134 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. characteristic shapes which the old inhabitants of Greece gave to their tools ; enough in fact to illustrate the opening chapters of this Art-history. Stone industry here passed through pre- cisely the same phases as in northern lands ; they all began at the beginning, whether in Greece, Gaul, or Scandinavia. The difference is one of time, which in the case of Hellas was so singularly shortened, that she may be said to have had no neolithic period to speak of, taking the term in the sense which experts assign thereto. Stone however, during a period which it is impossible to estimate, was largely used because metal was still scarce. This age it is — the tag end of an older state of affairs — which we had at heart to make known ; no item relating to the beginnings and early gropings of Hellenic genius being void of interest for the historian.
