Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period/Chapter 11
CHAPTER XI.
THE INTRODUCTION OF BRONZE, AND OF THE BRONZE CIVILISATION, INTO EUROPE.
No Copper Age in Europe.
Cutting implements of bronze gradually supplanted those of stone, not only in the area north of the Alps and Pyrenees, but also, as is proved by many discoveries, in Greece and Italy, without any sign of an intervening period when copper alone was used. Copper celts have been met with in Ireland, Hungary, and France, but most of them belong to well-known and highly-advanced types in bronze, and more particularly so in Hungary.[1] They were probably the result of the want of tin necessary for the manufacture of bronze. Copper by itself would not be very much more useful for cutting purposes than stone, on account of its softness, and therefore is not likely to have superseded stone, which is so much more widely spread, and to the use of which mankind had been accustomed for many centuries. The native copper of Lake Superior has been worked by the Red Indians from an unknown period; and had it offered them a material much better than stone, there would have been an age of Copper in North America. The few implements of that metal which have been discovered do not afford any evidence of this. At the time of the discovery of the New World the peoples of Peru and Mexico used bronze, while the ruder American tribes were in the Neolithic stage of culture. It is therefore improbable that copper should have marked a stage in human progress in Europe, where native copper is so rare, and where the ores would have to be reduced to obtain the metal. The appearance of a definite compound such as bronze implies that it has been introduced into Europe from some other area, in which we may suppose that the ingenuity of man was at work for a long period in finding out, by continual experiments, the properties both of copper and of tin, ultimately combining them together in the proportions which are so generally observed in the implements and weapons of the Bronze age. There is no trace of any such series of experiments having been carried out in Europe.[2] The origin of bronze, and the source from which bronze was introduced into Europe, can only be discussed after we have treated of the distribution of copper and of tin.
The Distribution of Copper Ores.
Copper is supposed by Pliny to have derived its name from Cyprus,[3] where it is said to have been first mined, and whence the Romans obtained the greater part of their supply (œs Cyprium). It is to be found in nearly every country in Europe, and it must have attracted attention in the earliest ages, from the beautiful green, blue, and red colours of its ores. In Britain it occurs in many places; in Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset, in Derbyshire and Cheshire, in Yorkshire, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and in Wales.
It has been worked in this country in very remote times. The Hon. W. Owen Stanley[4] records the discovery of "two mining tools or picks" in an old mine near Llandudno, in North Wales, along with stone hammers made of large rounded pebbles, with grooves cut round them for the reception of a handle of osier.
A second instance of the discovery of old tools in British copper mines is offered by the surface workings at Alderley Edge,[5] near Manchester, from which I obtained in 1874 many stone hammers of the same kind as those mentioned above, along with stone wedges. Similar instruments occur in the copper mines in Spain.[6] In those at Cordova flint implements, and picks made of stags' antler, have been met with, resembling those found in the Neolithic flint mines of Cissbury and Brandon, as well as stone hammers of the kind found in Britain. We may therefore conclude that copper was worked in Spain and Britain, and probably also in many other countries on the Continent, as far back as the Bronze age. When once the art of reducing the ores became known, they would be worked wherever they were discovered. It is interesting to remark that the hammers found in the European mines are of the same form as those used by the Red Indians in working the native copper of Lake Superior.
Tin-stone frequently associated with Gold.
The tin-stone (oxide of tin) or cassiterite is not conspicuous, like copper, for its brilliancy of colour, being brown, yellowish-green, sometimes opaque and some- times transparent, and it is remarkably limited in its distribution in Europe. It occurs in the granitic and highly altered crystalline rocks, in veins disseminated through the mass; or where the rocks have been worn away by frost, rain, and rivers, it is found in irregular lumps and grains, scattered through the loam, sand, and gravel which constitute the stream-works. It is readily recognised by its great weight. Very frequently it is found along with gold in the stream-works, and to this association is probably due its early discovery by man. Gold, from its brilliant colour and indestructibility, must have been the first metal to catch the eye of man, and when it was once sought by the simple process of washing, the heavy tin-stone would be left behind along with it. In the course of time the true nature of tin-stone was probably revealed by accident, and before the eye of the astonished beholder the dull stone flung into the fire became trans- figured into the glittering metal. The ease with which this can be done with the rudest appliances is shown by the processes which Mr. J. A. Phillips observed in 1856, at Zamora in Spain, and which are probably a survival into our own times of the most ancient mode of reducing the ore.[7]
Tin, like copper, from its softness, is unfitted for cutting purposes, and therefore does not mark an era in the civilisation of the world. It was used in the Bronze age unalloyed, merely for purposes of ornament, and for inlaying pottery, such as that discovered in the pile-dwellings of the lake of Bourget.[8]
Tin in Scandinavia, Germany, and Britain.
