One may take collecting antiques to be a highly civilized pastime, but archeological evidence indicates that cavemen as early as 500,000 years ago may have been bitten by the collecting bug.
很自然的我們會想到茹毛飲血的先民生活在狂野的大自然中，該是如何之艱難，而且語文符號未臻成熟，跟與「文化」極有關連的古董怎麼扯得上關係？其實不然，依步日耶（Henri Breuil）繪製之「北京原人生活示意圖」來看，五十萬年前的北京原人至少可以說已經有了收藏癖。