inspirierender Einfluss war
mitreissend, sein Wissen enorm und seine Initia-
tive phanomenal. Sein Tod ist ein schwerer Ver-
lust nicht nur fiir den Standigen Internationalen
Ausschuss, sondern fiir unsere gesamte Wissen-
schaft. Axel Steensberg