In our enquiry into the origin of the Bronze civilisation, it is unnecessary to notice the tin districts of Sweden and Finland, which have only been worked in modern times.
In Germany tin has been worked from time immemorial in the mountains of Saxony and Bohemia, and, from the great number and variety of the bronze articles found in the adjacent regions, it is very probable that it was known in those districts in the Bronze age. On this point, however, we must await the accumulation of new evidence. It has been worked in Cornwall before the history of Britain began, and, according to tradition, by the Phœnicians. Cornwall was certainly known to the Phœnician sailors, as we shall see presently, and from it a brisk trade was carried on with the great Greek mart of Massilia.[9] It is considered by some high authorities, including Sir John Lubbock,[10] to have been the chief source from which the ancients obtained a necessary element in the manufacture of bronze. This question will be dealt with subsequently. Tin has also been worked in ancient times in the south of Ireland, where it is found in the stream-works of the mountains of Wicklow, along with gold. (See Fig. 168, T.)
Tin Mines worked in France and Spain in the Bronze Age.
Tin is met with in Brittany, close to Ploermel (Morbihan), and is proved to have been worked in the Bronze age by the discovery of a bronze palstave (Fig. 155), along with a polished stone celt, in the old stream-works near Villeder.[11] It was also known in ancient times in the Upper Vienne, and old stream-works are to be seen in La Creuse and La Corrèze, and as far as Lizolle in the department of the Allier.[12] (See Fig. 168, T.) According to M. de Mortillet, the Cassiterides[13] of the ancients are to be sought rather in the islands off the coast of Brittany than in the Scilly Isles, in Cornwall, or on the west of the Iberian peninsula.
Fig. 155.—Bronze Palstave, Tin Mine, Villeder, 34.
The Iberian peninsula was undoubtedly, as Mr. Howorth[14] points out, one of the chief centres from which the civilised peoples of the Mediterranean were supplied with tin. Pliny[15] tells us that tin-stone is associated with gold in the stream-working of Galicia. It may have been sought in the Bronze age in the province of Asturias, since primitive tools are discovered in the old workings.[16] It is picked up at the present day, by the children in the fields, in the valley of the Douro, and reduced by the peasants in the simple manner recorded above. It abounds also in Portugal, in the neighbourhood of Bragança, and in other localities. (Fig. 168, T.)
Tin Mines of Tuscany worked by Etruskans.
The last and one of the most important discoveries of ancient tin mines in Europe is that brought before the Archæological Congress at Buda-Pesth, by Prof. Capellini[17] in 1876. The mines in Tuscany (Fig. 168, T) in Monte Valerio, opposite the island of Elba, called Cento Camerelle, have long been known for their enormous depth and their vast extent, and are proved by the implements and scarabæi found in them and the surrounding refuse-heaps to have been worked by the Etruskans. In exploring one of the galleries M. Blanchard discovered tin-stone, which had evidently been the principal metal sought by the miners.[18] Tin-stone also occurs in small quantities in the neighbouring island of Elba.
Monte Valerio is not very far from the copper mines of Montieri (Lat. Mons aeris = Bronze Hill), a name which stamps the locality where the copper and tin were mingled together by the smelter. The copper mines were worked with bronze picks and wedges, and in the refuse-heaps vast quantities of pottery have been found with some coins, among which is one of Populonia (Pupluna) with the head of Vulcan, and on the reverse the emblems of the metal-worker—a hammer and pincers.[19] Thus, in this district, close to the centre of the dominion of ancient Etruria, we have the two metals side by side, which enabled the Etruskans to become the famous bronze merchants and metal-workers which they were at the dawn of history in Italy. There is no longer any reason for supposing that the civilised Mediterranean peoples were dependent on the mines of Spain and Britain for a supply of bronze. We have also explained to us one of the causes of the wealth of the Etruskans. Bronze must have been almost as valuable and quite as beautiful as gold, and the most useful material for making implements and weapons before the invention of iron. The commerce, therefore, of the Mediterranean world would inevitably be attracted to Tuscany, and the products of the industries of Egypt, Assyria, and Greece would be received in exchange for the bronze articles for which the Etruskans became so famous. By this discovery tin and copper are proved to occur in the very region where they might reasonably be expected.
It is very probable that the oldest tin mines worked in Europe are those of Tuscany. Then the natural progress of discovery would lead the Phœnicians to the exploration of the tin mines of the Eldorado of the West—the Iberian peninsula. And next, as the adventurous sailors penetrated farther to the north, along the shores of the ocean, the mines of Brittany and Cornwall would be opened up. Those of Saxony and Bohemia and of central France were probably developed, the one by the energy of the Etruskan merchants, and the other by the merchants of Massilia, or of the Phœnician Heraklea; but they may have been worked by the natives before the paths of commerce reached so far north. In France the mines of Villeder were worked in the Bronze age.
None of these districts can lay claim to be the centre in which tin was first worked and bronze was discovered. The origin of bronze, like that of the use of polished stone, has to be looked for in some other region.
Probable Sources of Egyptian and Assyrian Tin.
There is no reason to suppose that the civilised peoples of the eastern Mediterranean were dependent upon the mines of Europe for their tin. Major Burton has lately proved the existence of vast heaps of cinders, and other proofs of mining and smelting, in the land of Midian. From these mines it is very likely that the metals were obtained—"the gold, and the silver, the brass (probably bronze), the tin, and the lead,"[20]—taken by the children of Israel from the Midianites at the close of the life of Moses. Tin is also found, according to Von Baer,[21] in Khorassan, as well as copper and lead. It is far more probable that Assyria and Egypt were supplied with tin from these two regions, than from the mines of the far west of Europe, or from the remote tin regions of the far east, from Malacca and the Island of Banca.
The Metallurgy of Bronze.
There is no reason to suppose that the art of mixing tin with copper was discovered in Europe, and in this manner of producing an alloy more fusible than copper and harder than either of its constituents. From Dr. Robinson's experience[22] it appears that twelve per cent of tin gives the greatest amount of hardness to bronze, consistent with toughness, while a larger percentage increases the hardness until the bronze becomes almost as brittle as glass. It is therefore very interesting to remark that the percentage of tin in the bronze articles belonging to the Bronze age is as nearly as possible that which is the best for making a compound for cutting purposes, from ten to twelve per cent. It will be seen from the following table that there is but little variation in the proportions of tin, and not more than might be expected from the rough and inaccurate modes of mixing the metals before the invention of a definite system of weights.
Analysis of British Bronze Articles of Bronze Age.[23]
| Name. | Locality. | Copper.
|
Tin.
|
Lead.
|
Zinc.
|
Iron. | Arsenic.
|
Sulphur.
| ||
|
|
88⋅ | 12⋅ | |||||||
|
|
94⋅ | 5⋅09 | 0⋅01 | ||||||
|
|
91⋅11 | 9⋅ | |||||||
|
|
81⋅19 | 18⋅31 | 0⋅75 | ||||||
|
|
89⋅33 | 9⋅19 | 0⋅33 | 0⋅24 | |||||
|
|
90⋅68 | 7⋅43 | 1⋅28 | — | tr. | — | — | ||
|
|
99⋅71 | — | — | — | — | — | 0⋅28 | ||
|
|
90⋅72 | 8⋅25 | 0⋅87 | — | — | — | — | ||
|
|
87⋅07 | 8⋅52 | 3⋅37 | — | — | — | — | ||
|
|
87⋅94 | 11⋅35 | 0⋅28 | — | — | — | — | ||
|
|
84⋅69 | 14⋅01 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
|
|
86⋅28 | 12⋅74 | 0⋅07 | 0⋅31 | — | — | — | ||
|
|
90⋅ | 10⋅ | — | — | — | — | — | ||
|
|
83⋅50 | 5⋅15 | 8⋅35 | — | — | — | — | ||
|
|
88⋅63 | 8⋅54 | 2⋅83 | — | — | — | — | ||
|
— | 91⋅79 | 8⋅17 | — | — | tr. | — | tr. | ||
|
|
85⋅62 | 10⋅02 | — | — | 0⋅44 | — | — | ||
|
|
89⋅69 | 9⋅50 | — | — | 0⋅33 | — | — | ||
|
|
88⋅51 | 9⋅30 | 2⋅30 | — | — | — | — |
Analysis of French Bronze Articles of Bronze Age.[24]
| Name. | Locality. | Copper.
|
Tin.
|
Lead.
|
Zinc.
|
Iron. | Arsenic.
|
Sulphur.
| ||
|
|
85⋅ | 13⋅5 | 1⋅0 | ||||||
|
|
88⋅ | 12⋅0 | — | — | |||||
|
|
91⋅ | 9⋅ | |||||||
|
86⋅ | 14⋅ | ||||||||
|
|
89⋅52 | 6⋅75 | 2⋅90 | 0⋅91 | tr. | ||||
|
|
70⋅ | 21⋅5 | 8⋅50 | — | — | ||||
|
|
60⋅ | 13⋅50 | 16⋅50 | — | — | ||||
|
|
62⋅ | 1⋅50 | 32⋅5 | — | — | ||||
|
|
68⋅ | tr. | 28⋅50 | — | — | ||||
|
|
88⋅7 | 11⋅3 | |||||||
|
|
86⋅ | 14⋅ | |||||||
|
|
85⋅ | 15⋅ | 1⋅0 | — | — | ||||
|
|
88⋅ | 12⋅ | |||||||
|
|
100⋅ | — | — | — | — | ||||
|
|
88⋅ | 12⋅ | |||||||
|
|
88⋅ | 10⋅ | — | 2⋅0 | |||||
|
|
84⋅ | 16⋅ |
The presence of lead, and of iron, zinc, sulphur, silver, and nickel, in extremely small quantities, is probably due to their not having been separated from the copper in the operation of smelting. In some cases, however, such as the socketed celts from northern France in the above table, the percentage of lead is too great to have been accidental, and in one case rises to 28⋅50, while tin is reduced to a mere trace. Lead would add to the toughness of the alloy, and may have been used where the supply of tin had run short. In anvils and cold chisels, where great hardness was required, the normal amount of tin was very much exceeded.
It may be gathered from the analyses of ancient bronzes made by Phillips,[25] and subsequently carried on by Von Bibra,[26] and Von Fellenberg,[27] that the oldest (see the above tables) were composed essentially of tin and copper. Subsequently lead was added in the coinage (æs, semis, quadrans) of the Republic, and in the Greek coinage after B.C. 400. "Zinc makes its appearance a short time previous to the Christian era, and is continued in all the subsequent coins, although "occasionally associated with lead and tin, until it almost entirely disappears in the small brass of the period of the Thirty Tyrants."[25] Bronze therefore is more ancient than brass, and the terms æs, χαλκός, and "brass" in the Bible, imply the former and not the latter alloy. The shield of Achilles was made by Hephaistus, of copper, tin, gold, and silver mingled together in the furnace. The oldest seats of bronze-founding among the Greeks were Delos, Ægina, and Corinth.
Bronze introduced into Europe from one Centre.
The uniformity of the composition of the cutting implements of the Bronze age implies that the art of compounding tin with copper was discovered in one place, from which the knowledge of it spread over nearly the whole of Europe and Asia, and the greater part of the Americas. Had it spread from separate centres, this uniformity would have been impossible. The bronze implements of ancient Peru and Mexico, although separated by such a vast distance from the parts of Asia formerly inhabited by the bronze-using peoples, have probably been introduced from that region by Mongolian tribes, along with some of the symbols in the Mongolian Calendar, and other proofs of their Asiatic origin.[28] The variations from the normal alloy, which led Prof. Wilson to conclude that bronze was invented in many isolated centres, are easily accounted for either by imperfection in the smelting, or by the stock of tin of the bronze-founder having been exhausted. They would inevitably result from the establishment of bronze-smiths' shops in various countries, in which broken implements, weapons, and ornaments, were made into new articles. The nickel in the bronzes from western Switzerland is considered by Von Fellenberg[29] to have been derived from the nickeliferous copper ores of the Valais, which were mixed with tin imported from abroad. There is, as we have seen, no evidence that bronze was originally invented in Europe, and the only clue to its origin is offered by the forms of the simple implements and weapons which were the first to arrive in Europe in the early Bronze age.
The numerous discoveries of the last thirty years show that while certain articles, such as the plain wedge- axe, the dagger, and the sword with a flat metal tang for the reception of plates of horn or of wood, are found in Italy, France, Britain, Scandinavia, and Germany, as well as Egypt, and while there is a general likeness between the series of implements and weapons in various European countries, there are other articles, such as brooches and swords with metal hilts, peculiar to certain districts. From this it may be inferred that the supply of bronze was obtained from some one centre, and that afterwards articles were manufactured with various local modifications of the original models. These would be very easily produced, from the readiness with which moulds could be made in soft materials, such as clay and sand. In this manner the resemblances and the differences between the European bronzes may be satisfactorily explained.
Knowledge of Bronze derived from Asia Minor.
The observations of Worsaae[30] on the colonisation of Russia and North Scandinavia,[31] and the recent work of Kohn and Mehlis,[32] prove that the bronzes of Germany, Scandinavia, western Europe, and the Mediterranean, are not derived from the great plains of Russia, extending to the Urals and the Caucasus, since the bronze implements in those districts are unlike those of the rest of Europe, and are to a large extent of a later date. The only other region from which bronze could have been derived is Asia Minor. In Worsaae's opinion it was introduced by way of the Bosphorus. It was probably discovered in some metalliferous region in central Asia, from which it was distributed by means of barter, as well as by the migrations of peoples, from such a centre, for example, as Khorasan, mentioned in treating of the distribution of tin. If this view be accepted, it will follow that bronze was used in the south long before it was known in the north of Europe; and the greater part of the Continent may have been in the Bronze age while Egypt and Assyria were in that of Iron.
The Earliest Bronze Implements in Europe.
The bronze articles which are most widely distributed are the simple wedge-shaped axe, and the simple dagger. These are found in Egypt, in the ruins of Hissarlik, in the island of Termia, in Cyprus, and over the whole of Europe as far north as Sweden. The wedge-axe is found in India (Gungeria), in Mexico, and Peru. These two forms appear together in the early Bronze age of Scandinavia, Britain, and France, and they are therefore probably the first metal implements which found their way into the hands of the Neolithic inhabitants of Europe. The history of their evolution is the same; just as the wedge axe is the descendant from a prototype of polished stone, so is the dagger related to that of stone, of which so many wonderfully worked examples have been found in Scandinavia, and which have also been discovered in Egypt. One specimen from the latter country, in the British Museum, is mounted in a wooden handle, like those of bronze. Swords and more complicated axes, and more elaborate articles, came in afterwards, and present local peculiarities which enable the archaeologists to map out Europe into different regions characterised by the different styles.
Development of the Bronze Industry.
Bronze was introduced into Europe first of all in the shape of simple implements, weapons, and ornaments, and afterwards, when smelting became known, ingots of bronze were current as the bullion of those times, capable of being used either for manufacture or for commerce. These have been found in France, Germany, and Scandinavia. The idea of coinage probably originated in this way, and the "æs rude" of the Etruskans passed into the "æs signatum" of a definite shape, weight, and value. The merchant with his pack was followed by the smelter with his tools, and as trade increased local centres of manufacture would be set up, where the conditions were favourable. In the course of time the original models would be concealed by the development of a local style. This local development of manufactures would not prevent the importation from time to time of foreign articles, such as the Etruskan shields, swords, and golden cups discovered in Scandinavia. In this manner the association of articles imported from abroad with those made upon the spot may be accounted for. The smelter was succeeded by the tinker and the worker in repoussé, who penetrated into the regions north of the Alps from the Mediterranean area towards the close of the Bronze age in those regions, if not before.[33]
Local Centres of Bronze Industry in late Bronze Age.
The forms of the implements and weapons, and the variations in the style of ornament, enable us to divide the Europe of the late Bronze age into three great regions, each possessing its own peculiarities—the Uralian or the Russian in the east; the Danubian in northern and middle Europe; and the Mediterranean in the south. The first of these stands so completely apart from the others, that it is important for our enquiry only because it proves that the civilisation of the Bronze age was not derived from central or southern Russia. The Danubian is further subdivided by M. Chantre into two closely connected provinces, the Scandinavian and the Hungarian. The Scandinavian bronze swords,[34] with metal hilts elaborately adorned with spirals and chevrons, are so closely allied in their style to those of the Hungarian province, that it is very probable that their designs were originally obtained, as well as the metal, from that quarter. The third group consists of the provinces of Greece, Italy, and France and Switzerland. Into the last of these, in M. Chantre's opinion, bronze was introduced from Italy, and not by way of the Danube. The poverty of the British Isles in works of art belonging to the Bronze age renders it very difficult to classify them either with the Danubian or the Mediterranean group, for they are just as likely to have derived their types from France as from the Danube or the Valley of the Rhine. They may be more satisfactorily classified with the former than with the latter, since the knowledge of bronze was introduced, as we have seen in the last chapter, by a Celtic race after the conquest of the neighbouring parts of France. The peculiarities (such for example as the holes on either side of the mid rib of the spear-heads) which lead some writers to look upon Britain[35] as an independent province, seem to me to be the necessary result of the country being fenced off from the Continent by a barrier of sea.
Each of these divisions merely represents the extent of the influence of each local centre of industry established after the arts of casting bronze became known over the greater part of Europe. Each of these centres arose from certain peculiar advantages. For the Scandinavian, as we remarked above, there was the amber; for the Hungarian the tin mines of Bohemia and Saxony; for the French those of Brittany and of the central plateau of France; for Italy those of Tuscany; while our imperfect knowledge of the mineral riches of ancient Greece renders it impossible for us to assign a reason why it should have been a centre.
The Distribution of Gold in Europe.
We must now pass on to the consideration of gold and amber. Gold is widely distributed in Europe in the older rocks, and from its brilliant colour must have attracted the attention of man probably before the Bronze age. It occurs in the north of Scotland, in Wales, in Cornwall, and in the Wicklow mountains in Ireland, and from its very general association with tin in the alluvial gravels, it probably led to the discovery of the essential constituent of bronze. It was used for earrings, pendants, and necklaces, for ornamenting suits of armour and shields, and for making cups in Britain in the Bronze and Iron ages. The number of gold articles found in Ireland is probably due to its former abundance in that island. Its wide distribution in Europe renders it of little importance in an enquiry into the commercial relations of the inhabitants of Europe in the Bronze age.
The Distribution of Amber.
Amber,[36] although it has ministered to the superstition, luxury, and vanity of mankind rather than to any useful end, has played a most important part in the history of civilisation. It has caused a trade to spring up by which new arts and new ideas were introduced from other countries, that benefited not merely the regions where the amber occurs, but those also traversed by the amber caravans. It was highly prized by the civilised peoples of the Mediterranean, and was used by the inhabitants of Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, and France, for personal ornaments, in the Neolithic and succeeding ages. In the Bronze age in Britain it was used in pieces sufficiently large to be fashioned into cups, as, for example, that found in a tumulus at Hove, near Brighton. It becomes, therefore, an interesting question to ascertain the localities whence it was widely dispersed over Europe (A of Fig. 168).
The first and most important amber-producing region to be noticed is that of Königsberg, and the surrounding district of Samland,[37] in Eastern Prussia, in which the fossil resin occurs in a pine forest below the level of the sea that extended in the Meiocene age northwards to join the wooded slopes of Iceland, on the one hand, and those of Spitzbergen on the other (see Map, Fig. 6, p. 41), It is found in vast abundance on the sea-shore, and has formed an article of commerce from the earliest historic times. It is picked up also along the coast of West Prussia and Pomerania.
The Emperor Nero, according to Solinus,[38] had no less than 13,000 pounds weight brought to him at one time, and in the year 1770, 65,760 pounds were collected in Prussia. It is also cast up by the sea on the southern and eastern shores of Scania.
The western shores of Denmark are second only in importance to this region, and more especially between the gulf of Nissum and the island of Fäno. To this probably Diodorus Siculus[39] refers when he speaks of the island in the ocean on the shores of which amber is cast up, and in which it is alone met with. It is found along the coast as far to the south as the Zuyder Zee, and is not unfrequently picked up in small quantities on the eastern shores of Britain. In France it is met with in the western shores, and in the Canton of Vallon, in the Vivarais, in the Lower Rhone. This last deposit has been shown by M. Marichaud[40] to have been known in the Bronze age in the south of France, and it is probably that mentioned by Strabo (iv. 6) under the name of λιγγύριον, because of its abundance in the country of the Ligures. It is a clear bright red variety, contrasting with the yellow amber imported from the north. It occurs in Spain in the Asturias; in Italy it is recorded by Prof. Capellini[41] from Lombardy and the district round Bologna; and in Sicily from Catania and several other localities. According to Mr. Franks,[42] the dark red variety found in Greek and Etruskan tombs at Cumæ and Bari, Nola and Palestrina, was probably derived from Sicily. The Italian amber is believed by Prof. Capellini to have been used by the old Etruskans of Lombardy, while the Sicilian, although it is not mentioned before A.D. 1769, was known to the ancient Greeks. Among other European localities revealed by modern engineering, we must notice many of the low plains of Germany and Wallachia,[43] where it occurs in considerable abundance. A dark red variety is met with in a deposit in the district of the Lebanon.[44]
Amber may have been derived in ancient times from any of the above-mentioned districts, but the golden variety cast up by the waves of the sea, shining brightly in the light of the sun, would naturally be the first to attract the attention of man. The vast quantities cast up by the sea in Samland and Denmark must have rendered those two districts the two most important sources of supply known to the ancients. From these, as we shall see presently, when we deal with the trade- routes of the Mediterranean peoples, Greece and Rome obtained the greater part of their yellow amber. These districts must have benefited by the wares and the arts introduced by the traders from the beginning of this commerce.
Amber was employed for purposes of ornament in the Neolithic age in Scandinavia, France, and Britain. In the Bronze age, however, in Scandinavia and on the shores of the Baltic it was rarely used. In those countries, according to M. Stolpe,[45] its use did not become general until A.D. 700, This fact can be readily explained by its abundance in those districts in early times. Tacitus[46] writes that the natives in his days did not value it themselves, and wondered at the high price paid for it by the merchants. Its rarity therefore in tombs of the Bronze age in the north does not imply that it was not collected for purposes of sale to foreigners, and cannot be taken to negative the existence of a trade with the southern peoples at that remote period.
The paths taken by this commerce point unmistakably to the south, to the ancient civilisation of Italy and of Greece, and they imply the overlap of history, as will be seen in the thirteenth chapter.
The Duration of the Bronze Age North of the Alps.
It may be concluded, from the facts accumulated by various observers in different countries,[47] that the Bronze age lasted longer in some parts of Europe than in others. In Italy it is not so clearly marked off from the Iron age as in the region north of the Alps, and the designs which are clearly traceable to the Iron age of the south occur in Germany in the late Bronze age. And while it was being superseded by the higher civilisation in Germany, it still held its ground on the shores of the Baltic. It did not finally disappear from Scandinavia until the beginning of the Christian era, and the characteristic short swords and round targets of the tribes between the island of Rugen and the Vistula,[48] prove that its traces remained as late as the first century after Christ. It disappeared from Britain more than a hundred and fifty years before Christ, and from France probably long before.
Commercial Relations of Britain in the Bronze Age.
The next question to be considered is the position of the British Isles in the Bronze age, as related to the Continental nations. Were they visited by the Mediterranean traders, or were they cut off from all contact with the Mediterranean civilisation? It may be answered that there is no proof of any direct intercourse with any southern people. The Cornish tin, and the Irish and Welsh gold, tempted daring Phœnician and Greek adventurers probably after the Bronze age had passed away, and within a few centuries before Christ. It is likely, however, that both were worked by the natives in the Bronze age, and that both found their way through Gaul to the Mediterranean. The glass beads discovered in the tombs of the Bronze age in these islands have, like those of France and Germany, been derived from the south, and many of the higher forms of bronze implements, such as the bronze sword (Fig. 131, p. 364), are to be looked upon as foreign. Both were probably passed from hand to hand, and from tribe to tribe, till ultimately they arrived in the islands of the great western ocean. Comparatively free communication might be carried on with the Continent by means of galleys, similar to those of Fig. 153, and more especially with Brittany, which presented the same peculiar phase of culture; a communication which was kept up until that region offered a secure refuge to the Britons flying from the Anglian and Saxon invaders.
- ↑ Among those from Hungary are socketed celts, and perforated axes and axe-hammers.—See Pulszky, Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist. Buda-Pesth vol., 1877, p. 220.
- ↑ General Lane Fox thinks it probable that there was a Copper age in Europe, and accounts for the scarcity of the implements by the hypothesis that they have been used up in subsequent ages for the manufacture of bronze. (Primitive Warfare, Journ. United Service Inst. xiii.)
Mr. Evans holds the view expressed in the text, Congr. Int. Préhist. Arcéol, Buda-Pesth vol., 1877, p. 234.
- ↑ It is quite as likely that Cyprus may have been derived from copper, and it is very improbable that the German Kupfer is derived from Cyprus. The Germanic peoples were acquainted with copper long before they were brought within reach of the Mediterranean civilisation, probably while they were yet in Central Asia, Pliny's derivation is probably merely suggested by the resemblance between the words copper and Cyprus, which may be as misleading as that of the town of Bridgewater, from the bridge over the water (the Parrett), instead of from Burgh and Walter, the burg of Walter, Walter de Burgh.
- ↑ Archeol. Journ. vii. 68.
- ↑ Journ. Anthrop. Inst. v. p. 1.
- ↑ Matériaux, 1867, p. 100. Simonin, La Vie Souterraine, p. 481 (Fig. 132).
- ↑ This account, which has been prepared for me by the kindness of Mr. J. A. Phillips, forms an interesting contribution to the history of metallurgy.—
"In the year 1856 I visited the province of Zamora, where, in a hamlet near San Martin, I met with a family occupied in treating tin-ores on their own account.
"The children, of whom there were several, collected rich shode stones of tin-oxide from the surface of neighbouring ploughed fields, and brought them in a reed-basket to a rough open shed or hovel; here they were broken with a hammer upon a big stone, and the extraneous matter was roughly picked out.
"The furnace, which was lined with clay resulting from the decomposition of granite, was a cylinder ten inches in diameter, and about two feet in depth, situated in the middle of a cubic yard of rough masonry constructed without mortar.
"In the centre of the top of this was the opening of the furnace, and on the side towards the prevailing wind a screen of masonry was built to the height of some two feet; so that, externally, the apparatus was not unlike a large chair built solid to the seat, enclosing a chimney-pot extending from the middle of it nearly to the floor-level. A blast was employed, produced by an old pair of weezy blacksmith's bellows, apparently of English make, placed behind the screen of masonry, the tuyère being inserted about four inches above the bottom. The tap-hole, which was on the opposite side, was kept constantly open.
"In order to carry on the operation of smelting, the ore which had been collected by the smaller children, and had subsequently been broken and roughly picked over by a bigger brother, was finally charged into the furnace, alternately with handfuls of fuel, by the mother, while the father blew the bellows. Charcoal made from the roots of a species of heath, locally plentiful, was employed as fuel, no flux of any kind was used, and the metal and slag issuing from the open tap-hole were received in a fragment of a broken cast-iron pot, A very small quantity only of slag was produced, which, falling from time to time into the broken pot with the metal, was, as it set, removed with an iron crook.
"When a sufficient quantity of tin had accumulated in the broken pot, it was cast into strips in a sandstone mould.
"The quantity produced did not exceed a few pounds per hour, and I was informed that after being cast into strips it was usually sold to travelling tinkers for the purpose of tinning copper vessels."
- ↑ Chantre, L'Age du Bronze.
- ↑ See Chapter XIII.
- ↑ Prehistoric Times, 4th ed. p. 72.
- ↑ Simonin, La Vie Souterraine, Paris, 1867, p. 483.
- ↑ Daubrée, Compt. Rend. lxviii p. 1137. Matériaux, 1869, p. 261.
- ↑ Those who are interested in the vexed question of the Cassiterides, will find it ably discussed by M. Hans Hildebrand (Congr. Int. Archéol. Prehist., Stockholm vol., p. 578. He follows Strabo in placing them in the west of Spain.
- ↑ Howorth, Archæology of Bronze.
- ↑ xxxiv. 47.
- ↑ Busk, Int. Congress Archeol. Prehist., Norwich vol., p. 163.
- ↑ Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist., Buda-Pesth vol., p. 452.
- ↑ Mr. A. E. Arnold has recently given an interesting account of these mines; Iron, Aug. 9, 1879, p. 166.
- ↑ Simonin, La Vie Souterraine, Paris, 1867, p. 474 et seq.
- ↑ Numbers xxxii 22.
- ↑ Archiv für Anthrop. 1877, i. 9. Matériaux, 1877, p. 138.
- ↑ For details and references see Wilson, Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, i. part ii. chap. 3.
- ↑ Wilson, Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, i. p. 374; Second Edition. Phillips, Journ. Chemical Soc., iv. p. 288.
- ↑ Chantre, L'Age du Bronze.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Phillips, Journ. Chem. Soc., iv. p. 288.
- ↑ Von Bibra, Die Bronzen und Kupferlegirungen der Alten und Ältesten Volker, Erlang. 1869.
- ↑ Von Fellenberg, Trans. Nat. Hist. Berne, 1860-61.
- ↑ On this question see Edinburgh Review, October 1876, p. 283; Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, vols. i. and iv. Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, p. 466.
- ↑ Keller, Lake-Dwellings, 2d edit., p. 557.
- ↑ Keller, Lake-Dwellings, 2d. edit., p. 557.
- ↑ Sur la Colonisation de la Russie, et du Nord Scandinave, 8vo.
- ↑ Vorgeschichte des Menschen in östlichen Europa, Jena, 1879.
- ↑ Montelius, Sur l'Age du Bronze en Suede, Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist. Stockholm vol., 1874, 488. Chantre, L'Age du Bronze, ii.
- ↑ Montelius, Sur les Poignées des Épées, Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist. Stockholm vol., 1874, p. 883.
- ↑ According to Waldemar Schmidt, Great Britain is to be looked upon as a "zone speciale," to the exclusion of Ireland. Etudes sur l'Age de Bronze, Assoc. Franç. 1878.
- ↑ For a learned history of amber, See Dr. W. Pierson, Elektron, Berlin, 8vo, 1869.
- ↑ M. Hjalmar Stolpe, Sur l'Origine et le commerce de l'ambre jaune dans l'antiquité, Congress Int. Archéol. Préhist., Stockholm vol., p. 777.
- ↑ Julius Solinus, Edit. Mommsen, p. 110.
- ↑ v. 23.
- ↑ Matériaux, 1876, p. 541. It seems to me that the clear red colour of the amber described by M. Marichaud, coupled with the passage of Strabo, "πλεονάζει τὸ λιγγύριον παῤ αὐτοῖς (τοις Λίγυσιν) ὃ τινες ἤλεκτρον προσαγορεύουσι," settles the exact meaning of the term λιγγύριον to be a red variety of amber, differing from the yellow or the ἤλεκτρον.
- ↑ Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist., Stockholm, ii. p. 777 et seq.
- ↑ Franks, Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist., Buda-Pesth, 1876, 433.
- ↑ Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist., Stockholm, ii. p. 777 et seq.
- ↑ Franks, Congr. Int. Archéol. Préhist., Buda-Pesth, 1876, 433.
- ↑ Stolpe, op. cit. Montelius, Antiquités Suédoises.
- ↑ Germania, cxlv. "Diu inter cætera ejecta maris jacebat, donec luxuria nostra dedit nomen. Ipsis in nullo usu: rude legitur, informe perpetua, pretiumque mirantes accipiunt."
- ↑ Wiberg, Worsaae, Hildebrand, Montelius, Waldemar, Schmidt, Virchow, Bonstettin, Lindenschmidt, Chantre.
- ↑ Germania, cxliii. Rugii atque Lemovii; omniumque harum gentium insigne, rotunda scuta, breves gladii atque erga reges obsequium.